Rutland and Stamford Mercury Memories: news and adverts we featured in 2015, 2000, 1950, 1925 and 1825
It’s time for our weekly look back at the news and adverts featured in the Rutland & Stamford Mercury during this week in May in years gone by.
Mercury Memories is produced thanks to the support of the Stamford Mercury Archive Trust.
10 years ago
Lincolnshire County Council's leader believes abolishing district councils could give the county more bargaining power with the Government.
Coun Martin Hill (Con) thinks Lincolnshire does not get a fair deal from the Government, and taking away a tier of councils and working more closely with the police, health and other sectors could give the county more weight to push for devolved powers and better funding.
Coun Hill said they needed to accept the Government is going to balance the books. Cuts are the order of the day across the public sector.
One solution, according to Coun Hill, would be to get rid of district councils. This would potentially mean more power for smaller authorities such as Stamford and Bourne town councils. Coun Hill believes this could save up to £30million a year.
"I don't want to criticise South Kesteven District Council," he added. "This is just about where we can sensibly move forward."
Labour councillor Phil Dilks sits on both sides of the debate, serving Deeping St James on both the county and district council.
He said: "All areas of public services clearly need to find ways of closer working to deliver the services Lincolnshire people deserve-and pay for.
“But simply calling for another massive reorganisation diverts attention from failure to find real solutions. It would be hugely expensive, and may achieve little or no improvements for the public.”
Minecraft is a videogame that has taken the world by storm with its addictive non-linear gameplay and charming, back-to-basics graphics.
More than 60 million copies have been sold and the company that created it, Mojang, was bought by Microsoft for $2.5bn in November. There has even been talk of a Minecraft movie.
Now one teacher is using Minecraft in the classroom to help pupils develop their skills in technology.
Ray Chambers is head of IT and computing at Uppingham Community College. He introduced Minecraft as a way of teaching some parts of the computing curriculum after a suggestion by a pupil.
He said: "I had a very dry approach to teaching logic gates (a key building block of a digital circuit) which was not stimulating. It was during a lesson that a pupil said 'you mean like Minecraft?'.
"This made me research how I could use it in the classroom. Many of the pupils were using it and it was already very gender neutral."
25 years ago
The winners of a crimebusting retail radio link competition have been announced.
Schoolchildren were asked by Stamford police to design a sticker and poster which would be used to promote the revolutionary scheme launched in the town.
About 55 shops and 10 licensed premises have joined the hi-tech linkup between police, traders, the council and CCTV headquarters in Grantham, which allows people to track criminal activity.
Stamford Insp John Fisher enlisted the help of schools after the problem of some pupils stealing from town centre shops became apparent.
Insp Fisher said with the help of Pc Brian Bonney and Pc Keith Goddard they decided to try to involve the young people in reducing crime.
Sponsors donated £4,000 in prizes and associated costs which included a computer for each winning school and runner-up prizes of PC World vouchers.
The senior winner was Emma Wilkinson, from Stamford High School and the junior winner was Oliver Hall from Copthill Primary School, Uffington.
Insp Fisher said: "Our children are our future and they are Stamford's future as well.
"We need to give them the best start. As a parent it is what I am trying to do with my children - only time will tell what they make of me as a father.”
Competition sponsors and thanks go to: Vic Couzens, of Couzens Builders, Ian Page, of Mitchell & Hudson Builders, Trevor Jackson & Brain Horton, of Bowmans Builders (Cambs), Louise Hall, of Roadphone, Paul Mills & Kim Raymond, of Stam- ford Animation, Alex Pistolas, of Central Nightclub, Mayor Cedric Cadman and all the schools.
"Clean up Stamford" - that's the message from the newly elected president of the town's Chamber of Trade and Commerce.
Don Lambert aims to lead the way in improving the day-to-day cleanliness of Stamford.
He said: "I would like to introduce a 'cleanliness charter' for the traders where they can help themselves by keeping their own patch around their shop or business clean.
"This is especially needed in Red Lion Street and Silver Lane. We ought to look at adopting the continental way of doing things."
Mr Lambert also announced plans to encourage the development of entertainment in the town and to improve the Meadows by putting lights along the river.
A publicity drive to bring tourists in from cities such as London, Northampton and Lincoln is also something the Chamber's president intends to see happen within the year.
75 years ago
It was revealed at Tuesday's meeting of the Stamford Town Council, at which the Mayor Alderman NA Pledger presided, that it will cost over £1,000 to remedy the defects which are causing dampness in converted huts on the Empingham Road temporary housing estate and that as the Ministry of Health will not meet the expense it will have to be met by the ratepayers of the town.
The Borough Surveyor reported that he estimated the cost at £17 13s. id. per dwelling (a total of £1,089), and it was recommended that application should be made for permission to raise a loan for this amount and also for a further loan of £155 for the provision of dustbins, clothes posts and street name plates.
Also in connection with the temporary housing estate, it was reported that the County Council would not require the hospital building for use as a school.
Alderman F Sindall said thanks were due to the Stamford Mercury for bringing this matter to light. Had it not been for their action nothing would have been done.
Coun GC Swanson said a lot of people were ready to criticise the Council's efforts in connection with the hutted camp.
Alderman AFT Jeeves announced that, although the total amount due in rates during the year ended 31 March, 1950, amounted to £64,500, they finished the year with only £18 17s 6d outstanding.
Mr Thomas Needham Smith, of 50 Ryhall Road, Stamford, believed to be the oldest male resident of the town, was the guest-of-honour at a tea-party held at the Blackstone works in celebration of his 90th birthday.
Born on 21 May, 1860, Mr Smith joined Messrs Blackstone & Co as long ago as 1874, when the factory was in St Peter's Street, and he helped to move the firm to its present location in 1887. He retired in 1921 after 47 years in the agricultural fitting shops, but went to work for another Stamford firm until about two years ago.
For many years this remarkable man was well known as an accomplished campanologist. Today, his chief hobby is reading ‘The Times’ each day from beginning to end. Asked if he listened to the radio, he replied, "Yes, but only to the news." He is a relative of Henry Smith, who, in 1837, founded the firm which later was to become Messrs Blackstone & Co Ltd.
A widower for some 15 years, he now lives with his son, Harold, who has himself worked for the firm for 45 of his 59 years. Another son, Sydney, retired in 1948 after 50 years with the firm and now his two sons are keeping up the family traditions.
So far the three generations have an aggregate of 177 years' service with the company.
Before the tea party on Monday, Tom walked around the factory for more than an hour and met a number of his former colleagues. One of them, 67-year-old Jack Palmer, was an apprentice under him just 51 years ago. Others who were boys under him are still employed in the factory and include James Middleton (aged 69), Godfrey Miles (aged 65) and Arthur Harrison (aged 67).
Tom has been a moderate drinker and smoker all his life. At one time he was the landlord of the O'Brien's Arms inn, but that was just a sideline, and he continued to work in the factory at the same time.
100 years ago
There were not so many medical marvels in Stamford Market on Friday as there were the previous week, but a middle-aged man who lectured on the subject of the uses and abuses of food imparted a good deal of sound information to a large crowd in Broad Street. More people accepted his gratuitous advice than bought the formula he had to sell - a formula which he claimed would make a liquid medicine, to be taken once daily, that would create a desire for food and an enjoyment of food. His takings were extremely small after his first half-hour's oration. Among the free hints on health that he gave were the following:
Eat an orange before breakfast - that is the best time to eat oranges.
Eat tomatoes, but without vinegar.
Drink lemon and barley water fairly frequently.
Eat brown bread rather than white bread.
Eat at least one apple a day, especially after taking fatty foods.
Reduce the quantity of potatoes you are eating if you suffer from indigestion.
Don't eat supper late at night.
Lord Burghley, son and heir of the Marquess of Exeter, landed at Plymouth on Thursday from the Red Star Liner Lapland on his return from America.
He had crossed the Atlantic specially to compete at the Relay Carnival at Philadelphia of the University of Pennsylvania, where he represented Cambridge University, his companion, Mr AE Porritt, representing Oxford. Lord Burghley won the 400 metres event in fifty-four and four-fifths seconds, which is only two-fifths of a second short of the record time, and set a record for the Philadelphia track.
When interviewed at Plymouth, Lord Burghley was loud in his praise of American athletes. "The Americans take sport more earnestly and seriously than we do at home," he said.
"My most lasting impression of America," he added, "is the hurry and bustle of the Wall Street Stock Exchange. There is nothing like it in the world that I know of."
Lord Burghley and his friend crossed the Atlantic in the White Star Liner Homeric, and witnessed the sinking of the Japanese steamer Raifuku Maru, with the loss of all hands, about which there has been much controversy. He was emphatic that Captain Roberts, of the Homeric, did everything that was possible in the circumstances.
"We saw the terrible occurrence," he said, "from the time the Homeric arrived on the scene to the end, when the Japanese vessel turned turtle and sank.”
200 years ago
Mr. Green, the aeronaut, has been week engaged making experiments to the purity and Strength the Stamford gas, with a view to correctness in his calculations when filling the balloon for his ascent the time of our races. He pronounces the gas to be excellent.
At six o'clock on Tuesday evening he gratified numerous spectators by letting off in the High-street a pilot balloon, about five feet high, (constructed of paper, varnished) which he had charged with gas at the pipe of a common shop-light in a house the street at present used as a receptacle for the loose materials of the company.
The balloon rose quickly and very beautifully in the North-west direction, and was soon out of sight.
At a general meeting of the Stamford gas company held yesterday, Mr Wm Lowson was appointed clerk at the gas works. The meeting afterwards came to the determination of letting the wharfage ground, for the erection of warehouses and sheds to accommodate the public.
An inquest was held at Bourn, by Mr Mastin, coroner, on the body of Mr Wm Roberts, aged 52, who fell down stairs at the Six Bells Inn, and died soon after. Apprehension was entertained that he had fractured his skull, but a medical gentleman gave it as his opinion that apoplexy had been the cause of death, and a verdict to that effect was recorded.
Caution. Thomas Dams, of Harringworth, in the county of Northampton, do hereby caution the public against trusting my wife, Elizabeth Dams, who has left me, as I will not pay or be answerable for any debts she may contract. Thomas Dams, Harringworth, May 14.
Great complaints have occurred within these last few days by several persons of being grossly insulted by a number of men employed in repairing the road between Fosdyke Bridge and Holbeach, who seize as they pass, and make a demand of money. If they do not succeed in their demands they insult passengers by throwing earth at them, and using the insolent language.
On Monday morning last as some labourers were felling timber in a wood at Benefield, near Oundle, a large tree rather unexpectedly came down, and caught two of them before they could retreat to a proper distance. A man named Roe was so dreadfully hurt (having his back and both his thighs broken) that he died the same night, leaving a wife and family chargeable to the parish; and another man named Wright was also very much bruised in the chest, but it is hoped will recover.
