Saturday, June 19, 2004

100 years ago: A resident of Lowther Street in York was summoned under the Freshwater Fisheries' Act of 1878 for il-legally taking a perch from the Foss. The defendant admitted taking the perch, and in his defence said he would have put it back but he couldn't, as the bailiff took it away from him before he had the chance. The chief bailiff of the Yorkshire Fisheries Board said that he saw the de-fendant fishing in the Foss at Yearsley. He hooked and landed a perch, and he told the bailiff, not knowing who he was, that he was going to fetch a tin to put the fish in. He went away ostensibly for that purpose, and returned shortly with the perch wrapped in paper. The bailiff asked him if he kept the fish alive by putting them in paper, and he said that he did. The bailiff then took the perch, which was still alive, and put it back in the river, and it swam away.

50 years ago: The Band of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, York's own regiment, which had returned from Berlin earlier in the week, performed the impressive ceremony of sounding The Retreat in York Market Place. The cere-mony, which was watched by well over 1,000 people, was originally to have been performed by the band of the 1st Cam-eronian Regiment. However, it was decided that since the KOYLI band, which had returned to take part in the Tattoo at Leeds was available, it would be more appropriate if they performed the ceremony. Many people lined the route as the guard marched smartly be-hind the band from Clifford's Tower to the city walls at Micklegate.

25 years ago: York Arts Centre on Micklegate, faced with a £8,150 income gap, would "close on December 24, probably never to open again" unless it found more cash. Staff were making a joint appeal with Yorkshire Arts Associa-tion for a special grant from the Arts Council to meet the crisis, as well as starting a public fund-raising campaign. The situation had arisen as other grants were coming to an end, and the costs of looking after the building were high, de-spite there being a good income. In the ten years the centre had been open it had built up a clientele that regularly trav-elled up to thirty miles for events, and even had people from Liverpool and Not-tingham attending some nights.

Updated: 09:40 Saturday, June 19, 2004