100 years ago

When the West Coast night express from Glasgow to London reached Carlisle at 1 o’clock in the morning, blood was seen running down the side of one of the saloons.

The railway officials then discovered two soldiers on the roof of the train, one being unconscious with an injury to the head; while the other was unhurt, but apparently suffering from the effects of drink. The injured man was taken to the Cumberland Infirmary where an operation was performed for fracture of the skull.

It was stated that the two men, who were described as gunners, stationed at Glasgow, had absented themselves and joined the express without tickets with the object of reaching London where the parents of one of the soldiers resided.

To avoid the ticket-examiners they had climbed on to the roof. While the train was travelling the head of the injured man, who belonged to Southampton, must have struck a bridge. The man was in a critical condition.

 

50 years ago

If a plan just announced was approved by the City Council, old age pensioners resident in York would be able to travel for half fare on the city’s bus service between certain times of the day.

It would cost the City Council £9,000 a year and if approved would come into force on June 6. It would apply only to pensioners resident within the city boundaries, and only to buses of the York-West Yorkshire Services, within the city.

The scheme, which had been drawn up by the Council’s Transport Committee in close consultation with the West Yorkshire Road Car Company, would go before the Council’s next meeting for approval.

 

25 years ago

The wind of change would be blowing for Ryedale’s pig farmers. For a Malton-based breeding company thought it might have scented the sweet smell of success by coming up with a solution to an age-old problem - odours from piggeries wafting across the countryside.

Experts at Newsham Hybrid Pigs said they had found a way of mixing oils from the yucca plant with pig feed to trap foul-smelling gases in pig dung. The news could mean welcome relief for farmers and rural residents alike. Throughout the country environmental health officers received about 4000 complaints each year about smells given off by farms.

The discovery had been made during tests involving adding yucca oils to the feed of several thousand pigs at the firm’s High Penhowe unit, which produced about 1,250,000 gallons of slurry every year. It had now asked its feed supplier to add the extract to the feed for all its units. Mr Ian Brisby, the firm’s owner and chairman, said a five-month trial had proved very successful.