100 years ago

An interesting ceremony had been performed at Hull when a number of almshouses, erected and endowed by Mr Christopher Pickering and given to the Hull Corporation for the aged poor, were opened by Mrs Pickering.

Mr Pickering started life as a lad in a Hull fish smoke-house, and amassed a fortune by the displacement of the old fishing smacks by steam trawlers. Mr Pickering had given these almshouses as a haven of rest for aged people in the fishing industry in which he had made his fortune.

These additional houses brought the number of Pickering almshouses to 20. One widow upon entering her new home was overcome with emotion, and it was with difficulty that she expressed her thanks.

With characteristic consideration, Mr Pickering had had three bags of coal put into each coal house, so that the tenants need not have any immediate anxiety about coal.


50 years ago

A total of £26,000 had been spent by the “Not Forgotten” Association the previous year for the benefit of war disabled ex-Service men and women, the chairman of the Association, Maj-Gen GM Dyer told the annual meeting in London.

The provision of television sets was currently their main item of expenditure. In January another 50 sets had been issued bringing the total to 580.

Gen Dyer said: “We continue to receive numerous letters of sincere appreciation of the joy which these television sets have brought into the lives of these men, who so often refer to the four walls of their room as being the breadth of their vision until the advent of the television set.”


25 years ago

A swimming pool fit for a king might, it was suggested, be used by prisoners at Askham Grange open prison, following an amazing discovery.

Staff at the prison, near York, had uncovered a luxurious oval pool surrounded by Belgian marble, which had been hidden for years beneath floorboards in a storeroom.

Now, prison authorities were spending £26,000 to restore the pool to its former glory and allow the 100 inmates to use it. Acting governor Mr Malcolm Rogerson, said: “It’s too good a facility and in too good condition for us not to restore it.”

The prison was a converted country house built just before the First World War and received inmates from other prisons nearing the end of their long sentences, or petty offenders serving short terms.

Prison documents revealed that the 60ft long pool had been built in 1913 by the then owner, Sir Andrew Wailes-Fairbairn, as a twenty-first birthday present for his son. Staff had known about the pool since it had been boarded over when the house became a prison in 1947, and it was then used as a storeroom.