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The Clitheroe m Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 dvertiser and 1 imes


Speed i war Is i


■ / ■ t PAGE14 PAGES


A 119-year-old snap brings duo from Oz!


EXCLUSIVE by Duncan Smith


A 119-YEAR-OLD photograph of Clitheroe led an Australian couple half-way round the world to the door of the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times. Around 30/years ago, Jim and Joan Gilson


bought a. dusty bundle of papers and documents from an antique shop in Victoria. They like to collect interesting old documents,


especially relating to England, as Jim was bom in Hull. His family were among the one million “£10 tourists” who took up the Government’s offer to emigrate to Australia for just £10 in the 1950s. This particular dusty bundle related to a fam­


ily called Halstead, who had evidently emigrat­ ed to Australia from the Kibble Valley long before young Jim made the trip. Some of the documents were contracts to take


up employment, but also there was a sepia pho­ tograph of Clitheroe’s Castle Street, taken in July 1887. Perhaps the Halsteads packed it among their possessions as a treasured memento of their Ribhle Valley home? Jim and Joan have no connection with the


Valley, but when a trip to the UK for a friend’s wedding came up, they decided on a whim to bring the old photo along and find the scene it pictured. So it was that they wound up in Clitheroe Library, looking up Castle Street towards the


M


Keep from the same window where the photog­ rapher stood 119 years earlier. That photographer was one “J. Forrest”,


whose business - “J. Forrest and Son, Portrait and Landscape Photographers” - was, accord­ ing to the faded stamp on the hack of the old print, located at 3 King Street. Out of curiosity Jim and Joan sought out that


address, to find it is now home to the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times, which is how we came by their story. By coincidence, Jim and Joan own and pro­


duce a small newspaper, the Sunshine Valley News, in their home town of Palmwoods, Queensland, which might explain their inves­ tigative natures! “Years ago we used to collect lots of old photos


and documents from antique shops and flea mar­ kets,” said Jim. “We’re over here for a wedding, but we’ve stretched it into a three-week holiday so with a bit of time to spare we decided to bring this old picture and find out where it was. I t ’s been good to match up the old scene with what’s here today and it hasn’t really changed that much.” Jim and Joan proved entertaining visitors to


the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times’ staff, who were soon “talking shop” and found the key ingredients of a good local newspaper are just the same Down Under. The couple are pictured in Market Place close


to where the 1887 photograph, printed on page 2, was taken. (CR270706/1)


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Thousands of fish killed in poison horror


THOUSANDS of fish have been killed following the illegal dumping of cooking oil, raw batter and a deter­ gent into the River Ribble. As a leading angler branded the


pollution the worst deliberate act of pollution he had ever witnessed, warning notices were placed around Edisford Bridge, a popular spot for families with children to gather and paddle. People were advised not to enter


the river or touch any of the dead fish which were floating on the surface. The illegal waste was poured into


the river twice. On Thursday night it was dumped


via a road drain on the A59, near Smithies Bridge, Chatburn, from where it flowed into Swanside Beck in Sawley. On Friday, a further incident took place. The incident is the second major


act of, pollution within three weeks. Barrow .Brook was dubbed “a river of death” last month as a tanker was emptied into a road drain north of the A671 roundabout. A major investigation is now under


way. It is believed that dozens of sea trout, salmon and other river fish and insects died during the weekend inci­ dents, despite a massive clean-up operation carried out by emergency officers from the Environment Agency who worked throughout the weekend in a bid to contain the inci­ dent. . • “It breaks my heart to see crows


ripping into dying fish!” - Fred High- am - full story and pictures page 3.


ICE... PAES 6,7 ■ VLGILAE NEW G S... PAES 10.11 No. 6,262 n ews an d views from th e Centre of th e Kingdom www.clitheroetoday.co.uk Pr ice 60p


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