100 years ago

Councillor John E Gibbs wrote: “I notice an extract of the Streets and Buildings Committee’s minutes, to which I have called the attention of the Markets and Streets and Buildings Committee which concerns the excreta of the cattle lying about on the road, which was never properly cleared away, and left to dry and to be blown about as dust, which I expound is very injurious to health.

My contention is that the whole of the roads whereon cattle are allowed to stand round the market should be either made of tar macadam or concrete, so that they could be efficiently cleaned. At the present time it is impossible to wash down an ordinary water macadam road without doing considerable damage to it by the continual washing, and in the interests of public health this is a matter that should receive careful attention on the part of the committees concerned.”

 

50 years ago

Unprecedented security arrangements would be taken at the Law Courts in London when the Court of Criminal Appeal began hearing appeals of men convicted in the Great Train Robbery trial.

A team of CID officers had checked the Law Courts and drawn up a security plan which would be in operation throughout the hearing - expected to continue for more than a week. Plain-clothes officers would be stationed at strategic points inside the building and at the entrances. Vehicles entering the three car parks would be subjected to a special scrutiny.

The appeals would be heard in the Lord Chief Justice’s Court, the largest court in the building, which had a staircase leading from the dock to the ground-floor cells. Swing-doors near the court which gave access to the Law Courts maze of corridors had been chained and bolted. The public would be restricted to the public gallery, which had a separate entrance outside the Law Courts.

 

25 years ago

Thousands of Brownies had flocked to the Snowball Plantation in Stockton-on-Forest to celebrate the organisation’s 75th anniversary. The children had probably taken part in the same kind of activities as their predecessors had done all those years ago.

Mrs Nelly Buckley, the county president of North Yorks group, said: “I helped to set up a pack in 1931 and things have not changed all that much. The youngsters today still enjoy the fun and friendship they gain from the Brownies, and they enjoy helping the community.”

More than 2000 children had taken part in face-painting competitions, orienteering in the plantations and braving an adventure playground. They were among 400,000 Brownies across Britain celebrating their anniversary. Almost one in three girls in Britain between the ages of seven and ten had been, or were, Brownies.