Picture: It is April 1990 and these members of the cast of Oh What a Lovely War, being staged at Teesdale Comprehensive School, Barnard Castlewere crossing their fingers because they were the remaining cast members who hadn’t been struck down by a flu bug. The show did go on, but who were the healthy stalwarts?

From this newspaper 150 years ago

The Stationeryoffice has just issued the “Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for 1862, by Robert Hunt, FRS, Keeper of Mining Records.”

From this important publication we are enabled to glean the following particulars relating to the mineral procedure of these islands, the annual publication of these returns being, we conceive, one of the most vulnerable divisions of those labours, over which Sir Roderick Murchison presides. Coals. – The number of collieries at work has increased from 2,397 in 1853 to 3,088 in 1862. In these collieries there were employed in 1861 no less than 235,590 colliers.

Darlington and Stockton Times:

An advertisement from this newspaper 150 years ago

The quantity of coals produced and sold in 1861 amounted to 83,635,214 tons, this being the largest quantity produced in any one year. Owing to the interruptions which several of our manufacturers experienced in 1862, the amount of coals which passed into the market, or were consumed at the place of production, fell to 81,638,338 tons. Very large stocks have been stored in Lancashire and other districts; the actual drain, therefore, upon our coal beds was probably as large as it was in the previous year.

From this newspaper 100 years ago

On Saturday morning, when the early mail train about five o’clock and the railway officials arrived at Leyburn, Spennithorne, Constable Burton, Jervaulx and Crakehall, it as found that the booking offices of these places had all been broken into, and the till drawer forced open and the money abstracted. Fortunately, owing to a prudential custom of taking most of the money into the stationmasters’ houses, the thieves found comparatively little in the tills – about £3 in all.

 Darlington and Stockton Times:

Advertisement from this newspaper 100 years ago

The robberies must have been committed about 11pm or midnight on Friday and 5am on Saturday morning. As the distance which divides Leyburn and Crakehall is about eight miles, it would take the burglars two hours to walk, and it is conjectured that the burglaries may have been committed by a man or men from each end meeting in the middle. The method used in each case was to break in a small piece of glass, the size of half a crown, from the pane next to the hasp, and by inserting an instrument through the aperture, pulling and shoving the hasp back, and thus enabling them to get quickly inside.

From this newspaper 50 years ago

Richmond Rural Council’s plan to house all their “problem” tenants on a special estate found no favour with Thirsk and Easingwold Council officials this week. Spokesmen for both authorities opposed the suggestion.

Mr W A Wilkinson, Clerk to Thirsk RDC, in a comment supported by the chairman of the Housing Committee, Coun the Rev Dudley Hill, said such a plan would defeat its purpose.

“The idea must surely be to educate the problem tenants.

I am convinced that the only way to do that with any success is to put them in a normal housing estate and let them see how decent people live and behave.” Mr Henry Osbourne, Clerk to Easingwold RDC, said that it was unlikely that his Council would ever have to consider such a suggestion. “We are fortunate not to have that class of tenant and I don’t think such a scheme would be considered for one minute.” Easingwold Council has over 500 tenants and only a few who are regularly behind with their rent. Notices to quit are issued quite frequently but most are withdrawn when the tenants pay up. Recently, some of the councillors complained that some tenants “know just how far they can go with their arrears before having finally to pay up.” A suggestion that tenants often in arrears should be “fined” 2s. 6d. a week was not pursued.

Thirsk RDC has very few “problem” tenants among 700. The Council’s policy is to educate those who need it and it is firmly against isolating “problem tenants.” Mr Hill, the Vicar and Rural Dean of Thirsk says that they consider it to be much better to bring all tenants up to a good standard.