July 7

Notwithstanding that the Metric System Act had been passed in 1897 legalising the use in trade of weights and measures of the metric system, not a single metric weight or measure other than those used for educational purposes had been examined and stamped under the metric system by the West Riding County Council staff during the year ended March 31st 1913.

Also in the news, Mr George Sellars, of Barker Stakes, near Pickering, owned a hen turkey which had just laid an egg within an egg. The outer “case” consisted of a shell and white of egg and the inner one a perfect specimen. The whole weighed 7½ ounces.

50 years ago

Acts of vandalism in York were costing the Corporation a vast amount of money, said Councillor Peter Gales, Chairman of the Streets and Buildings Committee, at a meeting of the City Council.

Referring to the fact that fencing at the James Ashton playground, adjacent to Water End, had been extensively damaged, he said the cost of reinstating it would be about £100.

Councillor Gales went on to speak of the “abuse” of public lavatories in the city. A new one provided by the Council at large expense, was in a very sad state.

Those responsible for mutilating these buildings were perverts, he said. He appealed to citizens to get in touch with the police when they saw “these individuals who delight in boring large holes in public conveniences and scrawling all over the place.”

He thought some of them might need medical attention. Councillor Gales said he thought ratepayers should know of the vast amount of damage which was being done to public lavatories and to other amenities. They had to foot the bill and he hoped they would help in whatever way they could in stopping acts of vandalism.

25 years ago

Yorkshire and Humberside were leading the way in boosting city centres to fend off the threat of out-of-town superstores.

A new report from chartered surveyors Fuller Peiser urged councils to welcome out-of-town developments while reviving run-down city centres.

Key projects recommended to free cities from “a downward spiral” were restaurants, ice rinks and multi-screen cinemas.

Of the district councils who responded to the survey, 92 per cent of those in Yorkshire and Humberside said major improvement or refurbishment work had been carried out in their local town centres.

“Those who fail to respond may find it difficult to move out of the downward spiral caused by falling turnover and profits in the high street,” said the authors of the report.