100 years ago

The opening of the new council school on Alder Hill, Earby, took place. A large company met in the assembly hall and the school was declared open by the Rev L B Morris, county alderman and former rector of Thornton-in-Craven.

Quite a senstation was caused in Cononley when the vicar should have been present at St John’s Church to tie the nuptials of a Keighley lady and a Cononley gentleman, but he was in fact in Glusburn, unaware of the ceremony. A messenger was dispatched in the wedding coach and the vicar was driven back to Cononley at great haste.

Bolton Abbey was to see the King who waspaying a visit to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire for a few days of grouse shooting.

50 years ago

A sum of £1,200 for converting and improving street lighting in Barnoldswick involved converting 35 gas lamps in the Bolland Street area and by putting electric lamps in Victoria Road and Poets Corner.

The directors of Brown Muff and Co Ltd, the Bradford department store, announced the purchase of the goodwill and business of Amblers of Skipton, the old established fashion store in High Street, Skipton.

Skipton Urban District Council accepted the tender of Merritt and Fryers Ltd amounting to £13,110 for improvements to the town hall. It would consist of improvements to the offices and committee rooms, ladies and gentlemen’s toilets on the ground floor and main entrance.

25 years ago

Sutton man Cedric Brown celebrated 50 years’ service with Cross Hills-based Woodrow Universal Limited. Sixty-four-year-old Mr Brown joined the firm as a warehouse boy and worked his way up to being in charge of cloth inspection and quality control. To mark his half century, he was presented with a gold watch and stereo cassette player.

A 17-year-old Tosside lad gained his wings with the Red Devils – the famed Parachute Regiment. Ian Leverton was the youngest of his intake to gain his wings – only 24 of the 200 who started the course qualified. Not only that, he won the General Purpose Machine Gun award as the best shot in the group.

A Barnoldswick family were taken to hospital after high winds overturned their caravan on the first night of their holiday at Colwyn Bay, North Wales. Mother-of-three Sarah Kay was trapped underneath the one-tonne mobile home and had to be freed by her husband, Leslie. They, and their three sons – Alan, 14, Simon, 11, and Martin, seven – were treated at Bangor Hospital 16 miles away. The boys had been in bed when the caravan was blown on to its side by a huge gust of wind.

10 years ago

Silsden youngsters asked the town council to help them get a skate park. Alex Smith and friends Jack and Daniel Kendal, John Ridding, Liam Savoury and Robert Keenan produced a plan for the council of what they would like to see. Town mayor Lawrence Walton congratulated them for having the guts to raise the issue.

A Skipton medical student was jetting off to New Zealand to study cancer survival rates. Andrew Gill, 24, of Stirtonber, had been awarded £1,000 by the Cancer Research Campaign to investigate how living in a rural area affected treatment of the disease. Andrew was in his final year at Leeds University and would be carrying out his research at the School of Medicine in Auckland.

Craven had a respite in the foot and mouth crisis, with no new cases of the disease being reported over the past week. But a new report by Craven District Council showed that the crisis had decimated the local tourism industry, which had lost an estimated £19 million between February and June alone. The figure was expected to rise to £38 million. “We must pull together to rebuild confidence,” said council leader Chris Knowles-Fitton.