100 Years Ago

THE Medical Officer of Health for Skipton drew the council's attention to the high infant mortality rate in the town. It was running at 22.0 per thousand births in 1905, well above the average. The medical officer came up with two reasons - improper feeding and ignorance in rearing children. He said that many children were born in a weak condition owing to the mothers being employed in the factories. In his opinion married women should be excused from factory work. Alcoholism was another cause of infant deaths and this had unfortunately increased among women in recent years. The chairman of the council said the statistics were alarming.

The Craven Herald said a doctor's certificate for non-attendance at school costing two shillings and six pence was more than many working families could afford. While the paper had no wish to deprive professional men of their fee, it called for a system which was not so punitive to poor families whose children fell sick.

Algernon Dewhurst donated £250 to the Skipton Library fund. American millionaire Carnegie had promised £3,000 to provide a free library in Skipton - providing the town matched the sum. However, the town had been most reluctant to come up with the money and the council, fearing it would lose the grant entirely, had written to prominent members of the business community seeking help.

The council agreed to lease the old reservoirs on Shortbank Road for £20 per annum to J Scott of Newmarket Street, who had submitted a plan to turn them into swimming baths.

50 Years Ago

FIVE hundred gallons of black treacle found its way through Skipton's sewers to the sewage treatment works on Keighley Road. There it contaminated seagulls which settled on the tanks. Four had died and workers were treating other birds. Scumboards stopped the oil entering filters which would have caused serious problems for Skipton. The council was investigating the source of the contamination.

Work to incorporate Holywell Cottage on Gargrave Road into St Stephen's School was being hindered by a 40 feet deep well in the cottage cellar. The building was, along with the Woodman Inn, the only building in the vicinity before the Skipton to Kendal highway was built in 1824. Historians presumed the cottage was built over the well but there were no links with any religious purposes before the school was built next door in 1854. The cottage had been lived in by St Stephen's teacher Mr L Morrow.

Barnoldswick British Legion's application to move the war memorial in Letcliffe to Kelbrook Road Memorial Gardens was turned down by Barnoldswick Urban Council. Coun H Hoggarth said the move was "hypocritical and un-Christian", despite backing from the vicar of Barnoldswick.

25 Years Ago

MARKET traders took direct action when they arrived to find contractors about to put bollards on the setts outside Barclays Bank. They were told the bank planned to create a small private car park for its employees but the traders physically prevented the work going ahead. Craven's planning department said the bollards did not require planning permission as they were under a specific height. It seems there were not stalls in front of the bank but those using the setts in front of the National Mill Stores said they needed the space to load and unload vans. Traders said the High Street would soon be covered by bollards if other frontagers followed Barclay's, who did not comment, and tried to seal off the setts for their own exclusive use. The next day the contractors returned and filled in the holes and replaced the cobbles.

Bernard Boynton from Bradley was named as one of the The Sun newspaper's top five glamorous grandads in Britain. His wife, a keen photographer, had entered his portrait in the competition without telling him and the first he knew of it was the £25 prize from the paper. He admitted he had to put up with some ribbing from his colleagues at English Sewing Company.

Willie Holt's Billiard Hall opened with 16 tables at the old Drill Hall in Skipton fully booked. The company's former billiard hall in Swadford Street had closed down two decades previously.

Ghyll Golf Club had its first professional. Bill McAdams would receive no money from the club but would give lessons and could use the course for practice as he tried to make his way on the tournament circuit.

Hartlington Hall near Burnsall was for sale. The hall, with one and a half acres of land and a tree-lined drive, was on the market for £67,500. To give an idea of the property values, the paper also advertised Wellhead Cottage on Main Street, Grassington, for £23,500, a semi detached on Princes Crescent, Skipton, for £25,950 and a detached house on Aire Valley Drive, Bradley, for £32,950.

10 Years Ago

SEVEN years after being launched, a restoration appeal for St Oswald's Church in Horton-in-Ribblesdale had raised £93,000. That worked out at £223 for every man, woman and child in the village. The appeal had been started to carry out work on a new boiler for heating and repairs to the organ and bells.

"Break a leg" is a supposed theatrical expression of good luck, but Lucy Askew took it literally when she appeared in the Glusburn panto. She slipped and fell in the dressing room on the opening night. But, the show must go on, and she turned up the next day to deliver her lines as normal - albeit sitting down and with her leg in a pot.

Road traffic inspectors descended on the Skipton to Grassington Road to carry out checks in response to complaints about quarry wagons. They found 22 wagons heavily laden with stone were travelling at 50mph in a 40mph limit zone. Half the Hymas fleet was suspended for a day in April after defects were found on their vehicles.

The national park turned down plans to build three pools to raise fish at Skyreholme. The authority was worried about the traffic movements.