From our archives:

80 years ago

Details of the attendances at Sewerby Hall and Park, Bridlington, over the Whitsuntide weekend were announced by Alderman Harker, acting chairman of the Sewerby Estate Committee, whilst Council members were being entertained at Sewerby Hall. According Mr Harker about 14,000 people visited Sewerby, “One thousand people played golf, 900 people took part in the archery and 1,400 patronised the rifle range.” A common sense Government and the need for more funds to run party organisations in York was emphasised during a rally of the York Conservative Association, held in grounds of the Homestead, Clifton, the home of Mr Peter Rowntree. The Chairman, Mr Lumley Dodsworth, said frankly that the fete was a money-making concern. “If many well-to-do people in York realised their obligations to the Conservative Party, it would not be necessary to hold so many functions of that sort.”

50 years ago

The £1m plus central bus station for York was still on the cards, if the thorny question of who would pay for it could be settled. A York property company had acquired three properties in Railway Street; and the plan was that the 40,000 square feet area could house a bus station along with shops and offices. The bus station plan was still at the embryo stage; but there were still hopes that it might have taken a definite step forward during a meeting in Harrogate by York’s bus services. Members of the Beatles, George Harrison and his wife Pattie, and Ringo Starr with his wife Maureen, had arrived back in Britain after a long trip from San Francisco.

20 years ago

The supermarket chain Safeway had been fined £12,000 for leaving food past its “use by” date on the shelves of its Acomb store in York. In the biggest case of its kind brought to court by the City of York Council, the company was found guilty of four charges under the Food Safety Act. And a Disney-style rail linking the Monks Cross development on the outskirts of York with the city centre was soon to be put before planners. It was designed to solve the problem of out-of-town retail developments siphoning business away from city shopkeepers in an environmentally-friendly way.