Tuesday, March 23, 2004

100 years ago: A woman from Tower Street in York was summoned by an assistant overseer before the York Justices for non-payment of Poor Rates. Her solicitor admitted that the rates were due, but said that the poor woman had been hardly dealt with. Her husband was a cab driver earning 17s a week, money that was supplemented by rent from lodgers and wages from their elder children, of which there were nine in total. Last year one of these contracted the smallpox, causing the lodgers to leave, and the working children had to stay at home, so that a large part of the woman's livelihood was taken away. She offered to pay the rates in small weekly sums, but this was refused.

She went to see a solicitor and told him of her troubles, and he had a sum of money in hand sufficient to cover the debt, which was just over £3. He wrote to the assistant overseer offering to pay the money if he called for it on Monday, which was answered with a summons for the woman. The Lord Mayor agreed with the solicitor, calling the rate collector a monster, and saying the action was most heartless, unjust, high-handed and scandalous, and that this was the most disgraceful case that had come before the Justices. The case was adjourned to give the defendant an opportunity to pay.

50 years ago: Following a number of complaints about bad cinema manners in larger cinemas, another journalist criticised the behaviour of "a couple of oafs" in one of the smaller York cinemas during the showing of a French film. They made a chorus of "primitive" noises, fidgeted, commented, guffawed mirthlessly, and made every vulgar disturbance calculated to upset the enjoyment of others in the audience.

The two troublemakers were eventually asked to leave by the manager and commissionaire, but not before visiting the cloakroom and then creating as much disturbance as possible on the way out. In this particular case, their stupid and antisocial behaviour was attributed to these "light-witted" characters being attracted to the film by its X certificate, expecting a bit of salacious excitement, and then felt bored and cheated when the film proved to be a restrained and intelligent foreign language film.

10 years ago: The Class 50 Diesel Electric locomotive Glorious was "in transit" from being a working locomotive to becoming the newest addition to the collection of engines and carriages at York's National Railway Museum. She was the last of her type still in service, running from a depot in Plymouth, and was being spring cleaned in the museum workshops before being officially handed over on April 1.

Updated: 08:52 Tuesday, March 23, 2004