100 years ago

“Something’s stirring,” a serious-faced individual had said to a representative of the Yorkshire Evening Press as a company of Territorials, fully-equipped, had marched with wagons along Fishergate.

Beyond this the individual would say nothing.

He was reticence personified, but not so the persons gathered round.

One knew for certain that the “Terriers” were on their way to the East Coast to take part in tests of defence against an imaginary enemy seeking a landing on England's shore, but, according to another man, this was quite a misconception of the actual position.

On the very best authority he could affirm that guns had been heard from the coast, and that the Territorials had been urgently summoned to withstand an invasion.

Our representative, in touch with military matters from day to day, knew that the movements were simply route marches, but to allay public anxiety interviewed an officer of the General Staff of the War Office, who stated that not a single Territorial had left York for the coast, nor had any instructions being issued that they were to do so.


50 years ago

An appeal to the public to co-operate in stamping out vandalism by immediately reporting incidents to the police by dialling 999, had been made by Councillor RH Glew, chairman of York Health Committee, at a meeting of York City Council.

In the previous year, he said, there had been 15 separate incidents of vandalism at the Fifth Avenue Health Centre and the Cornlands Road Health Centre. “The cost of repairs is considerable,” he said.

The vandalism was also having a serious effect on the staff who worked at the clinics, when they arrived to find telephone wires pulled out and deliberate attempts to set fire to the buildings.


25 years ago

Two new bridges were being planned for the River Foss in York city centre as part of a multi-million pound commercial development.

The bridges would open up new routes into the city through what was currently a series of dead ends. Council chiefs hoped the bridges, which would link Navigation Road and Foss Islands Road with Dundas Street and Peasholme Green, would form part of a new network of footpaths and cycleways.

Mr John Rigby, the head of city development, said the developers also intended to give money towards a Foss clean-up.

Council chiefs expected construction work to start on the Navigation Road Bridge in 1991. Mr Rigby said he hoped the new bridges would establish fast links through to Aldwark for cycles, and from Foss Islands Road to the city centre for pedestrians.