100 years ago

The special correspondent of the “Nieuwe Rotterdamache Courant” at Maestricht reported that the situation of the inhabitants of Liège continued to be very critical.

Several houses had been burned down in the night. The animosity of the population against the German troops was growing daily, chiefly owing to the heavy war contributions levied by the enemy and other measures.

Up to the previous Friday the inhabitants had been forbidden to be in the streets after 9 in the evening, but recently the hour had been fixed at 6 o’clock.


50 years ago

The falling share of retail trade done by the Co-operative societies of Britain had produced some revolutionary conclusions by the housewife-author of a new book.

The “divi” was out of date. That was the basic conclusion – shattering news for old-time members - that had come out of a close study of the Co-operative movement by a housewife who was also an economist.

Cut the dividend - and cut prices, was her advice to the “Co-ops” which currently had 13m members compared with 90,000 around 100 years before.

Despite their membership the Cooperatives had evidently dropped in the estimation of housewives, their share of retail trade falling from 11.7 per cent in 1957 to the current level of nearer 10 per cent.


25 years ago

A new rail link was to be created from the Selby coalfield complex to Drax power station to reduce environmental problems along the current route.

The scheme involved reopening a section of track to connect the East Coast main line to the Wakefield to Goole line.

It was expected to be used by merry-go-round trains to transport the bulk of the 10 million tonne annual output from the superpit complex to Europe’s biggest coal-fired generating plant.