Bygones: A look at what was making the news in the Newark Advertiser in 1997, 1972 and 1922
The Advertiser has opened its archives to look at what was in the news 25, 50 and 100 years ago this week.
In 1997, it was announced that the driving test centre in Newark was set to close, while, in more positive news, work finally started on the Riverside Park development.
And fifty years ago, there was the Battle of the Bramley over European Common Market regulations.
25 years ago: August 1, 1997
Above: Pickaxes were swung into action at the former Newark cattle market as work began on the new £1.4m riverside park.
Plans have developed over 18 months and the weed-strewn eyesore is expected to be transformed by next summer.
District council leader Gill Dawn and planning director Chris Perrett are pictured pitching in to the part of the site which will become a children’s play area.
Learners face the prospect of having to travel to unfamiliar towns to take their driving tests because Newark test centre is to close.
The centre, on the site of a former wartime food storage depot on Bowbridge Road, will shut down when the lease runs out in October.
There are at least 20 full-time driving schools operating in the Newark district and it is said there is far greater demand for tests than in Grantham.
A national campaign group has joined the swell of protest over plans to demolish Newark’s 19th Century hospital.
Save, which was set up 20 years ago with the aim of saving endangered historic buildings, is urging Newark and Sherwood District Council to turn down the plans by A. F. Hunt (Builders) Ltd.
The latest link in the Newark area cycle network officially opened.
The one-kilometre track along Northern Road has cost Nottinghamshire County Council £40,000 to develop.
The track runs along a distinctive red safety strip on Northern Road from its junction with Beacon Hill Road to near the junction with Lincoln Road.
The track will eventually be extended to Winthorpe.
50 years ago: August 5, 1972
Above: Banners were held high in South Muskham as volunteers from South Muskham Junior Youth Club began their campaign to keep the village tidy.
The parish council asked the children to pick up litter and gave them bags to put it in.
Common Market negotiators are preparing to fight the Battle of the Bramley to save the queen of the cookers from hard-hearted EEC horticultural regulations.
The Bramley apple — which originated in Southwell — cannot be sold in Common Market countries because cooking apples are classed as poor quality and banned from sale.
But the Minister of Agriculture has said he will not accept a ban on Bramleys.
The swots of Balderton are giving local library staff a headache.
So many pupils from Grove Comprehensive are going to Balderton Library to study in the evenings that it is a problem finding space for them.
There was no panic buying by housewives laying in stocks of food, despite the dock strike.
Supplies seemed plentiful, although tomato prices were high and one supermarket had no bananas. But peaches could be bought for 3p each and melons for 10p.
William Morris wallpaper stuck on the walls of what is now the headmistress’s study at Lilley and Stone Girls’ High School, Newark, more than 60 years ago should be preserved, said Newark Museum committee.
Headmistress Miss Margaret Henson agrees the paper should be replaced and a small portion preserved.
100 years ago: August 2 1922
It is now only a question of removing the telephone receiver — no turning of the handle — and the operator is at your service.
The phone handle is now obsolete in Newark and the new exchange, which is housed at the Post Office, has the most up-to-date modern lines. To ring up, simply remove the receiver and listen.
That the wartime prowess of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry has not been allowed to lapse with demobilisation was apparent when A Squadron held their second annual sports and gymkhana on the Sconce Hills, Newark.
The horse-back wrestling for recruits provided a great deal of fun and the erection of tent pegging, always a star event, was eagerly contested.
The gardens and lawns of Norwood Park, Southwell, were the scene of much fun and pleasure.
Hundreds of people took the opportunity of the fete to look round the fine old park.
There were the ponds where parties had boat rides and the lawns on which were many games and everyone present had a good time.
Mr J. R. Starkey and Mrs Starkey kindly opened their beautiful home in support of Halam School.
Cicely Courtneidge! It was really beyond the phase of dreams that the star of the theatrical world would appear at Newark, but in the march of progress, so much encouraged by the Palace management, the inevitable has happened and Miss Courtneidge is here.
Supported by eminent people in the entertainment business, such a galaxy of talent has not been brought together in Newark before.
