100 years ago

At the York City Police Court, William Jackson was summoned for hawking herrings without a licence on July 7.

Sergeant Hanson stated that at 7.30am on the day in question he was on duty in Duncombe Place when he saw the defendant pushing a handcart along Blake Street.

The defendant was shouting, “Fresh herrings, white herrings.”

He asked the defendant if he had a licence, and the defendant replied that he had not, but said that his son was hawking with a basket in Stonegate and he had the licence.

The sergeant went with the defendant into Stonegate, but failed to find his son, so he told him that he would be reported. A fine of 2s 6d and costs was imposed.


50 years ago

There was hair-raising news for the rabbits on York Corporation allotments as the Parks and Allotments Committee was buying... a gun.

This followed a letter from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food concerning the extermination of rabbits on allotments.

Occupiers had initially been responsible for pest control and shooting was one of the most efficient ways of controlling rabbits, said the man from the Ministry.

So the Committee had decided to spend about £30 on a gun. And the finger on the trigger would be that of Parks Superintendent Mr E Shirley.

“We have not a lot, but we have to keep harassing them all the time to keep them down,” he said.

“I have been shooting them with a borrowed gun and might get one or two each time. They do a lot of damage especially in the springtime and old age pensioners in particular cannot afford to plant-up so many times.”


25 years ago

Romantic writer Ann Victoria Roberts was on the verge of becoming a dollar millionaire, following the stupendous success of her first novel, Louisa Elliott.

The down-to-earth York woman was still reeling from the media attention her success had brought her.

She said: “I still can’t believe it, and I haven’t been able to get through to my editor at Chatto and Windus for the phone continually ringing.”

Her novel was a classic love story, set in 19th century York and Dublin, and rights to publish it had now been bought in the USA for $900,000, plus the promise of a bonus of $250,000 if it sold well.

In its first run in the United Kingdom, publishers Chatto and Windus had produced 15,000 hardback copies, of which 13,500 had gone out to the shops. Such was the interest in Ann’s story that Pan were due to publish a paperback version in February.