From our archives:

85 years ago

The most perilous task in the demolition of the remains of the burned-out drapery establishment of Leak and Thorp, Coney Street, was taking down brick by brick, the gable end at the rear, adjoining the process department of the Yorkshire Herald and the Yorkshire Evening Press.

While workmen carefully loosened bricks and threw them onto a pile of debris, staff had discovered that the women’s wardrobes on the second floor containing women’s costly cloaks, mantles and other apparel had not been touched by fire or water.

Whereas on the other side of the department the whole of the stock was destroyed.

And in Nottingham, Miss Gracie Fields had become the victim of a con artist, after a 24-year-old domestic, of no fixed abode, had gone to the stage door claiming to be Lady Bailey collecting for the blind institution.

The message was sent to Miss Fields who then handed over a £1 note.

50 years ago

With the Sound of Music finally closing, it was now time for a week of Westerns in York, promising plenty of action and a lot of laughs.

At the Odeon, John Wayne and Kirk Douglas had teamed for The War Wagon and a gold robbery was the subject of Waterhole 3, starring James “Flint” Coburn.

For the TV audience top of the bill at the London Palladium was Tom Jones, due to perform for the last time in the UK before heading to Las Vegas.

And British planes carrying parachute rescue teams, took up the search at first light for the Israeli submarine Dakar, missing in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Rough seas and lack of precise information on the Dakar’s last-known position had hampered the search.

20 years ago

A petition signed by 1,604 parents of Canon Lee School pupils was presented to the House of Commons by Vale of York MP Miss Anne McIntosh.

Parents, governors and staff at Canon Lee School were all opposing plans by the City of York Council to merge Canon Lee with Queen Anne School on a split site with a mile between each site.

York went global with the launch of its official “Euro” site on the internet and a group of card players were hoping to make it into the Guinness Book of Records after the perfect hand was dealt in a game of whist.