What was making the news in the Newark Advertiser in 1924, 1974 and 1999

The Advertiser has once again opened its archives to see what was making the news this week 25, 50 and 100 years.

25 years ago – August 6, 1999

Work has started on the first stage of a £686,450 scheme to repave Newark Market Place.

The first stage covers an 850sq metre section at the Midland Bank end of the Market Place. Hard-wearing. non-slip porphyry setts a type of granite in different colours will be laid in a fan design.

The setts should be more comfortable to walk on than the present surface and make it easier for disabled people and those pushing prams

• Plans to expand the Wilkinson's store in Newark have been welcomed by town councillors.

The company wants to extend into the empty former shoe shop next door to its main entrance and further back down Baldertongate.

A Chinese takeaway is being relocated further down Baldertongate to make this possible.

• A permanent memorial to a Newark soldier killed killed on the Western Front during the first world war has been put up in the town more than 80 years after the conflict ended.

Newark-born trooper Thomas Herbert Helliwell served with the elite Life Guards cavalry. He was killed at Ypres in November, 1914.

His niece by marriage, Mrs Peggy Helliwell of Marsh Lane, Farndon, said that although a mass was offered for Trooper Helliwell at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church no lasting memorial was put up to him and that was something she was determined to put right.

• There have been calls for increased security on a new Coddington housing estate after its luxury showhome was gutted by fire.

The fire service and police cordoned off the scene. They are investigating the cause but are treating it as suspicious.

The four-bedroomed house at the entrance to Beazer Homes' Old Hall Manor estate was so badly damaged it is likely that it will have to be pulled down.

• Police broke up an illegal rave party in Stapleford Woods after being inundated with complaints about the loud music being played.

More than 40 officers were drafted in from all over Nottinghamshire to cope with the party, which attracted around 150 revellers.

50 years ago – August 10, 1974

ABOVE: An eye-to-eye confrontation is captured as a calf at bay realises its minutes of freedom are over.

The calf was destined for Newark Cattle Market but it jumped a rail when leaving a transporter van and hoofed it into the the town.

Shoppers took refuge in shop doorways as it sped through the streets with its owner in hot pursuit.

• The first stage of an ambitious plan to provide accommodation for single people in the centre of Newark was given the go ahead by Newark District Council.

The plan was to buy existing property and then use one or two for conversion.

The first would be for 13 flatlets for one or two adults with bathrooms, toilets and the use of ultility rooms shared. The second was for six self-contained flats plus three bedsitter units.

• An application for residential planning permission has been submitted for the site of Queensway Warehouses, Appletongate, Newark, gutted by fire.

The application is for outline permission for 15 town houses with integral garages replaces an application to develop the site as a retail centre.

• Members of Newark District Council may ask for a separate showing of controversial film The Exorcist to decide if it should be shown in the Newark area.

In deciding, members will hear of objections from the pastors of the Baptist churches of Newark and Collingham who are asking the council to prohibit the showing of the film.

100 years ago – August 6, 1924

Following a serious crash at the Catch ‘Em Corner at Coddington on Saturday, a motorcycle and sidecar, driven by a gentleman and containing two ladies, early on Sunday morning failed to negotiate the difficult corner and, in order to avoid a spill, went on the grass over a dyke and through a hedge.

Mr W. Thornhill happened to be near and assisted to get the combination back on the road and they were soon on their way again.

It seems time the authorities were approached to place danger signs on either side of this very dangerous S-bend.

• The most successful sporting event held in conjunction with Newark Motor Cycle Club took place in the form of a hill-climb at Sandy Hill, Elksley.

There was a large crowd of spectators who came from Newark, Retford, Worksop and Sheffield on machines of every conceivable nature, and the hill was lined with onlookers.

No high speeds were possible but those set up were far in advance of what one would consider likely.

• The four free places at the Minster Grammar School, Southwell, were competed for by 14 boys.

The examination resulted in Humberstone being on top. The school is glad that a highly respected family, and the son of one of our men who fell in the war, should thus be benefitted.

• For the past four weeks the popular Kinema picture hall has been closed for alterations and renovations, and was successfully re-opened when big houses assembled to witness the screening of Sir Hall Caine’s romantic masterpiece The Eternal City.

The music, as submitted by the Kinema Orchestra, is exceptionally pleasing and with the finest pictures obtainable already booked, the Kinema will assuredly be a popular rendezvous during the coming winter evenings.