June 20

“Old York” wrote: “The letter of “Resident” will have the sympathy of many who appreciate the beauty of the trees around our beloved city.

I wonder if it was the same Corporation official who ruthlessly cut down the beautiful trees in the Moat the length of Queen Street. To my mind it was cruel. I tremble for the hawthorn trees in the moat near Lendal Bridge, which have been lovely beyond words this spring.”

50 years ago

To decorate the entrance to its new headquarters in Rougier Street, York, the Yorkshire Insurance Company had chosen its oldest symbol – a large-scale replica of the fire Mark which used to be affixed to buildings covered by the firm’s fire insurance policies.

Original examples could still be seen on a number of old properties in the city, and some were on display in York Castle Museum. The “Yorkshire’s” fire mark - approved at a directors’ meeting on April 7, 1826 – showed the west front of the Minster surmounted by the word “Yorkshire” and had the foundation date “1824” beneath.

One of the earliest references to the company had appeared in an advertisement in The Yorkshire Herald on June 5, 1824, when it was requested that people interested in the establishment of a Yorkshire fire and life insurance office should meet at the York Tavern on June 14 at noon.

25 years ago

A company in Wetherby which produced stone cladding and textured masonry coatings claimed its business image had been damaged by Granada TV’s Coronation Street.

Statements made in the popular “soap”, after two of the Street’s characters – Jack and Vera Duckworth – had stone cladding put on their house, were condemned by John Chalmers, managing director of Wetherby Stone Products Ltd, of Thorp Arch Trading Estate. Jack and Vera had been told the value of their terraced house in Coronation Street had been slashed by £1,000 because of stone cladding.

Mr Chalmers bitterly criticised Coronation Street producers and claimed that 15 years of unblemished trading which had led his company to be a market leader in stone cladding and masonry coatings had been undermined. Mr Chalmers accused Coronation Street of being “10 years out of date with its comic situation of ‘cowboy’ operators dealing in stone cladding”.

“Even more upsetting and damaging for ourselves and our customers is the suggestion that stone cladding actually devalues a property,” he said. “I would not like our company’s name and product to be devalued in the public’s mind simply because of the stone cladding fiasco on Coronation Street. That would be grossly unfair.”