Wednesday, May 5, 2004

100 years ago: Before proceeding to dispose of the business of York Police Court, the Lord Mayor of York, accompanied by other members of the Bench, remarked that he thought he ought to express his pleasure at the fact that there had not been one case of drunkenness in consequence of Military Sunday. He said that there were two cases which they had to deal with, but they were both cases with regard to the Saturday before, and so they concluded that the spectacle had no effect upon the conditions of temperance or intemperance on that day. It was very pleasing that so many thousands of people should have come into the city and, together with those who ordinarily resided in York, should have conducted themselves in so splendid a manner.

50 years ago: As Mr Nobody wandered around the brightly-lit stalls at a York fair, he wondered what had happened to the old fairground traction engines, whose brightly-coloured steam engines with gleaming brass gauges and large driving wheels, providing the power to generate electricity. Instead, the fairs now had powerful diesel engines mounted on lorries. It seemed to him that the old steam engines, manufactured between 1900 and 1914, had mostly been broken up, a fact to be regretted, as the diesel generators may be more efficient, but they lacked that certain character the traction engines had.

10 years ago: Cows in East Yorkshire were to be protected from speeding motorists by new luminous leggings, collars and tail tapes. The 620-acre Westwood Common pasture land next to Beverley racecourse was used by about 300 Jersey, Longhorn and Friesian cattle, eight of which were killed by speeding motorists the previous year, bringing the total over the last few years to more than 70. A charter connected to the area, and the fact that it is common land, meant that the cows actually had the legal right of way, but most people seemed to be unaware of this fact.

Updated: 09:38 Wednesday, May 05, 2004