100 years ago

Private W Weir, of the 18th Hussars wrote: “I am attached to an Indian cavalry regiment, and it was my luck to be in the trenches on Christmas Day. We were saluted by the Germans, whose trenches were only about 60 yards away, by them calling out to us in good English 'A happy Christmas to you all.'

"We took no notice of it as first, but about 1.30pm we heard them calling again. We looked out of our loopholes and there they were all standing on top of their trench. We could hardly believe our eyes; we were just about to open fire when one of our officers gave us the order to unload our rifles.

"Seeing the Germans standing there without any rifles we stood up and answered them. Then they started to cheer. One of their men shouted out, ‘Here's some cigars for you.’

"The fellow then came down off the top of his trench and started to walk towards us. Seeing this I climbed over our parapet to meet him.

"We met in the middle, he handed me the cigars and said: ‘A happy Christmas to you.’ I hardly knew what to do at first, but I shook hands with him and wished him the compliments of the season also. As soon as the other Germans saw us shake hands they cheered like mad.

"The scene that followed can hardly be described. To see our greatest enemy shaking hands with our troops and giving them cigars was a sight I shall never forget.”


50 years ago

The gradual dismantling of thousands of cubic feet of redwood shoring from the classical facade of John Carr's 188-year-old York Assize Court was almost complete.

For the first time in three years, the Ionic portico stood revealed. The work had been necessary because the portico had been leaning out dangerously.

Though no record could be found of the type of stone originally used by Carr, it had been very closely matched in hard brown Yorkshire stone, quarried near Huddersfield.

In fact, one of the capitals was not replaced, but merely cleaned and it was extremely difficult to distinguish it from the new.


25 years ago

Readers had been complaining about the crinkles appearing down the centre of The Yorkshire Evening Press. We could only apologise and promise to put things right as soon as possible.

The fault had occurred at a V-shaped “nose” on our press. Engineers had tried several variations on its shape in an attempt to eradicate the problem.

The manufacturers, Rockwell, were completing a substitute nose that we would be able to fit the following week. Meanwhile we hoped it had not spoiled our readers enjoyment of the Evening Press too much.