From our archives:

80 years ago

The Dean of York, Dr H N Bate, caused an unusual spectacle by climbing up the scaffolding surrounding St Andrew’s Memorial Church, New Earswick, to lay its first corner stone. Instead of handling the chalice, the Dean used a builder’s trowel and smoothed out the mortar as the stone was lowered to its base. Celebrating the festivities, the congregation including special guests, sang hymns and held prayers, completing the spiritual needs of the parish. And the Lord Mayor of York, Alderman C T Hutchinson, opened York’s Air Raid Precautions School at 46 Stonegate, York. Addressing 10 pupils, who had all taken part in a training course, the Lord Mayor said, “that he hoped that the knowledge they had acquired would prove of great benefit in the event of any air raid.”

50 years ago

More workers had been laid off in the strike-hit Midlands car industry, bringing the grand total to more than 7,000. The main dispute, an argument between British Road Service drivers in Birmingham and Oxford, over who should ferry car bodies from the Pressed Steel-Fisher factory in Castle Bromwich to the Austin plant a few miles away. Two dozen York and district housewives were delighting local garden parties and charity events with their dancing displays. Regularly the 24, who had styled themselves the silhouettes, put on a movement to music act for charity. The group who had met two years ago at keep-fit classes in Heslington, were now proficient at the exercises and were entertaining hundreds with their rhythmic movement. And two members of the New 55 Club in Micklegate who each walked out of the club with book matches, worth 8s 9d, were fined £5 each.

20 years ago

Tory leader William Hague, who was due to open North Yorkshire County Show, was instead recovering from an operation to drain blocked sinuses. The Richmond MP was admitted to Darlington Memorial Hospital for a routine operation under general anaesthetic. And a woman was recovering from a severe eye injury after being sprayed in the face in a late-night attack outside the BT exchange in Stonebow, York. The woman, a directory inquiries operator, was leaving work with a colleague when they disturbed two youths outside the building and was sprayed with an unidentified chemical.