Still keeping a look-out

THE D&S Times reported that the Royal Observer Corps post at Grinton-in-Swaledale was to have an open evening the following Tuesday in a bid to drum up volunteers. "At present," it said, "the Grinton post is undermanned."

The Observer Corps was formed in 1925 with its volunteers trained to identify aircraft and report movements – the "royal" was added to the title in 1941 for its work in the Battle of Britain. In 1955, with the Cold War threat growing, the ROC was given the additional responsibility of detecting and reporting nuclear explosions.

"In an emergency, the ROC would be engaged on reporting radio-active fall-out, and visual aircraft spotting still remains an important task for observers," said the paper. "Each post now has a specially built underground room furnished and stocked with rations to give compete cover from radiation for the men and women on duty."

Even into the 1980s, the ROC had more than 10,000 civilian volunteers, but the majority of them were stood down in 1991 before the corps' work was reallocated completely in 1995.

It would be fascinating to know, though, whether any ROC remains remain in our area. Where was the "underground room" in Grinton, and what became of it? Please let us know if you've got an old ROC bunker in your neighbourhood.

100 years ago
September 18, 1915

THE previous week, Spectator had climbed onto his high horse about the state of local roads: for a century, roads had been built with a mixture of soil and small stones as developed by Scottish engineer John McAdam. But, new-fangled "horseless vehicles" created a storm of dust when driven on macadam roads and so tar was being used to top off the roads to make them suitable for cars.

"Tar macadam is slippery for horses, and softens and melts up in hot sunshine," railed Spectator. "It almost glues down the unlucky pedestrian at times..."

He had noted that tarmac roads were now being sanded to stop them melting, which was once again creating dust – which is exactly what expensive tarmac was supposed to stop.

"A North Riding Farmer" wrote to the paper, telling of how Mr and Mrs Corner of East Cowton had been thrown from their carriage last Monday when their horse "slipped on its broadside" when they were returning from Darlington market on a tarmac road. "They were badly bruised from head to foot, and Mrs Corner fractured her wrist," said the anonymous farmer. "But for the front board of the trap breaking their fall, the mishap might have had fatal results."

Then he railed: "Are farmers to be driven off the roads and must they pay rates for their upkeep when they are no longer safe for horse traffic but are simply for the convenience of motors? Horses were used before motors, and if farmers all took a stand and paid no more rates till the roads were more safe for their use, we should soon have a different state of things."

150 years ago
September 16, 1865

THE Duke of Cleveland had cut the first sod for the Tees Valley Railway. "When he put his spade into the earth at Middleton-in-Teesdale," said the D&S Times, "he broke virgin soil; he gave the signal for a social but peaceful revolution, and was as much a pioneer as any backwoodsman that ever penetrated the far west to clear the way for civilisation."

The paper was amazed that up to 5,000 people had gathered in this distant, railwayless town to see the ceremony, and it looked forward to the prosperity the line would bring.

"With a railway, it would be difficult to name many parts of England that have a more promising future before them (than Teesdale)," it said. "It is rich in minerals; it is affluent in agriculture; and it abounds in scenery in beauty surpassing much of that which attracts enthusiastic lovers of nature to distant quartets of the world.

"Even the most spirited of tourists likes to get easily to the object of his tour. He does not expect to drive up Mont Blanc in a Hanson cab, but he likes to get to Chamonix, as a starting point, without great personal inconvenience. He may not look for a railway station at High Force or Cauldron Snout cataracts, but he will naturally seek the means of getting within easy reach of them."

Extending the Darlington and Barnard Castle and South Durham line from Lartington up the valley, it said, would open the door to tourists.

"The extension, however, cannot stop here," it continued. "The full purposes of this railway can never be fulfilled until it has been carried as far as Alston, and grasped the various ramifications of that important mining district."

The Tees Valley Railway opened as far as Middleton on May 12, 1868, but leadmining was already beginning to decline and so it never went any further. It did, though, have a profound effect on tourism.