Rutland and Stamford Mercury Memories: news and adverts we featured in May 2015, 2000, 1950, 1925 and 1825
We’re on a little trip down memory lane to look at news from up to 200 years ago.
Our Rutland & Stamford Mercury Memories is produced thanks to the support of the Stamford Mercury Archive Trust.
10 years ago
A cafe owner has expressed her delight and gratitude after a charity stepped up to buy a defibrillator - less than a week after an appeal was launched.
Stamford XT, an association of former Round Table members, donated £1,200 to Cafe Black.
Hannah Darby, who runs the cafe in Stamford High Street with Jim Harding, appealed to people to raise money to install the life-saving equipment after she went on a first aid course. She was stunned when Stamford XT stumped up the whole amount.
Jon Weston, chairman of the group, said: "Cafe Black's appeal was a perfect match for what we wanted to do, so it didn't take us long to agree to fund the entire cost of the defibrillator."
Hannah said she was overwhelmed at the generosity from the group and members of the public who have donated to the campaign. She will pass on the £235 collected to another business for another defibrillator.
A former hotel will become the new home for young footballers while they develop
their skills and complete their education.
The FootballCV Academy, which recently moved to the Borderville Sports Complex in Ryhall Road, Stamford, will use the Garden House Hotel as a base for its students from August.
The 20-bedroom hotel in High Street St Martin's closed in February this year, and the building has been vacant since then.
It is owned by Burghley House Preservation Trust.
Students will move into the building ready for the start of the 2015/16 football season.
FootballCV Academy, which moved to Stamford from Corby, aims to combine football development with academic achievement.
The Garden House Hotel was run by John and Janet Finlayson for 13 years before it closed in February when the couple decided to retire.
The buildings were first established as the St Martin’s Guest House in the 1930s and expanded to become a hotel in the early 1980s.
25 years ago
Sir Elton John took to the stage with his piano in the beautiful setting of Burghley House to a rapturous reception.
The world-famous star thrilled capacity crowds of more than 22,000 over two nights.
The flamboyant singer, whose career spans three decades, delighted the audience with a two-and-a-half hour set, enhanced by a giant video screen.
It featured Your Song, Rocket Man, Daniel, Crocodile Rock, I'm Still Standing and Sacrifice, but he chose not to play the Princess Diana tribute song, Candle In The Wind, which was re-written and played at her funeral.
Elton, sporting a powder blue suit with silver piping, surprised the audience with two encores, although confessed to be suffering from stomach cramps.
The set, which featured many moments of improvisation, concluded with a rousing version of Benny and the Jets.
Two old friends born in Rutland have met up again after discovering they lived just two miles apart on Spain's sunny Costa Blanca.
Maurice Rippin was born in Greetham and Terry Dams in Uppingham. They met as 15-year-old apprentices in 1950 at Blackstones Engineering Works in Stamford, and were both interested in football.
Maurice went into the army and served in Germany, while Terry joined the RAF and was stationed in North Luffenham.
Returning to civilian life, Maurice rejoined Blackstones and played football for Oakham Imperial in the Leicestershire Senior League, and for Greetham FC.
Terry returned from the RAF in 1958 to engineering work, first with Blackstones and then with Newage International. He played for Oakham Town and ran for Kettering Town Harriers.
Maurice then joined Pearl Assurance and persuaded Terry to join the company, both of them working for the Stamford branch.
In 1965 Maurice was promoted to manage the Ellesmere Port branch. He returned to Oakham in 1967 and with his late brother-in-law, John Bangs, started an estate agent and insurance brokers, Rippin and Bangs in Mill Street.
Among the properties he sold were Spanish villas, and in 1991 he moved to Cabo Roig, south of Alicante, continuing his trade until he retired last year.
Terry was promoted with Pearl, working in Spalding and Huntingdon before returning to Stamford in 1976 to work at Newage International.
In 1989 he moved to Ashwell, where his wife Eileen ran the post office for eight years before they retired to Cottesmore, and, in December, moved to Spain.
They both have the Mercury posted out by family, and Maurice looks up the paper on the internet.
Valuable historic treasures believed to be buried in Stamford could be dug up and saved thanks to a U-turn in council thinking.
Land between St George's Street and Gas Lane is being levelled ready to be sold for redevelopment.
It is thought to be the boundary of a 10th century Danish Borough and is likely to require archaeological investigation before redevelopment.
Owner of the site, David Wilson Homes, withdrew plans to redevelop it in March, and is currently negotiating its sale.
South Kesteven District Council planning services manager Mike Sibthorpe said if the site is bought by a new developer, a planning application must be received for any new proposals.
Campaigners fighting to get a piece of life-saving equipment for Stamford Hospital have urged people to dig deep to raise the £15,000 needed.
The League of Friends of Stamford Hospital want to buy a colonoscope to help in its fight against colorectal cancer.
A colonoscope is able to detect the cancer in the early stages, which is treatable and therefore helps to improve the patient's chances.
More than £10,000 has already been raised thanks to the Castle Cement Classic Golf Day, organised by Rotary Club of Stamford Burghley.
A Sunday lunch has been organised at Stamford's Lady Anne Hotel on July 9 with guest speakers Jim Bowen and Fred Trueman, to raise more money.
Dr Mike Dronfield, consultant physician and chairman of the League of Friends of Stamford Hospital, said: "For many years we have offered a service for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy which we are planning to enhance in the near future with the purchase of new video endoscopic equipment.
"There is a large unmet demand for colonoscopy but perhaps the most important is for the early detection of colorectal cancer. Also, if polyps are found at colonoscopy their removal can prevent subsequent cancers developing.”
50 years ago
Angela Beard has completed 16 miles of a sponsored walk, despite having a dislocated hip.
When she eventually dropped out of the 20-mile walk, it was only because her shoe strap was tight and hurting her foot.
Angela (8) from 4 Melbourne Road, Stamford, raised £16 for the Stamford Spastics Society on their annual walk - nearly £10 more than the average for the other walkers.
Angela had been in plaster for 18 months when she was younger but has not completely overcome the damage.
Mrs Shirley Beard, Angela’s mother, is on the Spastics Society committee. It was Angela’s first sponsored walk.
"She was determined to go and we could not stop her," said Mrs Beard.
The walk, which started at the Stamford College of Education, raised £650 from 98 participants.
A Monk and Co Ltd, the Stamford-based building and civil engineering contractors, has been awarded the contract for the long-awaited Kates Cabin flyover. The contract is worth about £750,000.
Work is expected to begin within the next four weeks, and completion is scheduled for April, 1977.
A four-span bridge will cross the A1 immediately south of the present junction, and a new carriageway 1.2km in length will by-pass Alwalton village and form a new junction of the A605 at Chesterton village.
Sir - I would suggest that Disgusted, Newton Road, Uppingham, who complained of dogs from Stockerston Crescent and Bayley Close fouling footpaths (Mercury, May 30) should not make rash generalisations. We do not all allow our dogs to do this.
Does Disgusted realise just how hazardous it is to walk up Stockerston Road where there is no footpath and much traffic? Newtown Road leads to the open countryside where dogs like to be let off their leashes (under control, I might add).
There are also several dogs roaming loose up Newtown Road which do not belong to either Stockerston Crescent or Bayley Close residents. I suggest that it is these dogs that are largely responsible for the fouling.
Indignant,
Uppingham
100 years ago
David Jones, a London tinker, aged 35, was brought up in custody at Stamford Police Station on Friday morning charged with being drunk and disorderly and also assaulting a police sergeant.
As he had been very violent, and was said to be a strong man and a contortionist, he was guarded by three police officers. But he was perfectly quiet and was in a penitent mood, pleading guilty and blaming his war service for his outburst overnight.
The sergeant told the magistrates (Mr ES Bowman and Mr R Bell) that at 11 o'clock on Thursday night he and PC. Horton saw the prisoner in a drunken condition in Tinwell Road. Near the Roman Bank, the man commenced to shout and make use of obscene language. He was also brandishing a large file, striking the wall with it and putting himself in a fighting attitude.
A woman was with him and he swore at her and abused her.
A witness went to him and remonstrated with him for his disorderly behaviour and advised him to be quiet, but he refused to stop. As Jones' conduct became worse they decided to arrest him.
When they were putting the handcuffs on him he was very violent, and as he refused to walk to the police station they had to obtain a conveyance to take him there. During the struggle the prisoner assaulted the witness by kicking him on the legs.
Jones, asking to be dealt with leniently, said that during the war he was prisoner in a German camp for two years and seven months and was badly knocked about and beaten by the Germans.
In consequence of the cruel treatment he received whilst he was in captivity, a glass of beer had a bad effect upon him and he didn't know what he was doing when he was under its influence.
In fact, he said, he was absolutely worse than a lunatic when he had a drop too much.
He expressed regret for what he had done and said he had a wife to keep - and he believed she was outside the court waiting for him. He hoped he would be given another chance.
Frank Robinson, of Dyke, was summoned at Bourne Sessions on Thursday for not having an effective silencer on a motorcycle at Bourne. He pleaded not guilty.
PC Gibson stated that he saw the defendant riding a motorcycle which was making a loud cracking noise. Examining the cycle, he found that the gases did not enter an expanding chamber.
The defendant stated that he had fixed a Thermos flask on to the cycle as a silencer, but it had worked loose.
The defendant was ordered to pay 5s.
The Whitsuntide Friday Market at Stamford was a fairly busy one, with a large number of stallholders and salesmen.
A new-comer, from London, who offered what he described as being genuine oil paintings in frames for sale at prices ranging from 4s to 10s a pair did not attract many customers.
His experience was akin to that of a man whose stock-in-trade, displayed in a motorcycle sidecar, varied from coat hangers to cycle and motorcycle tyres.
There was a good demand for cut flowers; in fact, the supply was not equal to the demand owing to the absence of sunshine during the week. Plants that were in bloom sold well, as also did bedding-out plants. Prices remained about the same as they had been throughout the month of May. There certainly did not seem to be a cut in prices.
From a motorcar stand, tins of salmon, jellies, tinned fruits of all kinds, washing powder, soap, and other household commodities were sold in fairly large quantities at prices which were claimed to be below those at shops. But a mental comparison made by a news representative did not substantiate the claim in a number of instances.
200 years ago
As a poor woman named Mary Perkins, of Benefield, near Oundle, was passing through a close where they were some beasts grazing near her home, one of them, a heifer, attacked her, broke her arm, and otherwise so much injured her that she lies in a state from which she is not expected to recover.
The young gentlemen of Uppingham School delivered their speeches to a very numerous audience, comprising almost all the first families of the neighbourhood, and many gentlemen who had formerly been educated at the school.
The speakers acquitted themselves with great credit.
The day proved very fine; and the scene in the Market-place, crowded with elegantly dressed ladies returning from the school, was gay and striking.
Upwards of 70 ladies and gentlemen sat down to dinner at the Falcon, and many went away not being able to find accommodation.
The ball in the evening was very well attended, and the dancing was kept up with spirit to a late hour.
There was on Saturday last the largest concourse of persons ever seen in Stamford, to witness the ascent of Mr Green's balloon.
Persons accustomed to calculate the numbers comprised in large masses of human beings, state that from 25,000 to 30,000 individuals were collected on this occasion; and we know that many of them had come from distances of as much as 40 or 50 miles.
The several inns in Stamford were of course crowded to an unprecedented degree, and few private families were without guests.
For three days before the ascent, Mr Green showed the balloon in the assembly-rooms, and obtained through the exhibition there, it is believed, at least 100/.
The fineness of the weather put everybody on the tiptoe of pleasurable expectation, and augmented the attraction of the gas-works, from which the ascent was to take place.
About half-past three in the afternoon, the process of inflation being completed, the balloon rose majestically in an unclouded sky, and gave rapturous and unalloyed delight to the immense crowds assembled.
All the calculations of the æronauts were realised: a more beautiful and successful ascent had never been witnessed.
Mr Green, and his intrepid companion Miss Stocks, waved the flags with which they were provided.
The wind blew from the Westward, but so gently that the progress of the æronauts through the blue æther was scarcely perceptible. The balloon continued in sight from Stamford for the long period of sixty-five minutes; in the course of which time it passed over the country in a direct line between this place and Thorney, in the Isle of Ely.
From the cathedral of Peterborough it was very distinctly seen.
At Thorney, which is 17 miles from Stamford, Mr Green opened the valve of the gas, and on nearing the earth his grappling-iron brought him to in a field of wheat, where he advised Miss Stocks to alight, which she did with great promptitude.
Instantly the balloon re-ascended, and with it a laborer named Bolton (well known in the neighbourhood of Thorney by the appellation of the Duke of Bolton), who had rendered some assistance, and who had got hold of a rope, by which he courageously hung whilst the balloon and car skimmed the hedges of several fields for three quarters of a mile. At length the poor fellow dropped to the ground, from a height of about 15 feet: he was at first stunned, but soon recovered himself, and was able to follow the balloon and render further assistance in securing it.
