25 years ago – 1996
Armathwaite
Angry parents have formed an action group in protest at Cumbria County Council’s education committee’s decision to ban beef and beef products from school lunches.
The issue was decided on the casting vote of Labour committee chairman Jim Oswald, and parents at a meeting at Armathwaite on Tuesday agreed to form an action group in an attempt to reverse a decision which they claim is political.
One of the parents, Mrs. Jenny Turner, of Aikbank, Calthwaite, said: “This is a denial of basic parental choice.”
Edenhall
Jobs could be lost at Boral Edenhall following this week’s takeover by ARC, the building materials subsidiary of the Hanson conglomerate.
The acquisition of the firm from the Boral Group of Australia doubles the size of ARC’s concrete block operations.
Boral Edenhall employs 250 people – 35 of them at Edenhall – and will be managed by ARC’s block making division, ARC Conbloc.
The combined operation will be the market leader, supplying one in six of the pre-cast concrete blocks sold in Britain.
Penrith
Regulars at the Cross Keys pub, Carleton, Penrith, turned out in force on Saturday for a party to mark the retirement of long-serving licensees Billy and Theresa Armstrong. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong were the second longest serving licensees in Penrith, having been at the Cross Keys for 11 years.
They supported several Penrith charities. raising £3,000 or more for the Edington Centre by hosting quiz nights, Christmas parties, barbecues and other events.
Well-known and popular former Penrith doctor George Hector Kilgour died at Penrith hospital on Monday at the age of 77.
Dr. Kilgour was in practice in the town for 32 years before his retirement in 1979, since when he has enjoyed sailing, photography and gardening at his home at Riggside.
Born in Edinburgh in 1918, George Kilgour was the youngest of three brothers who all became doctors.
Before the war he did a locum for the late Stuart Mactavish in Penrith, which was his first introduction to Cumbria.
Shap
The controversial plan to move the infamous Wildriggs from Penrith to a site near Shap has been scrapped.
After protests from businesses and a petition containing more than 1,200 names complaining about the plan, a meeting of Eden District Council on Thursday decided to scrap any further investigations into relocating the plant to a site near junction 39 of the M6.
Instead, the council decided to work with Wildriggs Proteins Limited to make sure they do not cause any future smell problems on their Penrith site.
Ullswater
Ullswater Yacht Club member Owen Modral is on the crest of a wave after after finishing second in the Royal Yachting Association national youth championships on the Solent at Warsash, near Southampton – his best sailing achievement to date.
Sailing a laser dinghy, the 17-year-old, from Penruddock, won two races and led this under-18 event, in which there were 40 competitors, for three days.
Owen is a member of the national squad and hopes to compete in the European youth championships this summer.
50 years ago – 1971
Milburn
Milburn’s fourth village Maypole in 100 years was erected on Saturday afternoon by villagers and men from the Economic Forestry Group, Harrogate – agents for Corlands Minerals Ltd., present holders of the Lordship of the Manor, who donated the pole.
It was topped with a new weather cock given by Milburn craftsman Mr. John Craig.
The new 40ft larch pole was found at Alston and it is considerably shorter than the old one, which was 53ft above ground level.
The old pole, auctioned earlier in the week, fetched the princely sum of £2.20 as firelogs!
Greystoke
Local bookmakers were counting their losses on Saturday night after the Greystoke-trained racehorse Titus Oates won the valuable Whitbread Gold Cup Handicap Chase at Sandown Park.
The big nine-year-old bay with a white blaze down its face won by a length at odds of 11-1 – “a fantastic price” according to one Penrith bookmaker.
Trainer Mr. Gordson Richards, who has tenanted The Stables, Greystoke Castle, for the past four seasons, has handled horses which have won equivalent races, in terms of prestige, but Saturday’s was the biggest success by one of his horses from the point of view of money won.
The result netted about £7,000 for the horse’s owner, Mr. P. Cassins, Gosforth.
Keswick
The route for a northern bypass road for Keswick was issued this week by the Ministry of the Environment.
The road runs from the present Portinscale by-pass to Crosthwaite, skirts the lower slopes of Latrigg and crosses the River Greta on a 100ft. high viaduct to join the Keswick to Penrith road at High Briery.
It will be a single carriageway road apart from a half-mile stretch of dual carriageway where it crosses the valley of the Greta.
Tebay
A new company, formed by a Penrith bakery firm and an Orton farmer and landowner, has won the Government contract to develop a service area at Tebay on probably the most scenic section of the M.6 motorway.
Westmorland Motorway Services Ltd. are to be granted a 21-year lease to provide catering facilities and a petrol filling station.
The new company has been formed by Messrs. J. R. Birkett and Sons, Penrith, and Mr. J. C. Dunning, High Chapel, Orton, and they expect that the new service area will be open in March, 1972.
Cumberland
Of new magistrates for Cumberland, one is from Calthwaite and another from Armathwaite, it was announced this week.
Mr. Joseph Hugh Harris, Brackenburgh, Calthwaite, and Mrs. Margaret Thornton, Armathwaite Castle, will sit on the Penrith Bench.
100 years ago – 1921
Penrith
Unknown to many Penrithians there is in Penrith Cemetery the grave of an Australian soldier who died in an English hospital and who, because he married a Penrith lady, was brought here for burial.
On Anzac Day – the anniversary of the landings on Gallipoli – representatives of the church and town paid tribute to the memory of this soldier and his fallen comrades.
The simple wooden cross at the graveside stated that he was Private Harry Whitman, 2nd Pioneer Battalion of the Australian Expeditionary Force, who married Miss Hogarth, Brougham Rectory Farm, and buried in September, 1915.
Skelton
Mr. Thomas Salkeld, the veteran Skeltonian, who died recently aged 84 years, established a record period of 72 years as a chorister.
Before the introduction of the organ he played the old bass fiddle and before that he sounded the pitchpipe.
Mr. Salkeld was one of the founder members of the agricultural show, being its secretary for some years.
