From this newspaper 150 years ago. - GAINFORD. - Church re-opening. This ancient edifice has been undergoing a thorough restoration, and on Thursday the re-opening took place. The event had long been looked forward to, many difficulties having been surmounted in the work which has just been successfully completed. Both the interior and the exterior of the edifice bear a very agreeable appearance, and the arrangements for seating the congregation are exceedingly satisfactory. A magnificent organ has been placed in the church, costing, we believe, about £500. The tone of the instrument is very sweet, and the stops (of which there are thirty) are extremely fine in their working. There are three key boards. Mr Lambert, the recently appointed organist, is fully master of his profession, and did full justice to the occasion, so far as he was able from so short an acquaintance with this instrument. A large piece of ground has been added to the graveyard, but owing to the incompleteness of the legal documents relating to it, we understand the consecration did not take place as was intended. An excellent disclosure was preached in the morning by the Lord Bishop of Durham, and in the evening the Ven Archdeacon Musgrave, D.D. preached. On both occasions the congregations were large. The collection in the morning realised about £52, and in the evening £18. The after party of the day was fine, and a considerable number of strangers were brought together in the pleasant little village on the occasion. It is justly called the Queen of the Durham villages, and no one who has paid this district a visit will be including to dispute the claim to this title. We must not forget in our hasty notice to say that the choir was ably assisted by the choir from Whorlton, nor the fact that this restoration has been mainly brought about by the Rev Dr Eddleston, Vicar of Gainford. The new peal of six bells are very sweet in tone, and rang merrily during the day.

From this newspaper 100 years ago. - Dr Hunton, Medical Officer of Health to the Sedgefield Rural District Council, in his 37th annual report, says the population is estimated at 35,968. The birth-rate was 29.9 per 1,000 and the death-rate 12.4 per 1,000. The death-rate was very satisfactory for a district where the population is mainly interested in work of a risky character. The infantile mortality rate worked out at 132.5 per 1,000 births, which was better than the 1913 statistics. In the zymotic death-rate measles accounted for three deaths, scarlet fever six, diphtheria eight, whooping cough 18, enteric fever two, diarrhoea 25, smallpox none. There were 253 notifications of scarlet fever, 48 of diphtheria, 24 enteric fever, 31 erysipelas, and four puerperal fever. In the scarlet fever cases 140 were removed to the hospital, where two deaths occurred, and 113 cases were treated at home, and four died. Of diphtheria 27 cases were removed to the hospital, three of which died, and of the 21 treated at home eight died. The accommodation of the hospital had been taxed to its uttermost. The doctor congratulated the council upon many improvements which had been made under the heading of "General Sanitation" and under Part III of the Housing and Working Classes Act, 1909. 25 new houses had been erected at Trimdon Grange during the year. At Bishop Middleham three new houses had been erected, at Chilton 48, Cornforth 47, Ferryhill 30, Fishburn 23, Mainsforth one, Morden none, Sedgefield one, Trimdon 30, a total of 183 - Dr Hunton is now serving with the Northumberland Hussars.

From this newspaper 50 years ago. - When it comes to cucumbers Mr Jan Bezemer certainly knows his onions - and lettuces and tomatoes for that matter. For this Stokesley grower who, 18 years ago, bought five acres of land in Station Road, Stokesley, to set up his market garden is today with 40 acres to his name, one of the country's leading salad growers. It's a success story of which Mr Bezemer is justifiably proud. But just now it is a special cucumber which is giving Mr Bezemer most satisfaction. It is one made of solid silver, which has been presented to him by his wholesalers to mark his growing one million cucumbers. Mr Bezemer who devotes his land entirely to the growing of cucumbers, lettuces, tomatoes and cauliflowers, said this week he hopes ultimately to produce around half a million cucumbers a year. "To succeed these days a grower must specialise," he said. "We are now concerned only with salad growing." Most of Mr Bezemer's produce is under glass, which includes vast mobile greenhouses, the first of any size in the North East. He markets entirely in the Teesside area, where he looks for future expanding markets. Recalling his early days at Stokesley, Mr Bezemer said it was quite by accident that he chose his present site. Coming from a market gardening family in Holland, Mr Bezemer arrived in this country in 1937 as an adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture. During the war he served for five years in the Dutch Free Forces, and after the war he searched up and down the country before discovering his present site near Kirkby. "When I first bought this stretch, people were sceptical," he said. "But it has worked out as I planned." In the beginning all Mr Bezemer could afford was a bicycle to ride to work on. "It was strictly a case of setting out with a barrow and spade," he said. The use of protected cropping methods has enabled Mr Bezemer to obtain a longer season than is usual in Northern market gardens. As a boy in Holland he grew up with these methods, and it was only natural he should introduce them when he started working land on his own. Virtually all Mr Bezemer's produce is handled by Wilson and Leatherland Ltd., the Middlesbrough wholesale fruit and vegetable distributors, who presented Mr Bezemer with the silver cucumber.