I WAS fascinated by this picture in the Craven Herald of March, 1970, with the headline ‘Safe smoking in hospital beds made possible by schoolboys’. It brought to mind a councillor in Otley I used to speak to who was also a busy GP. On more than one occasion, he ended our conversation swiftly because he had to dash off to attend a hospital patient who had burned themselves after falling asleep with a cigarette still burning away in their mouth.

In this story of 50 years ago, two 16 year old pupils of the former Aireville School in Skipton, now Skipton Academy, had designed and built ‘cigarette holders’ which enabled elderly patients to smoke safely in bed.

The two lads, Paul Waite and John Atkins, took their invention along to the town’s Raikeswood Hospital to try it out on patients. Patients, said the Herald, were able to ‘enjoy their cigarettes without worrying about burning their fingers, or scorching blankets.

The cigarette holder, it was explained, consisted of a flexible, clear plastic tube, through which the patient inhaled. The tube led to a stainless steel trough, over which the burning end of the cigarette was held. The ashtray itself was fitted with a clip so it could be attached securely to a bedside table or trolley.

Tommy Cain, the first patient to try out the boys’ invention, was delighted: “You can taste the cigarette without exerting any effort when you inhale,” he said. “This is going to be a great help as it will prevent patients burning their fingers or scorching blankets. The cigarette won’t last as long of course, but there will be very little in it.”

The hospital’s occupational therapist, a Mrs M E Roberts, said that the project had arisen from a comment she had made about danger caused by elderly patients smoking in bed to a Mr J Hodgson, a master at Aireville who organised pupil trips to the hospital. Hospital staff were worried that unless a safeguard could be found, patients would have to be stopped from smoking in their beds and deprived of one of the few things they could enjoy.

Mr Hodgson passed the information onto the school’s head of practical subjects, Mr T Pettit, who had an interest in finding projects of practical usefulness in Skipton. He outlined the problem to a group of fifth years, and so John and Paul took it up as part of their metalwork course.

John and Paul visited the hospital and took measurements of hospital trolleys. Various designs were tested and they eventually came up with the right one. They made a cardboard mock up and a tin plate model with Rolls-Royce donating the material to make the holders. The prototype proved serviceable, and five other models were made. They cost three shillings to make and could be made in a day. The school’s headmaster, Mr B Davies, said that the project would be assessed in the GCE metal work examination.

Mr D B Marshall, consultant physician in geriatric medicine at the hospital, said; “It was beautifully made and it has its uses in a chronic ward like this. It will be used - with discretion.” Different times indeed.

SKIPTON and Craven has featured on television a lot recently, and that’s even before the new reworking of everyone’s favourite vet show, James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small hits our screens on Channel 5 later this year. There was Channel 5’s Celebrity Britain by Barge: Then and Now, which featured the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Skipton, Bank Newton and Foulridge, and most recently, there was a question on Skipton on BBC Mastermind. The general knowledge question was ‘what town in North Yorkshire named after the old English word for sheep holds an annual sheep show on the first day of July’.

The contestant, whose specialist subject was Genghis Khan wrongly answered ‘Harrogate’. I am indebted to Dave Parker, chief officer of Skipton Town Council to be watching at the time, and telling me all about it. Fame at last indeed Mr Parker.

FOR anyone looking for inspiration for the best Easter eggs available this year, look no further than the BBC Good Food Easter awards.

A panel of experts blind tested eggs - lucky them - and came up with the best. So, winner of the milk chocolate egg was Marks and Spencer with its ‘fudgy Easter sundae’ egg for £10; highly commended with its ‘silver cocoa pod egg in a box for £10 was the Co-op, and also highly commended was Sainsbury’s with its beehive egg in a box for £10.

Winner of the Best dark chocolate Easter egg was Sainsbury’s with its ‘cocoa et co single origin dark chocolate tear drop, £10; and winner of the best white chocolate egg was Aldi with its Moser Roth white chocolate ripple egg with truffles, £4.99.

Asda was the winner of the best dairy free egg with its rippled chocolate egg and gold wrapped chocolates, £5.

Best egg for children was Tesco Doug the Dinosaur, £3.50, and the Co-op’s chocolate honeycomb crunch eggs-splosion highly commended, £5.

WE are fast approaching the tine of the year when people set off on the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge. The British Red Cross in Yorkshire is seeking walkers to take on the challenge and raise funds for the charity at an event on Saturday, July 25. Walkers will use the traditional route, starting and finishing in Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

Around 350 people sign up with the Red Cross each year to take on the challenge and walk the peaks, some with their families and some with friends. Businesses are also very welcome if they feel like entering for a team building exercise.

For more information or to sign up visit: redcross.org.uk/Y3P or contact Helen Whale on 0113 201 5256 or hwhale@redcross.org.uk .

NOW, every weekend I am out about walking miles and miles across both the Yorkshire Dales and the Forest of Bowland having signed up to Country Walking’s ‘walk 1,000 miles 2020’. Sometimes I take the dog along, and sometimes I don’t. He’s getting on a bit now, and is not quite up to really long walks, and then there is the issue of stiles, like this one, pictured above, on the Pennine Way between Gargrave and East Marton. I defy anyone to lift a dog over such a stile, especially if they are alone, and certainly if said dog, like mine, grumbles when lifted. Luckily it is rare to come across such an insurmountable stile, so many have dog gates, or there is a gap in the fence where a larger dog can get through - but on this occasion, it involved a lengthy detour to find a gap in the fence where I could get the dog through - it was either that or retracing my steps, a distance of some miles. Interestingly, a little further along the Pennine Way was a fantastic additional dog gate; alongside the stile, I’m guessing a different landowner.

And before I am criticised, the dog was off the lead only briefly, to allow me to take the photograph.

100 YEARS ago, in March, 1920, the then vicar of Long Preston, the Rev R Shipman, preaching at the parish church, protested against the practice of public dancing during Lent. He referred to a poster exhibiting the announcement that a dance was to be held shortly, and he urged his parishioners so far to observe the Lenten session as to abstain from the function. “Even in these days of laxity”, he declared, “the line should be drawn somewhere.”

THE paper also reported on a cat that had travelled on the roof of a train all the way from Hellifield to Carlisle. Under the headline ‘pussy sees the world’, it was explained that the cat, which belonged to the refreshment rooms at Hellifield Station, had climbed onto the roof of the carriages of the 5.10pm ‘Scotch Express’. It had then rode the 76 miles to Carlisle, where it was discovered, and returned to its owners ‘ none the worse for its adventurous ride’.