July 8

Tender amongst other things for bathing costumes had just been dealt with by a committee of the Scarborough Town Council.

Alderman V Fowler moved that a skirt or kilt should be added to the gentlemen’s bathing costumes as well as ladies and this was met with support in committee, but was defeated. The regulation bathing costume as approved would be from the shoulder to the knee.

Also in the news, the legality of the “test your skill” automatic machines, which were common in hotels and public houses, was to be tested by a prosecution at Bradford. With a view to hearing the magistrates’ ruling as to whether they were “unlawful instruments for gaming,” a test case was to be fought between the Chief Constable of Bradford as complainant and the License Victuallers’ Association and Wine and Beer Sellers’ Association as defendants.

50 years ago

According to a man with wide experience of supplying wallpaper, paints and other items for home decoration, Yorkshire women were among the most decor-conscious in the country.

York women, particularly, had a lot of “know-how” when it came to interior decoration, he said. They knew what they wanted and they had good taste. In this respect they seemed to have greater individuality than women in the south who were less willing to experiment or wander far from established ranges of patterns in wallpaper. He suggested most of their “know-how” was acquired from women’s magazines.

“They see something they like and they go out to find it,” he said. Often this meant a long and painstaking search for the shopkeeper, because the wallpaper pictured in the magazines could be “coded” in a different way by various retail outlets.

But Yorkshire women were also persistent – and they usually got what they wanted. The current trend, it seemed, was towards the better-class wallpaper. Few people were happy to go for the cheaper kind.

25 years ago

Conservation-conscious farmers were being offered grants to help improve the countryside. North Yorkshire Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group said that 40 to 50 per cent grants were on offer through the Ministry of Agriculture Farm and Conservation Scheme for North Yorkshire farmers to encourage them to fence heather moorland and to help the regeneration of stock-grazed woodland.

Mr Philip Lyth, Farm Conservation Adviser for the county, said: “Conservation need not involve expensive tree planting or pond creation schemes. At this time of dropping farm incomes, many farmers would be well advised to make the most of their existing resources.”