From our archives:

80 years ago

It was beautiful weather for the 80th Ryedale and Pickering Lythe Show, with the judging of stock and produce followed with close interest. The show which was alternately held at Helmsley, Kirkbymoorside and Pickering was first held in 1855, under the presidency of the late Captain Legard of Kirkbymoorside. The society which produced some of the best stock in Yorkshire had added a new feature this year with a poultry section. And recent reports from Germany and Denmark on the possibility of a successful vaccine against foot and mouth disease were more definite and encouraging than ever before. The work of Professor Waldeman in Germany, and Dr Schmidt in Copenhagen, was certainly suggestive of a considerable advance, with a degree of immunity confirmed for several months.

50 years ago

Seven people, including three engineers and two passengers, all believed to be British, died when fire swept the bridge deck and passenger cabins of the British cargo ship Gothic off the New Zealand coast. In 1953 the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh had once sailed aboard the Gothic on a visit to New Zealand and Australia. In Stillington, the first traction engine rally had gone ahead with scores of engines, locomotives and other relics of a bygone age on view. Nearly all the traction engines had come from Yorkshire and several from around Stillington. One of them a McLaren general purpose engine, was owned by the secretary of the Stillington rally committee, Mr Jack Whitwell an agriculture engineer. And farms in and around York that had largely escaped the recent heavy rain, were now on course for their usual corn collection at the end of August.

20 years ago

A bargain hunter who bought a painting for £150 at A York car boot sale, later found out she had a £50,000 stolen art treasure on her hands. The York woman who innocently paid cash for the painting of ships in rough seas by Bakhuysen at the Rufforth car boot sale had taken the painting to an auctioneer to be valued and found out just exactly how much the stolen picture was worth. And pub regulars held a massive celebration to push York’s smallest hostelry The Blue Bell into its third century. Thanks to a council U-turn more than 200 people spilled out onto a closed-off street to mark its 200th birthday.