From this newspaper 150 years ago

Alarming pit accident at Sunnybrow. - An accident of a serious and alarming nature took place at Sunnybrow, High Pit, on Tuesday morning.

The news spread with wonderful rapidity that a number of men had been killed, owing to the rope breaking while they were being down in the cage.

On repairing to the spot we found that matters were not quite so bad as had been stated, and the following are the facts elicited. Before three o'clock in the morning, some shift men had been drawn up, they having been at work during the night.

Shortly afterwards the deputies went down to prepare for the fore-shift men, and then four men who had come the day before from Bedlington, went down in the other cage.

The first cage was again filled with four men, and they were let down about halfway when the rope, - a broad hempen one, - snapped, and the men and cage were precipitated to the bottom of the shaft, which is 60 yards deep, so that the men dropped about 30 yards after the rope broke.

Of course it was considered certain they would all be killed, but happily they were all got out alive, and, what appeared very strange at first, the cage was very little injured.

The reason given for this is that the bottom of the shaft is what is called a sump, in which there is a lot of whins kept.

The cage, therefore, did not fall solid, which accounts for the men not being killed on the spot. They are all, however, severely injured.

The broken rope fell on to the iron bar which crosses the top of the cage with such force that the bar was broken, and this was undoubtedly the cause of the men being injured.

If there had been a strong iron cover over the whole of the cage, which is the case at many pits when men are riding, in all likelihood the men would have escaped with a fright.

From this newspaper 100 years ago

A letter, which Mr Dodds, of Crakehall, near Bedale, has received from his son throws an interesting light on the sinking of the German submarine U15, and also on the naval action in the Heligoland Bight a fortnight ago.

The letter is from Mr William James Dodds, a lance-sergeant of the Royal Marines, on HMS Birmingham.

The letter, which is dated September 1st, and corrects in some important particulars the account previously published on the circumstances in which the U15 was sunk, is as follows: "Just a line to tell you I am fit and well.

I will just let you know a little about the work since the war broke out. We were the first ship to sink a German submarine, the U15.

The weather was hazy at the time. It was about 3.30am on August 19th. We sighted her about 500 yards on our port side. She was on the surface. We fired three rounds of lyddite at her from one of our 6-inch guns. The second shot hit her about the conning tower.

Previous to this she had fired a torpedo at us, which missed owing to the skilful way our captain gave the order hard to port. This let the torpedo go by us. The submarine, after we had hit her, was still moving, but in our opinion the crew were dead, the fumes from our lyddite getting to them.

We then rammed the submarine and sank her. We sustained no damage.......The gun that I was at had four Yorkshiremen out of the crew of 10. We were the first to fire. Good old Yorkshire!"

From this newspaper 50 years ago

The conference held this week at Durham on the County Development Plan Review leaves no doubt of the determination of the County Council to use town planning as a major weapon in the fight to put the county into good shape for the 20th century.

The objects of the plan are clearly laid down, and the proposals have the general support of all the district authorities.

The Category D villages are, and will be for a long time, a sore point with the individuals most closely affected by the decision that the villages should be allowed to die.

No-one, certainly not the local authorities, likes the idea of condemning such places to extinction, but it would be useless to try to preserve them amid the great chances of the last 20 years, and the still greater changes yet to come.

They are, when all is said and done, the equivalent of some of the areas now being cleared in the towns in that they are out of date and cannot be improved to present day standards at reasonable expense.

So far as the general improvement of the countryside is concerned, the reclamation of derelict industrial areas and pit heaps is a most important task - ad the time for doing this job is short, as grants may cease in a few years, More is being done in this way than is always realised, for the results take time to show.

In four or five years' time we may well see a great deal less evidence of the destructive side of the industrial revolution, and from that the county and everybody in it will benefit.

The County Council has found that firms which might have brought work to areas badly needing it, would not do so because living conditions and patterns were totally inadequate to meet the requirements of a modern industrial society.

A carefully thought-out plan for the changing of such conditions is an absolute necessity.