FROM this newspaper 100 years ago. - Today the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company, of Darlington, dispatch by the SS Cromwell from Middlesbrough the whole of the preliminary plant required for the erection of the new bridge over the Zambesi at Victoria Falls, Central Africa. The bridge, which is being built to the order of the Rhodesia Railways trust, will cross the gorge just below the Falls, and will span 600 feet in length. It will cross the river some 420 feet above the water - the highest bridge in the world - and will be 30 feet wide, with two lines of metals. The great height precludes the employment of scaffolding or staging in the erection of the bridge, which will consequently be built out from each side of the gorge on the cantilever principle until the steel work of the arch meets in the centre.

From this newspaper 50 years ago. - West Witton's seventeenth century inn, The Wensleydale Heifer, which for a time displayed a sign depicting a Friesian Heifer, now has a sign more in keeping with Wensleydale farming practice. Some months ago a gale brought down and partly destroyed that part of a sign showing a black and white Friesian. But the landlady, Mrs H M Baly, was not perturbed because she had intended the original sign to be that of a dales Shorthorn. The artist, in all innocence, made a fine picture of a typical Friesian. Since then it has been impressed upon him that the Shorthorn is the predominant breed in Wensleydale, whereupon he took Northern Dairy Shorthorn Breeders Society's prize heifer as the model for his next creation. And now the dales farmers are satisfied.

From this newspaper 25 years ago. - A group of clever sheep saved themselves from near disaster when the River Swale, in severe flood on Saturday, overflowed its banks. At Fremington, several sheep drowned when the river rushed through an already broken bank, sweeping them away. The rest of the flock were rescued after they cleverly climbed onto a wall and out of harm's way. They perched on the wall above the rushing waters and were rescued from there.