25 years ago – 1996
SHAP
Pensioner Mrs. Ada Barnett is the first winner of a new award aimed at rewarding the district’s good citizens.
Mrs. Barnett, a farmer’s wife from Brinns Farm, Shap, was nominated for the Cumberland and Westmorland Good Citizenship award by fellow residents for her unstinting work in the village and her fundraising efforts for the James Rennie School, Carlisle, which her late grandson attended.
KIRKBY THORE
A £4 million conversion to gas will ensure the long-term survival of British Gypsum’s Kirkby Thore plant, manager Jim Sisson said this week. The plant is being converted from oil to gas fired over the next 18 months. It is a switch which is likely to save the company £1 million a year in costs.
LANGWATHBY
A controversial scheme to open a farm visitor centre in Langwathby got the go-ahead this week after the businessman behind the proposals won a planning appeal.
An application by Jim Peet, of Winskill, to develop a farm visitor centre at Langwathby Hall Farm was bitterly opposed by villagers, who were concerned about the level of traffic the farm centre would generate, particularly around the village green.
ELLONBY
A former Ellonby-based scientist is demanding £30,000 over lost photographs of a polar expedition. Dr. Barry Matthews, formerly of Beacon View, Ellonby, is taking Boots the Chemist to court after pictures of his 1993 expedition to the North Pole went missing.
LAZONBY
Farmer and Lazonby parish councillor Malcolm Kidd has recorded a year in the life of the village on video tape and is hoping to use profits from its sale to provide the church with a new flagpole.
Mr. Kidd, of North Bank Farm, inquired why a Union Flag had not been flown on the church belfry on either VE or VJ Day and was told the current flagpole was unsafe. He decided to make the video, detailing all aspects of village life, and use the proceeds from sales to buy a new flagpole, estimated to cost £300.
TEBAY
A large gathering of Methodists and Anglicans from Tebay and district filled the Methodist church in the village on Sunday afternoon to celebrate the refurbishment which has been carried out there since October. The service was led by the Rev. Phil Dew and the preacher was a former minister in Tebay, the Rev. Elizabeth Hodgkiss, now working in Great Harwood.
50 YEARS AGO — 1971
ALSTON
“This might be the beginning of the thin end of the wedge, taking the Alston area right out of Cumberland and putting it into Northumberland,” warned Mr. W. G. Ball, Alston Rural Council representative, at the meeting of the Eden Water Board in the Mansion House, Penrith.
The meeting was discussing a Government circular on proposed re-organisation of water and sewerage services, under which the Eden board’s area would be within a Regional Water Authority comprising the three River Authorities of Cumberland, Lancashire and Mersey and Weaver — with the Alston area of the Board allocated to a new Nothumbrian Regional Water Authority.
APPLEBY
Appleby’s Public Hall is to be renamed its “Civic Theatre,” to assist in obtaining a grant towards the current improvement scheme and promote increased use of the Hall, as a result of a recommendation to the Borough Council.
The suggestion was in the Properties Committee minutes which referred to a visit from a representative of the English Tourist Board to investigate the Council’s application for a grant.
Meanwhile, the Council has accepted the lowest of three tenders — £28,000 by A. E. Lewthwaite and Son — Market Hall-cum-Public Hall improvement scheme.
Because Appleby Borough Council has never adopted an Act of 1890 any public house in the borough can stage music, singing or dancing without a licence.
The Council has been urged to adopt the Act — the Public Health Amendment Act 1890 — but is not compelled to do so and at this week’s meeting no
action was taken on a further police request about the matter.
KIRKBY STEPHEN
The switching on of Christmas lights at Kirkby Stephen was also the occasion for a presentation to members of a family who have given long and faithful service to the town in connection with the ambulance service.
The late Mr. A. Hook and his two sons, Max and Denis, drove the ambulance for 23 years, being on call at any time of day or night. The service is now provided from the new ambulance station at Brough and the people of Brough had contributed to a testimonial to the family.
The sum of £176 was donated and a cheque for this amount was presented to Mrs. Hook and her two sons.
PENRITH
Penrith County Girls’ School in Brunswick Road turned the final page in its history when it broke up for Christmas for the last time — in the New Year the girls transfer to the new Wetheriggs Junior School.
But the old School went out on a new “note” with its carol service in St. Andrew’s Church.
The School’s first service in the Church, it depicted the movement from West to East, from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge.
The seven-year-old Penrith British Legion Club reported its best year at the annual meeting in the Club, with sales up by £1,700.
The secretary, Mr. W. D. Pattinson, recorded a slight drop in membership to 748, despite the fact that, for the first time, in addition to ex-Service people, the sons of members were now eligible.
100 YEARS AGO — 1921
PENRITH
Reminiscing at the second annual reunion of the Penrith Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Old Boys’ Association, Mr. W. Hutchinson, Maiden Hill, spoke of when he joined the school 43 years ago as a boarder.
There was rivalry between the Grammar School boys and other school boys, which took the form of ambush and counter-ambush and one ended with the attendance of the police!
