100 Years Ago

A REPORT on the fortnightly meeting of the Skipton Board of Guardians illustrates some stark social changes over the past century. With Dickensian absurdity, the Board considered a question posed by the West Riding Asylums Committee regarding "harmless lunatics" being "treated" in workhouses.

The replies entered by the committee showed that there was no accommodation for "this class of pauper". As though the people in question were jovial layabouts seeking an idle life of luxury, the guardians did not contemplate making any room in workhouses for "imbeciles".

A weaver's strike continued in Earby as "riotous proceedings" took place. Unrest carried on into night and was only quelled when extra constables were drafted in.

50 Years Ago

SLUM clearances in both Skipton and Settle were a raging topic in the district. There were angry scenes at a public inquiry in Skipton into plans to demolish the Albert Street area, between the High Street and the canal and Bunkers Hill, where the bus station now stands.

Protester EH Scott said it was scandalous that the council could order houses, which people had paid good money for, to be knocked down and pay a farcical sum in compensation.

Particularly contentious was the plan to demolish Devonshire House. Skipton Urban Council said if it and a high surrounding wall was knocked down it would very much improve the light and ventilation of the area.

Meanwhile Settle Rural District Council admitted it had a secret list of "slum properties" which would be demolished. But it refused to reveal which houses were on them, saying the list was not final. Some councillors demanded that the list be published, so people would not unwittingly purchase a home which would later be knocked down.

Two 14-year-old schoolboys experimenting with chemicals in an outbuilding at Yarnbury, Grassington, received serious injuries in an explosion. Peter Gregory, of Yarnbury House, and David Brown, from Skipton were in hospital after they mixed potassium chlorate with sulphur in a metal tube. The explosion occurred when the tubing was hit with a hard object.

Peter's mother cycled two miles to raise the alarm. David lost a thumb and the ends of his finger in the explosion and Mrs Gregory explained that her son was keenly interested in chemistry and had told her they were trying to make liquid oxygen.

25 Years Ago

ABOUT 70 residents of Malhamdale, most of them farmers, held an emergency meeting to discuss a report from the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The report stated that modern farming methods were threatening the important biological and geological properties of Malham Moor and recommended that restrictions on farming were necessary to safeguard the future conservation of the site.

But Settle NFU vice chairman, a Mr Waterstone, said restrictions should be on National Trust owned land only and there was no case for interfering on land which the national park did not own. Prohibitions on taking silage, cutting hay and re-sowing pasture would reduce farm profitability.

Malham people were unhappy at suggestions that car parking could be provided on Malham Moor; they believed this was part of a long term plan to increase revenue through tourism.

The early 1980s were hard times for Britain's industry and 100 jobs were to go at Tilcon quarries. Swinden Quarry was losing 51 jobs, half its work force, Lothersdale Quarry was to close with the loss of 19 jobs and the rest would be lost at Skipton Rock. The contracts of 22 lorry drivers would also be terminated.

Settle was voted best kept railway station in the north in the British Rail competition. The credit went to Monica Potter and Jim Baker who acted as porters, ticket collectors and cleaners.

10 Years Ago

OUTDATED laws forced the abandonment of New Year's Eve dances. The Government instructed councils that it could not repeal the Sunday Observance Act, which banned dancing after 10.30pm on Sundays in time for December 31, which fell on a Sunday in 1980. Embsay and Grassington had already cancelled events and Embsay vicar Alan Kitchen said it was a "ridiculous situation" but his church had to obey the law.

Skipton Girls' High School head Diana Chambers did not waste an opportunity when David Curry MP was in the audience for the school's speech night. She said that if the Conservative Government made more cuts to school budgets there would be redundancies at the school. She asked him to take the following message back to Prime Minister John Major: "We do not want to offer a watered down curriculum, we do not want a shabby building, we do not want fewer staff and we do not want lower standards. No more cuts."