August 6, 1966

EXACTLY 50 years ago, the D&S Times reported that Ken Fawcett, of Bellerby, had caught a trout weighing more than a pound in the beck that runs through his village, near Leyburn.

“The beck, a yard wide, is famed for the water cress and the musk it grows,” said the paper. “Trout however are a rarity in it, chiefly because the beck is miles from a river.”

Indeed, the beck eventually runs through Bedale – where it used to be called the River Em – and joins the Swale at Leeming about 20 miles, as the crow flies, from Bellerby.

“The catch surprised some people because the beck is almost dry in summertime,” said the D&S, “but Mr Fawcett said that last year he caught an even bigger fish in the beck with rod and worm.”

Is the beck, which used to be famed for its ducks on a sharp corner, still fishable?

Other news 50 years ago was that the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, was proposing that Teesside police should merge with the North Riding force, a move bitterly opposed in Yorkshire.

"Many of us think this is a forerunner to a national police force, and this we don't want," said Cllr GT Thornton.

The North Riding police committee preferred to amalgamate with York, East Riding and Hull for a super-rural force based in York.

August 5, 1916

THE First World War had just entered its third year 100 years ago, and the D&S reported how most of its communities had gathered on the anniversary and grimly re-committed themselves to the struggle.

“A public meeting to strengthen the determination of the inhabitants of Askrigg district to do their duty in the continued crisis in every possible way was held,” it reported.

In Thirsk, Bedale and Leyburn, there were meetings and services in which a resolution was passed identical to the one voted unanimously upon by the people of Ripon in their cathedral: “This meeting of the citizens of Ripon records its inflexible determination to continue to a victorious end the struggle in maintenance of those ideals of liberty and justice which are the common and sacred cause of the allies.”

In Northallerton, the newly-formed band of the Volunteer Training Corps – buglers, drums and kettledrums – led a parade which included 25 wounded soldiers through the streets, paraded through town and the Hon William George Algar Orde-Powlett, the 5th Baron Bolton who was the MP for Richmond, moved the resolution.

He said: "Surely our hearts, sad and torn as many of them are, must thrill with righteous pride at the thought of what the manhood and youth of the empire had done, and was doing, on the battlefields.”

He particularly praised the 4th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment – Northallerton’s own Green Howards – who, he said, had been pitched into a battle within a week of their arrival at the front. Indeed, the 4th had walked straight into battle near Ypres the previous April, and were still out there, fighting on the Somme, and the local MP spoke of "the undying lustre which they had shed on the annals of the North Riding".

August 4, 1866

AN extraordinary report 150 years ago about the proceedings of the eighth Darlington Horse and Dog Show began: “It has long been the fashion to refer to the Frenchman as the beau ideal of gaiety and light-heartedness. But the French are essentially a grave people, their gaiety lies but on the surface, like the ripple of the stream which only serves to hide the unknown depth below.

“The Englishman works with heart and soul, and he enjoys himself after a like manner. His grumble is not always to be set down as an ebulition (sic) of bad temper, but there is no mistake about his laugh.”

For all his fancy-dan words, the dictionary now says the reporter had missed an l out of ebullition, which is the process of keeping a liquid boiling.

The reporter, though, was clearly having a hell of a time, for he continued: “Yet our French neighbours, to do them justice, excel us in the tastefulness of their enjoyment. We have done well, then, to borrow from them those delightful fetes al fresco, which have now become naturalised on British soil. Flower shows, galas, agricultural shows and, last – but in the instance which it is now our pleasure to record, by no means least – horse and dog shows are customary relaxations of the people.

“And there is something hearty about open air enjoyment, and that sweet communion with nature, in her flowers, in her verdure, and in her warm living creatures, which bring us tidings of invisible things.”

Gradually, the reporter revealed that the show had attracted record entries – 242 horses, 266 dogs, 19 butters – from as far afield as Nottingham, and record numbers of visitors as special trains had been laid on to Darlington from Newcastle, Shields, Sunderland, Thirsk and Leeds.

The Members Cup, for the best four-year-old horse had been won by Joseph Robson of Windlebeck, Ganton, near Scarborough. There had been classes for five different types of dogs: Pointer, Setter, Greyhound, Retriever and Terrier, which had been sub-divided into Rough, Black and Tan, Fox, Toy and Bull.

And Mrs Goundry of Bolam had won £1 for the best fancy butter.

Lunch for 250 top guests had been served in a marquee, and speeches were reported by Sir William Eden, of Windlestone, Ralph Ward Jackson, of Hartlepool, and Henry King Spark of Darlington. Mr Spark was a maverick industrialist who had graciously allowed the show to be held in the parkland of his Greenbank mansion – mere mention of it sent the reporter onto another flight of sylvan fancy.

“The gay parterres, the drooping shrubs, overshadowed by the loftier trees, as youth is tenderly yearned over by old age, rendered the stroll up the winding avenue leading to Mr Spark’s house perfectly delightful,” he gushed.

Mr Spark, as many of the readers must have known, was the proprietor of the paper.