25 years ago – 1997
Martindale
The New Year’s Honours List brought a special surprise for Eden pensioner Mrs. Vera Overs. Mrs. Overs, of Cumberland Close, Clifton, was awarded the MBE for services to the community of Martindale.
She has been the organist at St. Peter’s Church, Martindale, for 63 years. Now aged 77, she first began playing the organ at the church at the age of 13.
Penrith
Penrith-based bakers J. R. Birkett and Sons Limited have been taken over by Newcastle firm Greggs in a £3.2 million deal.
Greggs, the UK’s leading retail bakers, will be using Birkett’s to expand into Cumbria.
Greggs say the move will not affect jobs at Birkett’s but it will see the retirement of three of the company’s directors — David Snowdon, Nickie Birkett and Geoff Bailes.
Birkett’s currently run 57 shops in Cumbria, North Lancashire and the Scottish Borders.
Penrith could be the new Cumbria base for the Environment Agency, it was revealed this week.
The Department of the Environment is being recommended to set up a new headquarters of the agency at Penrith because of its central location.
If the plans are given the go-ahead in February, the Environment Agency’s 150 employees in Cumbria could be working from a site in the town by 1998 — although no information has been provided on exactly where.
Penrith rugby star Graeme Sarjeant featured in the Great Britain student rugby league side which defeated the RAF at Uxbridge just before Christmas.
Graeme, who is in his third and final year at Leeds University, played at hooker in the students’ 18-4 victory.
He now hopes to be selected for the Great Britain squad to play in the home internationals which begin in February.
Tirril
Delicate lace work fit to decorate one of the most visited altars in the North has been created by Eden needlewoman Mrs. Margaret Towers, of Tirril.
The new superfrontal has been dedicated to the memory of a former teacher and friend of Mrs. Towers and is now in place on the altar in the Ogle Chantry, at Hexham Abbey.
Keswick
Police officers who broke up the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Keswick by using CS gas have been accused of over-reacting to the situation.
Onlookers say that police stormed through the crowd using new CS gas sprays to make arrests.
Innocent bystanders including young children and an asthmatic were caught by the gas sprays and at least one required medical treatment.
50 years ago — 1972
Greystoke
Cumberland and Westmorland get their first ever policewoman inspector with the promotion on 17th January of P.W. Sgt. Pamela Mary McGinn, Brigham, a native of Greystoke, whose father is a gamekeeper on the Greystoke Castle estate.
Sgt. McGinn went into the Cumberland and Westmorland police in 1965 after a 10-year spell as stable girl at Tommy Robson’s Greystoke stables was ended by a broken leg, sustained in a riding accident.
After being commended by the Chief Constable for consistent good police work, she was promoted sergeant in April, 1970.
Penrith
A former Scots Guard sergeant has been appointed as the new officer-in-charge of the Penrith Ambulance Station in Bridge Lane.
He is Mr. Raymond Brown, Raiselands Croft, Penrith, a native of the town who, like his predecessor Mr. Joe Corrie, was one of Penrith’s first full-time ambulancemen in 1962.
In 1968 he left the service to become safety officer for Christiani Shand, the firm which constructed a large part of the M6 in this area. He re-joined the ambulance service in April last year.
History was made at Penrith on Wednesday evening, in more than one respect, when the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt. Rev. Cyril Bulley, instituted as the new Vicar a clergyman who was ordained in the same St. Andrew’s Church seventeen years earlier — and afterwards, over tea in the Parish Rooms, “made” two new canons.
The new Vicar of Penrith was Canon William Alan Batty, who has been canon resident of Carlisle Cathedral as well as Diocesan Education Committee secretary and the Bishop’s adviser on education, for the last three years.
Newbiggin and Ousby
The manors of Newbiggin (Temple Sowerby) and Ousby in the possesion of the Crackanthorpe family for centuries, remain in the ownership of descendants of the family.
When the Newbiggin Hall estate was sold to the Church Commissioners in 1955, Mr. David Crackanthorpe retained the manors, but last year these were advertised for sale.
Privately, they were sold to a kinsman, Capt. John Henry Crackanthorpe Sawrey-Cookson, now of Newbiggin Hall.
100 years ago — 1922
Penrith
The Rural Council have leased a plot of ground adjoining the Counil’s Mansion House offices to Messrs. Armstrong and Fleming who plan to open a garage there.
Hilton
One of Hilton’s oldest residents, Mrs. E. Bellas, died — two years after the death of her husband, Thomas, and it is interesting to relate the unique circumstances surrounding the life of this couple.
They were born 77 years ago within half-an-hour of each other, with not more than 20 yards separating them.
They began an association in childhood which continued unbroken through all the stages of life for 75 years.
150 years ago — 1872
Penrith
The Editor has received a letter signed “Medicus” drawing attention to the alarming increase in typhoid fever in Penrith.
The writer says: “In the absence of a medical officer (which every town ought to have) it is difficult to determine exactly the full extent of the present epidemic, but judging from my own practice, I fear it has already assumed formidable proportions.
There can be no doubt about the necessity of promptly removing all accumulations of refuse and filth from our streets and yards.
I have no doubt that the quality of our water at its source is good, but I believe it becomes greatly contaminated with deleterious matter in its course down the river.”
