From our archives:

85 years ago

A fine specimen of the grey squirrel, with a tail ten inches long and three inches wide, was caught in the Goods Yard adjoining Thirsk Station, after an exciting chase, in which members of the station staff, assisted by workers on the electrification of signals, took part.

The squirrel which was eventually cornered on a coal bunker, was then taken to the railway goods office to be inspected by the head of staff before finally been set free to roam the stationmaster’s garden.

And in Bridlington the Railway station suffered a shunting mishap after some coaches which were being shunted into buffers, overran, causing the wheels and undercarriage of one coach to be torn away and the end of the other to land on the top of the second coach.

Thankfully no-one was hurt.

50 years ago

Naburn lock-keeper Mr John Sellers could not get out of his house after the River Ouse had broken its banks, during a spate of heavy rain and gales.

With ten feet of water in his back-garden Mr Sellers had to row one of his children to dry land by boat so that she could go to school.

His wife also had to be rowed out so that she could get in the day’s shopping.

York’s biggest car park at St George’s Field was completely under water and 500 cars which usually filled it each morning had to find parking space in other areas.

Two disused war-time airfields at Breighton and Riccall, near Selby, had become “terrorist ridden areas” as men from the 73rd Squadron of the 38 Engineer Regiment moved in to negotiate hidden booby traps and other hazards before blasting hangar bases with explosives as part of a two-in-one training operation.

20 years ago

Auditions for aspiring models in York had been called off following an Evening Press investigation into a possible fake promotions company that was asking for a £15 “administration fee.”

And a gang of more than 30 teenagers clashed with police on the streets of a York suburb. Four drunken youths were arrested in the confrontation as the gang spilled across the street in front of the Ryedale shopping centre just before midnight.

Warning rowdy gangs that this behaviour would no longer be tolerated was Sgt Tim Bright stating: “We’re pig sick of it, and we intend to get tough.”