The Advertiser has opened its archives to see what was making the news this week 25, 50 and 100 years ago.
25 years ago – June 18, 1999
ABOVE: A human chain was formed at Newark Parish Church as part of a national campaign to highlight the need for scrapping Third World debt.
Around 40 people joined hands and displayed banners to attract the attention of shoppers.
• The first ever Newark On Water Festival made a huge splash with around 10,000 people joining in the fun over three days.
About 120 boats from across the country were moored at the riverside for the festivities.
Highlights included The Blues Brothers Show, a carnival procession, samba music, Newark Festival showcase and a breathtaking display of fire and lighting effects by Pyromania, a duo from Israel.
• Newark and Sherwood District Council chairmen and chief officers will get their home lap-top computers costing £25,000 after demands to look at cheaper alternatives were rejected.
The council will spend £2,000 each on 12 lap-top computers, and telephone links will take the bill to £25,000.
• The head of Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Primary School, Newark, is offering to be a family’s chauffeur for a week to help boost school funds.
Mr Barry Doran will offer his services to the highest bidder at an auction of promises at the school’s annual summer fair.
• More than 2,700 pupils took part in a major religious festival at Southwell Minster.
The Time Travelling project featured activities such as craftwork, games, worship and teaching sessions.
50 years ago – June 22, 1974
ABOVE: Pictured here are seven of the 16 Farndon Cubs who spent an evening tidying up the riverbank at Fardon.
They collected eight sacks of litter.
The Cubs answered an appeal by the parish council asking village organisations to co-operate in preparing for the best-kept village competition.
• A total of £143,000 is to be spent by Newark District Council to buy houses in the town and surrounding area to help ease the housing situation and give more people a chance of getting a council house.
Most of the money is for buying new property, normally for sale on the private market with the remainder earmarked for buying old terrace houses in Newark.
A total of £170,000 had been included in the estimates but already £26,500 is committed for the purchase of property in Southwell.
• A complete new heat treatment department costing £500,000 is to be built at the Newark factory of Ransome Hoffman Pollard, despite low-priced competition in the bearing industry from Japan.
The new building, with brand new plant, was originally intended to have been completed and operating by December this year but work was delayed by the introduction of the three-day working week during the energy crisis earlier this year.
• Shoppers scurrying through Newark for the Wednesday market were surprised to see an attractive girl feeding buns to an elephant.
But on closer inspection, the elephant was seen to be a mechanical one and was part of Newark Rugby Club’s campaign to draw the public’s attention to their carnival.
• A family of robins has been brought up on currants begged from a shop in Easthorpe, Southwell, owned by Mr and Mrs Pip McGowan.
The cock bird started visiting the shop during the winter. At first he would wait on the step as Mr McGowan opened the shop early to prepare his paper rounds.
Then the bird became more adventurous and started feeding from a currant bun left on a shelf inside the shop. And when he found a mate, she came along too.
Now, Mr Robin meets Mr McGowan on his way to work and flies alongside him to the shop.
100 years ago – June 18, 1924
Several million pounds will be spent by the Post Office within the next two years in developing and improving the telephone service and a new cable will be laid between Nottingham and Newark.
• The children of the Wesleyan Sunday School held their annual festival at Balderton.
The children met in the grounds of the Grove and went in procession to the schoolroom where tea was taken.
Later, the children enjoyed in Mr Hall’s field where songs and recitations were given.
The costumers of the girls were exceedingly pretty.
• There was a large gathering at the Grove, Winthorpe, residence of Mr H. P. G. Branston, on the occasion of the annual summer gathering of the Newark Habitation and Winthorpe branch of the Primrose League.
Discussing the proposal to enfranchise all women over 21, Mr Branston emphasised the enormous responsibility that was going to lay on women.
He urged that the 2m more women voters there would be should consider very carefully which way they gave their vote when the time came.
• James Smith, a carrier of Farndon, was summoned at the County Police Court, Newark, for allowing six pigs to stray on the road, contrary to foot and mouth restrictions.
Pc Howlett said while he was watching the pigs several motor cars had to go off the road to avoid them.
It was owing to the bad state of the hedge that the pigs got out.
A fine of 15s was imposed.
The annual Fiskerton Feast was held on the village green.
This year there were greater attractions than ever before, roundabouts, swings and numerous sideshows being in evidence.
These exerted a magnetic force on the large area around Fiskerton, some of the visitors coming from Lowdham and Oxton.
The steam organ’s blatant voice was a feature of the feast, its mighty blast echoing in the Trentside hills.
