FROM this newspaper 100 years ago. - A Halifax man, Johnny Reid by name, of diminutive stature, is endeavouring, at a local inn, the task of eating two pigeons to dinner and one to tea each day for a week.

From this newspaper 50 years ago. - There are several instances of mares continuing to breed up to and after their 28th year, but for a mare to have her first foal when 28 years old is exceptional if not unique. At Little Isle Farm, Bradbury, near Sedgefield, a mare of that age, which has won a considerable number of trotting prizes, has just dropped her first foal. Her owner, Mr H Pearce, has for years tried to breed from her ... Last year she was mated with an Arab and the result is the foal referred to. There may be other instances of a mare producing a first foal at the age of 28, but we have no record of such. The famous Tartar mare (foaled 1749) went on breeding to Eclipse until 1785, and in 1936 a 39-year-old mare owned by Mr J R Bows, Melton Farm, Wrawby, Lincolnshire, dropped a good foal.

From this newspaper 25 years ago. - "It's the most deadly, boring hole you can think of. That's why I got out. People don't think about their children. They just eat, sleep and drink and go to the club," was the comment passed on Middleton St George by Mrs Alison Day, now of Stockton, and a former resident of the village, when she attended its monthly parish council meeting on Monday. Since the beginning of the year, the parish council has been trying to get under way a play leadership scheme for the children of the village, so that during two weeks of the school holidays in mid-August, they could take part in various games and activities ... Mrs Day was commissioned to take charge of the scheme, originally with unpaid helpers, but despite various appeals in the Middleton St George Church magazine and a mini-campaign by the press, not one volunteer helper was forthcoming. Even when it was decided to pay would-be helpers, none came forward ... Mrs Day's indictment of the village came as a result of a comment by Coun G Galilee that the parish had quite a few children who were something of a problem. Mrs Day said that of course it had "because there's absolutely nothing for them to do in this village" ... A vote was taken as to whether the scheme should continue and it was agreed to abandon the idea.