Friday, August 27, 2004

100 years ago: People in Monkgate might have been pardoned for thinking, despite the sultry night, that there had been a snowstorm - providing that they had "mercifully" been deprived of the sense of smell. I

n front of the hospital avenue, and up and down for seventy yards, the road and water channels were thick with chloride of lime, the scent of which was exceedingly pungent and unpleasant. But it was wanted, all of it and more as the afternoon showed, when the sun beating down on the road brought out the fragrances of that which the lime had been scattered to cover. Dust boxes were bad, old bones and rags and papers are not nice things to throw in a heap on a public road, but when it comes to dumping semi-liquid, mixed house refuse, and substances of an even more vilely smelling character down on the road side to be shifted later, "all the lime in York won't kill the stench that rises."

50 years ago: Historical facts about old York windmills were sent to Mr Nobody, his latest informant on this subject having lived in the now demolished Haxby Road windmill. She had lived in the house attached to it from 1898 until 1931, her father having had the major part of the mill pulled down to two storeys, using it as van sheds for his business as a furniture remover. The second floor was used as store rooms and in the First World War as many as 30 "houses" of furniture were looked after there while the men where at war. The windmill was believed to be the biggest in the district, being 200 or more feet high, and the ball at the top contained papers, coins and other things - the coins dating to 1620 - which she believed went to the a London museum. Some of the huge mill stones were sent to America, and one that went to another Yorkshire mill was later made into a large table.

25 years ago: A couple of days of dry weather gave farmers in the York area their first real chance to get to grips with the harvest, possibly one of the latest on record. An advisor for the Ministry of Agriculture in the area said that although the corn had been ready to harvest for some time, recent rain had prevented farmers getting out into the fields, and so the harvest was expected to drag on until the end of September, and in some cases October.

Updated: 15:27 Friday, August 27, 2004