150 years ago

October 21, 1865

EDWARD CALVERT, "a youth about the age of 12 years", appeared before Thirsk Petty Sessions charged with stealing one box containing slate pencil and two-and-a half boxes containing steel pens from the Thirsk British and Foreign Bible Society school, which he attended.

"On the afternoon of the day in question, Mr Robert Ashman, schoolmaster, fastened the doors and closets of the school. On the following morning he found two closets had been broken open and the pencil and pens were at once missed.

"The prisoner had been shortly after distributing among the scholars of the school a quantity of pens and pencils which exactly corresponded with those Mr Ashman missed. It was thought the prisoner had gained access to the school through one of the back windows.

"The bench committed the prisoner to the House of Correction at Northallerton for one calendar month, and ordered him to be whipped."

100 years ago

October 23, 1915

AT the Durham Quarter Sessions, His Honour Judge Greenwell heard the appeal of Louise Sophy Caroline Herbert, wife of former curate of St Luke's Church in Darlington, who had been sentenced to six months in prison for breaking the Defence of the Realm Act.

Mrs Herbert's parents were German and they brought her to this country when she was 14. She had, though, "German sympathies".

She had asked her maid and her sister-in-law about their relatives who worked in munitions factories in Darlington, asking if they were "employed on gun carriages or shells, and inquiring particularly as to materials used and numbers of people employed".

"The chairman: had you the slightest intention of extracting any information that would have been useful to the enemy? – No answer.

"The chairman: Don't laugh. Take it seriously. – I do take it seriously.

"He then repeated the question and witness, after hesitation, said: I am afraid so... If I could have done I might have done it.

"The chairman commented that she had what most Germans lacked – that was conscience."

Judge Greenwell said that while she was free, the curate's wife was dangerous and so he upheld her six months in jail – the maximum sentence that this offence could attract.

50 years ago

October 23, 1965

UNDER the headline "Brickworks 'dossers': local probe", the D&S Times reported that the Darlington and District Council of Churches had investigated the brickworks sleepers – homeless people – at Blackett's brickyard. "They discovered that these people waited until a kiln had been opened and emptied, and then they slept just inside the doorway," said the paper. "As the kiln cooled, they slept further and further inside it. About 20 people slept there."

The council concluded that something had to be done – dossing in kilns was particularly dangerous because of the fumes.

The paper also reported that Leyburn's oldest resident, Miss Sara Glew, of Quarry Hills House, had celebrated her 99th birthday. Mrs Mason, the matron at her home, said; "She can read without glasses and walks out in the garden."

Miss Glew was born in Easingwold where her parents were corn millers. "She hopes to reach 100," said the D&S, "and said 'I feel young and well'." How old is the current oldest resident of Leyburn?