100 years ago

The Matin stated that a special train had arrived at the Gare du Nord with 300 Belgian refugees – children, old men and invalids from the orphanage and infirmary of the Institution St Michael at Poperinge, which was managed by the Sisters of St Francis of Assisi.

One of the sisters, explaining the reasons for the flight from Poperinge, said: “We had already decided to remove all the occupants of our institution next Thursday, as it was to be transformed into a military hospital, but on Sunday the Germans bombarded the town, and although our establishment flew the Red Cross flag, it was not spared.

Three of our Sisters were killed. One of them had her head blown off by a shell while engaged in getting the children away, and several of our inmates were wounded and have been left at Montreuil sur Mer.”

 

50 years ago

A favourite subject of readers’ queries was the River King, the pleasure boat which had been a familiar sight on the Ouse at York more than 30 years before.

The date on which it had made its last trip had been asked, and a reply from a reader from two years before had been brought to light. At that time, the reader had said there were two versions of the boat’s fate – that it had become a wreck at Bishopthorpe and that it had gone to Dunkirk. Mr W Hill, the York pleasure boat proprietor, said that the River King – which had carried about 200 passengers and was originally steam-driven – had ended its career in the early 1930s.

It had been scrapped at Bishopthorpe. The vessel had been replaced by another boat which carried clean cargo in winter and passengers in summer. It did not operate for long, and Mr Hill had seen it some years previous on the Worcester Canal.

 

25 years ago

A medieval stone track which linked Whitby Abbey with the old town could soon be restored after years of neglect. The deteriorating condition of Donkey Road, which dated back to the 14th century had been exacerbated earlier in the year when a retaining wall collapsed on it.

Now, Scarborough Council was asking the county council to take responsibility for the ancient highway, a grade one structure. In return the borough would pay some of the £12,000 needed to restore the track. The deputy director of planning, Mr Jonathan Allison, said it had been unclear since local government reorganisation 17 years before, who should assume responsibility for the road. The town’s mayor, Cllr Mrs Dorothy Clegg, commented: “It is imperative that someone takes responsibility for its maintenance.”