From our archives:

85 years ago

The Lord Mayor of York Alderman R H Vernon Wragge alongside the Prime Minister Mr Ramsey Macdonald sent the following telegram to the Queen on the occasion of her 65th birthday: The citizens of York send loyal congratulations and greeting.

The reply was: My warm and grateful thanks to you, my Lord Mayor, and to the citizens of York for the loyal congratulations you have been so good as to send to me on the anniversary of my birthday, signed Mary R.

There had been a large attendance at Messrs Walker and Sons’ horse repository in York for the concluding stage of the May Race sales.

Trade had been brisk throughout the day with all 50 lots been sold.

York had also been very successful at Hull Musical Festival with the Queen Anne Secondary School obtaining 180 marks beating Barcroft Street Old Girls’ Choir from Cleethorpes, who were awarded 179 marks.

50 years ago

Despite the gloomy weather, roads to the coast were busy and jams had been reported on most of the motorways.

In Yorkshire there was a jam of three-and-a-half miles at Ferrybridge, with traffic in the North of England generally heavier than a normal Saturday.

Motorists calling York AA headquarters got a constant engaged signal for two hours between 9.15am and 11.15am after the line was out of order.

By noon, a mile-long queue of coast-bound cars on the A64 Leeds-York road stretched from Tadcaster back to the Toulston polo ground.

The weather continued to cause havoc as lightning stuck in a field near the village of Crambe, splitting a tree trunk and blasting it branches over two fields.

The tree at Pond Farm had been hit and set on fire during an overnight thunderstorm.

20 years ago

A new poster campaign had been launched in Helmsley in an attempt to make bikers feel welcome again, after some traders had complained that the historic market town which had become a popular meeting point for motorcyclists, feared that the large presence of the bikes would put other tourists off.

Earlier that year Duncombe Park announced it would be holding the Motorcycle Action Group rally again, with the Co-op backing them all the way with a poster campaign.

And Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine bounced into York, draining Fibbers of oxygen with their energetic fast music.