HERE’S a selection of stories from this week in 1998 as they were reported in the Chronicle at the time.
A BARNSLEY school had to be decontaminated after it was flooded with what was feared to be raw sewage.
Almost 1,000 Holgate pupils missed lessons for two days when a blocked sewage pipe overflowed after heavy rain.
Carpets, furniture and fittings were ruined in the flood which caused damage estimated to cost £20,000 to fix.
A team of staff and council workmen were busy on the clean-up operation and the fire brigade pumped the water out for almost three hours and managed to confine the damage to the basement, a classroom and a dance studio.
When pupils started to arrive, they were sent home again as a safety precaution.
Leading fire-fighter Richard Mallinder said: “There was a blockage in the waste main which stopped the water from clearing. The water backed up and flooded into the basement.”
Headteacher Richard Feist said: “Raw sewage came up in a manhole and once the fire officer saw that, he felt there was a possibility of sewage being in the water.
“We could run the school without this basement area, but with the potential health risk we didn’t want to take the slightest chance.”
CHEEKY thieves nabbed all Nicola Martin’s wheel trims then took them back a week later and refitted them to her car.
The gang also left a note on the windscreen of her Vauxhall Cavalier apologising for any inconvenience and wishing her ‘happy motoring’.
Nicola, 20, lives with her mum Diane on Green Road in Penistone and the pair were stunned.
“When I got up and saw the note on the car I thought it might be something from the police or more bad news,” said Diane. “But when I went out and read it I couldn’t stop laughing. The thieves said the trims didn’t fit so we could have them back.
“At first Nicola thought her dad had bought her a new set because he couldn’t resist winding her up a bit — but then this just isn’t the kind of thing that happens is it?”
ONE-TIME gamekeeper and farm worker Geoff Wilson is selling his hand-crafted furniture through the leading fashion store Harvey Nichols.
A few weeks after starting his Smithies-based Lodge Pine business last June, he took tables, lamps, mirrors and picture frames to the Furniture Union, a collaboration of 80 British craftsmen at the Leeds branch of the store.
And Furniture Union manager Robert Mason decided Geoff’s style and workmanship fitted the image Harvey Nicks’ customers demand.
Geoff said: “I specialise in using reclaimed timber such as oak, elm and yew to create furniture with a rustic, old-world charm. I sculpt the timber and leave it with a natural surface, often finishing it with pieces of antique reclaimed materials.”
Mr Mason said: “If customer demand warrants it, I’ll recommend his work to other Furniture Union outlets at Harvey Nichols stores in London and Glasgow.”
Geoff, 56, has shown his furniture at a massive twice-yearly crafts show in the United States.
A CLAMPDOWN which will deliver a crushing blow to tax dodging motorists was
launched in Barnsley this week.
A team of wheel-clampers will take to the streets looking for vehicles without valid tax
discs.
The scheme will mean dodgers having their vehicles clamped and impounded big
new fines, charges for storage — and even the possibility of them being crushed.
Roads Minister, Baroness Hayman, was in Barnsley to launch the campaign
which, she warned, would prove very expensive to the law breakers.
MAKERS of a programme about music in Asian films have been at the Metro Cinema in Penistone.
The Asian Music Community Enterprise, which is making ’Hollywood’s Greatest Hits’ for cable television, needed a traditional cinema where presenter Meere Patel could be filmed introducing clips.
Producer Sahid Ali said: “We scoured Bradford and Huddersfield for a location but could not find what we wanted. Metro Cinema was perfect.”
