25 Years Ago

July 30, 1976

Digging deep

IF THE mining of Lake District minerals becomes an economic proposition then they should be got out - providing the mining is done with the least possible damage to the environment.

This was the view expressed by the majority of Cumbrian Tourist Board members at an executive committee meeting in Kendal.

The board was commenting on the 'Choices for Cumbria' county structure plan survey.

Members agreed that mining in the national park would not be unacceptable in certain circumstances.

They were talking about the necessity of backing up the tourist industry with a basic core of jobs for men.

Labour county councillor Mr A.

Eaton said it was vital to stop depopulation by the encouragement of smaller industries.

"In the Lake District there are rather too many people who consider us Philistines, but they will have to give way to some extent, minerals will have to come out if it becomes commercially necessary."

Support for Mr Eaton came from Conservative county councillor Mr E.R.P.

Frankland.

"Restoration is now quite simple.

With picks and shovels it was quite impossible, but with a JCB it is quite a simple matter."

Mr Frankland said there was a great deal of talk about establishing craft industries, but the main craft industry was the family farm.

This helped to keep the population stable and provide food.

Cumbria Tourist Board director Mr Malcom Seymour thought that greater participation by farms in the tourist industry was "extremely desirable."

50 Years Ago

August 4, 1951

Water, water...

NEARLY three inches of rain during the last nine days of July enabled restrictions on the use of water to be lifted in Sedbergh on Tuesday.

A ban on the use of water for gardens and washing windows and cars had been in operation since mid-June.

During July, four inches of rainfall, of which 1.77 inches was on the 22nd, fell when there was a thunderstorm.

The second highest fall was recorded on the 26th, with 9.9 inches.

In July last year, the fall measured 5.25 inches, while in the same month in 1949, there were 3.77 inches.

In the first seven months of 1951, a total of 27.04 inches has been recorded.

"The reservoir has risen six feet in seven days," Mr F.J.

Lawson, the council's water engineer, told the Gazette on Wednesday.

"The level is now 16 feet, which is only one foot below the maximum.

We have also been successful in detecting a major leak in Long Lane, which I estimate has for a long time allowed about 28,000 gallons of water to run to waste each day."

100 Years Ago

August 3, 1901

Glasgow pull

CONISTON - Although the month of June was on the whole rather busier than usual, July has been by no means brisk, and some complaints are being heard from coach drivers and lodging house keepers.

Similar accounts come from other parts of the district, and a good many people attribute the cause to the counter attraction of the Glasgow exhibition.

150 Years Ago

August 2, 1851

Nicked!

AT PISA there lived in latter years a fast young man, whose morals were something like the celebrated leaning tower, a little inclined the wrong way.

The gentleman in fact was a regular mauvais sujet, a fit subject for a French novel, strutting along the banks of the Arno, perverting with the foolish maids of that not over-religious vicinity.

Scapegrace as he was he declined the consolations of religion in his last days, and refused to repent, like another Don Giovanni.

In vain did the friars declare that the devil would claim him.

Don Giovanni died game, but before he gave up the ghost he made his friend, a Corsican, promise he would watch over his body in the Chapelle Mortuaire, until it was consigned to its last home.

The Corsican kept his word, and in the dead of night sat by the side of his departed friend in the convent chapel.

But just as the clock struck 12, a figure entered with tremendous horns, a long tail and draped in red and black as his satanic majesty should be.

The Corsican warned the devil t

hat if he did not leave the place he would send him back to his infernal regions faster than he came from them.

The Corsican produced a loaded pistol and shot him through the heart.

An explanation was soon given, and when the devil was stripped of his finery, he turned out to be the bellman of the convent.

No doubt employed by the friars, whose religious assistance was refused.

The Corsican was tried and acquitted, as he showed that in the Tuscan code there was no penalty attached to shooting the devil.