25 years ago – 1996
Kirkby Stephen
Two members of Upper Eden Rugby Club at Kirkby Stephen set off early yesterday morning on a 3,000-mile marathon from which they expect to raise at least £10,000 to help former rugby union players who have suffered crippling injuries.
David Lawrence and David Metcalfe are visiting 500 English rugby clubs, the majority of which have promised at least a £20 donation.
Over the next two weeks they will call in at clubs as far apart as Alnwick in the north, Clacton-on-Sea in the east, Bournemouth in the south and Wellington in the west.
Appleby
Two dogs have been shortlisted for bravery awards after after saving their owner, Paul Neill, of Bolton, Appleby, from muggers.
Mr. Neill and his wife Norita nominated Duke, a Rhodesian Ridge Back, and daughter Daisy, whose mother was a Great Dane, for an award advertised in a magazine to find Winalot “real life champs”.
The dogs scared off three men who were trying to mug Mr. Neill as he walked along a disused railway line in London.
Penrith
The long-awaited study into whether a new superstore should be built on land at Southend Road, Penrith, will be discussed by Eden councillors at a special meeting on 22nd August.
The study, carried out by London-based consultants Collier, Erdman and Lewis for Eden Council, investigates the commercial viability of a possible new store and what impact it might have om existing businesses in Penrith.
A record-breaking opening stand of 187 between skipper Gary Edmondson and Andrew Hall saw Penrith to victory over Ulverston – and into a top six North Lancashire League place.
The previous best first wicket partnership, also by Edmondson and Hall, recorded when Hall was captain two years ago, was 178.
Alston
There was a large gathering of friends and relatives at the funeral of Mrs. Mona Lancaster, who died suddenly at the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, aged 67.
The second daughter of Harold and Hilda Richardson, she lived all her life in Alston.
She worked as an auxiliary nurse at Alston Cottage Hospital for 23 years until her retirement in in 1989, when she recived a long service award.
Glenridding
A businessman will probably have to remove security shutters which he erected at a cost of £,500 outside his shop in Glenridding in a bid to beat the burglars.
Richard Laverick, of the Catstycam outdoor shop, has lost a planning battle following the installation of roller shutters following a series of burglaries and at the request of his insurance company under the threat of cover being withdrawn.
50 years ago – 1971
Appleby
When completed by the Summer of next year, Appleby’s £75,850 Health Centre and multi-purpose clinic in the Low Wiend will be in marked contrast to the conditions which prevailed in that historic part of the Borough a century ago.
It was down the Low Wiend, prior to the town’s sanitation scheme of 1882, that an open gutter ran from The Cloisters and across the Broad Close to empty itself into the River Eden.
The Centre is a Westmorland County Council project being erected on the site just above where the old Grammar School used to stand.
Langwathby
A career in football management which began on the old Langwathby bridge over the River Eden advanced spectacularly this week with the news that Mr. Alan Ashman has agreed to coach the Greek soccer champions, Olympiakos, for three years for 100,000 dollars (£41,600).
Having served his “apprenticeship” as a manager by supervising Penrith’s Northern League side from 1959 to 1963, Mr. Ashman moved to Carlisle United and then to West Bromwich Albion at a reported £7,000 a year.
Penrith
Penrith’s latest business enterprise, attracted to the town as a direct result of the arrival of the motorway, had its official opening on Tuesday, when Scott’s of Nottingham, heavy goods vehicle distributors and dealers, had about 200 guests, mostly heavy vehicle operators in the two counties, at their newest and most Northerly depots, formerly the Penrith railway goods warehouse.
The warehouse – off Ullswater Road and renamed Castle Garage in acknowledgement of the ruins across the road – has been gutted and re-equipped as a servicing and repair centre, primarily for Atkinson and Seddon lorries.
Penrith had its most serious outbreak to-date of teenage gang warfare on Monday evening, when a running fight in Crown Square and King Street between rival groups of football fans, many of them skinhead types and including girls, was broken up by specially-reinforced police.
It was a sequel to the visit of a Carlisle United team for a friendly match at the Southend Road ground which Penrith drew two-all and in which the friendliness seems to have been confined to the actual playing field.
100 years ago – 1921
Penrith
The annual agricultural show on the Football Field demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that the Penrith Society can lay claim to having the premier show in the two counties. It attracted a record attendance of 4,047.
Mr. J. H. Toppin, Musgrave Hall, Skelton, was this year’s President and, in the pedigree Shorthorn section, he took the supreme honours with his noted heifer, Mischief, over a particularly good bull shown by Mr. T. Lancaster, Ann’s Hill. and formerly of Alston.
Keswick
A “Verdun Tree”, one of the historic souvenirs of the War, will be planted in Fitz Park, Keswick, by Viscount Ullswater.
The tree is one of six horse chestnuts grown at Kew Gardens from seed sent by the Mayor of Verdun during the siege of that famous town in 1916.
150 years ago – 1871
Milburn
For a wager of £1-a-side, Mr. Joseph Furnass, landlord of the Royal Buck Inn, Milburn, and Mr. Thomas Armstrong, Howgill Castle, met in a reaping match which Mr. Armstrong won easily.
