From our archives:

85 years ago

Meat wrappers were being classed as the possible culprit for spreading of foot-and-mouth disease.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture the practice of wrapping meat in cloth and importing it into this country from abroad for manufacture into bags for animal food, fertilisers and horticultural produce could be the main source of how the infection was being retained and transferred.

York had gone May Queen crazy, with the crowning Miss Irene Ward at the Exhibition Buildings.

Gawthorpe also held its May Queen Carnival Procession, crowning Miss Marion Wilson the year’s Queen-elect, and Miss Mary Wilby, the retiring Queen.

The figures were in for York’s drink bill with a remarkable calculation that £470,000 had been spent in York on drink at a time when consumption was decreasing.

50 years ago

The GPO had decided on a change of fashion for Britain’s postmen.

Double breasted uniforms were out and single-breasted in, with the familiar blue giving way to grey.

Announcing the new uniforms, the GPO said the red piping - a link with the first scarlet uniform of 1793 - would be retained.

The new uniforms were due to appear in spring 1969.

The new physics laboratories at York University were nearing completion.

Each £20,000 laboratory was to include a room lined with copper so that experiments could be carried out free from electrical interference.

And it may have been the last chapter in the Eggborough power station’s latest dispute, as 30 of the 60 men sacked a fortnight ago returned to work.

20 years ago

According to doctors, ice-cream was the most common cause of headaches.

But people with a sweet tooth didn’t need to despair after new research had found that letting ice-cream melt at the front of your mouth could beat the pain.

Betty’s Café in York laid down the gauntlet to Die Hard actor Bruce Willis, after he insulted the great British scone at the 50th Cannes Film Festival.

Betty’s which had been shortlisted for the best tea outlet in Britain in the 1997 Tea Council’s awards, invited Willis to take the taste challenge after the star said British doughnuts and scones “suck".