Just part of the job for thick-skinned reporters D

BUFFALO Bill brought his Wild West show to Longley Park in Huddersfield in 1904, as I recounted last month.

But did he also visit Fixby on the same trip?

Winifred Barron, of Fixby Park, provides this intriguing photograph taken at Temperance Farm (Home Farm of Fixby Hall).

She copied the picture after it was loaned to her by two elderly ladies, who said they had always been told it was taken at the time of Buffalo Bill’s visit.

The photograph was taken by Harry Lumb, of Cowcliffe.

“Of course, Temperance Farm has long gone and a small housing estate is on the land which was owned by Thornhills of Fixby Hall,” she says.

Does anyone know anything about the photograph or Harry Lumb? AVID Moyes created a storm when he suggested he might slap a female BBC reporter for asking questions he didn’t want to answer.

Football Association chairman Greg Clarke said the Sunderland manager’s comments were “regrettable, distasteful and showed a complete lack of respect”.

They were also implicitly sexist. Not that the reporter in question made a song and dance about the incident: Women journalists have the same thick skin as their male colleagues. We are all in a job that often brings lack of respect, threats, disdain and abuse.

I was first physically threatened as an 18-year-old junior reporter whilst attempting to interview a dodgy builder.

He waved a shovel at me. Some might say he was suggesting I was digging the dirt but that was not the case: He was going to hit me with it.

Since then, I have been in several situations of potential violence.

Disrespect has come from people in all walks of life, from criminals to politicians.

To be fair, these incidents have been in the minority. Both Harold Wilson and Ted Heath were perfect gentlemen, Les Dawson was selfeffacing, Quentin Crisp a delight and Frank Carson talked so much I couldn’t get away.

My finest hour came in Blackpool when I was sent to elicit a response from the wife of a celebrity who had announced to the press he would no longer be responsible for her debts.

She chased me from the grounds of her detached home with blasphemous words, intent on inflicting bodily harm.

As she was a lady who was much larger than me, I concluded escape was the wiser part of valour.

“I’ll take that as no comment, then?” I shouted as I ran for my car.