Chief reporter Jack Tolson takes a look back through the Chronicle archives to August 2007.
WHY THE LONG FACE? YOU’RE RESCUED!
HORSES for slaughter have been rescued from France to start a new life in Barnsley.
A nine-year-old French Normandy Cob and two mares due to foal within a couple of weeks were at their new homes on Wednesday.
The rescue operation was carried out by members of the Intelligent Horsemanship Discussion group.
The group was told the horses were being taken from Spain to France to be fattened with pellets usually used to feed cows and then transported to Italy for slaughter.
Wendy Peel, of Cundy Cross, will take the two mares which, after a check by a vet and a period of quarantine, will join her at her stables.
Mary Sargent will take the cob to her stables at Lindfield Farm, Brierley.
All three will be kept as pets and used for riding.
Wendy, 40, is campaigning to change the regulations on transporting horses and is taking the issue to her MP, Eric Illsley.
She said: “They just herd 40 to 50 horses into a lorry if they are dead when they get there it doesn’t matter.
“It is not fair and it is cruel.”
FLOOD AID IN FROM GERMANY
A FRIENDSHIP formed more than 30 years ago on a Swiss mountain has led to help coming in from Germany for a 92-year-old Barnsley flood victim.
In 1970, Mavis Sidebottom and her late husband Stuart revisited a mountain in Grindelwald which they had seen in 1950.
The couple were taking shelter in a cabin, after a sudden mist had descended, when they were joined by a German couple Alfred and Gutta Jankowski.
Mavis and Stuart shared their coffee and chocolate with them and have remained friends via letters and phone calls.
On returning from another trip to Switzerland recently, Mavis received a letter from Alfred with a 50 euro note.
He and his wife had been so touched by pictures of the recent floods they wanted to help.
He asked Mavis to give the cash to someone who needed it.
Mavis said: “Albert said when he saw the pictures it looked like the last day of the world.
“He knows what it is like to lose everything because he had to flee East Germany at the end of the war and didn’t see his family again until the Berlin Wall came down.”
ASHLEY’S GIFT TAKES FLIGHT
ASHLEY Jackson is to give his wife Anne a special 65th birthday present next week - a statue of himself as a boy aviator.
It will depict the young Barnsley artist in an old jumper, short trousers, flying goggles and cardboard wings as he prepares to take off and head towards Barnsley.
The work of art, by known sculptor Graham Ibbeson, will be placed in Ashley’s garden and point in the direction of his hometown.
Ashley said: “Anne loves Graham’s work but I also want to show my four grandchildren what it was like when we were young.
“The statue also shows that we had imagination in those days, something that children today do not have.”
