From our archives:

85 years ago

Two hundred and fifty boys from Archbishop Holgate’s Grammar School, York, paid a visit to London to see the sights.

They came by train in the charge of a half-score of slightly harassed masters, and although 250, was but a drop in the ocean of London’s 7,000,000, the schoolboys of York certainly made their presence felt.

For most of them it was a first visit to the Metropolis and first impressions of London would remain a memory that they would keep for many a day.

Even though it was pouring with rain all day, it would have taken a tornado to dampen the spirits of the boys.

Seen as a masterpiece of its time the film “Grand Hotel” was now on general viewing at York’s Tower Picture Theatre and heavy rain, with occasional sleet, had fallen on the East Coast causing flooding on part of the Bridlington-Flamborough road.

50 years ago

Getting ready for the lone Atlantic crossing race, was engineer Noel Bevan, of Hartley Wintney, Hants.

Mr Bevan who had been racing the yacht, Myth of Malham, throughout the winter, was confident of her success.

The race which was sailed every four years, with about 18 competitors had a bevy of famous winners such as Sir Francis Chichester.

York Rugby League team had announced that its Good Friday home game with Dewsbury would once again be televised after its successful screening of a Halifax match which produced one of the best matches ever seen on the small screen.

And fireman had to be called to 1 Castlegate, York, at rush hour, to take down three chimney pots and pieces of masonry which were in danger of crashing into the street below.

A passer-by had reported the chimney pots swaying in the wind, and the owners, the Northern Rock Building Society, had called the fire brigade.

20 years ago

Esther Rantzen was in Yorkshire to launch a new helpline for the region’s children and appeal for more cash to help the thousands who couldn’t get through.

ChildLine Yorkshire and North East which opened in 1997, was receiving more than 20,000 calls a week.

But a shortage of resources meant counsellors could only answer one in four callers.

And a bus strike that threatened to disrupt York’s smooth running of the Ecofin weekend, was called off after Rider York bosses laid a take-it-or-leave-it final offer on the table.