Last updated 12:05, Tuesday, 18 March 2008

From the Files

150 Years Ago

BIRTH ON THE RAILWAY PLATFORM AT WIGTON: On Thursday the wife of a labouring man was standing on the platform at Wigton Station waiting the arrival of a train. When the train stopped, one of the men in charge of the engine observed that the poor woman look ill and went to her. What was his surprise, on reaching the place where she stood, to find at her feet a new-born child. Proper assistance was at once procured and the poor mother and infant were moved to the workhouse.

125 Years Ago

LOCAL GOSSIP: Not long ago the pugnacious ‘John Peel’ came down on this journal like a load of bricks for saying something against the venerable and respectably city of Cockermouth of which John’s papers is the leading journal.

It is something worse than sacrilege to breathe a word against the city by the Cocker but this susceptibility apparently is not felt for Workington. In his sheet last week some shallow writing has been turned loose to abuse Workington and all it owns; and he does it in his own feeble way to the extent of a column and a half.

100 Years Ago

In 1908, the Wright brothers gave their first public demonstration of their ‘flying machine’ causing a sensation worldwide – an event that didn’t go unnoticed by The Whitehaven News: Montgolfier’s elementary discovery in aerostatics, when he filled his paper balloon with hot air and sent it aloft, was one of the signs of the times that Carlyle noted among the portents that ushered in the French Revolution of 1789. What new revolution would the venerable old Chelsea philosopher have thought impending if he had lived to see a machine half a ton in weight, without any balloon, without any gas, lift a man from mother-earth and fly off with him as steersman going at the rate of an express train? That is a remarkable new departure and a wonderful step in advance after not a great deal of progress in the way of ballooning since Montgolfier’s time.

75 Years Ago

A SEVERE earthquake affected the north of England on Saturday. Repercussions were felt in West Cumberland, the Lake District and Westmorland. Whitehaven, Cleator Moor and Millom reported feeling tremors.

INFLUENZA is still rife in Whitehaven and district, although fortunately the majority of cases are of a mild type. Last weekend, a Whitehaven doctor attended over 50 cases in one day, but peculiarly enough, not a single member of the borough’s police force was off duty – a tribute to their outdoor life.

SOME of the men working at the new “Grid” substation above the Loop Road, Whitehaven, noticed smoke coming from the roof of a stone-built barn on Jericho Farm, tended by Mr J Lancaster.

The barn, which contained a quantity of hay, plus several outbuildings were affected before the fire brigade arrived.

50 Years Ago

THE Atomic Energy Authority has announced that the responsibility for the fire at Windscale Works last October had been regarded primarily as collective, and no disciplinary action was proposed against any individual.

THE Ivy Mill, at Richmond, Hensingham, which manufactures children’s clothing, is to close. Ninety girls will finish work in groups over the next three weeks. The factory, which is owned by the West Cumberland Industrial Development Company, will be re-let.

BIGRIGG is not a dying village and there is no intention on the part of the County Council that it should be allowed to do so. On the contrary, there is a possibility of some further development, especially in regard to housing. These assurances were given to members of the Ennerdale RD Council a their monthly meeting last week.

25 Years Ago

WHITEHAVEN’S battle against the sea, which has already meant costly repair work to the storm-lashed West Pier, continues with bulldozers struggling to keep the harbour entrance free of silt.

WHITEHAVEN Civic Hall has pulled off something of a showbiz coup... chart-toppers Renee and Renato will appear at the theatre in March.

Their best-selling single Save Your Love was number one in the festive charts for a period of several weeks.

PEACE talks are being arranged to try and resolve the complex arguments between Lamplugh and Ennerdale parents over the site for the proposed new £170,000 school to serve both areas.

It has been proposed that both schools should close and be replaced by a new school.