From our archives:

80 years ago

The Marquis of Zetland, Secretary of State for India, speaking at the Ripon Division Conservative fete at Newby Hall, said the Government had not given up their attachment to the ideal of the League of Nations but they had taken other steps to find peace. Lord Zetland also warned farmers against Socialist “bait". “However attractive may be the promises which the Socialist party hold out to the farming community, there is behind those promises a fundamental principle of Socialist policy which, in the case of agriculture, means the nationalisation of the land. And tributes to the initiative and foresight of Flaxton Rural District Council were paid at the opening ceremony of the Council’s £63,000 sewerage schemes at Landing Lane, Haxby. Before the ceremony many of the guests had embarked up on a tour of the works at Rawcliffe and Osbaldwick before taking tea in the grounds of Haxby Hall.

50 years ago

Britain’s second heart transplant patient, operated on at the National Heart Hospital, London, remained seriously ill, although his new heart was working satisfactorily. The operation which had taken place between 9am and noon and had been carried out by the same team who had operated on Britain’s first heart transplant patient, Frederick West. Sportsmen in Yorkshire had been given their own channel thanks to a new TV service, ITV. And forty-five pupils from New Earswick Primary School had been presented with certificates for swimming a mile. According to the headmaster Mr H Sherriff, the opening of the new swimming baths at New Earswick had been a boon to local children.

20 years ago

A first edition of Ian Fleming’s novel Live and Let Die fetched £3,450 at auction in Scarborough, more than 100 times the expected price. It was the highest price ever paid for an unsigned copy of the book featuring superspy James Bond. The 1954 edition was in a lot with 27 other books that had a pre-sale estimate of £30. And York-based Thrall Europa wagon-makers was in the running to manufacture 20 new EuroSpine wagons, which would piggyback trailers and containers to operate a new freight-carrying service between Glasgow and London.