From the D&S Times of… October 15, 1966

“SOON after the tape was cut for the official opening of Northallerton’s High Street improvement scheme on Monday, the sun came out,” said the D&S. “It was as well that it did, because rain which fell throughout the opening ceremony appeared to have forced the culmination of two years of planning and hard work into damp and miserable anti-climax.”

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the scheme, in last week’s paper there was a special supplement showing High Street adverts from the 1966.

The D&S continued: “When the project first started, it was the biggest of its kind ever tackled in this country and the feature has been the co-operation among everyone concerned, not least the 170 property owners and occupiers along the mile of High Street frontage who have made the facelift possible.”

The damp ribbon-cutting had been performed by T Dan Smith, chairman of the Northern Regional Economic Planning Council, who praised the creativeness of Northallerton in sprucing up its High Street.

“Too many towns in the North-East are looking over their shoulders at the past instead of driving forward to create a new future,” he said.

Unsightly overhead wires had been cleared away, new street furniture and paving installed, a green created around the church, and every property in the High Street had been given “a specially planned and co-ordinated colour scheme”.

When in Northallerton, Smith was at the height of his powers, reshaping Newcastle and widely admired for his can-do attitude. In fact, another story in the D&S 50 years ago began: “An appeal for a ‘Dan Smith for the Dales’ was made by Cllr JW Gregson at a meeting of Aysgarth Rural Council at High Hall, Bainbridge, on Monday. He suggested that the economic development plan for the North-East might well include some of the Yorkshire Dales, where light industries would be welcomed as young people were leaving.”

However, it soon went sour for Smith. In 1971, he was first charged with accepting bribes from architect John Poulson, and he was eventually imprisoned for six years for taking more than £150,000 in backhanders.

The Northallerton scheme, though, was a great success. “Northallerton can now rightly claim to be the showplace of the North Riding as well as the county town,” concluded the D&S.

October 14, 1916

THE Great War dominated the pages of the D&S of 100 years, with in-depth reports on the tribunals in every village who were pushing men, who were applying for exemptions, to join the Army. There was more than a page of the news of the latest great successes on the Somme, and a half a page of the names of all the local men who had been killed.

“Pte William kitchen of Thorpe Road, Masham, and son of Mr and Mrs Kitchen of Well, near Bedale, came home on ten days leave on Monday night,” began a report. “Pte Kitchen, who joined the West Yorks in March 1915 has seen active service in Egypt and France.

“He was seriously wounded on Whit Saturday in the fighting on the Seres, since which time he has undergone several operations in a hospital in England.”

He arrived on the last train from Kidderminster and “was met by his father and mother, and the three got into a waggonette”, said the D&S.

“Arriving at Masham bridge, they were met by several members of the Volunteer Training Corps, in charge of the senior officer, platoon commandant TH Calvert, and the drum and bugle band, under Bandmaster Clarke. The band played Pte Kitchen to his home, where Mr Calvert called for cheers which were heartily given by a large crowd which had assembled.”

The report concluded: “Pte Kitchen's brother has also been wounded and is in hospital in France.”

October 13, 1866

INDUSTRIAL strife was growing in the neighbourhood, with masons and tailors joined on strike by ironworkers, with railwaymen also threatening to leave their posts.

In Darlington, the situation was so bad that ironworkers on Albert Hill, who had been out for three months, were down to living on bare floorboards, and the soup kitchens were dishing out 700 pints a day to “the famishing victims of the strike”.

The curate at St Paul’s Church, the Rev George Lloyd, urged the men to return to work for the sake of their families – “it makes my heart sore to see the children wandering about, cold and naked, begging bread from door to door”, he wrote.

In response came an extraordinary letter signed by “Virgis Mein Nicht”, which we think translates as Forget Me Not, “of Vengeance Street, Darlington”.

He wrote: “A man holding the position that you hold should try to make white sheep and not black ones.

“Rev sir, I know very well the reason that you urge upon is to go in is simply because you have not picked up so many coppers at your collections as you done before the strike, but let me tell you that if I ever see another letter from you or hear tell of you trying in any shape or form to make black sheep of me and my fellow workmen, you may preach your own funeral sermon the day previous to doing so for I will shoot you as dead as a nit.

“Be you in bed or out of bed in church, chapel or sacristy, I will nap your pecker.”

The original letter was published without punctuation and with a smattering of apparently random capital letters. It was also aimed at the proprietor of the D&S, Henry King Spark.

It continued: “Yes, I will delight in being hung on your account on the scaffold at Durham, and I will also take away the only spark of life that Mr Spark has got if he does not keep his tongue within his teeth.”

The letter finished: “I intend to give you and him a little time so prepare yourselves for the next world.”