25 Years Ago

January 13, 1978

A CAMPSITE to accommodate small youth groups during the summer is planned by the Forestry Commission at Staveley-in-Cartmel. Plans to establish about an eight-pitch site at Bells Close Wood, in Astley Plantation, are now before South Lakeland Council for consideration. A spokesman for the commission said it was intended to be a temporary site for short-term periods during the summer.

FISHING is traditionally a male sport, but a Carnforth shop assistant has proved that women can do just as well. Mrs Diane Maudsley's ability with a rod and line earned her fifth place in Morecambe Bay Anglers' recent contest. Diane, 23, of New Street, Carnforth, has been fishing for six-months and her father, Ron Baines, is a keen angler and member of the Morecambe Bay club. She beat nearly 30 male competitors and was presented with a Christmas chicken. "I couldn't believe it. There were some experts there and they know where the fish are," she told the Gazette. She now hopes to repeat her success in the Morecambe open championship next October.

50 Years Ago

January 17, 1953

A WESTMORLAND patrol policeman, who has been impressed with the frequent examples of bad driving encountered on the roads of the county, fixed to his car a camera with the shutter operated from his steering wheel so that instant photographs of incidents could be made, not with a view to prosecuting, but so that some imputus could be given to the campaign for road safety.

100 Years Ago

January 17, 1903

Scarcely anything is rarer in Kendal than a fatal ice accident, though three or four times every winter we get ice of a tempting thickness somewhere in the neighborhood. The death of a boy of ten in the canal on Tuesday is the exception which proves that such accidents are possible. There is some reason, perhaps surprise, that the number of deaths from a similar cause is not greater, when we remember the hardihood with which juvenile ice explorers venture into danger. In these matters, as we get weightier we get wiser.

150 Years Ago January 15, 1853

ON SUNDAY last, a cow of the Durham breed, belonging to John Y. Thexton Esq, of Ashton House, Beetham, near Milnthorpe, calved, along with a remarkably fine bull calf, which is still alive, a very curious lusus naturae. The head of the creature contained eight rows of teeth and two tongues, but had no eyes, ears, nostrils, legs or feet. The skin around the head was covered with long shaggy hair. And the projecting substance between the jaws was covered with hair. Mr Knight, veterinary surgeon of Milnthorpe, at the request of Professor Spooner, has forwarded the same to the Royal Veterinary College, London, to undergo examination, and to be placed in the museum of that institution.

January 16, 2003 11:00