Tuesday, June 29, 2004

100 years ago: A letter was printed from somebody signing themselves "one amongst it" regarding the drains in Back Street, Carnot Street and Roseberry Street in York. He hoped that his letter would prompt the sanitary inspector to the drains to investigate, as it was assumed that problems in the area had been caused by the drains. Half of the houses in the streets had ducket closets, and they were all "stopped," so the pollution went over the top of the ducket basin, which, when the drains were liberated, ended up left outside the basin, and the writer believed it was no wonder that fever and sickness broke out in the area. For the last three or four days the sewage had been swimming over the top, and this wasn't the first time it had happened, but nobody seemed to take any notice.

50 years ago: Mr Nobody had known after dinner speakers make some peculiar excuses for slipping away at the earliest moment, but the "peach" of them all went into his notebook recently. Luckily everyone else at the dinner smiled as the speaker made his excuses and left the Charter Day celebration of the York Company of Merchant Taylors, rather than being offended. His presence was, he said, required at a flood - he was playing the role of Noah in the York Mystery Plays.

25 years ago: There was a big birthday parade in York to mark 150 years of professional policing. The Chief Constable was there with Dalesman, his horse, plus four other mounted officers to lead the 300-strong parade, that also included officers, dogs and vehicles. They marched from the Eye of York to York Minster and back again, the Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester also joining them at the Minster for the service before she opened the new York Police Divisonal Headquarters.

Updated: 09:51 Tuesday, June 29, 2004