October 8, 1966

THERE was dismay among the backers of the new Teesside Airport as, a month before its international terminal was due to be opened, its major airline withdrew all services.

The D&S Times of 50 years ago reported how BKS was pulling out of flying to Belfast, Dublin, Amsterdam and London.

The first commercial flight out of Tees-side – which initially had a hyphen – was on November 2, 1964, when BKS flew 51 passengers to Heathrow in an Airspeed Ambassador, although that inaugural trip was delayed 80 minutes due to fog in the capital.

Less than two years later, the airline – which became part of British Airways in 1973 – withdrew. The airport commandant,

Harold Barker, told the D&S that he was disappointed but said “the growth of passenger numbers over the last twelve months despite admittedly unreliable air services" showed Teesside’s potential.

Indeed, only that week an East African Airways VC10 had touched down on the runway in a landing trial – imagine that, Teesside twined with Tanganyika.

“During the winter, the only services will be the Dan Air services to Liverpool and Cardiff,” said the D&S, keeping its feet firmly on the ground.

There was hope. In a month’s time, Princess Margaretha of Sweden was due to open the “international passenger terminal” (Cardiff could, at a stretch, be regarded as in a different country) which replaced the old RAF Nissen hut, and British European Airways was considering introducing a twice daily service to Heathrow if it could get a licence.

A BEA spokesman said: “It will be a long struggle to make the Teesside to London sector pay, but it is a valuable and developing source of revenue.”

It never got off the ground.

October 7, 1916

THERE was still “unfeigned sorrow” in the district, reported the D&S 100 years ago, following the death in action of Lt-Col Charles Duncombe, the 2nd Earl of Feversham.

The “gallant peer” had been killed on September 15 at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on the Somme – the first tank engagement – but even as the October 7 paper went to press, his body had yet to be recovered.

Before the war, Duncombe had been the Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton. He had inherited his title in January 1915 when he also set about recruiting an agricultural battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps from the Helmsley area. He converted part of Duncombe Park into a training camp, and then led the men into battle.

He died when he stood up to rally his troops in the face of fierce machine gun fire, and his helmet, with two holes in it, remains at Duncombe Park.

Kirbymoorside Guardians told the D&S: “He was a brave man but at the same time he had a most sympathetic nature. He had the heart of a lion and at the same time the tenderness of a dove.”

Memorial services were being held in many villages. “The church at Hawnby was crowded in every part, people flocking in from all the outlying townships of this large parish eager to show respect to the memory of one whom all had known and whose name had been a household word,” said the paper. “The vicar (Rev W Hughes), said probably in all the thousand years of its existence no congregation had assembled in that parish church under such circumstances.”

The earl’s body was eventually recovered by men in Anthony Eden’s battalion on October 10 – Eden, who was born at Windlestone Hall at Rushyford in County Durham and who became Prime Minister in the 1950s, had known the earl well.

Some sources say that the earl had gone to war with his deerhound which was killed on the same day and was buried with him. Eden, though, recalled that he adopted the earl’s Irish Wolfhound, Con, which he kept out of loyalty to his friend for several months.

October 6, 1866

THERE were some beautiful Victorian words in the D&S of 150 years ago reporting on the annual show of the Barnard Castle Agricultural Society, which was formed in 1799.

“It is generally when the sickle and the reaper has done its work, and the farmer has joyfully stowed away provision for the winter, when the gleaner is to be seen by day and the harvest moon by night, that the annual exhibition of the Barnard Castle society is announced and agriculturists and their friends assemble to celebrate what is recognised as a happy harvest home gathering,” said the paper.

“This year, however, is an exception, and the annual anniversary on Wednesday served as another unpleasant reminder that our harvest prospects were not so bright and cheering as we would naturally wish, but in the good specimens of horses and sheep shown in the castle Garth there was at any rate something to look to as solace for sorrow and a joyous dissipater of gloom.

“True, the sun did not emerge from his obscure retreat, and the fog which rested on the surrounding hills was not relieved thereby, but then, the attention was irresistibly attracted to the inspection of sheep of extraordinary breadth and horses of beautiful symmetry.”

After everyone had finished admiring the animals and watching, for the first time, a showjumping contest, they retired for a well-attended dinner in the King’s Head.

The meal, said the paper, “confirmed and sustained the reputation which the host (Mr John Smith), has worthily secured for the rich, varied and bountiful supply of good things which invariably grace his table.”

The Duke of Cleveland presided and Mr AS Milbank was vice chairman, and everyone feasted and toasted until it was time for the last train to Darlington to leave.