From our archives:

80 years ago

Every year, or at least as often as circumstances permitted, the York Corporation Ouse and Foss Navigation Committee held a survey of the River Ouse. It was considered an opportunity for the committee to entertain representatives of the firms which traded on the river, and for the chairman of the committee to praise the facilities which the Ouse offers for river transport. This year during the survey’s banqueting dinner, Councillor T Cross, the new Admiral of the Ouse, reminded the company of just how important the ancient custom was “the photographs on the wall of the banqueting hall, do not do justice to how far back in time this tradition goes,” he stated. And all of York’s rivers were in promising condition, according to Angling correspondent “Rodster.” One Acomb angler Mr W Simpson had caught over 30 roach and chub, as well a two and a half pound barbel.

50 years ago

Czech leaders in Prague were preparing themselves for the Warsaw Pact Summit meeting. As the Czech delegation left for their one day talks in Bratislava, domestic opinion in Prague was that Mr Alexander Dubcek and his Presidium may have sold out to the Russians during a four-day confrontation in Cierna. The conference of Iron Curtain allies was seen by some as the thin end of a wedge for Russian anti-liberalisation demands. And the man who bought thousands of tons of sugar a year, yet never took it in his tea, was retiring from Rowntree and Co Ltd, York. Mr Harry Pearce, the firm’s sugar and milk buyer, who lived at 26 Clifton, was a native of York, and was educated at the Model School, part of St John’s College before joining Rowntree’s sales department on July 2, 1919.

20 years ago

It was finally goodbye to the dullest July in 10 years according to weather experts. The mean maximum temperature of 20C was one degree below the average with 130 hours of sunshine. And Cosmic Carole Chui was one of the guests at the launch of Mystic Meg’s Live Line. The former lecturer at the York College of Law and Evening Press Feng Shui correspondent was one of more than 100 people recruited from the major astrological and psychic associations in the country to provide predictions for starstruck callers to the national phone line.