March 31, 1866

THE proprietor of a rival paper to the D&S Times, the Richmond & Ripon Chronicle, was sued for libel in court in York by the former mayor of Richmond, Henry Bruno. Naturally, the D&S Times devoted several column inches to the difficulty of the rival proprietor, John Bell.

It transpired that in January 1865, the mayor had unilaterally prevented a comedian called Mr Hope from performing at Richmond Town Hall. Mr Hope had then collected 263 signatures from Richmond people in his favour which he had presented to the town council. The council had then over-ruled the mayor, and the comedy show had gone ahead.

Five months later, another touring comedian, Mr Shelley, had come to Richmond. He, too, seems to have met a hostile response from the mayor but his "dramatic presentation" had still gone ahead – but, said the D&S, "he met with very little success". As a parting shot, he angrily fired off a letter to the mayor which somehow found its way into print in the Chronicle, signed by "Billy Nutts".

The letter said: "I will no longer beat around the bush, I will ask what are we to think of a gentleman who fills the guest position which can be conferred upon him by a local constituency...who alters a private letter with the intention of making it an official document and that for the purpose of misrepresentation."

The letter said that as Mr Bruno was also a magistrate, his corrupt activity should prevent him from occupying his seat on the bench.

Mr Bruno's QC said that the letter was clearly libellous and had had such a damaging effect on Mr Bruno's reputation that "on the following election he had failed to be elected to the office of mayor".

Mr Bell pleaded not guilty, arguing that the letter was exactly what Mr Shelley (aka Billy Nutts) had written and that it cannot have had any monetary affect on Mr Bruno's business as a currier.

The jury found the newspaperman guilty and he was fined £5 – worth about £550 in today's values, according to the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator.

The R&R Chronicle was eight years younger than the D&S Times as it had been founded in 1855 by Mr Bell, who in 1870 founded The Northern Echo. In about 1900, the Chronicle – which had mysteriously become the Ripon & Richmond Chronicle – was taken over by the D&S and its name still appears on the front page of our Yorkshire edition.

March 25, 1916

A MEETING of Reeth Rural Council a century ago was badly effected by snow as the chairman and vice-chairman were both "snowed up". "The surveyor, Mr T Brown, asked for a cheque for £100 and dubiously hoped "it would go round"," said the D&S Times. "All roads had been blocked and it would be weeks before some were opened owing to the scarcity of labour.

"He was having horse tracks cut to some places where the inhabitants were starving as it would be at least a fortnight before a road for vehicles could be made, and people would hunger to death, as some had not a pound of flour in the house."

Scores of people had no supplies at all, said Mr Brown, and many shopkeepers had sold out of everything. Swaledale itself was worst effected, although the high routes into Wensleydale, including Buttertubs, had been reopened.

"There was a drift at Faggerghyll about 40ft deep and another at Shoreghyll 15ft deep," said the D&S. "Boys at Muker had played with the telegraph wire which could be reached from the tops of drifts."

March 26 1966

EXACTLY 50 years ago, the D&S published a curious article jovially defending a farmer's right to shoot dogs on his land. "If ever a Yorkshire farmer found himself inclined to be trigger happy, it would be at this time of year," it began. "And well be might he – a brace of stray dogs out of control among the ewe flock can cause hundreds of pounds worth of damage before daybreak.

"The law is very definite on the lengths to which the flockmaster and the shepherd can go to protect their interests. A liberal interpretation is that it would not be sound policy for anybody shoot a dog which was not actually attacking at the time.

"But, nowadays, anybody whose dog is "away" might well find their pet's innocent saunter down the hedgerow results in its backside being peppered by the 12 bore. It is a case of reversing the warning shot across the bows."

The article continued: "On a farm near Thirsk this week, there was near panic when the German Pointer and the Alsatian were missing. They were at large in a district where thousands of pounds worth of sheep were vulnerable.

"The police, the press and the postmen were alerted. The family scattered far and wide on foot, bicycle, tractor and car. The telephone was hot – and so were the tempers.

"For two hours the searchers drew blank. One by one they returned home to set up a 'noose court' for the 'accused', already convicted in their absence. They would have to go if they had started that game. The shotgun came down from the rack, just in case they were taken alive.

"Then Jill, a comely four-year-old, burst into the adult scene and quite casually announced: "Grandad, I've found Mitzy and Zeta asleep right under the straw in the barn."

And there the story ended.