Megan Wallace explores the Barnsley Chronicle archives from 1974.

THE Christmas story came early for an Alsatian on a draughty railway embankment at Pogmoor.

Five weeks ago she built her own little ‘crib’ in a hole in a railway embankment and filled it with eight puppies but she was not discovered until Saturday, when Mrs Rita Illsey, of Pogmoor Road, was out picking berries.

But there was no room in the Illsey home for the dog and her youngsters, for Mrs Illsey is full up with her family and her own dog, Rex. So the RSCPA took the dog and the puppies into their care on Tuesday.

Mr Mellvor Illsey told the Chronicle: “The dog must be a stray, as she used to go in the field behind our house, and near the embankment, about six months ago.”

UP TO 500 jobs for South Yorkshire residents will be created by a new industrial park planned for the area.

A government-sponsored agency is to build the estate probably on a 65-acre site at Billingley, near Goldthorpe.

Talks have already begun between the English Industrial Estates Corporation, Barnsley Council and South Yorkshire County Council.

EIEC are to build advance factories for immediate occupation by interested firms and chairman of Barnsley’s Development and properties Committee Coun Harry Dancer has said that among the first to move in may be Continental Industries.

A WOMBWELL firm has been awarded a £4m contract to build roads in Saudi Arabia.

P J Burke Ltd, of Park Street, was chosen out of six firms to undertake this construction work which is the start of a five-year building project in the country.

Mr Burke told the Chronicle that he thinks there will be at least ten years’ work for his company over there.

He has just returned from Saudi Arabia with the contract which has taken six months to negotiate.

BARNSLEY’S Test Match umpire Dickie Bird has been appointed to the World Cup panel for next season.

That means he will be standing at some of the matches in the 1975 World Cup games which are to be held England, as well as one of the encounters in the three match series with the Australia's which follows.

Every cricketing country in the world will be playing in the competition.

THE Barnsley factory of Remploy celebrated its Silver Jubilee anniversary last week.

To mark the occasion, a tour of the Pogmoor Road factory, for 180 guests and employees, was arranged, and this was followed by refreshments served in the canteen.

Mrs Muriel Chatterton, the accountant, who has worked at the factory since it opened, was presented with a gold watch from the board of Remploy, and a silver dish from employees and staff at the factory.

BARNSLEY’S first squash courts, situated at Shaw Lane, swing into action on Sunday January 26, when it will officially be opened.

The two courts built at a cost of more than £12,000 are complete, and have this week been undergoing a series of playing tests.