Memories of seaside trips

From this newspaper 150 years ago. –

Observer writes: “Oh! what hot weather, and the swimming bath not open,” is the exclamation this week in Darlington. But why is not the swimming bath open? Surely it is hot enough to induce daily ablution, and what does the Local Board of Health subsidise the baths with £60 a year for, if not to ensure their being open during the hot season? With the thermometer in May at 116, the cry is “give us water.” Perhaps, if the worthy Secretary reads this, he will give the “open sesame.”

Speaking of the hot weather, I would like to say a word or two on the doings of the “North Eastern Company, Darlington Section,” with reference to their advertised excursion train to Redcar on Whit-Tuesday. The shops and other places of business were closed, the people were holiday inclined, the blazing sun made them think of “the sea, the open sea,” and hundreds availed themselves (or rather wanted to do so) of the invitation of the Railway Company to visit Redcar, and spend 7 or 8 hours admist the cooling breezes from the German Ocean, at what I concede what a small fare, namely, a shilling.

Yes, I say, people wanted to go to Redcar, and many obtained tickets and were lucky enough to get a seat. But as many failed to get tickets and some who did obtain tickets were left behind.

“We have no more carriages,” was the answer to the cry of the heated hundreds who besieged the station. “We can’t take you, but we will return you your money, unless, indeed you choose to pay 3s 6d, and go by the ordinary train just about to start, on the heels of the “special.”

Some people thought it queer there were no carriages to carry passengers at a shilling a-head, and yet plenty of room at 3s 6d.

From this newspaper 100 years ago. –

Wednesday was a notable day for the Wesleyans of Middleham and district, as it witnessed the opening for diving service of the new chapel which has been in the course of construction during the last seven months. There was a large gathering from different parts of the valley. The new chapel is built on the site of the old one, and stands facing the east. It is a very neat, substantial structure, externally of stone and internally of brick, cemented over. The front elevation has a dignity in harmony with the ecclesiastical character of the building. The bottom portion projects forward the whole east front of the building, and has a spacious central entrance, with a round arch, to which a low flight of stone steps gives access to the entrance vestibule. 

At each side of the latter there is an anteroom lighted by a single light window. Above the entrance in the central portion is a large three-light window, with pointed arches, and above these two circular lights, under a common moulding in the shape of a pointed arch, while at each side of the large window is a singlelight pointed window. At the gable end on each side is a stone pinnacle, as the terminal of the buttress. The south side of the building is lighted by five singlelight windows with Gothic arches. On the east side the Sunday School adjoins the full length of the inside of the chapel, and the dividing wall has three window-like apertures, about three feet from the ground, fitted with windows of glass, which, like doors, turn back to the wall, in order that the space in the Sunday School can, whenever it is required, be used for the accommodation of worshippers when the chapel is full.

From this newspaper 50 years ago. –

At the final meeting of the old Leyburn Rural Council at Thornborough Hall, Leyburn, on Tuesday, it was resolved to enquire further into the cost of a proposed new car park, north of the market place at Leyburn. The chairman, Coun J D Potts, read a letter from Leyburn Parish Council in which it was pointed out that ratepayers attending the annual Parish Meeting had resolved that the provision of a new car park would be a waste of ratepayers’ money. Another letter (from a brewery firm owning the Black Swan Hotel at Leyburn and some of the land behind it) stated they had no objection to negotiating with the Council for the purchase of the land. Coun F Laughlin (Leyburn) said it had been his experience during the recent election for rural councillors that, in general, ratepayers were not in favour of the new car park as it would increase the rates.

Coun T Hutchinson (Leyburn) said that he, too, came across the same reasoning and that a bus shelter in the Market Place at Leyburn was a more urgent need. The chairman said that he had given the matter careful thought and he was certain more car and bus parking facilities would be needed. Coun D Smith (Constable Burton) said that, as an originator of the scheme, he had heard the debates for and against the car park, but he still felt it to be an urgent need.