25 years ago – 1996
Penrith
Penrith tank crewman Lance Corporal Paul Hanberger, serving with the Queen’s Royal Hussars in Challenger tanks, is right on the former front line in Bosnia at a checkpoint called Bocan Dam.
His regiment is part of the British contribution to the NATO Implementation Force and the Challenger tanks provide a highly visible reminder to former warring factions that Britain’s contribution has bite.
Having joined the Army in 1988, after a spell as a butcher at Tindals and school in Penrith, Paul, aged 26, is already a veteran of the Gulf War.
A special member of his family will be waiting to greet helicopter pilot Mark Hitch when he returns home to Penrith today after a tour of duty in America. Mark, who serves with the Army Air Corps, will be getting his first glimpse of daughter Toni-Leanne, who was born prematurely while he was away.
One of the founder members of a Penrith dance club hung up her dancing shoes after 44 years — but could not quite bring herself to put them away for good even at the age of 86!
Mrs. Margaret Walker, of Rose Lodge, Winters Park, Penrith, is the only surviving founder member of Penrith old time and modern sequence dancing club and, up until very recently, she took a more than active part in proceedings.
She stopped dancing just three years ago, due largely to a bad foot and angina, but still attends some of the club’s weekly dances at Penrith’s Evergreen Hall.
Kirkby Thore
Villagers in Kirkby Thore have thanked local farmers Michael Metcalf for his efforts in making their lives bearable during last week’s heavy snow.
Residents of Dunfell View said that he cleared the road with his farm equipment.
Without his efforts it would have been impossible for them to move their cars and get to work.
Lazonby
A meeting of Lazonby Parish Council, chaired by John Judson was held in the village hall.
After considering several proposals for the future of Tarn Waddling Wood, the council agreed to sell the land to Mr. and Mrs. J. Fletcher, who intend to transfer the ownership to the Woodland Trust, who would preserve it as woodland in perpetuity.
Work needs to be done to make the site acceptable to the trust and a sub-committee has been formed to assist with grant applications and legal advice.
Cumbria
The Meteorological Office came in for rare praise at a meeting of the Cumbria NFU executive committee at Agriculture House, Penrith.
Taking charge of his first meeting as county chairman, Maurice Hall, Kaber, near Kirkby Stephen, remarked that the Met. Office forecast of the snow storms had allowed most hill farmers to get their sheep off the fells in good time.
However, he was less happy about the results of the weather on fodder stocks, saying: “My hay pile was well over half way down by Candlemas Day and it has always been said that you should have more than half by that time.”
50 years ago – 1971
County
A new “super county” to include Cumberland, Westmorland, the urban districts of Dalton-in-Furness, Grange and Ulverston and the rural district of North Lonsdale in Lancashire is proposed by the new Government White Paper on the reform of local government which was presented to Parliament this week.
The new county, to be known as No. 9, would also include the county boroughs of Carlisle and Dalton-in-Furness.
Penrith
Cumberland County Council have issued details of the route of the proposed inner ring road for Penrith but say that it will not be possible to give exact details of which properties will be affected.
The plans provide ultimately for a 33ft. wide road round the centre of the town for one-way traffic and dual carriageways along Bridge Lane and Ullswater Road.
The statement says that while property demolition is obviously necessary, the route had been carefully chosen “to conserve and improve the environmental conditions of Penrith”.
At a meeting of Penrith Rural Council, Mr. E. Threlkeld, Berrier, asked, amid laughter, for time to study the Health Committee minutes “while I’m finishing this cigarette”.
The Chairman, Mr. W. J. Hall, Castle Sowerby, agreed, and the minutes were subsequently approved.
They included one significant item, a recommendation from the Health Committee, following consideration of the Medical Officer’s annual report, for a ban on smoking at Council and committee meetings! Although the Council approved the minutes, still another councillor determinedly finished off his cigarette during later business.
Askham
On Sunday, Askham parishioners organised tea in the Village Hall for Mrs. Margaret Jefferson, who has played the organ in the Church for years. She began playing when she was a girl of 14.
Mrs Jefferson was presented with a cheque donated by the parishioners, and an oil painting of the Church, painted by Mr. Philip Hardy, who gave it. An anniversary cake was made by Mrs. H. Holme and iced by the village postman, Mr. J. Kennedy
100 years ago – 1921
Penrith
Following representations from the Trades Council and the N.U.R., Penrith Urban Council is to restore the Labour newspaper, the “Daily Herald”, to the Reading Room. Mr. T. W. Jackson said the Labour organisations were indebted to the Library Committee for their decision.
Patterdale
Seventy employees at Greenside mines have accepted a 20 per cent wage reduction which is expected to cause hardship in many cases.
The mines are working in a low way because of a fall in the price of lead and the workers were given notice to cease work with a proviso that if they took a reduction in wages the liquidators would carry on operations for another month.
150 years ago – 1871
Penrith
The Rev. Robert Patterson, minister at St. Catherine’s Roman Catholic Church, Penrith, has died from typhoid fever.
