100 years ago

THE success of the tree planting "experiment" on Skipton High Street prompted the editor to wonder why it had not been expanded to other parts of the town, in particular Broughton Road up to the railway station. "Everyone agrees that the beautiful lime trees have improved Skipton's main thoroughfare to a very appreciable extent and a row of trees along one side of Broughton Road would give visitors a better impression of Skipton than is obtained from the present bare and unattractive approach".

The Herald also pointed out that the last street cattle market in Thirsk had been held. Regulations prevented the main street being used and Skipton would be in the same situation save for the fact that it was attempting to provide another venue.

A tramp who spent one night in Skipton workhouse was sent to jail for 14 days after he admitted a charge of destroying a pair of trousers. In the morning he was handed back his clothes and tore them up, complaining they did not fit. He was taken to the police station (presumably trouserless) where he tore up a second pair of trousers and complained that a third pair offered to him was "too short".

50 years ago

CROWDS of Irish labourers were hanging about on Skipton High Street awaiting hire. The Herald said they were asking £60 a month, a record for the traditional haytime hirings, but there were few takers because of the wet weather. The Herald also recorded that Jack Ingleby, of Nether Hesleden Farm, Litton, remembered when his father was alive he would take on 13 Irish labourers for hay making. They were paid £5 per month, plus one 18 gallon barrel of beer each.

Meat finally came off the ration, nine years after the war had ended. Butchers could now go to any slaughterhouse they wanted and sell whatever amounts they wished. However the number of slaughterhouses had fallen from 11,000 before the war to just 482, including one in Skipton. Now that rationing had ended more butchers could run their own slaughtering facilities but it was thought that most would be reluctant to meet the extra expense in meeting new regulations. The Skipton slaughterhouse (situated on Coach Street) had been developed and was now equipped to deal with three times its pre-war output.

Overcrowding at Cawder Ghyll Maternity Hospital in Skipton was discussed at the Regional Hospital Board. Midwife Mrs Glen, a member of the board, said there had been 17 patients there on occasions which was absolutely contrary to midwifery and its nursing. "This would not have been allowed at one time, but it is allowed now in these days of progress," she said.

25 years ago

THE death was reported of Charles Vincent Carr, who had been managing director of his family firm of GE Carr, grocers and bakers who ran 30 branches in and around Skipton. After retiring he moved to live in Chipping Camden. During World War One he had been a fighter pilot with the Royal Flying Corps and had been shot down and taken prisoner.

The first Skipton v Settle darts league challenge match took place at Rolls Royce, Barnoldswick with the Skipton league running out victors. However, they had started favourites as the Settle League was not used to playing on the "Yorkshire board" which had no trebles.

There was a special feature on Beamsley Mill, which had the largest working enclosed mill wheel in Yorkshire. It had been operated as a corn mill until the start of the century, employing at its peak 30 men. A wheel 28 feet in diameter was powered by water running down a goit, a narrow man-made channel, from a dam 500 yards away. The wheel now powered drills, saws and lathes operated by Edmund Watson, a carpenter and specialist furniture repairer.

10 years ago

GIGGLESWICK School leavers took their lives in their hands when they scaled the distinctive copper dome of the school chapel, put a dustbin on the top pinnacle and hung out a banner saying "The boys are back in town". Deputy head master Warren Brookes said the daredevil act was the work of skilled members of the school's climbing group, who would be "mildly" reprimanded. Even so, a crane had to be brought in to remove the dustbin and banner.

A 15-year-old schoolboy responsible for a quarter of all reported crime in Ingleton over the previous 12 months was turned in by his mum. Police had set up a special team to find the person who was stealing badges from vintage and luxury cars such as BMWs, Mercedes and Rover. The crimes were solved when the boy's mum found 65 car badges under his bed and realised from the Craven Herald reports what he was up to. Magistrates fined him £40 but decided no further action would be necessary.

There's nothing a Yorkshireman likes more than taking money off a Lancastrian but that pleasure was denied to the traders of Settle. The closure of the A682 Gisburn to Long Preston road was sending visitors to the town on a 19 mile detour and trade was hit hard. The elongated "r" of the Lancashire burr, once so familiar in Settle, was now a rare sound in the town complained shopkeepers and market stall holders.