A week earlier, the four-storey tall cork grinding mill of the Northallerton Linoleum, Tarpaulin and Brattice Cloth Company had exploded at 4am and had quickly become “a roaring inferno”. The poorly equipped Northallerton brigade had telephoned their counterparts in Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough and York for help but they had “declined to come as Northallerton is not in their area”. In 1889, the factory was extended hugely beside the railway line to make linoleum. Are there any descendants of those canny Scotch linoleum makers still in Northallerton? Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk if you can add to this or any of our other topics this week.

Source: The Times November 18, 2023 02:25 UTC