From this newspaper... November 5, 1966

WE may think today, with our e-banking, our mobile phones and our digital downloads, that the world is changing at a rapid pace, but it was ever thus, as this story from exactly 50 years ago shows.

Mr Fred Roberts, the village joiner at Dalton-on-Tees, was photographed holding a 5ft sawblade which, following his retirement, had been donated to the Yorkshire Museum.

"It was used by his father in the days when large tree trunks were cut by hand on Dalton village green in what was a saw pit," said the report. "One man worked in the pit and the other was above ground and between them they sawed through the trunks."

Dalton was then on the A167 – the Great North Road – between Northallerton and Darlington, although today the road bypasses it, and the village green is flat and has no depression to suggest it once had a large saw pit.

"In his workshop, Mr Roberts showed our reporter a pair of cart wheels he had made 50 years ago when farming was very dependent on the village joiner. This side of the business went out almost overnight as did wooden wheelbarrows when metal ones took their place. Wooden ladders have given way to a large extent to aluminium ones, and so on.

"In his home are many examples of his work ranging from panelling from the old liner Berengaria when she was broken up, to an unusual hall lamp which was made from the remains of an old oak cart."

Quite how Mr Roberts created panelling for the Berengaria, which was built on the Elbe in Hamburg in 1912, is unknown but this vessel, which was the pride of the Cunard fleet in the 1920s, was dismantled at Jarrow in 1939, so he could have acquired pieces from there.

"At one time," continued his valedictory report, "this village joinery employed three journeymen plus apprentices, but leathery there has just been Mr Roberts and another joiner.

"At one time a pony which walked in a circle was used to drive the lathe. This method was then replaced by steam power and now it is electricity."

Everything must change. Mr Roberts and his father had been in business on Dalton green for more than 100 years between them, but the age of wood was well and truly over by 1966. Mr Roberts hoped that the North Riding firm of craftsmen which had bought his workshop would continue some traditional skills.

November 4, 1916

THE D&S of 100 years ago was almost entirely saturated – understandably – with news of the Great War. There was the weekly page of reports of tribunals, in which men pleaded, usually unsuccessfully, for exemption from war service. There was the week's happenings at the front, plus almost a page of the latest deaths of local men.

There were a couple of columns devoted to non-fatal news of soldiers. For example, the D&S reported that Lt Col EG Caffin, son of the late vicar of Northallerton, "has had to relinquish command of his Northumberland Fusiliers battalion".

It said: "The gallant colonel, who was on his fourth campaign, was severely wounded during the Tirah Expedition of 1897 and again severely wounded during the Boer War, 1899." Tirah was a bloody campaign fought in mountains in what is now Pakistan.

"His wounds have since frequently given him much trouble and were the cause of his being found medically unfit when the 2nd Green Howards, of which he was second-in-command, were sent to join the British Expeditionary Force in 1914."

There was also a column telling of local men's local successes in being award the Military Medal for their bravery.

Lance Corporal E Scatchard, of the Royal Engineers, had written to his parents in Blossomgate, Ripon, modestly saying he had won the award "for mending wire".

Lance Corporal Edwin Shaw of the Yorkshire Regiment, originally from Richmond, had also won a medal. "He was wounded on February 27, his left arm being shattered, which necessitated amputation from the shoulder," said the D&S. "He is now in hospital in London."

And then there was news of a Military Medal for Cpl John Mansfield of Harmire, Kipling – we presumed this was the Kiplin with the famous hall, near Northallerton, as journalists don't always spell names correctly, although this may be wrong. He was in the Yorkshire Regiment, and had written home saying: "I don't think I did anything great at all, but it was given out that it was for bravery. But you can rest assured that there are plenty who have been more brave. All I did was to run a few messages and carry a few bombs, and I had the luck to get through a barrage. I think everything here is mere luck and Providence."

November 3, 1866

AGRICULTURAL readers of the D&S would have been delighted to read 150 years ago of the "clever capture of a hay stealer at Cockfield". The vicar, the Reverend Mr Parker MA had got fed up with a sneak thief making off with his hay during the night and so had rigged up an ingenious telltale.

"The stack stood in a field near the reverend gentleman's back door and he tied a small rope around the stack near the bottom, and then had some twine attached to it which communicated with one of his house bells," said the D&S.

The following night, "he was aroused out of his sleep by the frequent ringing of the bell. Hastily dressing himself, he proceeded to the stack, where he beheld the the thief filling his bag with hay".

The report said: "The bag was set on the cord which the rev. gentleman had put round the stack, and every handful of hay that was pressed into the bag was the means of the bell ringing almost continuously.

"The depredator was easily caught, and is now in custody. He proved to be an old offender in that line, having been previously convicted for felony."