July

An estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of York on Sunday, July 6, as riders set off for the second leg of the race – 20,000 spectators were at Knavesmire alone, and countless more lined up in front of the Minster and elsewhere in the city.

It was colourful, frenetic, and very, very French – and the event was generally accounted a triumph, not only for York but the whole of Yorkshire.

An estimated 3.3 million people lined the county’s roads to watch, and the aerial TV footage – beamed to millions of viewers around the world – showing cyclists winding their way through glorious Yorkshire countryside were spectacular.

Other news making the headlines in July included a historic decision at the Church of England General Synod in York which paved the way for women to become bishops.

Three Labour councillors – Ken King, David Scott and Helen Douglas – were axed by their local party branch, losing out in selection battles for their Clifton seats ahead of next May’s local elections; and 23-year-old mum Tess Smith, from Huntington, praised staff at York Hospital’s special care baby unit for saving the life of her tiny son Joseph, born ten weeks early with a hole in his lung.

Former Mount School pupil Sophie Hetherton, 18, of York, became the youngest female competitor to complete the Round the World Yacht Race.

The Local Government Ombudsman told City of York Council to improve the way it dealt with complaints and requests for information; a renewed warning was issued about the dangers of North Yorkshire rivers after people were photographed jumping from a bridge into the River Derwent during a mini heatwave; and west coast music legends the Beach Boys played at York’s Knavesmire.

The Great Yorkshire Show and York’s annual Dragon Boat Races, meanwhile, ensured that purely in terms of spectacle, the Tour de France didn’t have it all its own way in July.