FROM this newspaper 100 years ago. - On Monday afternoon quite a scene was created in the Darlington Covered Market by the seizure of a quantity of pirated music from two of the stalls under the Musical (Summary Proceedings) Copyright Act of 1902. The law was put in motion by Messrs J A & W Hoggett, of Grange Road, local agents for various London firms. Accompanied by Inspector Banks, Messrs Hoggett went to the stalls and impounded some dozens of the pirated copies. A third stallholder, seeing what was taking place, collected his stock and cleared off.

From this newspaper 50 years ago. - From J Fairfax-Blakeborough's Country Diary: "What are all those little blobs on the telephone wires?" someone asked me the other day as we motored over the moorland hilltops. I explained that they were corks specially fixed to the wires so that grouse, pigeons and other birds would see and avoid them. Probably many feathered lives are saved in this way. Nevertheless, lots of grouse and pigeons annually fly into these wires and meet their doom. It is not because of these fatalities that scores of miles of telephone wires are being put underground at the present moment. Often during the wild winter weather those of us who live amongst the hills are cut off by snow-blocked roads from communication with the outside world, and unable to make or receive any telephone calls because the wires are blown down. It is remarkable how speedily the engineers find and repair the breakages, but if there is another gale the same thing happens again. So it is that the overhead wires are being put underground. This will result in hundreds of grouse and other birds being reprieved from sudden death, which awaited many of them each year.

From this newspaper 20 years ago. - The Boynton family of the Nag's head, Pickhill last Thursday handed over £246 to Mrs Marie Bell of the dales Special School at Morton on Swale. The money had accumulated in the 'Silly Bet Box' at the pub. Mr Edward Boynton said: "On of the favourite silly bets is the challenge to squeeze through an unglazed 11 by 9in window pane in the pub. The winner of any bet puts the money in the box. People are very enthusiastic about it." The Nag's Head first became involved with the Dales School for Mentally Handicapped Children in 1973.