100 Years Ago

THE next election would be remembered as the one in which the motor car played a major role, said the Herald. Conservative candidate for the Skipton division Captain Roundell had found a car invaluable getting round to meetings during the winter while his Liberal opponent, Mr Clough, also found he too would have to follow suit and had acquired a car.

That sparked the Herald writer to extol the virtues of the car. During the winter snow and mud may cause discomforts (this was before cars had a roof) "but these are adequately forgotten in the satisfaction one feels in defying the elements and exhilaration induced by rushing through the air trusting to the skill of the lynx-eyed driver and having unbounded faith in one's good genius to come out right at the other end."

Twist and turns on the road made driving in Craven particularly hazardous, with the road between Cross Hills and Lothersdale singled out as being a positive danger to life and limb. The council should inspect it and find it to be "the most absurd bit of roadmaking for many a year".

Inspectors had visited the now-closed Draughton School where there were 75 pupils in 1904 - 55 in standard and 20 in infants, all taught in the one room. The inspectors recommended a partition to split the juniors from the infants or better still a separate classroom to be created.

St Stephen's School in Skipton held a scholars reunion to mark its 50th jubilee. In a speech T Fattorini said he had been a scholar and a manager at the school and no other school could claim to have been so well adapted for its purpose 50 years after opening. Ironically, 150 years after opening the school moved into new premises in September. Two of those present, Jane Harragan and Mrs Cornelius Dee, had been pupils at St Stephen's when it was situated in Albert Street and all their children had been to the school.

50 Years Ago

AFTER a lapse of many years, the Ermysted's School Song was brought back into use. It was sung with gusto by old boys at the Founders' Day dinner. Entitled 'Men of the Uplands' it had been written by Mr A Binns, who had been a master at the school for a short time and left in 1915 with music by Mr J Firth, music master from 1907 to 1918. For a long time Ermysted's had been using Harrow School's song 'Forty Years on'. One assumes that neither are now used.

25 Years Ago

THE tiny hamlet of Hawkswick looked like being without a decent television just over a year after a special relay transmitter had been installed. Before August 1978 only some residents could receive BBC 1, none at all BBC 2 and ITV had continuous interference. However, an electrical contractor who had installed the transmitter after payment of £100 from 10 household to put up a mast, said the cost was proving prohibitive.

Peter Tempest, owner of the long-established ironmongery business of FW Nuttall in Duke Street, Settle, was named Shopkeeper of the Year for the North East region. He had taken over the shop eight years previously but paid tribute to shopman Eric Capstick, who had been behind the counter for 30 years.

Farmers' wives in upper Wharfedale laid on a party and organised a whip round for postman Reg Hawkins, who had battled against snow, ice and floods in his mailvan to deliver post to isolated farms. He had never let them down but Mr Hawkins, of Main Street, Grassington, was a bit put out by the fuss, saying that he was not a hero, just an ordinary working man

10 Years Ago

THE headmaster of Ermysted's Grammar School warned that its first Ofsted inspection was unlikely to be glowing. David Buckroyd hinted to those attending the Founders' Day dinner that there had been clashes with the inspectors who, he said, were seeking to support their prejudices. He predicted that the school would be "panned for its deficiencies in management systems". But he said the school's record spoke for itself and 1994 would prove to be the best year yet both inside and outside the classroom for the school.

Wharfedale rugby player Glen Harrison played in the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity rugby match and unwittingly became involved in a sporting scandal. He was injured and came off to be replaced by a player who, it turned out, had played a single trial match for rugby league team London Broncoes. Outraged blazers at Twickenham banned the substitute for a year. Tongue in cheek the Herald said that if the two had shaken hands as Harrison came off the pitch, then the Wharfedale player too was tainted and should be made to walk through the streets of Grassington shouting "unclean"!

The death was reported of Eric Lodge, Burnsall historian and a driving member of many local organisations. He had been a founding committee member of the Yorkshire Dales Railway at Embsay and a founder committee member of the national executive of the Ramblers Association. He was also a prominent member of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, Upper Wharfedale Field Society and Grassington Chamber of Trade.