From our archives:

85 years ago

Unsettled weather had affected the attendance at the Pickering Parish Church garden fete and tennis tournament held at The Lodge.

There was no official opening ceremony, but the beautiful and spacious grounds of The Lodge the residence of Mr and Mrs T Frank, were greatly admired.

The Curry family from Easingwold whose son had emigrated to Canada, also had been reported in the Press as having one of the finest gardens to be seen in the Moose district of Saskatchewan.

In York you could now purchase a Bridal Barm fruit cake at Borders Ltd, in Coney Street.

According to an advertisement placed in The Yorkshire Herald, the staff would be more than willing to show you the cake and then talk with you of its history.

“York - You have been stormed before… Storm Coney Street today and buy the finest cake ever made,” was the tag line.

50 years ago

There was a warning to parents of St Peter’s School, York, that they may be another rise in fees.

Headmaster Mr John Dronfield stated that the increase was needed to cover the new salaries and wages scales which had come into force that year.

The cause of pollution which had struck the Foss above the old locks near Yearsley Bridge, still remained a mystery.

With reports of dead fish, some of them quite large, including a pike, a sample of the water had been taken by officials from the Yorkshire Ouse and Hull River Authority.

Eye witnesses had reported children carrying dead fish away from the river and so it seemed likely that the mortality could be in fact, far higher than the 60 fish mentioned.

20 years ago

York Theatre Royal had buried its longest serving actor after he delivered his final swansong, then drowned in the bath.

The curtain had fallen on the life of Nelson the canary after an illustrious career spanning nine years at the theatre.

He was originally bought to play Fagin’s caged bird in a production of the musical Oliver!

A two-year effort to plant a community woodland, intended as a living and lasting memorial to a York environmentalist John Lally, had finally come to fruition and been officially opened in the grounds of Tang Hall.

Bootham and Monk Ward Conservative Club was celebrating after opening its doors for the past year to over 30 women members, since it first opened in 1901.