From Our Files

April 8, 1977

ATHENA noctura, the owl from Athens, had come a long way over the years to perch on the wall near Selside.

In fact, little owls are so abundant in the neighbourhood of Athens that 'owls to Athens' was synonymous with 'coals to Newcastle'.

Added to this was their sacred reputation because the Ancient Greeks worshipped the goddess Pallas Athene who sometimes appeared in the guise of an owl.

Somehow this one at Selside appeared incongruous, like an extra stone upon the wall at dusk when, unlike other owls, he ought to have remained in bed.

He remained unperturbed when I went back along the road to take a closer view.

His pale canary irises watched fiercely as he gave the characteristic circling movement of his head.

It was not from Athens but from Rome that the eccentric squire of Walton Hall, in Yorkshire, Charles Waterton, brought the first recorded 'civettas' to England in May of either 1842 or 1843.

It is doubtful whether any of these survived and the ancestors of our present stock are much more likely to be descended from some released in Kent in 1872.

So the spread to the borders has taken a century and the first recorded nest in Westmorland occurred in 1944.

50 Years Ago

April 12, 1952

KENDAL will figure prominently in broadcasting programmes on Easter Day.

The parish church bells will be included in peals from six towns in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland at 9.20am in the North Home Service.

In the Children's Hour at 5pm, the Rev R.T.

Brooks will introduce a programme of Easter hymns and carols from Zion Chapel, Kendal, sung by the children of the church choir and the choir of Kendal High School.

The evening service will be from Zion Congregational Chapel, Kendal, and conducted by the minister, the Rev G.J.

Williams.

The organist will be Mr Leslie G.

Powell.

100 Years Ago

April 12, 1902

HAS Morecambe been over-boomed? A correspondent this week tells a story which makes a melancholy sequel to the almost miraculous expansion of three to four years ago:

"There are rows of streets where empty houses are to be counted by the score.

Dozens of those which were built as the boom was dying out have never been occupied.

Palatial hotels are half empty and at least one of their builders has failed.

One of the towers is in liquidation and is to be removed.

The other is at a standstill.

Not one of the amusement companies paid a dividend last year - some did not even pay their way and one is in the hands of a receiver.

Private householders and small shopkeepers have felt the pinch terribly.

In a sentence, the blow to Morecambe's financial stability was so reeling as to involve every section of the community in its effects."

It is consoling after this to be assured that Morecambe at present is disposed to reset upon its laurels, avoid wild cat schemes and cut throat competition and concentrate its energies on the task of recuperation.

150 Years Ago

April 11, 1852

SOME scamps at Maryport played off a very unsavoury joke at the expense of the friends of the Ragged School.

Those ladies and gentlemen had assembled at the meeting connected with the school, and an eloquent speaker was expatiating on the gratifying character of the results which must follow their labours.

"Yes! My friends," he exclaimed enthusiastically, " the sweet-smelling fragrance of your pious deeds" - at that moment a gust of wind from the door wafted over the assembly of the most villainous smell that ever assailed the olfactory nerves of any West Cumbrian.

The speaker gasped, coughed and then sat down, utterly extinguished by the abominable odour.

The windows were all flung open, but the stench increased, and vinaigrettes, smelling-bottles and snuff were powerless to counteract it.

After a search of half-an-hour, when some 15 or 16 of the younger ladies had fainted in the arms of eligible young men, the origin of the evil smell was discovered in the shape of a porringer of sulphuretted hydrogen, which someone had placed behind the door.

It was, of course, thrown out of the window, but the tainted atmosphere of the room rendered it impossible to breathe it any longer, and the proceedings were accordingly adjourned sinedie.