ABOVE PICTURE: It is March 1988 and Mr Lewis Wright is retiring from the newsagent business in Thirsk Market Place he has run for a lifetime. In his hand is a copy of the D&S Times – in its days as a broadsheet with property advertising on the front page

Darlington and Stockton Times:

INVESTMENT: From this newspaper 50 year ago

From his newspaper 150 years ago. – On Wednesday evening a fine iron sailing ship was launched from the yard of Messrs Richardson, Duck and Co, South Stockton. She was christened ‘Royal Alexandra’ as she left the blocks, by Mrs Jos Richardson. The dimensions of the vessel are: length between perpendiculars, 210 feet; extreme breadth 36; depth of hold, 24; and tonnage, builder’s measurement, 1,298. She has been built for Fernie Brothers of Liverpool, and is intended for the Australian trade, being of similar construction to the ‘Royal Albert’ and ‘Royal Victoria’. On the Liverpool books, the ‘Royal Alexandra’ is classed for 20 years.

Stokesley. Petty Sessions, February 20th – Before Captain Marwood, and J W Coates Esq. – Weldon Robinson, of Whorlton, beerhousekeeper, was charged by PC Newton with permitting gambling in his house by allowing a watch to be raffled for on the 6th inst. Fines 2s 6d and 9s costs; and cautioned by the bench that he was liable to a fine of £5 for every such offence.

From this newspaper 100 years ago. – North Eastern Railway Company annual meeting at York. They decided to electrify the mineral lines between the Shildon and Newport sidings, a distance of 18 miles, the cost of the work, including the provision of ten powerful locomotives, being estimated at £150,000.

The first of the locomotives was almost finished, and the work of equipping the lines was well in hand, and it was hoped that they would be in a position to commence the electric working by the end of the year. This he believed was the first instance of working freight trains by electricity on any considerable scale in this country, and as the scheme must be regarded as experimental to lay aside out of revenue a sufficient sum to cover the whole cost of the work, though hereafter it might be charged to capital.

Darlington and Stockton Times:

KEEP WARM: From this newspaper 100 years ago

From this newspaper 50 years ago. – There is a feeling at Thirsk that conditions at the century- old All Saints’ Roman Catholic School are so unsatisfactory that some parents prefer to let their children be educated elsewhere. The problem of the one-room school, a separate building behind the church in Castlegate, is longstanding. It increases as the need for a new school becomes more and more apparent.

Darlington and Stockton Times:

COUGH UP: From this newspaper 50 years ago

The latest spotlight on this school has been switched on by the newly-formed parentteacher association. The parents and the teachers think that the North Riding County Council, through its Education Committee, might speed up the proposals for a new school. County Councillors Miss Joan Maynard (Sowerby), a member of the committee, has been invited to address the association at a meeting next week. While everybody agrees that All Saints no longer meets the needs of the presentday education, so far as the building is concerned, there is no agreement on how best could things be put right. The school managers think the committee is responsible. At County Hall it is said: “It has nothing to do with us.” It is, however, generally conceded that the Minister of Education could set things right, virtually with the stroke of a pen.