25 Years Ago

January 16, 1976

WITHIN the next few weeks two groups of miners will shake hands several hundred feet below the summit of Shap Fell.

Their meeting will mark the breakthrough in the two-mile tunnel which is part of the Shap Aqueduct Scheme to improve water supplies to Lancaster, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside.

Work on the tunnel started from the south portal of Crookdale, towards the end of 1974.

A few months later another team of miners began blasting from the other side, at Wasdale.

A spokesman for the authority said this week that work was more or less up to schedule and it was hoped to complete the project in the spring of next year.

When the scheme is completed, up to 20 million gallons of water a day will be pumped from Haweswater through 13 miles of buried pipeline and the tunnel to the authority's Watchgate Treatment Works at Selside.

About 75 per cent of the rising main from Haweswater to Shap is now complete and work has started on the gravity main to the treatment works.

50 Years Ago

January 20, 1951

APART from the fact that the roads of this country - and especially those of Westmorland - were never constructed to take such an increased amount of traffic, the statistics show that there must be in use many thousands of 'vintage' cars whose 'lives' have been extended far beyond their safety span.

And the position with regard to road congestion will tend to deteriorate if the record business recently executed at the Kendal motor taxation office can be taken as a guide.

In three days, the office collected about £22,000 in motor taxes, the peak being £8,650 on Friday, while last year the biggest figure for one day was £ 6,400.

On top of this, motorists who disobey Kendal's parking rules and leave their cars on the wrong side of the road must be prepared to pay a fine which may work out as four shillings a minute.

A woman driver's five-minute lapse in the town cost her 20 shillings at the magistrate's court on Monday.

100 Years Ago

January 19, 1901

NIL nisi bonum applies to a dead century, just as a dead dog or a dead millionaire.

Now the 19th century is gone its praise is in all mouths.

Even bishops are content to draw a decent veil over its materialism, and to commemorate its goods and gains.

The Bishop of Ripon performed his part in the chorus handsomely the other day, at Bradford.

He noted how great a physical gain the past century brought us.

The population has grown from 16,000,000 to 41,000,000; the burden of taxation has fallen from 3l.2s to 2l.18s.

Wealth has risen per head from 140l.

to 303l.; wages have increased from 19l.

per head per year to 41l.

per year.

The average stature of man some few years ago was 5ft 7 1/2in; today it is 5ft 8 1/4in.

These are substantial facts truly; but the last contains some bitterness for the man who is only 5ft.

8 1/4in.

Formerly he might have flattered himself that he was a little higher than his fellows.

Now he is reduced to an average, a condition which is next door to a grievance.

150 Years Ago

January 18, 1851

MR A locked up his poultry, determined that he would not have his flower-beds destroyed by their search for seeds.

One day he saw several fowls digging deep for the seed of some of his flowers in futuro.

Upon his disturbing them they flew over the railings into the garden of Mr B; whereupon Mr A told Mr B that unless he (Mr B) kept his chickens in his own garden, he (Mr A) would shoot them, and no mistake; to which Mr B replied that he might shoot them, and be blessed.

Mr A did shoot them; and day after day dropped a dead fowl onto the garden of Mr B, informing him that there was another dinner for him.

Suddenly, however, Mr A discovered that his stock of birds was wonderfully diminished; and, upon his accusing Mr B of having purloined them by way of retaliation, that individual good humouredly showed him a hole through which his (Mr A's) fowls were wont to escape into his (Mr B's) garden, and thence into that of their owner; and, having done so, he politely thanked Mr A for the many excellent dinners he had provided him with.