From the archives (From Craven Herald)

From the archives

12:30pm Saturday 7th August 2010 in

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100 years ago

A remarkably pure seam of coal was discovered at New Ingleton. The seam had been developed and the coal would be put on the market in about a month. Analysis showed the excellent quality of the coal, which closely resembled a high class silkstone.

There was a large attendance at The Great Northern Hotel, Leeds, for the sale of the Beamsley Estate. Divided into 20 lots, the property, near Bolton Abbey, was 1,376 acres. It included pasture and meadow land, some moorland with grouse and lowland shooting, and grayling fishing.

Skipton Town Hall was to be illuminated by electric light, and a small generating plant would be installed behind the premises. The scheme was planned in order to cater for touring companies, particularly of the cinematography type, for whose purpose the electric light was necessary both for effect and public safety

50 years ago

Grassington Parish Council wrote to the rural district council drawing attention to the unsatisfactory condition of Main Street. It asked whether the rural council would consider relaying the existing stone setts in preference to surfacing with Tarmacadam ‘in order to preserve the character of the village’. The surveyor had told the parish council that the worn condition of a number of the setts would preclude their re-use and that Tarmacadam would provide a much superior road surface.

Baths would not be built in Barnoldswick, it was decided. By eight votes to five, a meeting of Barnoldswick Urban Council rejected a resolution that public baths should be built. In doing so, they also rejected a recent vote by ratepayers in the town who voted 1,270 to 1,050 in favour of the proposed scheme.

25 years ago

American football came to Grassington in a “Superbowl” fixture between the local team and a touring Seattle club. The Shorelake Under-19 Soccer Club was on a tour of Britain, and came to the Dales to enjoy the scenery and countryside – and play Grassington United. The Dalesmen won 3-1.

Linton School was described as being like a German prisoner-of-war camp at a meeting of Bradford Council’s Schools Sub-Committee. And councillors backed the recommendations of the principal officer to close the school, which was used as a residential camp for children. It was agreed to redeploy the 16 permanent teaching and care staff, move the pupils to another residential school in Keighley or back to their normal schools, and attempt to sell the site. Linton was described as out-of-date with wooden buildings like army barracks.

Disabled youngsters from Doncaster who took part in adventure holidays in Craven would have a special reason to remember Gargrave. For villager Robert Hadaway donated a four-and-a-half horsepower inflatable boat to the Adams Ark Project, a scheme run by Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council which took disabled children on adventure holidays. “I saw the work being done with the youngsters and thought how lucky I was,” said Mr Hadaway.

10 years ago

A fearless mother-of-two was taking to the skies to raise money for cancer charities – not inside a plane, but on top of it. Daring Isobel Henningan, of Skipton, was to do a wing walk to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness and the Clear Cancer Campaign.

A new era began at Settle’s Victoria Hall as builders moved on to the music hall site. The works heralded a new era in the life of the building, thought to be the oldest music hall in Britain. When complete, the facilities would now include a community centre, meeting rooms, a new kitchen and dressing rooms. There would also be refurbishment work on the stage and new balcony seating.

Railway navvies and their families who lost their lives during the construction of the Settle-Carlisle line at Ribblehead were to be remembered more than 125 years after they died. The men, women and children were buried in unmarked graves at St Leonard’s churchyard, Chapel-le-Dale, between 1870 and 1877. Now, a plaque was to be dedicated to their memory.