HERE’S a few stories as they were reported in the Barnsley Chronicle in this week back in 1988.
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A SADISTIC attempt to kill a seven-week-old kitten tied up in a polythene bag was thwarted by a woman walking her dog.
The woman, who asked not to be named, found the ginger kitten in a park at Gawber after someone had tried to drown it and then throw it away.
She later alerted neighbours and in turn told the RSPCA.
Eileen Chamberlain, secretary of the RSPCA, said: “The kitten looked cold, wet and frightened as if it had been outside all night,
“It’s a wonder it survived.”
The kitten has now been given a new home in Cope Street, Barnsley.
Betty Sanderson, the new owner, said: “We wanted a kitten to replace our ginger Tom which died recently. We are thrilled with this one. Our other cat, who is only eight months old, is already mothering it.”
* STAIRFOOT woman Mary Brown replied to an advert for a ‘miracle diet’ in a serious attempt to lose weight.
The ad boasted ‘100 per cent guaranteed success of 10lbs weight loss in ten days’. But she was shocked when after taking the pills for ten weeks she had actually gained weight.
After spending almost £70 on the pills, Mrs Brown was bewildered that the dynamic dietary aid hadn’t worked. When she started taking them she was 13 stone but after ten weeks she was 14 stone.
“I’ve got two artificial hips and really do want to lose weight. I feel really sick about it,” she said.
* FEARS about vibration from blasting at the Rockingham opencast site are unfounded, an expert told the public inquiry into the plans to mine a million tonnes of coal.
Timothy Wilton, an advisor to British Coal on the environmental aspects of blasting, told government inspector Clive Jenkins that it would be impossible to give in advance the amount of blasting on specific locations at the site.
Mr Wilton was speaking on the third day of the public enquiry. He said there would be 29 properties within 100 metres of any areas that need to be blasted at the Rockingham site, and 273 properties between 100 and 200 metres away.
He said different people would have different levels of perception of vibration.
“Overall, the vast majority of adjacent properties for a large proportion of the life of this site will receive vibrations below the perception threshold,” said Mr Wilton.
* THE remains of a prehistoric animal have been found at a brickworks in Stairfoot. The tibia, or shin bone, of a bison which would have roamed the Earth in large herds 20,000 years ago was discovered in the clay grids of the Yorkshire Brick company by employee Dennis Harvey, of Lamb Lane, Monk Bretton.
He found the bone while sifting through the clay from the quarry, and at first believed it to be from a horse’s leg.
Examination by Dr Beverley Halstead, reader in geology and zoology at Reading University revealed that the bone was from a breed of bison virtually extinct today and only found in parts of the USSR and North America.
* FRENCH flavour hit the shelves in Barnsley this week with the arrival of 1988 Beaujolais Nouveau.
Leo’s supermarket in Peel Street is taking part in this year’s Beaujolais promotion drive and has set aside a special area of the store for the prestigious wine.
