October 29, 1966

THERE was much bitterness among residents over the six week closure of the road bridge over the East Coast Mainline near Otterington station, to the south of Northallerton.

It would, they said, sever the connection between the villages of South Otterington and Thornton-le-Moor, and force them into a ten mile detour through Northallerton.

“They claim that the road closure will seriously disrupt the local services affecting milk and bread deliveries, newspaper rounds and local garage and agricultural contractors,” said the D&S Times.

One resident said: “If ever there was a case for the construction of a Bailey bridge to keep a busy road open while they reconstruct the permanent bridge, this is it.”

The bridge was being raised to enable larger trains to pass beneath it.

By happy coincidence, only last weekend, the Looking Back bicycle was pedalling through the Otterington area and had stopped for a breather on the top of the bridge which looks down on the distinctive Otterington station.

The station was opened with the Great North of England Railway between Darlington and York on March 31, 1841, but it was completely rebuilt in 1932-33 in a “neo-Georgian” style when the line was quadrupled. Many of the intermediate stations were rebuilt at the same time in the same style, but all have since been demolished.

Otterington closed to passengers in 1958 and to goods in 1964 – barley grown in the fields around was a regular export – and was converted into a private residence, which now has an old railway carriage alongside it.

In an area brimming with railway Victoriana, Otterington’s 1930s architecture really stands out.

Back to this week in 1966, when a planning inquiry was deciding whether to allow the Les family of Leeming, near Bedale, to build a snack bar, grill and garage on the east side of the A1.

Stanislaw Les and his wife had opened Motel Leeming in 1961 and it had “proved to be such a success that at the height of the summer season the motel is "bursting at the seams" and customers have to be turned away because there is no room for them”, said the D&S.

The new service station would increase provision, and prevent southbound vehicles from dangerously crossing the northbound carriageway to reach the Motel.

However, North Riding County Council was opposing the application because it said there already more than enough cafes lining the Great North Road.

The planning inspector returned to London to continue his ruminations.

October 28, 1916

THE advance of progress was remorseless. North Riding County Council, reported the D&S, had “resolved that at Stokesley and Northallerton, when the police horses and traps had been dispensed with, and at Malton, the police officers be provided with motor bicycles and sidecars at a cost not exceeding £65 each, and that for the present the forage etc allowance amounting to £40 a year be continued to meet the cost of upkeep, including licence duty, repairs and petrol.”

So police horses were to be replaced by motorbikes with sidecars which the policemen were to keep on the road with their “forage allowance”.

The most startling item in the paper of 100 years ago, though, is a paragraph referring to the Liberal Prime Minister. It said: “Replying to a House of Commons deputation, Mr Asquith promised that the question of a Channel tunnel should be considered, without prejudice, by the war committee.”

The first tunnelling operation commenced in June 1988.

October 27, 1866

A WINDOW on life 150 years ago is provided by the resume of cases heard by Northallerton Police Court.

Brompton weaver Henry Sherwood was fined 5s and 7s 6d costs for being drunk and disorderly and breaking articles of furniture in his own house “like a bull in a china shop”.

Blacksmith James Wilson was fined 10s for throwing fireworks in Northallerton High Street. “The practice having become a nuisance, the bench determined to put stop to it,” said the paper, explaining the severity of the fine.

Farmer Henry Foggitt of Warlaby was charged with assaulting his servant, Elizabeth Dumville, but when the court was told that he had "only pushed her from a young cow she was milking", the case against him was dismissed. He then countercharged Elizabeth with absenting herself on the day of the incident without cause, and she was ordered to pay costs.

Finally, farmer John Gibson of Kirby Sigston summoned his servant Jane Wake for disobeying orders “to do work which was considered reasonable”. Jane was ordered to return to her service and pay costs.

All of which is very interesting, but can it be true that Warlaby, to the west of Northallerton, gets its name because it was the settlement – a “by” – belonging to an Old English “werloga”: a warlock, an oath-breaker, a traitor…

Finally from the paper of 150 years ago, someone else was looking back. “Fifty years ago,” he wrote, referring to 1816, “droves of seals frequented the Tees and oft lay basking in the sun on the broad sands of the estuary. But now the seals have all forsaken the Tees in the age of steamboats.”

The misty-eyed writer then quoted an “old rhyming proverb” which went:

An otter in the Wear

You may find once a year;

An otter in the Tees

You may find at your ease.

Alas, he said, “it is about as true now of the Tees as of the Wear, that the otter is rarely found in its waters”.

Today in the Tees, we’d venture to suggest, otters are rare but definitely there – they’ve even been spotted in the Skerne in the centre of Darlington.