ABOVE PICTURE: School trips abroad are commonplace these days, but in February 1975 a trip to Rome being planned by pupils at the Convent of the Assumption in Richmond was sufficiently unusual to merit the attendance of a D&S photographer, who captured the unnamed girls pinpointing the Eternal City on a map. Who were the excited looking pupils? Let From Our Archive know at dst@nne.co.uk

From this newspaper 150 years ago. – Richmond. A sporting case. At the York Assizes, on Tuesday, the case of Masterman v Kitching was tried. The plaintiff is an auctioneer and owner of racehorses at Richmond, and the defendant acted as clerk of the course and clerk of the scales at the Stokesley race meeting, which took place on the 23rd of May last.

One of the races run on that day was the Cleveland Handicap of three sovereigns each, one sovereign forfeit, and £20 added, the conditions attached to the race being that three horses, the property of different owners, should start, or the public money would be with-held. The plaintiff entered one of his horses, named Good Advice, and two others were also entered, named Good Swiveller and Barbara Allen, the property of Mr Ruddock.

The race was accordingly run, and the plaintiff’s horse won, the sum accordingly due to Mr Masterman being £30 5s, to recover which, he now brought his action. After the race the defendant refused to give up the money, alleging as a reason that, the three horses not belonging to separate owners, the conditions of the race had not been complied with. One of the stipulations of the meeting was that all disputes should be settled by the stewards, irrespective of any other authority, and in their decision the stewards ruled that the plaintiff was not entitled to the added money.

In his cross-examination the plaintiff admitted that before the race Mr Kitching told him that it was of no use starting the horses, inasmuch as they did not belong to different owners. The added money would not be given, and Mr Kitching informed him that they might run for the forefeits if they liked, – Mr Ruddock was called, and he deposed that Barbara Allen belonged to a Mr Robson, of Penrith, and that Dick Swiveller was for the race in the name of his brother. In his evidence Mr Robson stated that Barbara Allen was his property. The learned Judge, in summing up, said that in his opinion the question whether the three horses belonged to different owners was one competent for the stewards finally to decide, but inasmuch as there might be some doubt on the point, the plaintiff could have the opinion of the course above. – Verdict for the defendant, with leave to the plaintiff to move to enter a verdict as to the £20 added money, if the fact of Barbara Allen belonging to Mr Robson entitled him to recover.

From this newspaper 100 years ago. – There have been some moving scenes in all parts of the “Darlington and Stockton Times” district during the past week. The Reserves have been called out and the Territorials embodied and sent to the front, horses have been brought up wholesale by the military authorities, and the activities of the Red Cross detachments as well as of the Ambulance Brigades have provided an ever-present reminder of the darker side of war.

This district, in common with almost every other part of the Kingdom, appears to have suffered from the effects of a panic amongst householders who, by competing unreasonably against one another in their eagerness to lay in large stocks of provisions, sent up prices with a bound in the earlier days of the week. The efforts that have been put forwards on all hands to restore public confidence have now succeeded, and there has been a return to normal conditions. 

Darlington and Stockton Times:

Owing to the failure of Continental sources of supply and to the inevitable dislocation caused by the changed conditions prices of many commodities have been advanced, but the rise has not been great, and there is good reason to believe that prices will fall still nearer to the normal in the very near future. The shadow of a great trail of endurance undoubtedly hangs over the district, but everywhere there are unmistakable evidences that the people will do their duty in the trying time in prospect.

From this newspaper 50 years ago. – Children played as usual along the sandy banks of the River Codbeck at Thirsk this week, but for most of them there was no paddling or swimming. Their parents had banned them from entering the water after the district’s medical officer, Dr Harry Gray, had told of the possible dangers.

Dr Gray gave his warning before he and the district’s children started their holidays. He told Thirsk RDC: “This polluted river is not safe to bathe in” and added that he would be far from happy about his own children bathing in it.” Dr Gray’s view of the river was shared by parents of children playing on the riverside in The Holmes, opposite the Norby housing estate. “My five-year-old daughter, Dilys, is playing on the bank, but I won’t let her go in the water. She would be poisoned,” said Mr Jim Allenby, of 50 Council Houses, Norby.

“A council sewer comes out in the river near this spot, which has been a favourite with children for many generations. There is a horrible stink when it starts discharging, and I’m sure there must be a health danger.” Mr Allenby and other parents whose children were playing in the sand on the bankside said they would be quite willing to pay towards the cost of swimming baths for the town. They thought the idea of Mr Tom Myers, secretary of the recently-formed Thirsk Swimming Baths Committee, that each householder in the district should be asked to pay a total of £12 over three years for baths should be brought into action.

Darlington and Stockton Times:

Mr Myers has said that if each householder agreed to the scheme enough money would be raised to build baths estimated to cost £50,000. A site if already available on The Flatts at Thirsk near the paddling pool provided by the town’s Flatts Preservation Trust. “I’d pay 2s 6d a week without any hesitation if it would mean us getting proper swimming facilities,” said Mrs Edna Garbutt, of 54 Long Street, Thirsk.

Her children, Lyn aged eight and Andrew, three, were not allowed to paddle in the river. Mrs Jean Calvert of 103 Council Houses, Norby, was making sure her children, Lynne (9), Michael (7) and Jeffrey (6), did not go in the river. “There was a dead sheep in a bit further up not so long ago.

No-one made an attempt to get it out, and there’s no telling what infection there is in the water.”