25 years ago – 1997
Eden
Three wind farms could be set up in Eden, after two firms won government contracts this week. The Wind Energy Group have been given contracts to look into producing electricity from wind farms at High Raise, Alston, and at Thack Moor, Renwick. The Renewable Development Company have been awarded a contract to producing electricity from a wind farm at Tebay, which would have an adjoining farm running into South Lakeland Council’s area.
High Hesket
The first league tables for primary schools were condemned as flawed this week by the head of the school which topped the tables in Cumbria.
High Hesket School was classed as top in Cumbria and one of the best schools in the country, being only six points away from the maximum of 300 in the three categories of the tests. However, head Peter Howard said that although he was pleased about the results, his own feelings on the league tables were very mixed.
Appleby
Appleby needs two new magistrates and local people are being asked: “Have you got what it takes?” Simon Evans, clerk to the justices, said magistrates had retired but there was nobody waiting to replace them. The Appleby Bench cover the Kirkby Stephen, Shap, Brough, Temple Sowerby, Kirkby Thore, Orton and Appleby areas.
A window was opened at Appleby on Saturday into plans to reopen the Eden Valley railway. The guest of honour was Lord Whitelaw, who is president of the Eden Valley Railway Trust, the organisation which staged the open day exhibition. Two visitors who “signed up” on the day were Penrith and the Border MP David Maclean and Tony Marchington, the leading industrialist and owner of the legendary Flying Scotsman.
Lazonby
The new owner of a former shop and offices in the centre of the Eden Valley village of Lazonby has reassured residents that they have nothing to fear from a plan to establish a recording studio which could host major names in the music industry. “There are not going to be any drug-crazed lunatics running amok or loud music screaming out in the night,” said events and music promotion company boss Andrew Lennie, who has bought the old co-operative society premises.
Penrith
Penrith top scorer and assistant manager Tony Fyfe is wanted by Unibond League side Gretna. On Monday the Scots put in seven days’ notice to talk to Fyfe, who has netted 27 times for the Blues this season. “He said he was going to have a word with them, and the seven days is up on Tuesday so we will know then,” said Penrith manager Geoff Byers.
50 years ago — 1972
Appleby
The next Mayor of Appleby, to be formally elected at the ancient “mayormaking” ceremony in May, is a member of staff at Appleby Grammar School, Mr. Charles Peter Hirst. Mr. Hirst, who went to Appleby from Alston Samuel King’s School in 1960 as head of the mathematics department, was selected by the Borough Council, in committee after its monthly meeting on Wednesday. He was proposed by Mr. H. Forster, seconded by Mr. C. W. Crawford.
Little Salkeld
Anhydrite mining — the major activity at British Gypsum’s Long Meg mines, Little Salkeld, for nearly twenty years, alongside the production of gypsum which dates back a century — may be stopped in a year’s time, when the mine’s chief customer, manufacturing sulphuric acid, ceases to require it. The news means eventual reduction of the number employed at the mines from 65 to about twenty.
Sockbridge
The prospect of a high-density estate off fifty-five houses being built in the village has so alarmed the people of Sockbridge that a special Parish Council meeting was held to consider the development and Westmorland County Planning Committee was asked to postpone their decision for a month so that they could receive the comments of the Parish Council on the matter. The village people found out by chance that the site, between Quaker Lane and the road to Thorpe and facing the road to Ullswater, had been sold and that a plan had been submitted for an estate of closely-linked houses and small bungalows.
Penrith
The scheme to develop 12 acres of land near the Kemplay roundabout, Penrith, as a service and parking area for heavy lorries, has been turned down by the Minister of the Environment following a public inquiry last month at which planning authorities and local residents opposed the plan. The scheme had been put forward by the late Mr. Gordon Stamper, the head of the Culgaith haulage firm, and the administrators of his estate had appealed against the refusal of planning permission. Refusing the appeal, the Minister says the development would be intrusive in a semi-rural area and he is not satisfied as to the need for such a complex.
Kirkby Stephen
Kirkby Stephen’s claim to have more places of worship than it has public houses was reinforced on Tuesday when another inn, The Jolly Farmers, on South Road, closed down. The town now has five inns and seven regular places of worship.
100 years ago — 1922
Warcop
Mr. James Ainsley Wild, Warcop Hall, who was one of the leaders of the Conservative Party in Westmorland, has died. Mr. Wild who was 68, was a barrister at Gray’s Inn, and Registrar of the City of London Court — an office he held for many years. He was on the Commission for Peace in Westmorland and frequently appeared on the Appleby Bench.
