Long history of salmon in the River Ure

From: Keith E Whitfield, Boroughbridge Road, York.

I FIND it very interesting to read your article and Editorial (Yorkshire Post, August 31) on salmon and it is pleasing to know that work in still in progress on their restoration to the River Ure.

Salmon have run the Ure during the whole of my lifetime of 81 years, albeit in small numbers.

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I can recall watching salmon leaping at a wear between Ripon and Boroughbridge and lampreys clinging to the wear walls. The latter also brought otters to the same spot where they lived and bred for several years.

I found a dying hen salmon of 14lbs in a pool just off the main stream. She was full of eggs.

A local farmer landed a fish every year usually in the 10/15lb range and I caught my very first salmon there in the late 1940s.

They were also present in small numbers in the Wharfe as I saw one just below Harewood Bridge in the early 1950s.

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I’m not too sure about the River Nidd, although I fished it for years for grayling. Although pollution in the Ouse and Humber were no doubt a major factor in the lack of fish, salmon were not encouraged by trout fishermen in the Dales waters as salmon parr cleared out trout pools of feed.

I wish the Ure Salmon Trust the very best of luck in their work but it will be a long time before the Ure can again rival the Teith, or indeed the Tyne.

Getting on the right track

From: Bob Watson, Springfield Road, Baildon.

IT is reported (Yorkshire Post, September 2) that passenger numbers on our railways are expected to rise by 16 per cent within three years, and by a massive 62 per cent by 2029.

There is surely no doubt that we should be planning now for an expansion of the rail network through the opening of both new lines and stations? These additions must then be put in place as soon as the economic climate improves.

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As part of this expansion, it is surely vital that a future cross-city rail link in Bradford is included in any plans, both to give better journey options, and also to take some pressure off Leeds Station, which is already almost working to capacity.

No time for rock festival on farm

From: John Gordon, Whitcliffe Lane, Ripon

AS I looked at your photo of the Leeds Festival (Yorkshire Post, August 27), I tried to imagine what we would have been doing 60 years ago.

Answer: we’d be down on the farm. Now that we all live in towns, we get bored, so we have to be entertained by the huge industry that has grown to do it.

Part of the trouble with youngsters who haven’t a job to do is that they want to be amused all the time, often at other people’s expense but they are not wanted on the farm because there is a big, costly machine to do their work.

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Now that there is no farming, no manufacturing, no mining and no retail to speak of, they will all have to spend three years on a university course in hotel management learning how to entertain tourists.

What happened to real news?

From: Brian Charles Harris, Moorland Close, Embsay, Skipton

WAS there a shortage of real news over the Bank Holiday weekend? According to surveys and research quoted in Monday’s issue (Yorkshire Post, August 29):

82 per cent of Spanish travellers take tea with them;

Tied publicans have to pay 40-45 per cent more for their beer;

An incredible 92.5 per cent of homes on the market sold for their asking price in August;

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58 per cent of British workers take 30 minutes or less for their lunch break;

67 per cent of British campers exceed their holiday budget.

And so it went on. Not bad going for one day. Although I frequently doubt the statistical validity of surveys published in the press, I am quite certain about one thing – there must be a very low percentage of jobless workers in the survey “industry”.

Gang wars are not so modern

From: Paul Kay, Mansfield, Notts.

FOLLOWING the feature on the Sheffield Gang Wars (Yorkshire Post, August 25), I remember my grandfather telling me of a railway journey he made from Manchester to Sheffield.

A group of fellow travellers invited him to join them in playing cards. On arriving at Victoria Station, a railway ticket collector expressed surprise at the company my grandfather was keeping as they were the infamous Mooney gang and he was lucky to arrive in one piece.

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On overhearing this one of the Mooney’s came over, thanked my grandfather for the game, his company, wished him well and said you have nothing to worry about we do not harm decent people.

Perhaps it was as well that my grandfather had not recognised his playing partners. He did not say who won the card games or how high the stakes were!

Usury has a long history

From: Geoff Garside, Greenacre Drive, Wyke, Bradford.

WHILE most non-bankers share John Blakey’s view of bankers (Yorkshire Post, August 31) their failure and cost to the people of this country, it needs pointing out that bankers do not lend the bank’s money.

Bankers instead create money out of nothing using fractional reserve lending begun by the Bank of England in 1694.

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On the deposit money, the bankers create out of nothing by depositing the amount of debt the borrower owes to the bank in a borrower’s account. The banks charge interest from the moment the deposit is created.

Usury has been in business for a long time