From our archives:

85 years ago

Two survivors of the disastrous Hull trawler Lord Deramore, who had both suffered from extreme exposure, were now on the road to recovery.

Planning to stay a few more days in Vardoe, they recalled their terrible experiences of drifting in a lifeboat, soaked to the skin and blinded by snow.

Captains mate Mr Harrison also described how rowing against the storm had taken the skin off their hands, and it was so cold that the waves turned into ice washing over the boat.

The disaster had only intensified the sorrow already experienced by the fishing community of Hull, after the whereabouts of James Long ship with a crew of 13 men was still unknown.

Another attempt to stop boating on the Nidd at Knaresborough on Sundays was frustrated at the monthly meeting of the Urban District Council by a majority of one vote and judges arrived in York to open the City Assizes at the Guildhall and the County Assizes at York Castle.

50 years ago

York could now look upon its hospital service with pride, after the opening of its new ear, nose and throat ward.

The new ward at the City Hospital had cost more than £100,000 and was declared open by the Lord Mayor, Coun W E Hargrave.

The ultra-modern building designed to become a general or geriatric ward later, included an operating theatre, treatment room and enough beds for 32 patients all of whom had access to electrical controls for switching on lights and calling the nurses.

Anonymous phone calls from “prominent local business people” offering bribes to be included in documentary film, were upsetting one power station worker who was collecting material for a television documentary about Selby.

In fact, the calls were so upsetting that Mr Firth had even considered calling off his project.

20 years ago

York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation was considering legal action after a Sunday newspaper linked it to a story about Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

The story published by the Sunday Times allegedly stated that Mr Prescott had failed to declare a £27,750 donation from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust in 1996.

And several motorists had been trapped in snow drifts in Hutchinson Kansas, after a powerful winter storm had dumped 10 inches of snow, forcing the shutdown of hundreds of miles of main highways in the United States.