From our archives:

85 years ago

Seventy-year-old Sir Herbert Nield, KC, who had been Recorder of York since April 1917, had died at his residence, Bishop Mead, London.

Born and bred within sound of Bow Bells his death had come as a great loss to the Bar and York’s Quarter Sessions.

The second championship show of the Yorkshire County Cat Club was held at Slingsby Hall, York, under the presidency of Miss E Wentworth Fitzwilliam.

With a total of 400 entries the promoters were very pleased with the show’s progress and the winner named “June of Knott Hall.”

One man was killed and 14 others were wounded when police were compelled to fire on rioters in Belfast.

Several baton charges were made, and in addition about a hundred persons, including policemen, were injured.

The rioting followed an attempt by unemployed to organise a march on Belfast workhouse and hold prohibited meetings.

50 years ago

The York Press reported that twenty four Britons were among 66 people killed when a BEA Comet Four B jet airliner plunged into the Mediterranean between Rhodes and Cyprus on a flight from London to Cyprus.

The 21 British passengers included two children, and the three-man flight crew who were also British.

The other 38 passengers and cabin crew of four were Greeks and Cypriots.

The “battle of Hazel Garth” in which two families took to a frightening free-for-all, didn’t end in victory for either side after Bulmer East magistrate’s court apportioned the blame equally and divided the costs.

About 300 tons of hay and straw and a combine harvester had been destroyed after a fire had swept through a barn and a large haystack at an Askham Bryan farm.

Calves in a nearby farm were led to safety shortly after the fire was discovered by eight year-old Susan Gordon who was watching from a window at her home opposite the farm.

20 years ago

Officials at York Racecourse were trying to ensure that the shock cancellation of the race meeting never happened again after the city’s hotels had spent the last 24 hours dealing with cancellations estimated in a loss of £250,000 in takings for the city after heavy rainfall.

And youngsters at an Acomb special school were joining the computer age, thanks to the generosity of supermarket chain Sainsbury’s who had supplied Northfield School with hundreds of vouchers to help update their IT department.