25 years ago -1996
ALSTON
Filming started this week at Alston, high up in the Pennines, and Dalemain, the country mansion near Penrith, for London Weekend Television’s production of Jane Eyre, based on the classic romance written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847.
Location manager Josh Dynever said Alston market place was selected for a shopping scene because of its “old look” and because of the view of the hills from the town centre. The rear courtyard and Great Barn of Dalemain were chosen to represent Low Wood School, which the young Jane Eyre attended, while the front of the mansion will also be used for Jane’s home, Gateshead Hall.
GARRIGILL
An Alston Moor man has been named as a countryman of the year for his work in restoring a polluted gorge to its former beauty. Ian Johnston received the honour of Countryman of the Year in the 1996 Laurent-Perrier Country Life Awards at a dinner in London.
He has spent the last 25 years restoring the eight-acre gorge at Thortergill, Garrigill, which he inherited, doing the work almost entirely by hand.
LITTLE SALKELD
Forty jobs at an Eden Valley firm are still safe despite administrators being called in, it was claimed this week. Administrators were called in at Thompson’s Board Mills Limited, Little Salkeld, but the manager of the firm looking after the company told the Herald that the jobs of all those employed there were safe for the time being.
PENRITH
Penrith nurse Margaret Leighton is looking forward to enjoying her time without having to watch the clock after drawing to a close a career in the National Health Service spanning 44 years. A native of the North East, Mrs. Leighton, of Huntley Avenue, Penrith, began her career by training at Shotley Bridge Hospital as a state registered midwife.
After her marriage to husband Robert, a native of Durham, now deputy manager of Penrith Co-op, the couple moved to Penrith in 1963 and she began work at the former maternity home in Castletown.
KIRKBY STEPHEN
At Kirkby Stephen mart on Friday, Penrith Farmers’ and Kidd’s held their annual prize show and sale of 14,327 Mule gimmer lambs on behalf of North of England Mule Sheep Association members. A total clearance resulted in an overall average price of £76.35, an increase of £23.85 from 1995. The top price of £400 was paid for the champion pen of 10, from Messrs Lord, West Dowgill.
50 years ago – 1971
CROSBY RAVENSWORTH
A meeting in the village hall at Crosby Ravensworth took a decision without precedent in the North of England, so far as the control of common land is concerned.
As a result of the 1 1/2-hour meeting, convened under the Commons Act of 1908, a nine-man committee will be set up to manage the 4,675 acres of common land embraced by Crosby Ravensworth Fell, Hardendale Fell, Birkbeck Fells, Bank Moor, Flow Moss, Thorny Bank, Hardendale Nab and Harkeld Commons, plus a triangular portion of common land formerly part of Wickerslack Moor. It is only the second time since 1908 that a group of commoners has taken such a step.
PENRITH
Facts given to Penrith Urban Council underlined the benefits the M.6 motorway have brought — in contrast to earlier fears that the by-pass would hit the town’s trade. Public Works Committee chairman Mr. W. W. Brogden said the number of cars and other vehicles which had parked in the town during the five holiday months from April to August was up by more than 8 per cent. from the same period in 1970, to more than 63,800.
With success at the third attempt, Mr. Tom Armstrong — the Penrith Castle Park Bowling Club’s champion for the fourth or fifth year — is the first to bring to the town the massive three-foot high Hodgson Memorial Trophy of the Cumberland County Bowling Association’s “champion of champions” competition. In the semi-finals Mr. Armstrong beat R. Wise 21-17 and in the final against J. J. Bell (Wigton) he was again victorious by 21-13.
GREYSTOKE
A proposal to close the village school at Greystoke and send the children to Penruddock is to be opposed by the people of the village.
At a meeting called by the chairman of the Parish Council, Mr. John Sealby, parents, managers and parishioners decided unanimously to do everything possible to keep the school open. The scheme to close it has been under consideration for some time by the Cumberland Education Committee.
100 YEARS AGO – 1921
PENRITH
The growing seriousness of the unemployment problem in Penrith was brought to a head when a meeting of unemployed was followed by a deputation to the Guardians. About 130 people are unemployed, eight of whom are women, and a special Relief Committee has been appointed, consisting of Messrs E. O. Bolton, Hayton, Mounsey, Blaiklock and Allinson, to grant relief on a loans basis.
CALDBECK
Tom Courtney, Caldbeck’s oldest inhabitant, who once hunted with the famous John Peel, has died. It is believed he was well over 100 years old.
He went with his father to the village at the time the lead and copper mines were in full swing and “Old Tom” had vivid recollections of John Peel, whose hounds he followed.
