Saturday, October 15, 2005

100 years ago

At the Leeman Road Adult School, a meeting was held in support of the candidature of Mr J B Morrell, who was to be nominated in the Micklegate Ward for a seat on the York City Council. The attendance was small. Mr W Howden, who took the chair, said that he held out hopes that some day, if the right men were returned to the Council, they would be able to have a half-penny tram ride from Railway Street to Leeman Road. Mr Morrell, who was a Liberal, said that there had been a Tory majority in the Council for something like twenty years, and it was time for a change. He hoped that the local authority might adopt a scheme on the lines of that which had already been suggested for carrying a new street from Pavement through into Peasholme Green by way of Stonebow Lane.

50 years ago

The first business to operate in Stonebow - the new highway, which had opened the previous day, was visited by the Lord Mayor (Alderman F Brown) immediately after the opening ceremony. This was the garage, owned and operated by Mr J R Russell, in his eighth year of business, in what was a backwater of the city before the new construction. The Lord Mayor made a full inspection of the premises.

25 years ago

York people were already determined to have a good holiday the following year. The age when people spent money on a winter and a summer holiday abroad each year was disappearing and they were now finding ways and means of affording one good annual summer holiday. Travel agents in the city reported a slight increase in bookings for the next summer for destinations both far and near. The most popular resort in the travel brochures was Malta. "It's definitely the place to be," said Mrs Pat Emsley, assistant manageress at Co-op Travel, York. "It was very reasonable and though a foreign land is also very English with its pubs and everything. It's going to be a question of the people who book early getting the places." Also high on the list were Greece and Spain. They seem to be making a comeback with improved services and better currency rates. Mr Trevor Williams, manager of Blue Star Travel, Davygate Centre, said: "Long distance holidays to places like America and Sri Lanka are still holding the market as well. Holidays are becoming such an essential part of life that people are going to find ways and means of having them."

Updated: 15:25 Friday, October 14, 2005