Tuesday, May 18, 2004

100 years ago: At a meeting of MPs and the Parliamentary Committee of the Na-tional Sea Fisheries Protective Association, Lord Onslow had the oppor-tunity to clear away some misapprehensions, on which objections from the south of England to the Gov-ernment's Sea Fishery Bill were based. These involved the definition of flat fish in the Bill, expressly excluding "dabs" and other very small but full-grown and mature fish. The previous year 230,000 cwt of immature flat fish was landed in the different ports of England and sold for a comparatively small sum. The sup-ply in the North Sea was seriously diminishing, and this was bound to con-tinue so long as the species were trawled for over the spawning beds.

50 years ago: Although Yorkshire was not the only agricultural county in the country it had, for no apparent reason, an almost complete monopoly of the Heifer sign amongst its "locals", and the most Blacksmith Arms. A recent survey of colourful inn signs showed many mys-teries, some of them hundreds of years old, and that new mysteries were being made for generations to come. Columnist Mr Nobody wondered what his readers' grandchildren would make of the Ele-phant's Nest, a new Devon sign, unless they knew that the innkeeper who put it up was if imposing stature, and the Fly-ing Saucer or even the Desert Rat may lead to argument about their origins in another 100 years' time.

10 years ago: History was made at York Minster when, for the first time in its 1,367-year history, women were ordained as priests. Fourteen women from East Yorkshire and three from Cleveland were ordained amid celebrations, but also af-ter some strong protests. A last minute appeal to stop the ceremony failed when the Archbishop of York, Dr John Hab-good, said the service would go ahead, after the chairman of the Anglican Catholic society Ecclesia had written to the Archbishop urging him to call off the service and "pull back from the brink of disaster". Dr Habgood told the society he would honour a decision which had been taken after years of prayer and debate.

Updated: 08:25 Tuesday, May 18, 2004