Take a trip down memory lane with the stories that hit the headlines 100, 50 and 25 years ago in the Guardian.

100 years ago

FOUR coopers at a Middlewich works were summoned to court for refusing to obey orders.

Frank Coppenhall, Albert Evison, John Lunt and Charles Sproston pleaded guilty to the charges after it was reported the youths had refused to do to a duty called ‘heading up’.

They were fairly well paid and had undertaken the work before but refused this time because it made their fingers bleed and they ‘could not stand it’.

The chairman ruled they had been guilty of a breach of the Munitions of War Act.

Each person was fined 5s but warned they would be more severely dealt with if they came to court again.

50 years ago

A NORTHWICH butchers was fined £10 and ordered to pay £4 fees after selling underweight meat to Cranage Hall Hospital.

The firm pleaded guilty to selling legs of lamb to the hospital that were underweight, after hospital staff had weighed the meat at 17lbs, when it had been sold as 21lbs.

Mr E. Spencer, prosecuting, said the meat was underweight due to ‘carelessness’ from an employee who had weighed the lamb with the tray it was placed on.

The court was told that the butchers had ‘always had a good name’ in Northwich and enjoyed ‘a mutual trust’ with the hospital.

25 years ago

SIX people saw an unidentified flying object soar above the Northwich skies on the same evening.

The spate of sightings took place between 11pm and midnight, and ranged from Anderton to Antrobus.

Three teenagers returning to Northwich from a night out in Warrington and a farmer in Comberbach were among those who spotted the craft flying above them.

Alfred Barber, the 74-year-old farmer, said: “I don’t know what the devil it was. I didn’t believe in flying saucers before but I believe there is something out there now.”