100 Years Ago

AN application was lodged with an authority called the Light Railway Commission to build a railway line linking Barnoldswick with Gisburn. The Herald commented that the railway line had long been discussed, but it was now a practical matter. The line would drive north from Barnoldswick railway station, extending the branch line from Earby off the main Skipton to Colne route.

The Skipton Water Bill passed through a House of Commons Select Committee. The Bill sought permission to build the reservoir at Embsay and there had been opposition from both the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Hothfield of Skipton Castle. However, the report said that following discussions the objections had been withdrawn.

Thirteen Barnoldswick teenagers were brought in front of the courts for playing football in the street despite being cautioned by a PC Hudson. The chairman of the Skipton magistrates fined each youth two shillings and six pence but warned them that they would be more severely dealt with in future because there had been numerous complaints about playing football.

50 Years Ago

A POPULAR feature of Clapham Sports, which had been revived three years previously, was hound trailing. Leslie Grisedale set off carrying a drag of sacking soaked in aniseed and paraffin before the hounds were released to follow the chase. He led the hounds on a 10 mile trail up Ingleborough and Austwick Scar and at one point the police held up traffic on the main road between Settle and Kendal to allow the hounds to cross, much to the bemusement of drivers.

A public inquiry was held at Northallerton to confirm the designation of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Objectors included both West and North Riding County Councils, Bradford angling clubs and private landowners. Their main objections were that a national park would give the public nothing they were not already getting and merely substitute another body of local government.

The BBC recorded its popular Gardeners' Question Time radio programme at a meeting of Embsay Horticultural Society. The questions were fired at the panel in the village institute and all went smoothly.

25 Years Ago

THE Conservative victory at the General Election meant that the threat to Skipton's grammar school system was removed. Edward Dennison, the leader of the county council, officially announced that the plans drawn up for introducing a comprehensive school in system would not proceed. Skipton had three members of the county council who were all governors of the grammar schools - Derek Swinglehurst of both Ermysted's and Skipton Girls' High, Robert Heseltine, of Ermysted's and Henry Tempest, of the Girls' High. All three expressed their delight at the news and had fought hard to retain the existing system. Under the plans Ermysted's would have become a boys' comprehensive, Aireville a girls' comprehensive and the Girls' High would be turned into a sixth form centre.

Actress Una Stubbs presented the licensees of the Black Bull in Cowling, Mr and Mrs Royd Brown, with a silver tray for second prize in an inter-pub fund-raising competition for Muscular Dystrophy. The pub had raised £5,000 with a variety of events, among them a pie eating competition.

Carlson, a filtration firm based on The Butts in Barnoldswick, announced a £500,000 investment in the factory which would double production. The company produced filters for the manufacturing process and much of its business went to export.

10 Years Ago

CRAVEN'S last surviving link with the First World War was broken with the death of Victor Simpson at the age of 96. Mr Simpson, who later founded the Pennine Motor Company, was a regular at Remembrance Day parades in Skipton paying tribute to his fallen comrades.

Consultants Oscar Faber were preparing a report on traffic in Skipton and held an open session in Skipton Town Hall. They were told by the public - and this will have a familiar ring - that the problems were a lack of car parking in the town, the need for a multi-storey car park to be built on the Town Hall car park site and heavy lorries coming through the town centre. The Herald's headline that there were plenty of problems but limited solutions somehow seems prophetic.

Craven College announced a £2 million extension to its Aireville site. The construction of a new block of lecture rooms and other buildings was phase three of the college's expansion plan.

Concern was expressed over the future of The Folly in Settle. The owner had emigrated to New Zealand and a planning application had been lodged to split the prominent building into two. The applicant proposed to buy the smaller part and the other section, comprising roughly two thirds of the building, was being marketed with Halifax Property Services for £225,000. But local councillor Beth Graham expressed her concern at the division of the listed building.