Looking Back: Schools were too important to close...

THERE was a surprise victory for the small village schools of Arkengarthdale, near Reeth, and Kilburn, near Thirsk. North Riding County Council had already agreed to close the schools, which had 20 pupils and 18 pupils respectively, and had informed the Secretary of State of the closures.

However, with parents 100 per cent behind the schools staying open, “a private members’ motion” was put before the council. The chairmen of the education committees, including Lord Masham, argued that the schools were too small both economically and educationally to be viable, but, by 32 votes to 28, the full council decided that village schools were too important to be closed, even if their closure would save £2,000.

“After the meeting, Geoffrey Winter, chief education officer, said proposals for the school closures would be withdrawn.”

You might think that the grinding wheels of officialdom wouldn’t so easily be stayed, and the only Kilburn school that the internet knows of is in Derbyshire.

But Arkengarthdale is still going strong. In 2009, it celebrated its 350th anniversary; in 2012, it shared its headteacher with Richmond Methodist, and in September it will have nine pupils – probably its lowest role since it was reprieved exactly 50 years ago.

When he appeared on a temporary stage, he was greeted with loud cheering a “universal waving of hats”.

Said the D&S: “Mr Backhouse and his supporters should have heard those cheers – the manipulators of the screw should have heard them, the obstructive and the indifferent should have been within their echoes.”

It concluded: “Notwithstanding the whispered innuendo and the loudly-muttered sneer on the part of those who have too much reason to fear any free expression of public opinion, the hearts of the people are with Mr Spark.”

When the votes were counted in November 1868, Mr Spark was defeated by 1,789 to 872 – although the D&S alleged, with some justification, that this was due to the underhand practices of the Quakers.

July 20, 1918

MOTOR engineer Louis Smith, of Glagate, Barnard Castle, was summoned for using “motor spirit” – petrol – in contravention of the wartime ban on its use for personal outings.

It transpired that Mr Smith, whose name still features above a garage in Teesdale, had been engaged by Dr Ernest Burnett to take him from Whorlton to Newton-le-Willows where the doctor’s son had been taken ill at Aysgarth School.

Leyburn Police Court was told that this journey might have been considered a medical purpose which was allowed by the restrictions.

However, PC Dodsworth spotted the car driving through Middleham with a large party onboard. He then spotted it parked on Middleham Moor as the party had gone for a walk. PC Dodsworth charged Mr Smith with wasting petrol on a “joy ride”.

Dr Burnett said that “his son had been suffering in his tonsils, and he took him to Middleham Moor to see if he could stand the air”.

The case against Mr Smith was dismissed, but Dr Burnett was fined £2 1s.

The D&S also reported on a sad story concerning an unnamed County Durham woman who had recently died. In the hours before her death she had spoken deliriously about “the canny bit bairn in the cupboard upstairs”.

This was believed to have been a delusion until the house was cleared and “the remains of a child were found, wrapped in a window curtain and a newspaper dated December 1916”.

An inquest into the death was unable to say how the poor child died.

July 18, 1868

UNDER the heading “Guisborough”, the D&S reported 150 years ago: “There is nothing of special interest to note in this locality, except in reference to the remarkably dry weather. The heat has been often intense. The long continued drought has seriously affected at least some of the produce of the field, and the potatoes etc in the numerous garden plots of the miners.

“Months have elapsed since there was a day’s rain, and a libation of only a brief shower or two for many weeks. “The ground has been as hard as iron.”

In Darlington, the paper noted that two days earlier, the temperature had reached 91 degrees.

Perhaps it was so hot because the proprietor of the D&S Times was whipping up a storm. Regular readers will remember that he was Henry King Spark, a Trump-like maverick megalomaniac. Because the Quakers of the Pease and Backhouse families held such overwhelming political control, Mr Spark had successfully campaigned in 1867 for Darlington to get a properly elected council, although he had failed to get himself elected mayor because of the foul practices of the Quakers.

This week 150 years ago, he announced that he was turning his attention to becoming Darlington’s first MP. The Liberal Party had selected its official candidate, banker Edmund Backhouse, so Mr Spark held a tumultuous open air meeting in the grounds of his mansion, Greenbank, to announce that he would be standing as the independent Liberal candidate.

The D&S faithfully reported that up to 10,000 people crowded into Greenbank to hear him speak – as the town’s population was about 25,000, this would have been a remarkable turnout, although, as he was the Donald of Darlo, perhaps Mr Spark exaggerated the numbers appearing at his rally.