August 11, 1866

THE first annual meeting of the Merrybent and Middleton Tyas Mining and Smelting Company was reported on 150 years ago in this newspaper, and the finances were so strong that the directors were already declaring a dividend of five per cent.

"The reserves of ore in the veins are considerable, and appear to be setting well downwards, thus giving indications that when the engine shaft, which is now sunk to the depth of 27 fathoms, has penetrated the main limestone beds, much richer deposits of ore will be found," said chairman Lonsdale Bradley.

He also expected “the enormous deposit of mountain limestone situated on the company's estate" to prove "highly remunerative” because there was an “inexhaustible supply” of it. In Cleveland, he said, there were 87 furnaces devouring 3,393,000 tons of limestone – it was used as flux in the iron-making blast furnaces – a year.

Plus, the company had just gained Parliamentary permission to branch a line off the Barnard Castle Railway at Merrybent, outside Darlington, bridge the Tees and run to the quarries at Barton and Middleton Tyas.

"With the aid of the railway, the vast field of mineral wealth can successfully compete with the most valuable limestone in the district,” concluded the chairman, noting that their field was closer than any other to the furnaces.

Although the railway opened in 1870, there never was a goldrush to Tyas. Mining stopped in 1876, and today the A1(M) follows the trackbed of the railway and the Barton interchange and lorry park sits inside the old quarry.

August 12, 1916

“MASHAM hero welcomed home”, said a headline in the edition of the D&S published 100 years ago. The story told of the homecoming of Pte John Hill, the elder son of Mr and Mrs William Hill of Silver Street. Pte Hill, who had just celebrated his 21st birthday, was a Green Howard.

"News leaked out that he was coming home on a few days leave from Brighton and he received an enthusiastic reception,” said the paper. “On alighting from the 8.26pm train from Ripon, he quickly got into a waggonette, his mother, who had met him at Ripon, accompanying him.

“After crossing Masham Bridge, the newly formed drum and bugle band of the Masham Volunteer Training Corps under Bandmaster Clark met the conveyance and played the wounded hero into the town and to his home, where he was received with loud cheering.”

The paper explained: “In February, he was wounded at Ypres, with the result that his left leg had to be amputated above the knee. He has undergone two or three operations and has recently been at a convalescent hospital at Brighton.”

Pte Hill, of the 7th Yorkshire Regiment, was home for less than a week before returning to Brighton for yet another operation.

August 13, 1966

NORTHALLERTON townspeople were “delighted”, said the D&S Times 50 years ago, that Kosset Carpets of Brighouse in the West Riding were planning a £3m factory and distribution centre which would employ at least 100 people. It was to be built "at North End, where the council has recently bought an extensive area of farmland for light industrial development”.

This was the beginnings of the Standard Way Industrial Estate.

“First in the field near Yafforth Road is likely to be York Trailers Ltd,” said the D&S, “and other factory proposals in the area include those of a livestock feed firm”.

The paper continued: "The continued expansion of Northallerton, where there is scarcely any unemployment, means a continuation of the present building boom, and further private housing estates are already planned at both Romanby and Brompton."

Kosset carpets closed in 1981. The BT distribution centre, which employs about 150 people, is on its site.