SOME time ago we talked about a long-ago breakfast cereal by the name of Force, at which time it was thought it had gone off the market.

Such was not the case as I was quickly reminded by several kind readers to which the name was one of instant nostalgia. One kind village lady brought a Force doll to the office, a picture of which appeared in the Gazette & Herald at the time, and an equally kind gentleman left me a boxful so that I could savour again the taste of yesteryear.

Since that time I have been able to keep it on hand by buying some whenever in Helmsley. This week it was mentioned to me that visitors from London over Christmas had themselves made a trip out there so that they could take some back to their home in the big city. A rare treat, they said, after losing touch with a much-loved product for several years.

* A sequel to my mention of Malton's one-time bill poster was that Ken Robson of Norton had a photograph of Stanley Newton's wedding to Agnes (nee Dixon) and sent me a copy of it. This was followed by a call from Tom Hardisty of Coneysthorpe to whom Mr Newton was Uncle Stan and we had a fine old chat about those days. Something I had forgotten was that Stan had a motorcycle and sidecar on which he did his long-distance jobs. The sidecar was a sort of box body, with a rack at the front which supported his ladder and had room for all his poster sections, paste and brushes etc. As for the photograph of the wedding, this appears to be taken outside the Methodist Chapel in Saville Street. In the background is a face which I think I recognise correctly as Mr Shaw of the St John Ambulance Brigade who would drive our one and only ambulance in its early days. A dark green Austin, if some of you might recall, and which was later piloted by Sadie Taylor. The days of yore indeed.

* I had a call from Dave Watson a week or so back, a 70-year-old gent who is a regular reader and lives, I think, out beyond Pickering (sorry Dave I'm relying on my memory as I wasn't able to take notes at the time) and who is concerned that some new 'slow down' signs on the Whitby Road at Saltersgate, are in fact spelled 'Saltergate', ie without the 's'. I had it in the back of my mind that this was, in fact, the original spelling of this locality and, indeed, on an 1890 map this is shown as Salter Gate, ie two words. So just because the 'S-adder' was at it, over a century ago, doesn't really mean that today's spelling is the correct one for it really is a corruption of the original. I should have liked to have known the origin of the name which I assume includes some connection with the fireside salt-boxes in the pub there. But where the word 'gate' comes in makes me wonder if in fact it was a gated road in older days.

* Friar Tuck's Ginger Wine Essence keeps cropping up, well, the subject anyway. This week Gordon Feaster rang me from Scarborough to tell me that he is a devotee too and that this delicious concoction can be found at Squire's Chemist, 54 Falsgrave Road, Scarborough, so, like Force, a little bit of shared information gets the message around with the help of the Gazette & Herald.

* It's a shocking state of affairs when the police service has to go begging to get a speed camera which cost around £2,000, for this is mere chicken-feed when one looks at the millions of pounds they spend on other things which may or may not be considered important. It's all a question of what is considered vital at some certain moment in time, like the £200,000 for senior officers' Volvos or ASP batons, CS sprays, new Quick Cuffs, new radio gear and stress payouts into hundreds of thousands. It's all a matter of priorities and it seems that even agreement on such things is never easy, even within the service itself. However, now that Malton has a gun, can it be given an airing in the region of Old Malton's Memorial Hall, in both directions, for this really is a race track at times.

* A sorry situation at Kirkby where permission has been given for unwelcome housing development. It has always seemed to be that developers can get away with anything, and yet the folk who live and have lived at Kirkby for many years surely should have a say in what they want of their own town.

* often wonder if these government planning inspectors are city folk, and have little idea of what small-town life is all about. Development is, of course, necessary to ensure the future of a town, be it large or small. But this should not be overwhelming, as is often the case, and which results in a complete change of character. In all cases, the people should be listened to.

* "Government does not solve problems; it subsidises them". Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)

Updated: 11:09 Thursday, January 17, 2002