Newspaper memories: news and adverts we featured in June 2015, 2000, 1975, 1925 and 1825
A look at the past through the eyes of Mercury reporters and ad reps in days gone by.
Our Rutland & Stamford Mercury Memories is produced thanks to the support of the Stamford Mercury Archive Trust.
10 years ago
A cafe co-owner has appealed to customers and Stamford residents to help raise £1,200 for a defibrillator in the town's High Street.
Hannah Darby, who runs Cafe Black with Jim Harding, approached St John Ambulance about installing the lifesaving equipment after attending a first aid course.
She was astonished to learn that the survival rate for someone who had stopped breathing was as low as eight per cent when using CPR, but that jumped up to 70 per cent if a defibrillator was used.
Hannah said: "I found out that there was a defibrillator at Stamford Arts Centre and at a dentist's surgery. But I imagine a lot of people don't know where they are.
"If you are in the High Street and something happens but you don't know where the defibrillator is then it makes no difference.
"Cafe Black is located in the heart of Stamford, right in the centre of the town, with thousands of shoppers and workers passing our doors every week.
"This made me realise that Cafe Black could be the perfect place to install a defibrillator unit in the town."
Hannah has appealed to people in Stamford to help her raise the £1,200 needed to buy the equipment. She said; "God forbid something happens, but you want it to be a positive story rather than a negative one."
A collection tin has already been set up in the cafe, and anyone who wants to donate can simply drop in.
Dannii Vincent, who ran the successful Dosh4Defibs campaign to get a defibrillator in every Stamford primary school, said Hannah's campaign was ‘fantastic news’.
A paralysed former rugby player plans to build a state-of-the-art rehabilitation centre to help others injured through sport.
Former Leicester Tigers and England Under-21 rugby star Matt Hampson is seeking planning permission to build the Get Busy Living Centre at an old aircraft hanger in Burrough-on-the-Hill, near Melton Mowbray.
Matt, who lives in Cold Overton, set up the Matt Hampson Foundation to help injured young people after being paralysed from the neck down while training with the England Under-21s nearly 10 years ago.
The new centre has been a dream of his for some time, but with funding coming in and plans drawn up, it is edging closer to a reality.
Matt said: "It's for our beneficiaries to come to with their families and share experiences. They can also benefit from different therapies, and meet and talk to other people. That's the most important thing the foundation can offer.
"You don't really know what an individual is going through until you have been through it yourself."
One of the people the foundation has been helping, and who would benefit from the new centre, is 10-year-old Seb Goold. Seb, from Wansford, had to have his right leg amputated above the knee after falling from a moving coach. The Matt Hampson Foundation is helping him, through the Seb Goold Trust, to once again play the many sports he loved before his accident.
25 years ago
Today the Mercury joins the fight to save Blackstone’s Sports and Social Club from being bulldozed.
And you, the readers, can play your part in saving an important sports facility for the district.
The club needs to raise £1million to buy the Lincoln Road ground to stop it being turned into a housing development.
The Mercury is the first company to pledge its support to the fight but campaigners hope many others will join in.
Eric Marvel, chairman of the committee, said although the overall target was £1million this would be reduced substantially if the club wins Lottery grants or district council funding.
Talks have already taken place with Sport England and South Kesteven District Council, which has responded favourably to the proposals.
Mr Marvel said: "It has been a long fight to get this far but now we need everyone to help us push that final bit. It is still early days but we need to get everyone involved in raising the money needed and secure the club's future."
The four-acre site is owned by landlords Invensys whose tenancy with the sports club was due to end on Wednesday (May 31) and developers David Wilson Homes were expected to step in.
Protestors had thought the battle was lost but Invensys threw them a last-minute lifeline by giving them an extension on the tenancy to buy the ground.
Scaffolding which collapsed while a workman was on his tea break has cost a local builder more than £3,000.
Victor Couzens was in charge of work on 33 Broad Street, Stamford, which was undergoing roofing repairs and cleaning of its stone fascia.
But when an employee of Stonetech of Stamford, left the scaffolding to have a break, on April 13, last year, the two-storey high structure collapsed onto cars parked in the street below. The scaffolding had not been tied to the building.
Mr Couzens, who owns the building company V Couzens Stamford Ltd, had contracted Stonetech of Stamford and Manor Roofing of Deeping St James to carry out work.
Manor Roofing had then contracted a scaffolder to supply a suitable platform to reach the roof of the property.
Magistrate Dr Sheila Halliday-Pegg fined Mr Couzens £2,500 and ordered him to pay £766 costs. The owner of the scaffolding company was fined £500 and ordered to pay £100 costs.
50 years ago
The Rev Trevor Dearing's ‘power, praise and healing’ service will go on as scheduled in Stamford tonight despite the fact he has had two future scheduled services banned by Yorkshire bishops.
But the future of his meetings at Stamford's Congregational Hall which have been attracting large audiences for a number of years - looks uncertain.
The Rev Albert Bourne, United Reformed Church minister, said he has been ‘disturbed’ by press reports on Mr Dearing's services.
He said: "The reports we disturbed about accuse him of exorcism, which Mr Dearing himself has denied. I am to have a talk with Mr Dearing tonight at the meeting, but it will be the church elders’ decision whether or not the meetings continue.”
Mr Dearing, who hit the headlines recently when television cameras filmed him trying to drive evil spirits from a young prostitute, received the ban on two future services by the Bishop of Wakefield and the Bishop of Ripon.
Both were scheduled to be held near the Yorkshire village where a man brutally murdered his wife after an all-night exorcism.
Mr Dearing, vicar of St Paul's, Hainault, Essex, said: "Both bishops have assured me they have no fundamental objections to my ministry, but they feel that the proximity of the meetings is too close to where the murder took place.
"They have said that if the meetings were held they might attract too much publicity and provoke too much reaction from the local people."
He added: "I think this is understandable, and I have sympathy for the bishops. But I am also disappointed because I and several hundred other people were looking forward to these meetings.
"At the moment I can tolerate the situation, but I might get rebellious if it has not changed in a few months. If they keep on with this sort of thing I shall minister outside the Church of England."
With Ailsworth in close proximity to a Greater Peterborough Township, the residents expressed concern, at a village meeting, to the nearness of the proposed town centre to the present development in Maffit Road.
There were 62 residents at a meeting called by the parish council and they asked the chief planning officer (Mr David Bath) to give consideration to the possibility of creating more open space between two developments mentioned.
Today’s Mercury has again been affected by an industrial dispute within the newspaper industry.
100 years ago
A Spalding man, John T Willerton, who had never driven a motor vehicle before, attempted to turn a motor van in Bourne Market Place on market day, with the result that he ran it on to the pavement near a shop, and in doing so caught a push chair with a baby in it. Fortunately he only slightly bent a portion of the chair, the van also catching the baby's hand.
At Bourne Sessions on Thursday he was fined 5s. for having no licence, and 10s with 5s costs, for driving to the danger of the public. He admitted that he might have killed the child.
At Bourne Sessions George H D Sommerfield, of Dyke, was summoned for obstructing the highway at Greatford on May 1st. He pleaded not guilty.
Mr Owen Flint, farmer, Belmisthorpe, stated that he was driving a motor-car from Belmisthorpe to Greatford, and when 200 yards from the crossing gate he saw a flock of seventy sheep driven by the defendant. He sounded his hooter twice, but the defendant made no attempt to turn the sheep off the road. On being asked to do so, the defendant said he didn't turn sheep off for motor-cars except when driven by ladies.
Defendant asked Mr Flint whether he remembered calling him (defendant) a fool, and the witness replied in the affirmative.
Replying to another question, Mr Flint admitted that the defendant did not abuse him.
Elijah Pearce, signalman on the LNER, stated that he was about 150 yards from the signal-box when he heard the car coming and the hooter sounded. The defendant made no attempt to move the sheep after Mr Flint had requested him to do so.
A tragic discovery was made in a wagon hovel adjoining the house of Mr F Dorr, farmer, of Laxton, on Saturday, when Joseph Toseland, aged 87, was found dead, with a piece of string attached around his neck.
The inquest was held on Monday at the Stafford Knott Inn, Laxton, by the Divisional Coroner, Mr J T Parker.
Mrs F Dorr identified the body as that of her uncle, Joseph Toseland, who was 87 years of age, and who had been living with her for the past six years. He was quite normal on Saturday morning, but failed to put in an appearance for dinner.
At 2 o'clock she sent her little son to the barn to look for eggs. He came running back and told her to go to the barn, where she discovered the deceased lying on the floor, apparently dead, with a piece of string round his neck. Mr Bosworth arrived immediately afterwards and, having cut the string, sent for the doctor.
Mr F Dorr said the deceased had been depressed because he had nothing to do; he had no financial worries.
Dr Mackenzie, of King's Cliffe, said the piece of string round the deceased's neck was also attached to a waggon. He was strangled by his own weight, and if he had sat up he would have been quite safe.
A verdict of death by hanging while of unsound mind was returned.
200 years ago
The town of Stamford was enlivened on Tuesday with successive peals of bells at the different churches, in celebration of the birth of an heir to the ancient house of Burghley. It was on Saturday last that the Marchioness of Exeter was delivered of a son, at the house of her noble husband in Connaught-place, London; but the state of her Ladyship for some time after exciting great anxiety, the news was not communicated at Stamford until Tuesday, when it was accompanied with the gratifying assurance that both mother and child were doing well, and that the young Lord Burghley is a fine healthy boy.
This night (Friday) the Edinburgh mail will start from London for the first time at the new rate of speed - upwards of ten miles an hour. The time for reaching Stamford is 20 minutes past 5 in the morning: the coach will not stop to afford the passengers time for refreshment before reaching Grantham (110 miles from London), where they will be allowed half an hour for breakfast, and where a vast quantity of Post-office business will have to be dispatched. The York mailcoach will keep its old time, (at Stamford at past 6) and breakfast here.
Editor, - An article under this title having appeared in your paper of last week, purporting to give an account of the late existing dispute in the parish of Braunston, in the county of Rutland, relative to the new-pewing and ornamenting of the church, I feel myself very reluctantly called upon, on behalf of myself and fellow parishioners, to make one or two observations.
I most cordially agree in the expression of thanks, very justly due, to the worthy Baronet who so handsomely came forward on the present occasion as a mediator between the parties, as also to Wm Leake, Esq MP, and M Gillson of Burley, for their laud- able conduct in the business; but I really cannot see what merit the Vicar of Hambleton cum Braunston can arrogate to himself for his exertions in the termination of the dispute, nor why he should have seized that opportunity of lavishing an encomium on the worthy representative of the family he names, when it is well known that to the head of that family is to be attributed the very grievous and heavy expense that has fallen the parish.
I have only to add, Mr Editor, that if these upon gentlemen are not satisfied to rest in peace, I shall consider it a duty I owe to myself and fellow-parishioners to let the whole transaction be published, that the public may judge how far these gentlemen are deserving of praise: but for the sake of preserving harmony in the parish for the future, I trust I shall be spared the unpleasant office.
Yours, A Parishioner
Braunston, May 4th, 1825
Hinds, (nephew to Mr Hickman) Watch and Clock Maker, High-street, Stamford, respectfully informs his friends and the public that he has opened a Shop at Mr Goodwin’s, (next door to Mr White, draper) where he intends carrying on his business, and hopes, by strict attention, to merit a share of public patronage. J H feels competent to give entire satisfaction to those who may please to favour him with their commands, on the shortest notice, and on the most liberal terms.
