100 years ago

Englishwomen were now wearing stockings made of real gold and silver thread. The gold and silver stockings were made in Paris. Only a few pairs had as yet arrived in London, and these were sold almost at once.

The stockings were of gold and silver tissue around the ankle and half the length of the leg. The other half was made of silk. Their price was 27s 6d, but the stockings made entirely of gold tissue, as worn in Paris, would cost about £2 10s. The stockings were beautiful in effect, and the gold or silver threads had had to be woven by a special new process, which rendered the web very fine and pliant. Thus stockings composed entirely of the gold and silver tissue were expensive wear, as they cost more than silk, and would probably exist only one brief evening, since they were not washable.

50 years ago

A column giving advice on photography said: “Always popular subjects for the holiday photographer are girlfriends or wives in their smart new bathing costumes, posed, perhaps a little self-consciously, on the beach.

All too often, however, the resulting pictures are dull and comparatively lifeless, and it’s usually because insufficient thought is given to the subject. Pictures on the beach should be glamorous, fun – or both. Shots of the current sweetheart standing forlornly alone, legs together, arms hanging limply by her sides, obviously dreading the whole beastly business, will never make the grade. So begin by dreaming up an attractive pose – if you are set on the more static, glamour-only picture that is. Position her with barnacles biting into the soles of her feet and the sun shining directly into her eyes, and you are three quarters of the way to wasting at least one frame!

A prop of some kind makes a useful adjunct to a successful beach picture, for it serves two purposes; to balance the composition, and to give the model something to do.”

25 years ago

Work on replacing crumbling masonry on York Minster’s south-west tower was unlikely to start for another 18 months. But as a first step, an expert would inspect the damaged stonework.

Emergency work to make the tower safe had been carried out the previous October after a pinnacle weighing a quarter-of-a-ton crashed down into Deangate. As a result, the road was closed to traffic for some time, causing problems in the city centre. Mr Bob Littlewood, the Minster’s superintendent of works, confirmed that Mr Charles Brown, Surveyor of the Fabric, would be visiting the tower to see for himself the extent of the problem.