Craven through the years

9:05am Friday 31st August 2007

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100 Years Ago

CARS churning up dust on streets were a source of great concern. So when the council sprayed a black coat of tar on the High Street and adjacent thoroughfares, it was hoped that this would solve the matter. Wrong. The tar spray played havoc with many unsuspecting pedestrians who found their legs slipping from beneath them. The people who were worst hit were the publicans, whose best floor coverings were bespattered with the solution from the soles of the many customers.

The resignation of Alfred Fletcher, the Cowling representative on the Skipton Board of Guardians and Rural District Council, meant the loss of a useful member. Mr Fletcher had become enamoured of Salt Lake City, USA, where his only son was engaged in mining engineering, and emigrated there.

While carting goods from Cowling to Kildwick Station, John Smith, a carter in the employ of Messrs Laycock and Stevenson, met with a serious accident. It appeared that his horse became restless and before he could get to its head, it bolted, crushing him between the dray and the wall. He sustained serious injury to the lower parts of his body.

50 Years Ago

A COACH bearing a placard "The Silsden Harassed Housewives Club" left for Llandudno.

Another placard "parodied the Silsden coat of arms and bore the non-heraldic emblems of buckets and brushes, dusters, detergents and irons". It also had the motto "Press on - rewardless". It was reported that throughout their journey other housewives exhibited the camaraderie of the sex by "waving sympathetically and giving encouragement from the pavement". The travellers waved back with "happy smiles and cheeks already beaming with health and well-being".

Two boys from the 1st Barnoldswick Scouts had to sleep in a pigsty when they were battered by hurricane force winds. Michael Kenny and Frank Whalley set out on an overnight trek to Lothersdale to gain their first class badge. Although the weather was good when they set off, it soon changed. The boys managed to pitch a tent in which keep their belongings, but had to sleep in a pigsty for shelter. When the exhausted pair returned, they were "delighted at having succeeded in their mission".

It was the second year in a row that the weather had "dealt a cruel blow" to the Malhamdale Show. The organisers "deserved a better fate" than the gale force winds that whipped across the fells in morning and the torrential rain that came in the afternoon. Exhibitors, judges and officials were left drenched, but, said the Herald it would "take more than the weather to dampen the spirits of the hardy Dales folk".

25 Years Ago

STAFF and helpers at the White Lion pub in Kildwick had a taste of showbusiness when they starred in Tetley's new advertising campaign. The pub was one of five across the country that had been picked to feature in the campaign. Residents played the roles of wedding guests who arrived early and decided to go for a drink. The filming took around four hours.

The "magnetism" of Kilnsey Show proved as powerful as ever when around 15,000 people attended. Show officials were jubilant with the success of the show, which was blessed with "blue skies and cotton wool clouds". Fell-runner Mick Hawkins beat the fell race record which had been set the previous year by more than 10 seconds. Twenty-year-old Mr Hawkins led the race from "gun to tape".

A swarm of wasps killed a goat in Skirethorns, Threshfield. It was thought the two-year-old goat, belonging to Susan Eccles, had disturbed a nest in the wall where it was kept.

10 Years Ago

IT was a week of celebrities in Craven. Firstly, Coronation Street star Thelma Barlow, better known as the Street's Mavis Wilton, officially opened the new Post Office in Settle. Her presence attracted a large crowd of people who wanted to have a chat with "Mavis". Also, Sir Bobby Charlton officially opened the new West Craven Sports Centre. At the ceremony the ex-England footballer said it would be "criminal" if the centre was not used enough. He told parents: "Get your children away from the television and computer games and make sure they do something physical."

Four-year-old Samantha Pickard showed off her giant sunflower. The Skipton youngster planted the sunflower seed outside her bedroom window at Easter. By August it stood at 11 feet tall.

Fire crews spent 15 minutes freeing a calf that had got stuck in a tree in Cowling. The cow got tangled in the branches of a tree in a field behind Collinge Road. The fire brigade managed to cut the animal out without it being injured