100 years ago

There had never been a time in the history of the Port of Hull when the quays of the Victoria Dock, the principal dock for cargoes of wood, had been more crowded than in the case at the present moment.

The arrival at Immingham docks of the sailing ship Port Jackson with 9000 bales of wool from Melbourne marked the inauguration of a unique experiment.

The heavy cost and the difficulty of storing wool in this country had led Bradford importers to revert to sailing ships as a means of transportation from Australia to this country in place of steamers, which brought wool cargoes too quickly and thus necessitated very heavy storage costs.

The old sailing ships took many weeks on the journey and as freight rates were low money would be saved by this experiment.


50 years ago

York Minster Society of Change Ringers had attempted to ring a full peal on the Minster bells - the first for 70 years.

They did it to welcome the new Dean of York, Dr Alan Richardson. The Minster’s ring of 12 bells, housed in the south-west tower, had not been heard to full peal since Lord Mayor’s Day, November 9, 1892.

The York Minster Society of Change Ringers, responsible for ringing the Minster bells since 1854, had begun the full peal attempt just before midday.

They estimated that the full peal would take about four hours, providing no one made a mistake in the changes, and none of the ropes broke. A full peal consisted of at least 5000 changes, none of which was repeated.

In a change, each bell was struck once and in no two changes was the order of the bells the same. On a ring of average weight, a full peal took about three hours, but it was estimated to take about an hour longer at the Minster because of the weight of the bells - the heaviest (the tenor) weighed about three tons.


25 years ago

The entertainer Jimmy Savile had just won “substantial” undisclosed damages in settlement of a High Court libel action over newspaper articles which said he fixed it for mental patients to get out of Broadmoor.

He had sued News Group Newspapers, which also agreed to pay all his legal costs. His solicitor, Mr David Hooper, told the court that Mr Savile had worked as a voluntary helper at the Berkshire Hospital for 20 years.

The News Of The World had published an article headed ‘Jim fixes it for 60 psychos to go free.’

The article wrongly suggested that Mr Savile was in a position to secure the release of dangerous mental patients without proper heed to public safety and medical advice, the court was told.