100 years ago

Bull-baiting, a practice which had no legal sanction, but still in its day was an acknowledged custom, had been indulged in in York in days gone by.

It probably came from the Roman arena. It was an exciting but barbaric amusement, yet until within the previous century it had been publicly patronised in almost every village and town of the country.

In York, two places had been used for this pastime; one was in Thursday market-place, St Sampson’s Square, stated the late Mr W Camidge in his book “Ye Olde Pavement,” where the stone to which the ring was fastened was still to be seen in the ground near to the crossing from Church Street to Davygate.


50 years ago

A driver shown to have a certain amount of alcohol in his blood or urine should be automatically convicted of drunken driving, declared doctors at the British Medical Association’s meeting in Manchester.

The meeting, which represented more than 60,000 doctors, passed a motion instructing their council to seek legislation to be added to the Road Traffic Act so that the presence of the appropriate level of alcohol in the blood, or the equivalent level in the urine, would lead to the automatic conviction of an intoxicated driver.


25 years ago

The long hot summer was leading to a big rise in marital problems, marriage guidance workers had warned. The number of calls for help being received by Relate was up by 30 per cent.

Relate counsellor and sex therapist Angela Martin said: “Couples’ tolerance levels are greatly reduced in the heat. Little things become more and more annoying. If people are nagging at each other all day they aren’t going to hit it off physically, especially when it is hot at night as well.”