100 years ago

Archdeacon Hallett, of Zanzibar, had said in a sermon at York Minster that the amount contributed yearly by home members of the Church of England towards foreign missions was equivalent to only the amount spent in golf balls.

He said it was estimated that of all the money which was given for Church purposes at home only one-tenth was given to the work of the Church abroad. The proportion was very unsatisfactory. 

The average amount which each member of the Church of England contributed annually towards foreign missions was ninepence. A penny per week, which was little enough, would realise far more than that.


50 years ago

Swan Hunter’s, the Tyneside shipbuilders, had won a contract to supply 800 units of study-bedroom furniture for the University of York.

It represented a big success for the company’s diversification policy. The previous October it had announced that it had formed a new subsidiary, Merchandise Presentation Ltd, in collaboration with an international firm of architects specialising in store planning and design, to manufacture and market shop and store fittings, land furniture and equipment of all kinds.

The contract had been won against keen competition from outside contractors specialising in furniture units, and had been received with “great enthusiasm” in the company. The units had been specially designed to group together as many as possible of a students requirements and would comprise wardrobe, a washbasin and a heating unit.

The units would be built in Swan Hunter's newly – enlarged and modernised joiners' department, which employed about 250 men. The first would be delivered early in September, and the job would be completed by February next year.


25 years ago

Speculation was mounting that the IRA had been planning a devastating St Patrick’s Day massacre to kill the Prime Minister at Scarborough.

The discovery of a cache of Semtex plastic explosive and deadly weaponry outside the resort, it was thought, might have been used in an attack as a Conservative party conference began on March 17.

Mrs Thatcher and her top Ministers were due to attend the Conservative Central Council at the resort’s Spa Theatre. A Brighton-bomb style attack on St Patrick’s Day would have been sweet revenge for the IRA after recent humiliations.

Army units throughout the North were on Amber alert as security heightened in the wake of the Scarborough arms and explosives discovery. Troops were not directly involved with the search operations, which were being directed and carried out wholly by police.