Archive

  • Council criticised over grass damage

    GRASS in a Darlington park is being damaged by vehicles belonging to council workers, according to a local resident. Darlington Borough Council has said it will use a more appropriate vehicles when maintaining North Park in future. However,

  • Castle celebrates 600 years

    A CASTLE is celebrating its 600th anniversary in the middle of a multi-million pound renovation. Grade II-listed Witton Castle, at Witton-le- Wear, was licensed by the Bishop of Durham in 1410. It was once owned by Lord Lambton, the fifth Earl

  • ‘Father of Railways’ honoured at last

    THE great-great-grandson of the “Father of the Railways” has righted a wrong of more than 150 years by opening the first memorial to his illustrious ancestor in his hometown. Even before Edward Pease died in 1858, the townspeople of Darlington

  • Councillors block store’s two-tier expansion plans

    A SUPERMARKET’S ambitions to become a town’s biggest retail unit have been thwarted over its possible effects on local businesses. Councillors rejected plans for Sainsbury’s to expand its Darlington store with an additional shopping floor, petrol

  • Labour goes for local man to fight Mr Kumar’s seat

    A FORMER employee of Ashok Kumar has been selected to replace the MP as Labour’s candidate for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Tom Blenkinsop, a campaign manager with steel union Community, was chosen on Saturday afternoon at a hustings

  • Pool manager saved my life, says grandmother

    A GRANDMOTHER of four has thanked a quick-thinking manager for saving her life. Former pub landlady, Ann Hunter, 65 from Stokesley, was showering after her daily swim when she suffered a heart attack and collapsed. Fortunately for the mother

  • A window into Priory’s past

    THE fashions may have changed but the traditional craft skills used more than 100 years ago are still alive and well in North Yorkshire. As a group of specialist workmen refurbish part of the historic manor house at Mount Grace Priory, near

  • Bid to build new pool in MP’s name

    A CAMPAIGN has been launched to build a new swimming pool for Guisborough residents in memory of Ashok Kumar. The constituency MP, who died last month, was an ardent campaigner to save the existing swimming pool in the town. He rallied support

  • Pony and riding club dates

    Bedale Hunt. - April 14, 16, 17: Pantomime at Masham town hall, tickets available from Anne White, 01325-378259 or email annewhiteturn@hotmail.com Bedale and West of Yore PC. - April 18: endurance training ride, 10-18km, Thorp Perrow. Further details

  • Treble for Greenall at Bedale Hunt’s outing

    A TESTING surface put greater emphasis on stamina at the Bedale Hunt point-to-point, held on Sunday at Hornby Castle. The first race on the card was the Confined Conditions race, which went the way of Laura Mason and Wantage Road. Mason held

  • All eyes on Aintree as Mon Mome looks for a double

    THE weather might have slowed all the jump trainers down this winter, but you cannot keep a good man down and now the nights are longer and the weather drier, Howard Johnson is sending out the winners on a very regular basis. The feature race at Haydock

  • Thorpe and Morphett move up

    slowly at Dob Park on Easter Saturday with some irony as championship leader Ricky Wiggins slid down the Novogar championship standings, and Dan Thorpe and Ben Morphett bounded up the scoresheet with a mighty leap. Double victories at the Colmore

  • Debut title for fencer Beth

    A DARLINGTON fencer has picked up a national title at the first time of asking. Beth Davidson, 40, won the women’s sabre title at her first attempt at the British Veterans’ Fencing Championships in Gloucester. The format for these championships

  • LTA programme keeps faith with talent Donia

    STOCKTON youngster Donia Abdel-Aziz has been retained on the Lawn Tennis Association’s AEGON FutureStars Programme for a second consecutive year. The nine-year-old, who trains at the Northumberland Tennis Academy high performance centre, is one

  • Broncos’ dreams over with defeat

    BUCK Inn Broncos finally saw their fading title hopes brought to an end after they lost 3-2 at fellow challengers Colburn Town last Saturday. In a real six-pointer both sides knew that whoever lost would be out of the title race so it was no

  • Richmond left to fly the flag in grand finals

    WESTFIELDS Richmond and Stillington are the last two remaining clubs from North Yorkshire involved in the grand finals of the competition. The former has a place in the stage two playoff final against Collingwood from North Tyneside, while the

  • On-song Police pile pressure on Dog

    FRANK Bainbridge Cup finalists Northallerton Police and Robert Thompsons both warmed up for this week’s final with good league wins last Sunday. The in-form Police travelled to relegation-threatened Spotted Dog and came away with a fine 2-0

  • Darlington man who set up vehicle rental firm retires

    A DARLINGTON businessman has retired due to ill health. Alan Noble set up Northgate, the UK’s leading commercial vehicle rental company from his then home in Hurworth in 1981. He has overseen its growth into a multi-million pound plc employing

  • Renewable energy firm offers advice on scheme

    THE potential benefits and pitfalls of renewable energy will be explained at two meetings next week. The new Feed in Tariffs (FIT) scheme was introduced on April 1 and gives farmers the potential of a guaranteed income for 20 years. Andrew Entwistle

  • Blonde beer launch

    THE Black Sheep Brewery has launched a new cask blonde beer, Golden Sheep, following the success of a limited edition last year. Developed by head brewer Alan Dunn, the new beer meets the growing demand for lighter blonde ales. Golden Sheep is

  • Reed Boardall continues delivery of frozen seafood

    A FROZEN seafood company in North-East Scotland has signed a new distribution agreement with a North Yorkshire company. Thistle Seafoods, of Peterhead, employs 300 people at Boddam on the Aberdeenshire coast and can produce up to 100 tonnes of

  • Wildlife award open for entries

    ENTRIES are invited for the country’s leading conservation competition. The FWAG Silver Lapwing Award is open to all farmers, farm managers, owners and tenants and recognises outstanding commitment to good environmental practice, while still

  • Retailers urged to support British meat

    THE NFU has called on retailers to show more commitment to British beef and lamb. It follows the monthly English Beef and Lamb Executive survey of its availability on supermarket shelves in March. Morrisons, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer displayed

  • Charity walk to help highlight uplands

    A CHARITY walk will drive home the importance of upland farming while raising funds for the Farm Crisis Network. More than 80 have already signed up for the Tenant Farmers’ Association walk in Upper Wharfedale. Stephen Wyrill, national vice-chairman

  • The Lord Nelson, Gainford, near Darlington

    Early doors good value at village pub LONG-time followers of this column might recall that this reviewer has fond memories of the Lord Nelson at Gainford, when as a newly wed in the early 70s she and husband Peter often stopped off for a shandy

  • Audit office says take-up of Defra funds is low

    THE National Audit Office has warned that Defra may have to pay back millions in unused EU money to Brussels. It believes the department over-estimated the uptake of its £200m organic entry level stewardship scheme. The NAO estimates the take-up

  • Her life under fire

    CHARLOTTE Madison, Britain’s first female attack pilot, has written a book about her exciting life. The blonde soldier had done three tours of Afghanistan by the age of 27 as a fighter pilot, flying the most expensive attack helicopter in aviation

  • Oh deer ! How to save your tasty roses

    THEY may look cute and cuddly, but muntjac deer are the bane of many gardeners’ lives, mine included. Over the years in my garden the natives of south-east Asia have stripped rose bushes of buds, chewed their way through shrubs and perennials

  • Sand martins take the ‘early bird’ honours

    ONE of the highlights of March birdwatching is to try to locate the first summer migrants returning from their wintering grounds. Wheatears tend to vie with sand martins for the earliest sighting but it was the latter species that took the

  • Jazz concerts far and wide

    AFTER my previous comments about the dearth of jazz outside Darlington and Gateshead, it is a pleasure to see a much wider spread this season, writes Peter Bevan. Particularly pleasing is the promising resumption of jazz at Stockton Arc with some

  • Carry Akroyd and Friends, Zillah Bell Gallery, Thirsk

    CARRY Akroyd and her friends – Andrew Haslen, Nik Pollard, Sue Shields and Anna Sweeten – have created a joyful and often intriguing exhibition at the Zillah Bell Gallery in Thirsk. Each, in their own way, explore the inter-relationships between

  • Elephantine undertaking

    A FORMER student of Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington, Loz Atkinson (right), is creating a life-size elephant for a parade in London. There will be 250 elephants, all hand-painted by both established and emerging talent, as part of

  • Village harks back to the countryside in flames

    BURNESTON, in Hambleton, has, as the modern reader might be able to intuit, a hot name. Dating back to the time of the Norman invasion – when it first appears in writing in the Domesday Book – and perhaps three or four centuries before, the village

  • Arrival of a savage in the nest

    IT is around this time of year that we could once expect the distinctive sound of the male cuckoo’s voice. The famous old verse that highlighted the bird’s brief summertime visit to this country was repeated regularly among country people. It

  • Greetings from cyberspace are killing postcards

    SPECTATOR doesn’t generally have a lot of time for marketing stunts, but is prepared to make an exception for Cumbria Tourism which this week has urged us all to rediscover the art of writing and sending a postcard. Hardly surprisingly, the age

  • Village defiled

    Sir, – I lived in Great Ayton many years ago before I moved to Canada. I did write to your newspaper a few years ago regarding the traffic in Great Ayton, hoping that one day it would have a one-way system. I am visiting again (still no one-way

  • Invitation

    Sir, – I was one of the 2,000 people who warmly applauded the soldiers of 10 Field Squadron Royal Engineers as they proudly marched through Northallerton recently, on their return from Afghanistan. Afterwards, I thought of the Catterick-based

  • Art opportunity

    Sir, – The building work on the Lile Close housing development here in the centre of Richmond is, as I understand it, likely to take almost a year. The site is currently surrounded by a vast, white, safety screen some 150m in length and 2m high

  • United Easter

    Sir, – Towards the end of last year, the churches of Hawes, Hardraw, Stalling Busk and Askrigg were united, with the Rev Ann Chapman, former vicar of Askrigg and Stalling Busk, as priest in charge. She is assisted by curates, the Rev Ian Robinson

  • Payment problem

    Sir, – Today (the first day after the Easter weekend) I visited Northallerton town centre. I took with me plenty of change to pay for car parking. However, in the Applegarth car park not one of the machines would accept any coins. There were

  • Futile square

    Sir, – North Yorkshire County Council has asked that objections to the closure of High Street parking places in Northallerton be sent to Area 2 Thirsk Highways Office, Thirsk Industrial Park, Thirsk YO7 3BX by April 16. This relates to the desire

  • NHS treasures

    Sir, – We often hear negative stories about the NHS, but I would like to give a big thank you to my surgeon, Mr Saeed, and all the staff in Gara ward, at the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton. I had a hip replacement operation on March 26 carried

  • Canker spreads?

    Sir, – While it would be an outrageous generalisation to suggest that all MPs are thieves, liars and cheats, it would be reasonable to aver, on the evidence available, that many (including some from our region) are selfserving, arrogant crooks

  • Pub rents

    Sir, – The new owner of the Traveller’s Rest in Skeeby, Mr Whitfield, was quoted in your paper as stating that it is not possible for the pub to generate a turnover of £4,000 per week and he is quite correct. As has already been demonstrated

  • Election over

    AS the General Election proper gets underway, for most people in our region the battleground is elsewhere. Because of entrenched political loyalties and the crudeness of our electoral system, there are only two seats which are generally agreed to

  • Grandson to be the first to invest in hydro shares

    THE grandson of a man who set up a hydro-electric scheme almost 100 years ago will be the first to buy shares in a new project. John Leyland formed the Bainbridge Electric Light Company in 1912 to harness the power of the River Bain to light homes

  • Hunt language

    Sir, – I am writing to comment on a letter regarding the Bilsdale Hunt’s support of Stockton South Tory candidate James Wharton (D&S, Feb 26) and the language used by the hunt to describe areas of Stockton South. I live in Grangefield and wish

  • Labour’s help

    Sir, – How many Richmond constituency readers must have been puzzled by the Lib Dem candidate’s lack of research in his letter (D&S, Mar 19). Let us hope that he is not misleading voters about the many ways in which constituents have been helped

  • Votes that count

    Sir, – We have seen recently that anyone, with or without a vote, could hire an ex minister at £3,000 a day to influence Government actions. Now I don’t have that sort of money, just a cross on a piece of paper. My mother in law lives in a

  • Pub’s plight

    Sir, – You would have thought Leslie Rowe (D&S, April 2), who has stood in a number of district and county council elections, without success, would know how the planning system operates. Only a small handful of planning applications go to the

  • April 9, 2010

    From this newspaper 100 years ago. Thirsk Police Court. Irving Pixton, a military chauffeur, York, was summoned for driving a motor car to the danger of the public on the highway between Coxwold and Husthwaite on March 5. A fine of 20s and costs

  • Complaints over new sign at historic pub

    THE landlord of Richmond’s oldest public house has defended his decision to change the signs on the front of building amid complaints from residents that he is defacing history. Paul Lindley took over the running of the Bishop Blaize four weeks

  • £878,000 grant to revamp Denes for wider public use

    A PARK in Darlington has been awarded £878,500 of lottery funding. Brinkburn Dene - better known as the Denes - will be given a full revamp, including new bridges, seats, information signs and lighting. The entrances will be improved