100 years ago

We understood that the new motor fire engine which Messrs Rowntree's had recently purchased from the well-known firm of Messrs Merryweather, London, was shortly due to arrive in York.

Mr W Lawrence, the superintendent of Rowntree's Fire Brigade, had gone to London a few days before in order to bring the machine through to York by road. The journey was being done in two stages, namely, London to Doncaster and Doncaster to York.

Mr Lawrence had successfully accomplished the first stage, but on arrival at Selby it was found that a small spindle had snapped, and he was delayed in that town until a new part had been made. It was currently thought that he would be able to reach York about six o'clock this evening.

50 years ago

About 200 coins - 40 of them gold - had been found in two bookcase fitments in the office at the Rialto, York.

The manager of the Rialto, Mr David Lloyd-Jones, said two men were dismantling the bookcases while the office was being cleared out three weeks before, when they came across the coins in six drawers - three in the top of each fitting. The coins were taken to the head office of Mecca, who owned the Rialto, for examination.

Mr Lloyd-Jones said he understood Scotland Yard were working with the York Coroner to try to establish the owner of the coins and an inquest would be held in York in due course. The bookcase, which was bought in a sale, had been in the office for some 15 years, and was only used for odd files and stock.

Mr Lloyd-Jones said he had no idea of the value of the coins which covered the period from Roman to Victorian times.

25 years ago

The upright Anglo-Saxons must have been stirring in their graves in Ryedale if they knew what progress had been doing above their heads.

For the secrets that had lain buried with them at West Heslerton for more than a thousand years were surfacing with the help of the very latest in laser technology. Already computers had played a part in uncovering an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at the village - a find of international importance and the biggest of its kind in the north of England.

Now, dig director Dominic Powlesland and his team had moved on to launch Vproject exposing the remains of a nearby settlement - and the laser had sparked off renewed optimism that new ground was to be broken. A £6000 laser theodolite - donated at a knockdown price by computer specialists Kern - could record, pinpoint and interpret 'finds' much easier than by conventional methods.