25 years ago – 1996
PENRITH
Eden councillors have decided not to pursue the possible redevelopment of Penrith’s Southend Road area by a major supermarket.
At a special meeting of the council, members voted by an overwhelming majority not to take any further action on the matter. Many felt that if the land was to be sold off, it should be to provide an arts and leisure facility which was what the town needed.
WHALE
Twin brothers James and Michael Coy, aged 16, from Whale, near Askham, have both passed an ATC course at the British Aerospace glider training centre at Salmesbury, near Preston.
Both members of the Penrith ATC squadron, James and Michael spent a week at the centre undertaking theoretical and practical work, including eight hours of flying time. They are now qualified to fly powered gliders under the supervision of an instructor.
APPLEBY
Charles Hirst has retired from the position of Appleby town clerk after 10 years’ service.
He has decided to stand down because of the increasing demands of the post and a desire to have more free time. Mr. Hirst became town clerk a couple of months before he retired from teaching. He took up the position in May, 1986, succeeding Reg Bedford.
GREAT SALKELD
Eden climber Simon Yates had to abandon his hopes of scaling the Pakistan heights when he was only 200 metres from the summit.
Mr. Yates, of Kirkhouses, Great Salkeld, and his American climbing companion, Steve Sustad, set out on the first attempted climb of Makrong Chhish’s east ridge, standing at 6,607 metres in Pakistan’s Karakorum range.
The men made two attempts to reach the summit but found the conditions far too dangerous.
GREYSTOKE
Gordon Richards’s stable star One Man is due to line up for the most significant race of the season in the North so far, the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby, after which a trip to Haydock on 14th December for the Tommy Whittle Chase is on the cards.
One Man’s Greystoke-based trainer plans to run him at Prestbury Park in the new year in order to help decide whether to attempt another tilt at the elusive Gold Cup.
50 years ago — 1971
PENRITH
A big project to develop a shopping precinct on land now occupied by one of Penrith’s oldest inns — the Fish, at the foot of Castlegate, came to light this week.
The Urban Council, meeting gave approval in principle — subject to the observations of the County Surveyor — to an application by Mr. Roy L. Smith to demolish the old hotel, which has stood empty for many years, and to construct five one-storey shops, six two-storey shops and a kiosk in a traffic free precinct.
“Poets Walk” has been selected as the name of the proposed precinct and on one of the walls there will be a plaque bearing a tribute to Lakeland poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge.
After seven years of inquiring and letter-writing in a bid to locate a sister she last saw over twenty years ago, a Penrith housewife was “over the moon” after speaking to her for the first time since the 1940s.
“It was like a dream come true,” said 40-year-old Mrs. Barbara Kilbane, Wordsworth Street, who hopes to be fully re-united next week when she is to visit the Manchester home of her younger sister, Andrea.
The sisters, then named Shuttleworth and living in Manchester, said goodbye late in the 1940s when their mother’s ill-health made it necessary for them to go into homes.
HARTSOP
Ullswater farmer Mr. J. Sinclair, Grove Farm, Hartsop, had a problem. How on Earth was he to get 466 posts, three gates and 24 rolls of barbed wire up an 1,800ft. fell, to fence off his land?
In despair, he turned to the Lake District National Park Warden, Mr. John Wyatt, who came to his rescue last weekend and provided 78 volunteer wardens and cadets who formed a human chain to carry the equipment up the fell on their backs!
CUMBRIA
A new county of Cumbria, comprising the present Cumberland and Westmorland county areas, together with parts of North Lancashire and the Sedbergh district of Yorkshire, will come into existence on 1st April, 1974.
This is the effect of the Bill on the reform of local government presented to Parliament on Thursday. The first elections to the new county councils will be held in the spring of 1973.
ALSTON
The new headmaster of Samuel King’s School, Alston, broke with tradition at the annual speech day by omitting the usual school song. Mr. W. Hughes told the parents: “The sentiments expressed and the tenor and atmosphere of the verses would have been admirable and acceptable in the twenties and thirties, but I felt they would have little significance or impact in 1971.”
100 years — 1921
PENRITH
As the 200th anniversary of the re-building of St. Andrew’s Church occurs next year, the Church Council are making an appeal for funds for external repairs.
Mr. R. Morton Rigg was requested to make a specification, with approximate cost, for the external repairs and Mr. Pollard was asked to ascertain the cost of putting the organ in order.
CLIFTON
Mr. W. Driver, stationmaster at Clifton North-East station, has been awarded first prize for the station garden for the twelfth year.
150 years ago — 1871
PENRITH
Several young men of respectable appearance were summoned at the Police Court in Penrith for unlawfully lighting tar barrels and firing squibs in the Corn Market on Bonfire Night. The flaming barrels were rolled into the shutters of shops and Supt. Fowler said it was a wonder some of the shops were not set alight. Fines varying from 1s. to 40s. were imposed, according to the enormity of the offence.
