8:07am Friday 27th July 2012
100 years ago
The palatial new premises of Messrs W Boyes and Co, Ltd, Bridge Street, York, were opened under favourable auspices.
There was a large attendance of buyers.
The premises were most up-to-date in every respect. In the basement was a large fireproof room, forming a gigantic safe, for the deposit of articles of value, while there was also an installation of Lawson's much improved apparatus for working cash tubes which intersected the huge building, bringing all cash and cash notes to one centre and returning change and accounts to the several departments.
On the ground floor were departments for all kinds of drapery as well as for all kinds of fancy work.
The first floor was a spacious, well-lit room, devoted mostly to millinery, mantles, dress materials, silks, etc. There was also a cafe which was well furnished to meet the requirements of patrons.
A novelty was the outside balcony, which was to be illuminated at night with fairy lamps; the balcony overlooked the river. The second floor was chiefly used for the display of glass, china, earthenware, furniture, and the heavier class of goods used in home furnishing, while there was a dining and smokeroom for gentlemen.
Prominent in the centre was also the clockroom, in which was housed the new turret clock.
50 years ago
That mid-day trek to the chip shop happened more often in the North than anywhere else in the country. But, according to a report just out, fish – without chips - was the big attraction.
Experts who had been looking into the country's eating habits in 1960 had found that more cooked fish was sold in the East and West Ridings and the North than anywhere else.
But the people in this part of the country were not Britain's biggest chip eaters.
This insight into eating habits was presented by the National Food Survey Committee, whose investigators carried out surveys in Bradford North, Harrogate and the Heeley district of Sheffield.
25 years ago
A York actress who played the Virgin Mary in the York Mystery Plays was to appear in the first television advertisement for condoms.
Jayne Snowden, aged 22, would be seen in an advert for Durex the following Saturday night, just 24 hours after the ban on advertising condoms was lifted.
She would be seen with actor David Corti strolling along a street together as news headline clips hammered home the message about AIDS.
The advert was recently filmed secretly in Uxbridge. But no contraceptives would be seen on the screen.
A spokesman for Durex said: "We have had to bear in mind that it must be done with good taste and decency. I think we have done everything we can to prevent anybody being embarrassed or upset."
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