From this newspaper 50 years ago. – The cries of a five-week-old baby boy and the coolheadedness of a Northallerton mother saved a family of eight when the sitting room of their Council home caught fire and was a cauldron of heat below the bedrooms in the early hours of Thursday morning. It was nearly five o'clock when five-week-old baby Colin, the son of Mr and Mrs Geoffrey Allan, of 47 The Crescent, Northallerton, awoke and started crying for his morning feed. His mother, Mrs Jean Allan, aged 36, put her feet on the bedroom floor as she got out to feed him and felt it was very hot. She roused her husband and going downstairs Mrs Allan found the living room door was nearly red hot. "My mother was an air-raid warden during the war and because of what she had told me, and what I have read, I left the door shut." Meanwhile, Mr Geoffrey Allan, a television aerial rigger, went out through another door and looking through the sitting room window saw it was black and thick with smoke. He roused the other children Linda (10), Stephen (9), Richard (8), Ian (7), Raymond (5), Brian (3) and Denise (2) and the family evacuated the house as Mr Allan went off to raise the alarm. Firemen from the nearby Northallerton Station extinguished the blaze with foam, but the contents of the sitting room including the weekly wash, television and furnishings were destroyed or badly charred. A neighbour, Mrs Elsie Annett, looked after the children until the elder ones were able to go off to school. Only casualty was a blue budgie "Jose", which the children were looking after for their grandmother. Mr A S Young, North Riding Fire Prevention Office, commending Mr and Mrs Allan for their coolheadedness in keeping the doors of the room closed, said: "This is the preventive action we urge people to take. There is no doubt if the door had been opened there would have been a complete spread of fire throughout the house." With the upstairs rooms undamaged, Mr and Mrs Allan are hoping to cope in their own home, while Council officials check upon the repairs needed. They have a gas cooker but with the electricity supplies gone they are having some difficulties and Mrs Allan is already missing her friend with the big weekly wash – the electric washing machine.

From this newspaper 100 years ago. – Thirsk was visited on Tuesday by a recruiting party of the Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards), with the colours and band of the regiment. The troops consisted of detachments from the 11th Battalion at Richmond and the 3rd Line 4th Battalion (Territorials) at Northallerton, numbering in all about 70 rank and file, under Major Lord Ronaldshay, Capt. Williams, and Lieut. Henderson. They detrained at Otterington, and marched thence, arriving about 1pm. A large crowd greeted them as they marched with fixed bayonets into the Market-square, and the smart appearances of the men was much admired. In the evening the troops marched through the principal thoroughfares of Thirsk and Sowerby, and subsequently formed up in the Market-square, where a short recruiting meeting was held. Addressing the crown from the steps of the market clock, Lord Ronaldshay acknowledged the warmth of the reception given to the detachment. They wanted, however, something more than a kindly and cordial welcome; they wanted some of the Thirsk men to come and help them. In Belgium and France towns had been laid waste, men had been murdered, children had been done to death, women had been outraged. We did not want that to happen in this country. If we were to prevent it more men would be required. He would appeal to them on one other ground, and more especially to the younger men. What were they going to say to themselves in the future when the victory had been won without their help? What were they going to say in the days that were to come when their children came about their knees and said, "Father, what did you do for your country in the great war?" What would they say to their children if they had done nothing for the country in this hour of trial? Let him appeal to one and all on yet another ground. There were so many gallant sons of Yorkshire fighting today in the forefront of battle. They were fighting against great odds. He gave place to no one in his admiration for the British soldier. He was willing to say the British soldier was equal to two, or three, or four, or five Germans, but when they were asking one British soldier to stand up against ten Germans they were asking him to do too much. Would they not listen to the appeal that was rising up front the stricken battlefields of France and Belgium, from their own fellow-Yorkshiremen, for their help. If they could only realise everything that was at stake in this great war – the honour of this country, the future existence of this country, the safety and security of their own homes, the sanctity and security of their wives and children and their children's children – surely, when they realised that, they could not fail to come, and to come not in twos and threes, but in their hundreds and thousands to stand side by side with their comrades in the day of trouble. It is understood 15 men enlisted during their visit.

From this newspaper 150 years ago. – An inquest was held on Monday last at Alma House, in the township of West Witton, before Mr J S Walton, jnr., deputy coroner, of the Green Tree Inn, Leyburn. On Sunday last, Mrs Spence expressed a wish to take a walk to Alma House, (distant three miles) the residence of her sister, who is the wife of Mr George Brown, farmer. Mr Spence concurred in the proposition and agreed to accompany her. They left Leyburn about four o'clock in the afternoon and a leisurely walk of an hour and a quarter's duration brought them to their destination. On their arrival, the deceased expressed herself as having enjoyed the beautiful scenery they had passed on their way. After being upwards of an hour at Alma, Mr Spence thought the deceased did not look quiet so well, but made no remark. Shortly afterwards she told him she felt very queer, and while they were speaking she began to lose her equilibrium, when her husband ran and caught her in his arms to prevent her falling. She was laid down but immediately threw up her arms and expired. Mr Terry, surgeon, deposed to death being caused by the rupture of an artery in the region of the heart. Verdict died from natural causes.