100 years ago

Clapham Parish Council decided additional iron seats were required for the village. Visitors needed them in the summer months and, at present, there was only one.

The Skipton Board of Governors proposed to extend the infirmary accommodation for the sick at the workhouse. Thirty additional beds were to be provided and it raised the question of when the workhouse was to be extended.

It was decided to restore Skipton Parish Church. It was generally agreed that the internal beauty of the church would be materially added to by the removal of the galleries. It was thought they were old-fashioned and not picturesque.

50 years ago

A Linton man was sent to prison by Skipton magistrates for only contributing £10 to the home in 1957 and nothing in the last six months of 1956. His wife also accused him of taking blankets and woollen clothes from his children to sell to get money for himself. Magistrates were told the man did not work, although there was nothing wrong with him. His wife said: "What he has given with one hand he has taken back with the other." He was jailed for three months.

The Craven Herald asked whether Santa had lost his magic or if adult scepticism was coming to children at an earlier stage. The questions arose after Skipton Post Office reported that the number of letters being sent to Santa in Iceland or "Snowland" had fallen to almost nil.

Skipton Urban District Council received a report from the Tobacco Manufacturing Association Standing Committee that questioned whether smoking was a significant factor in causing lung cancer. The association stated that it did not want to engage in public controversy, but pointed out there were a significant amount of lung cancer cases in non-smokers and some heavy smokers never contracted the disease.

25 years ago

More than 150 lorry drivers signed a petition protesting against a proposed ban on heavy goods vehicles in Skipton town centre. Coun Claire Brooks said she thought the drivers' arguments that there were no telephones or toilets to use on the bypasses were valid. Her motion to further consider the ban was defeated and the proposal was sent to North Yorkshire County Council.

Poor bus services were blamed for the closure of Barnoldswick's spiritualist church. Church president Violet Woodward said they were forced to close because there were very few buses to the town on a Sunday so they couldn't get any speakers to attend meetings.

Cowardly threats were made to an Earby fundraiser in an anonymous telephone call. Alma Hodkinson had been raising money to help brighten up Christmas for British troops in Northern Ireland when she received a call telling her to stop "or she had had it". Mrs Hodkinson said of the threats: "This is not going to stop me. This is my country and nobody is going to tell me what I can do and what I can't do."

10 years ago

The struggle by Silsdeners to prevent acres of green land disappearing for housing was to be featured on BBC television's Panorama documentary show.

Camera surveillance was being planned to catch a pest who was using explosives to blow holes in the greens of Skipton Golf Course. The mystery of the 14th hole had been dogging club officials since April and some thought that the culprit was using detonators from the nearby railway to blow up the green.

A Barlick butcher made his own views on the beef scare known, to the amusement of his customers and passers-by. Stephen Bell drew a down-in-the-mouth British Bulldog on the window of his shop with the caption "What - no bones!" He had also written on boards outside his shop "Smoke, drink and take drugs - but do not eat beef!" Steve said about the beef-on-the-bone ban: "You have to create a sense of humour, you can't let it get you down."

8:56pm Friday 21st December 2007

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