100 years ago

THE development of the German attack on the Belgian army had continued the previous day with heavy fire on the forts of Antwerp at Waelhem and Catherine St Wavre, siege artillery being used.

The bombardment had one lamentable result. At Duffel, ten miles south-east of Antwerp, a great crowd of refugees assembled at the station awaiting a train to take them out of the bombardment area, when the German shells from the big guns began to fall in the station.

Altogether 20 shells fell, and the crowd of refugees, men, women, and children, were almost annihilated. An armoured train with engineers and soldiers advanced along the line near Duffel and did great execution among the German outposts.

The position, said the Antwerp correspondent of the “Morning Post,” showed clearly that the Germans contemplated a heavy artillery attack upon Antwerp, probably as a means to attempt to extort from the Belgian Government an armistice which would release from its duties the German army covering the fortress.

 

50 years ago

PARENTS of children in York hospitals were to be allowed unrestricted visiting facilities. This was agreed in principle at a meeting of York ‘A’ Hospital Management Committee.

Among the hospitals concerned were the York County and City Hospitals. Up to now there had been only unrestricted visiting for acutely ill children under the age of three. For children over three there had been an hour’s daily visiting time for their parents. Other visitors were usually allowed at weekends.

The unrestricted visiting was being introduced after a request from the Regional Hospital Board. It was intended for parents only, and in all cases would be at the discretion of the doctor in charge or the ward sister.

“If a child wants its mother she should be allowed to visit at any time,” said Alderman El Keld, chairman of the committee. Consideration might also be given to providing overnight accommodation and day-time rest for mothers visiting their children.

 

25 years ago

EMMERDALE Farm was going green – and a pinkish kind of cream! The green sprung from a family of new characters, who were worried about the environment.The cream was the colour of the paint being used to redecorate Annie Sugden’s kitchen.

It was the first time the set had had a major face-lift since the popular Yorkshire Television soap had begun in 1972. Both storylines were part of an autumn spring-clean for the twice-a-week serial, being produced in a refurbished woollen mill in Farsley.

A new family of four, livestock haulier Frank Tate, his second wife, Kim and children, Zoe, aged 21 and son Christopher, aged 24, were to make their debut in November, as new residents of Home Farm.