Dark nights in Great Ayton: 1889

This sad little story is a reminder of village life before street lighting.  We are so conscious of light pollution nowadays, we can forget the hazards of the past.

That admirable woman Mrs Annabel Dott wrote on the subject after her experiences among the rural poor of Dorset during the First World War.  She had been shocked and dismayed by their conditions and wrote about it in 1919 with great feeling.  Being a practical person, she saw where matters could be improved and one issue was lighting: 

Lighting is another important rural matter.  The dark roads make traffic difficult if not impossible after sunset, and during long evenings when there is no moon it is not an easy matter for old people, women, or delicate folk to get about.  One of the attractions of the town is the brightly lit streets ...

Joseph Longstaff was a Great Ayton man born and bred.  His father John had been a weaver and the parish clerk, and Joseph became parish clerk in his turn.  He began his working life as a tailor but for many years ran the village Post Office, with a grocery shop alongside.

In 1889 he was 69 years old and working as a tailor again and as assistant overseer for the parish.  He lived with his wife Mary and 11 year old son Edward on the High Street.

Northern Echo, 25 October 1889

Missing from Great Ayton

Considerable anxiety is being felt at Great Ayton on account of the mysterious disappearance of the Clerk of the Parish (Mr Joseph Longstaff).  

It appears on Friday evening he left home in his slippers and never returned, and nothing has been heard of him since.  The night was excessively dark, the weather tempestuous, and an unusual amount of water was rushing down the River Leven, which flows through the village.  It is very much to be feared that he has missed the bridge and fallen into the water, in which case the body would probably be carried for miles, so strong was the current at the time.  

Mr Longstaff was an old inhabitant of Ayton, and much respected.  He was for many years postmaster.  The village is in total darkness during the evenings of the winter months.

This wasn't the only tragedy that autumn, and the question of lighting was clearly on people's minds.  This happened less than a week later:

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 31 October 1889

Another Fatality at Great Ayton

Some time during last night Henry Peacock, late stationer and newsagent, was drowned in the River Leven at Great Ayton.  His body was found early this morning under the stone bridge.  His death furnishes another sad argument for the necessity of lighting up the village. 

For a while the problem was solved and the village was lit by gas but, in the summer of 1896, the Friends' School changed to electric lighting, the gas works were discontinued and the village was dark again.  

At the beginning of the new century, several town councils were experimenting with a new invention called the Kitson Lamp, which was invented by Arthur Kitson, an Englishman who had moved to the USA.

His lamp used petroleum and a carbon mantle similar to those used in gas lamps.  The petroleum was held in a metal reservoir some distance away and drawn up to the lamp under air pressure through a very fine copper tube.  When it reached the part of the tube that was inside the lamp, the heat of the mantle vaporised it and was lit by an ingenious device that did away with the need to climb up to the lamp on a ladder.  As only a very minute quantity of oil was subjected to heat at any one time, even if the tube was broken there was no chance of an explosion.  

It was described enthusiastically in the press as a brilliant and beautiful light, the nearest approach to pure daylight and more pleasant to the eye than electric light.  Not only that, but it cost under a penny an hour and no underground plant or digging up of the streets was needed.  The gentlemen of Great Ayton decided to install one:

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 6 March 1901

The Lighting of Great Ayton

Mr Henry Richardson and Mr Thompson, trustees to the manorial rights of Great Ayton, have, with other local gentlemen, aided Mr John Dixon to place on the High Green at Great Ayton a Kitson patent 1,000 candle-power lamp.  The lamp lights the whole of the green, and has been so successful that it is hoped that before long the whole village will be illuminated.  

Since the gas works at Great Ayton were discontinued on the Governors of the Friends' School having electric light instituted the village has had no illumination at all.  It is hoped by the tradesmen and inhabitants generally that a number of the lamps will be procured not only to light the road as far as the stone bridge, but also for California.