The Church heritage service was very successful once again. The flower arrangements were beautifully done – they really are a credit to the ladies who do them. The readings and poetry were well chosen and presented, and the collection of Church documents on display were very interesting – that table was busy all afternoon. Once again the food was delicious and the wine finished the afternoon nicely. Many thanks to the people who organised the service I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am often asked the dates when our village was connected to the main services. Electricity came to the village in 1934/35, when Lancaster city Council built a coalfired power station near the Aqueduct Bridge, in Lancaster. Docker had to wait until 1949 for their supply when a cable was laid across the fields from the substation at Storrs Hall heading towards Craven View and Snab Green.

Water came in 1938 when the villages in the Lune Valley were connected to the Thirlmere pipe line at Capernwray. Mains water was a great relief to lots of families – not much fun going to the well or pump on a cold dark night.

Mains sewerage came to Whittington in 1969. That was the end of quite a few small dark privies at the bottom of the garden – not a pleasant job for the local dustbin men whose job it was to clean them out. The road through the village was also widened at this time.

Whittington was connected to mains gas in 1986 – even though a gas pipe had come through the village in 1955 when all the small local gas works were shut down and a large new gas works was built at Morecambe. This was later made redundant when North Sea gas came on stream – and now it is broadband that we are getting connected to. I just cannot think of what else will come in the next fifty years.

Gerald Hodgson