Archive

  • Waterways were a vital lifeline for businesses in city

    YORK'S riverside may be occupied by trendy bars and exclusive apartments after years of redevelopment, but the buildings are still recognisable in these pictures from the city's more industrial past. For hundreds of years, the Ouse has been the city's

  • Taking the wind out of its sails

    ONCE York had 20 windmills, but only one survives. Holgate Mill was built in 1792, on the site of a 15th century mill, and now stands in the middle of a roundabout at the top of Windmill Rise. The photograph shows it, then known as Acomb Windmill, as

  • A real basinful of change on Foss

    THIS week's Yesterday Once More comes from one of York's busiest areas around the River Foss. The picture, from 1956, shows the dredger, Reklaw, gliding slowly under Layerthorpe Bridge. The barge was later converted into a pleasure craft for disabled

  • 20 things you never knew about Ryedale

    1. Religious hermits were the original residents of Ryedale's most remote outposts. Edmund was first at Farndale, Osmund at Goathland and the Saintly Godric in Eskdale 2.The earliest hospital outside York in the area was formed at Goathland in 1119 when

  • The day war nearly broke out

    York historian PETER KIRTON recalls a nerve-racking time as a soldier in post-war Berlin. THE story behind a major incident that happened over 50 years ago has just been fully explained, courtesy of the regimental magazine of the Light Infantry, The Silver

  • Way we were

    Saturday, June 19, 2004 100 years ago: A resident of Lowther Street in York was summoned under the Freshwater Fisheries' Act of 1878 for il-legally taking a perch from the Foss. The defendant admitted taking the perch, and in his defence said he would

  • Festive fare from hill and dale

    Today it's mobile phones and EastEnders. But what of Christmas past? Here are some memories which evoke Yuletide yesteryear in Yorkshire. SCHOOL was a different thing at Christmas, and very nice too. We were given crpe paper to make hats, lanterns and

  • Birth stories at Fulford

    IT was one of York's most unprepossessing buildings. But, for countless residents, it was the first place they ever saw. Many mums will have happy memories of Fulford Maternity Hospital. It closed down 20 years ago this month and with it went a chunk

  • The day Arthur's war was over

    TOMORROW will be emotional for Arthur Briggs. "I think it will be a bit tearful on both sides," the 82-year-old confessed, his eyes misting over at the prospect. Sixty years ago tomorrow, on December 2, 1943, Arthur flew his last mission of the war. To

  • A cliffhanger ending

    With news that York's Odeon Cinema could be about to close, MATTHEW WOODCOCK looks back at its 66-year history. SCOTT of the Antarctic was the most successful film ever shown at the York Odeon. Its popularity in 1948 with both schoolchildren and adults

  • Beatlemania comes to York

    LAST week we travelled back 40 years to remember a calamity: the day John F Kennedy died. This week we return to November 1963 for some rather more uplifting memories of another icon of the age - The Beatles. Given the grim world situation, it must have

  • Great pub days

    WE all know about the glorious history of York pubs. That there were 365, one for each day of the year. That the 19th and 20th centuries were a boom time for pubs. That this irritating cult for changing their names is a modern phenomenon. Think again.

  • Fiery nights to remember

    THE spirits should have settled down for another year now that Hallowe'en is behind us. But that does not mean an end to nightly disturbances. This week things will not only go bump in the night, they will go flash, bang and wallop too. The loudest festivities

  • Putting history on the map

    IT IS easy to forget when you're barrelling down the motorway at 80mph or stuck in a traffic jam on the York outer ring road, but the landscape in which we live bears upon it the handprint of history. It has been shaped by generations of our ancestors

  • Whitby gems

    JO HAYWOOD puts the work of a pioneering Yorkshire photographer in the frame. Frank Meadow Sutcliffe put Whitby on the map. Born 150 years ago this month, his sepia images of life in the Yorkshire seaside town travelled the globe, collecting praise and

  • When the Pope came to town

    THE Pope is this week celebrating his 25th anniversary as head of the Catholic Church. So today we look back at his great visit to York 21 years ago, when tens of thousands of people descended on Knavesmire to honour the pontiff. On a sweltering hot day

  • Look here for racing's roots

    AS another York racing season comes to an end, we are left to ask: what other attraction could draw a quarter of a million people to the city? Not even the Pope managed that, although to be fair the 210,000 people who came to see him on Knavesmire 21

  • Past postings

    SOME space for Yesterday Once More readers' comments is long overdue. So this week I unlocked the Evening Press safe to air some of those precious memories. We begin by hailing back to the summer, when we looked back at the opening of Rowntree Park to

  • Town flows with history

    CRAG Rats will be delighted. So keen were they to get hold of Arnold Kellett's book the first time round, that it quickly sold out. Now Images of England: Knaresborough has been republished, with some of the captions updated. And it is already being snapped

  • Flickers of life

    IT must have been quite a moment for those gathered at York's Exhibition Hall two days before Christmas in 1896. Suddenly a light flickered in the gloom and the audience were treated to the very latest thing in entertainment - a moving picture show. William

  • Education of the old school

    THAT'LL Teach 'Em, the new Channel 4 series in which modern teenagers are sent back to a 1950s-style school, has brought memories of her own schooldays flooding back for one York woman. Barbara Pettitt, now a 66-year-old grandmother-of-five who lives

  • Postcards on the way... out!

    WSH u wre hre... so might run a typical text message from a holidaymaker to the folks back home. A few days ago we revealed how the popularity of mobile phones and email is having a serious effect on that more traditional communications device: the postcard

  • JB: a Croft original

    HE was known as "York's greatest benefactor". Walk around the city and you are never far from the influence of John Bowes Morrell. Every time a university student visits the JB Morrell Library, a shopper walks past the 14th century Bowes Morrell House

  • Return to glory days of park life

    LITTLE Mary Birkby must have been getting under her mother's feet, because she told her son George to take the five-year-old girl to Rowntree Park. George, nine years older than his little sister, duly obliged. But this was no ordinary day at the park

  • Slice of rail life

    RAIL fares are due to rise above inflation, train punctuality times leave much to be desired and the Royal Mail is cancelling its rail contract. The whole network can sometimes seem to be running out of steam. We might have the answer. Today's rail chiefs

  • The good news day

    IT was the day that Britain needed. After six years of war, and the austerity that followed, the people were ready to rediscover national pride, march into a hopeful new era, and have a right old knees-up. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, 50 years

  • In the dark on park

    STILL with all things Rowntree, we need your help. Next Sunday, May 25, from 2pm-4pm, the Friends of Rowntree Park are holding a Memorabilia Afternoon. Friends' archivist Syd Heppell has collected photographs and other items and is looking for help in

  • Book digs up bloodiest battle

    The Battle of Marston Moor has been well documented but a new book digs deeper, partly by going under the very soil of the battlefield, reports Zoe Walker THE Battle of Marston Moor was one of the bloodiest ever fought on British soil. On July 2 1644,

  • Standing with Custer

    ON June 25 1876, General George Armstrong Custer led 200 men of his US 7th Cavalry to their deaths in the Montana wilderness at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. They were cut to pieces by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in a battle that has assumed legendary

  • When York was a city of Angels

    IN 1968, a group of young men in their late teens and early twenties were having the time of their lives in London. Wearing their hair long and their clothes flowery, this talented quintet performed what was described as "harmony-based acid pop" as the

  • Dr Beeching: villain or visionary?

    WE all know what Dr Richard Beeching did to our railways. He butchered them. He took an axe to Britain's cherished rural rail network, leaving abandoned stations and the villages they served to rot. Except that he didn't. For a start that infamous Beeching

  • How to log on to local history

    IF you are interested in the past and are on the internet, you can step back in time with the National Grid for Learning's local history trail. The Government-funded National Grid for Learning website is running an online local history trail to encourage

  • Journey back to time of the trams

    IF you want to be transported back to the past there are only two ways to go: by steam train, or by tram. Next to a gleaming old locomotive, the most nostalgic thing on wheels is the good old tramcar. There is no tram equivalent to the National Railway

  • Looking at the books

    AFTER last week's look in the postbag, this week we retire into the Yesterday Once More library. This is expanding all the time: the burgeoning interest in local history ensures a continuous flow of new books about all manner of people, places and periods

  • Christmas past

    POST-war austerity was gone, and a social revolution was about to explode. So Christmas 40 years ago was a curious mix of traditional celebrations and modern consumer boom. There was plenty of non-seasonal fare to interest the Evening Press reader in

  • My dad was a bobby ...and a firefighter

    THEIR walk-out has reminded us that modern firefighters do a complex job. Firemen and women not only fight fires, they free road accident victims, perform river rescues, pump water from flooded homes and check properties are safe. For their predecessors

  • When York got rhythm

    WRITER Van Wilson has, during the past three years, interviewed scores of musicians for York Oral History Society. Extracts from these interviews form the basis of two books celebrating the city's vibrant live music scene from 1930 to 1970. The first

  • Fighters of Fulford

    ON a warm September day almost 1,000 years ago, a line of English soldiers crouched behind a wall of shields in the marshes beside the River Ouse at what is now Fulford Ings. Ranged against them were the 7,000 or so Viking troops of the Norwegian king

  • Trinity marches on

    LIKE those people who find they are just as busy in retirement, Holy Trinity Church is full of life long after being declared redundant. The venerable and ancient Goodramgate building hasn't been turned into a club or caf as have some churches. It even

  • 'Lawful money' bequest still city people

    Holy Trinity is still providing for the needy, 30 years after redundancy, as LEIGH WETHERALL writes THREE hundred and twenty five years ago, a death in the parish of St Mary Magdalene, Whitechapel, London, was to have a far-reaching, long-lasting effect

  • The Groves grow up

    YOU should never look back, they say. No good comes of it. Try telling that to Avril Webster Appleton. The York author has been peering over her shoulder in print for several years, bringing back many happy memories for local people in the process. Her

  • Painting pictures

    NO other mass medium comes close to generating the magical memories of the movies. The telly, the wireless, even the theatre do not evoke the same sense of a communal occasion. Back when people went two or three times a week, every trip to those grand

  • Golden age of the flicks

    TIM Addyman is too young to remember what is often called cinema's golden age. At 29, he marks the start of his film-going adventures with an unforgettable trip to see George Lucas's 1977 science fiction classic Star Wars. But there is something about

  • Motherly myths and mysteries

    MOTHER Shipton is a legend. Ask anyone about her, and they are likely to scratch together a few facts: witch, prophetess, lived in a cave... Yet despite this fame, no one had undertaken a serious, historical study into her life. Until now. Yorkshire historian

  • The millers' tales

    IS there any more nostalgic sight than a windmill? Memories of these monuments to England's past are prompted by a new book, kicking off Yesterday Once More's survey of the latest additions to the bygones bookshelf. Whitby author Alan Whitworth has produced

  • Such celebrations

    ON this Royal holiday, it is fitting to begin Yesterday Once More with some monarchical memories. Readers have brought in their own mementoes of previous days of pomp and pageantry. Pauline Wilson was clearing out "some of my junk" when she came across

  • Harvesting history

    JUST far enough from the A1079 not to know it's there, Newton-upon-Derwent is a quiet place possessing what estate agents would describe as bags of character. It is not chocolate box pretty, but mature trees and ancient brick cottages give it a timeless

  • Keeping Dickens alive

    CHARLES Dickens was in York on Friday. Cedric Charles Dickens that is, great grandson of the commanding Victorian writer. He was taking up a long-standing invitation by the Dickens Fellowship, York branch. Mr Dickens is rightly proud of his famous forebear

  • Stories spoken down the years

    THERE is something marvellous about the way oral history can span the generations, bringing the voices of people long dead back to life. Roland Chilvers gives a beautiful example in the introduction to his new book, A Collection Of Pictures And Memories

  • Deported to Oz

    THE York Assizes were kept pretty busy during the convict era. Exactly 200 years ago Thomas Peters, a 26-year-old labourer, stood in the dock accused of "stealing old silver plate, including ten pint cups," says Marjorie Tipping in her book Convicts Unbound

  • The terrible voyage

    SOME dates are shorthand for infamy. April 15, 1912, is one: the night when the Titanic sank. It was last century's September 11. Like September 11, disaster came from nowhere; it involved huge loss of life - more than 1,500 people died; and it was a

  • Royal picture recalled

    THIS week we remember the Queen Mother's first visit to York. Readers will recall how we published a photograph of the Duke and Duchess of York, as the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were then, and asked for your help in identifying it last

  • Royal picture puzzle

    EVERYONE loves a good mystery, and this one can only be solved by you. Take a look at our main picture this week. Ring a distant bell? Recognise any of the faces? The photograph is from the collection of Walter Hawksby, of Acomb, York. It is a royal occasion

  • Flawed king of railways

    GEORGE Hudson was a Victorian fat cat who swindled people out of their cash and heaped shame on the good name of York. George Hudson was the far-sighted entrepreneur who single-handedly transformed York into a thriving, modern city. Two views of the Railway

  • Staying power of city hotels

    THE Royal York Hotel is being rechristened. Under its new name, it is no longer Royal or York, although it will remain a hotel. A Le Mridien hotel, to be precise, part of the global chain established in Paris by Air France 30 years ago. John Shannon,

  • When bombers filled the skies

    ELVINGTON Airfield could soon be flying into a new future. The owners have applied for an aerodrome licence, allowing it to take fare-paying passengers for the first time. It is the latest chapter in the history of an airfield which once played a key

  • York's touch of glass

    THESE views of York date from a different era of photography. Forget digital cameras, and even rolls of film. The York scenes above were captured on glass negatives. They were very kindly given to the Evening Press by Lilian Vear, who lives off Rawcliffe

  • Rail boss fires salvo at Byers

    RAILTRACK chairman John Robinson has delivered a vicious assault on the Government, launching a salvo of criticism over its handling of the company's demise. Speaking among the proudest remnants of Britain's railway history at the National Railway Museum

  • Festive seasons when times were hard

    TONIGHT, revellers will pack the pubs and bars. As the countdown draws closer, many will gather outside York Minster to hear the bells ring out the old and ring in the new. Arms will be linked, kisses exchanged and a chorus of Auld Lang Syne belted out

  • GNER gives warning over new trains

    THE dream of faster and more comfortable trains to London will be put on hold until 2006. GNER chief executive Christopher Garnett has revealed no new trains will be introduced on the East Coast Main Line until 2006 because the company was only granted

  • Book a date with history

    AS the success of television series like Battlefields and Blood Of The Vikings has proved, there's a huge public appetite for history. If someone you know loves to travel back in time, a history book makes the perfect Christmas present. For those who

  • Sound of silence on GNER trains

    TRAIN travellers who prefer the sound of silence to the shrill symphony of mobile phone ring tones can now go in peace thanks to the latest move by York-based rail firm GNER. From today, the firm is introducing new quiet coaches on all its East Coast

  • Fuming and frustrated

    ANGRY MPs and passengers today condemned a "scandalous" Government decision to extend GNER's franchise by only two years. Transport Secretary Stephen Byers went against the Strategic Rail Authority's recommendations for either GNER or Virgin or GNER to

  • GNER wins two year rail deal

    Transport Secretary Stephen Byers today extended the GNER franchise by two years, until April 2005. But, in a statement to the Stock Exchange at 3.30pm, Mr Byers said: "I regret that the process to negotiate a new 20-year deal has not proved successful

  • Ure not kidding

    George Wilkinson follows a circular path out of Leyburn, ending up back at the market. LEYBURN is the hub of lower Wensleydale, and interesting, but we wanted to make the best of the sunshine, so had a quick coffee in the Golden Lion and then headed out

  • Day of pure pleasure

    George Wilkinson enjoys a winter walk out from Kirkby Malzeard, near Ripon. Fifty noisy geese flew over Kirkby Malzeard, the sun glowed on St Andrew's clock and we wandered past the Queen's Head and strode down the Ripon road. There was an irritating

  • Clear the cobwebs

    GEORGE WILKINSON road tests a rural roam just right for Boxing Day. Hovingham is just right for a festive frolic or for a rural recovery from over-indulgence. That said we immediately popped into the Spa Tearoom and loaded our sacks with sticky delights

  • Head for the hills

    There is an area of land bordered on the west by the A19 and to the east the escarpment of the Hambleton Hills that makes for nice walking. This space is a maze of back roads, a pattern of small hills, fine houses and pretty little villages. Kepwick is

  • Weather or not

    George Wilkinson braves the rain as he strides out through a blustery Summerbridge. SUMMERBRIDGE was not summery. The rain arrived two hours before predicted, but you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and it was slashing

  • Skirting the castle

    George Wilkinson encounters resting racehorses and a gaunt castle at Sheriff Hutton. THE castle at Sheriff Hutton can look romantic in moonshine, but on a grey day it loomed gaunt and unsteady, tall towers of dilapidated stone, magnets for clouds of black

  • Seaside stroll

    George Wilkinson heads to the coast for a bracing walk at Saltburn. I DO like to be beside the seaside, especially in winter. At Saltburn it was just the two of us on the sands. Well almost, a local walked a dog and a yellow sailed sand yacht zipped around

  • Splashing out

    GEORGE WILKINSON falls for a surprisingly gentle five-mile walk setting out from Aysgarth. NEAR Aysgarth we found cheap parking and a nice day, and walked some pastures to said village, by walls splashed with lichens and the Wensleydale fells splashed

  • Going flat out

    GEORGE WILKINSON is happy and untroubled on the flatlands close to Beverley, apart from an encounter with a trouser-tearing gate. BEVERLEY and its environs have been due an exploration, so we travelled on a hot Saturday to Tickton, a satellite of the

  • Middle march

    GEORGE WILKINSON takes a stroll to Middlesmoor, high in Nidderdale. Middlesmoor is a little village perched high up at a thousand feet in Upper Nidderdale, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A local woman out with her lurcher said that "it has probably

  • Easy does it

    GEORGE WILKINSON gets going on an easy route around Grassington. Grassington was quiet before the daily rush. We bought sandwiches and drove on over the River Wharfe the mile to Threshfield, not such an interesting village but a good place to start. And

  • River crossing

    George Wilkinson visits Barmby on the Marsh, where the Ouse and Derwent meet. Barmby on the Marsh is a small village tucked in wedge of land where the rivers Ouse and Derwent meet and continue as the Ouse and then the Humber. There are no road bridges

  • Iraqis 'will fight for their country'

    HUMAN shield Antoinette McCormick, speaking from war-torn Baghdad today, said the message to her from ordinary Iraqis had been: "We hate Bush, but we love Americans." She believes they will resist when the Allies try to take Baghdad. "There is a strong

  • Anguish of soldier's family 'hooked' on Gulf coverage

    THE mother of a North Yorkshire soldier out in the Gulf told today of the "absolute hell" her family has been going through since the war started. Frances Ellerker, who pleaded last week for Britain to rally behind "our boys", says she cannot sleep or

  • British soldiers missing in Iraq

    TWO British soldiers are missing in southern Iraq, and several US marines have been killed in fighting around the city of Nasiriyah, in what has been described as the toughest day so far in the war in the Gulf. The Ministry of Defence would give no details

  • A dam good walk

    MARK REID brings a flooded village back to life as he walks round Thruscross Reservoir in the Washburn Valley. THRUSCROSS Reservoir is the uppermost of the four large reservoirs along the beautiful Washburn Valley; it is also perhaps the most intriguing

  • Muslims at cathedral

    DOZENS of members of two different faiths came together to pray for peace at a North Yorkshire cathedral. Muslims and Christians joined together at Ripon Cathedral to take part in prayer and silent thought on the ongoing conflict in Iraq. About 50 Muslims

  • Sales of bottled water rocket

    SALES of bottled water have rocketed in York, as people stockpile emergency supplies - and cope with the warm spring weather. Supermarkets across the city have reported increased sales of bottled water over the past few days, with some stores forced to

  • 200 from York join big London protest

    FIVE coachloads of York protesters against the war in Iraq joined a major peace march in London. More than 200 people from the city joined over 100,000 who gathered in the capital on Saturday to voice their dismay over the ongoing coalition attacks. Columns

  • In a dale of delight

    GEORGE WILKINSON sets off on a walk in the western Dales where he finds a blissful sense of nothing much having changed. THIS route in the western Dales seemed just the job for a long summer's day. So we made an early start, drove through Pateley Bridge

  • Your A64 ideas get go-ahead

    ROAD bosses are to adopt traffic chaos solutions put forward by Evening Press readers to help solve the A64 roadworks chaos. Highways Agency chiefs revealed today that they will create an extra lane approaching works on the westbound carriageway of the

  • Into the valley

    We started in the Dudley Arms at Ingleby Greenhow, shifted down the road to their car park, many thanks for this, and discarding all but summer gear, strolled out to explore the little valley south-east of the village. It is a notch of a valley, flat

  • Seven die as Sea Kings crash

    SEVEN British servicemen aboard two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters died in a mid-air collision during action in the war on Iraq. The collision was said to have happened accidentally above international Gulf waters as British and American forces took

  • Sort this mess out NOW!

    THE Evening Press today issues an urgent plea to highways bosses: Get York Moving. The A64 roadworks at Copmanthorpe have led to rush-hour chaos on the dual carriageway and across the city in recent weeks, trapping commuters, shoppers and tourists in

  • On top of the Wolds

    GEORGE WILKINSON thoroughly enjoys himself at Kirby Underdale. We didn't hang around on the Wayrham picnic plot, we had miles of Wolds valleys to travel, a real treat of sculptured countryside. Wayrham Dale first, a bit of woodland and then a surprise

  • Service for the troops

    EX-SERVICEMEN and women are urging York residents not to forget troops fighting in the Gulf. They are inviting people to take part in a special church service aimed at honouring troops, and are asking that political arguments surrounding the war are not

  • Protest guidelines urged

    TORY MP John Greenway has called for limits on how anti-war protesters are allowed to behave. The Ryedale MP spoke out after massive protests outside Westminster paralysed the capital's roads for more than 12 hours on Thursday. A police officer also suffered

  • Sutton Park Tearoom, Sutton-on-the-Forest

    IT was at the suggestion of the McIntosh family that we visited this country house, garden and tearooms. Access is well signposted from the main village street. The caf is a long low building. Could it originally have been stables? We were slightly put

  • Falling for Askrigg

    George Wilkinson chooses a bad day but finds a good walk... ASKRIGG had hardly changed since our last visit in 1999, a little town by-passed in the time of turnpike roads, to slumber until resurrected by James Herriot - All Creatures Great And Small was

  • Abbey days

    GEORGE WILKINSON suggests an Easter walk to Rievaulx. Rievaulx Abbey, the onetime "shining light of northern monasticism", looked big, beautiful and intricate. A sign pointed up the valley and read 'footpath to Bow Bridge', we took it. Local dog walkers

  • Windmilling around

    George Wilkinson arrives late in the southern Wolds to be charmed by a windmill... WE HIT the southern Wolds late in the day, but didn't think it would matter. The navigator's migraine had subsided, and as we walked out of Skidby there were some strollers

  • 200 hold candlelit vigil at school

    ABOUT 200 hundred pupils took part in a vigil at a York school following the start of the war. Teacher Ann Finch said the theme of the vigil in the main hall at Fulford School was solidarity and sorrow with the people of Iraq. But she said pupils, who

  • Here's one for the Chop

    George Wilkinson has a grand day out when he climbs the Cleveland Hills at Chop Gate. WE SET off late to give the sun time to burn the mist off the Cleveland Hills, and a dozen or so cars were already lined up in the car park at the village of Chop Gate

  • College students thrown off campus

    YORK College students were thrown off campus as they tried to gather support for their anti-war protest, sparking a row between college management and staff. According to student Oli Wilson, 19, the 20-strong group was told to leave the Tadcaster Road

  • War claims its first British casualties

    THE war against Iraq claimed its first British casualties early today when a helicopter crashed in the Kuwaiti desert. The tragedy occurred as American and British forces drove into Iraq, attacking by "air, land and sea". British Royal Marines were said

  • Down Whitby way

    George Wilkinson discovers Hinderwell, tucked away from Whitby. HINDERWELL huddled against the spitting rain and chilly wind. The coastal village lies Whitby way, but sits half a mile back from the waves, doesn't have its neighbour's pretty bays, but

  • On the up

    George Wilkinson takes a trip to Thoralby ... Thoralby was quietly welcoming, the daytime car park with an honesty box, the George Inn over the road for aprs-walk. The scene was set. Bishopdale angles away to the south-west. A mile away, out of view,

  • Made of Sterne stuff

    George Wilkinson is of 'sound head' as he engages with the ghost of Lawrence Sterne at Coxwold LAWRENCE Sterne, the author of Tristram Shandy and sometimes labelled "the father of the English novel", lived from 1760 to 1768 at Shandy Hall in the lovely

  • 'Get behind the British troops'

    CIVIC heads in Selby and Tadcaster today urged local people to get behind the British troops - even if they were against the war with Iraq. Selby District Council chairman John Bedworth said he was against military action without a second UN resolution

  • On a high

    GEORGE WILKINSON takes in some fabulous views on a visit to the Cleveland Hills We climbed the 400ft from frost to sun, from the lowlands to the heather, from Bank Foot to the crags above the tree line and to Battersby Moor. The only clouds in the sky

  • York's opinion on war divided

    Opinion on the outbreak of war were divided in York today. Debra Anderson, 22, of Strensall, York, said: "I'm disgusted, I don't want this war to go ahead. Over the past couple of days I think they have proven it is all just about oil, and is purely money-orientated

  • More to Monkton

    GEORGE WILKINSON pops into a pottery on a leisurely walk near Ripon Canal. Bishop Monkton is described on a website as 'quaint and quiet'. It's more than that, quite lovely, and we had a pleasant pre-amble along its beck admiring the fine old houses.

  • Cross country

    GEORGE WILKINSON heads for the hills to savour a snow-scattered landscape Snow had fallen, a good few inches, the thermometer read freezing, almost anywhere would have been lovely, but because mist quilted the low-lying lands we headed for the hills.

  • Dales and Druids

    GEORGE WILKINSON ponders the mysteries of the past as he takes us on a walk in the Yorkshire Dales... We parked in the nice little car park near the Druids Temple in the Dales, donned waterproofs rather than white cloaks and, leaving the mystic for later

  • Pupils stage anti-war protest

    Police were called to a York school after hundreds of students protesting against war with Iraq spilled out onto a city street. Four pupils aged between 14 and 16 have been excluded from Joseph Rowntree School for two days for "inappropriate behaviour

  • York 'human shield' now in Baghdad

    WOULD-BE human shield Antoinette McCormick has reached Baghdad - just hours before the conflict began. The 38-year-old arrived safe and well at the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital after a long and difficult overland journey from Jordan, her York

  • 'Bring country to a standstill'

    YORK residents were today urged to take part in non-violent civil disobedience in protest at war in Iraq. Chris Fuller, of York Against the War, said the direct action protests can be the only response to the Government's "immoral and ludicrous behaviour

  • MPs speak of regret as war begins

    MPs from across York and North Yorkshire today spoke of their regret as war started in the Gulf. And support for troops, many from North Yorkshire, was expressed across the party lines. York MP Hugh Bayley said: "Everyone wanted to avoid war and it would

  • Let it snow...

    GEORGE WILKINSON braves the snow to rediscover the joys of winter walking. SNOW - or 'snow shock' as the headlines proclaim - and with it came personal fury that I hadn't managed to organise proper all-weather mobility. The new (nearly new) car wouldn't

  • Toast the coast

    George Wilkinson heads to Robin Hood's Bay for a bracing New Year walk. HAPPY New Year all. Here's a walk from Robin Hood's Bay for a hard January day when a minimum of the other half million visitors per annum are of the same mind. The station car park

  • A classy common

    GEORGE WILKINSON leads us on a Boxing Day walk where the animals take the scenery - and the walkers - in their stride Friday the 13th we walked a route selected for Boxing Day, but superstition ran like rain off waterproofed backs, and we had a super

  • An estuary wander

    George Wilkinson steps out near the Humber Bridge for a walk at Ferriby Sluice. LINCOLNSHIRE this week, but only just, for a wander by the Humber Estuary. The world's third longest suspension bridge was worth the price of a pint (£2.50 toll), the walk

  • Hidden away

    George Wilkinson heads out across Hamer Moor ROSEDALE Abbey deep in the North York Moors is ever so popular. Nearby, tucked away a mile or so to the east, hidden in a roll of moor, is a quite secret and nameless valley. Well, one we had never explored

  • Going flat out

    My GARDEN rain gauge was brimming, so we decided to walk on sand. Our choice was Allerthorpe, in the Vale of York, and a drive of a dozen miles from the city on one-time Roman road. We left the pleasant village for a farm track through very flat farmlands

  • To the woods

    Grewelthorpe is a nice village near Ripon, and near the quite gruelling but enchanting Hack Fall Woods, which were a popular and picturesque tourist attraction in the 18th and 19th centuries and apparently featured in all the best guides. We left Grewelthorpe

  • Oh, by Esk

    GEORGE WILKINSON takes a brisk walk by the sparkling River Esk then heads out on to the moors on a gloriously crisp, clear day Iwondered if the car park at Egton Bridge was ever blessed with any North York Moors sunshine. The village huddles deep in the

  • Spuds you hike

    GEORGE WILKINSON witnesses the potato harvest near the village of Scackleton. THE village of Scackleton is long and linear, with two pumps, shaggy sheep, a pond and a hint of an ancient moat. It lies bang in the middle of the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding

  • Forever autumn

    George Wilkinson enjoys an Indian Summer walk in Arkengarthdale. This is the last of my three walks in Arkengarthdale, a place I can recommend. The dale is a distance from York, that's why I did it in a midweek-break/saver fashion. Three days of glorious

  • Bubbling beck

    GEORGE WILKINSON experiences stoat encounters of the furred kind in Arkengarthdale. Arkengarthdale was peaceful, we were at Whaw in the sunshine morning, nothing made a sound and nothing moved except a pair of stoats that scampered on the verge. A mile

  • Golden harvest

    We came into Huggate on York Lane and left a landscape burnished in the harvest time heat for the cool of the Wolds Inn at noon. Thereby "mad dogs and Englishmen" were delayed a while, and it was hot, more than 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Huggate is a low

  • Heather and yon

    THE landscape backdrop to today's walk is purple heather. The political backdrop is a huge and hugely successful public access arrangement. The land at Bolton Abbey is owned by the Duke of Devonshire who this year publicly apologised for the treatment

  • Moor downpour

    IT was tanking down on the North York Moors, stair rods. A lonely long-distance runner splashed past the car park on the edge of Wykeham Forest, everyone else was sensibly indoors, we tried to get our waterproofs on without a soaking. Then came some hanging

  • Hamlet happiness

    GEORGE WILKINSON stages a moorland walk in three acts. THE moors are starting to purple. But perhaps more than ever there are many moorland paths overgrown with the heather. I spent the best part of a wasted day last week to the north of Danby Beacon.

  • Pure Goldsborough

    George Wilkinson heads for the coast at Goldsborough and finds a lovely quiet spot just up the coast from busy Whitby GOLDSBOROUGH is a little village - a farm, a pub, a few old sandstone houses and an expansive sea view wide enough to show the curve

  • Gorse code

    AT THE Lion Inn at Blakey, roadies were setting up sound equipment for outdoor midsummer music on the moors. Just down the road a few yards after Ralph Cross we drove into Westerdale and then to the lovely sheltered car park and picnic spot called Hob

  • City sets national standard for flood defences

    YORK is to host Britain's first National Flood Forum - two years after the city was hit by the devastating floods of autumn 2000. Hundreds of delegates from flood-affected communities across the country will come to the event on October 28 at York Racecourse

  • Tea trek

    GEORGE WILKINSON works up an appetite with a stroll along the river at Linton WE did this toddle in a fine evening after a longer walk nearby in the southern Dales. Supper was our main objective, and as the pub at Linton is on the Inn Way we felt there

  • Hambleton amble

    WE DROVE to the North York Moors Sutton Bank Visitors Centre and then along the dead straight Cleveland Road to where its Tarmac stops and it becomes the famous Hambleton Road. Here there are arrows for cycle trails - '12 miles, highly technical', 'seven

  • Watch out for...

    WATCH out on television next spring for a piece of snooker wizardry from the young pro' who has been running the show at the Barbican CueZone during the UK Championship. Del Smith will be appearing in the next series of BBC television drama Murphy's Law

  • Top of the pots

    THE 138 by Mark Davis in his first round match remains the highest break made in York since the PowerHouse UK Championship started at the Barbican on December 1. The highest break in the past week up to the start of yesterday's semi-final is 137 by Stephen

  • A restful repast

    WE got up early and beat the Bank Holiday traffic to the western dales, seeking a quiet and very colourful walk on the land between Grassington and Malham. The sun shone on Boss Moor and a big owl was floating along the gritstone walls till ushered away

  • Hart of pride

    TIM HART gained revenge for York when he beat Harrogate's Brian Pritchard in the amateur challenge match at the Barbican CueZone. Harrogate won the inaugural inter-town match at last year's UK Championship, but this time the honours stayed on home territory

  • Flood victims may get relief on council tax

    FLOOD victims who are unable to live in their homes could soon be entitled to reduced Council Tax bills. Ministers have announced plans to give councils across North Yorkshire discretionary powers to reduce bills. Unless all the furniture has been removed

  • Tyke in final frame

    A YORKSHIREMAN will be centre stage in tomorrow's PowerHouse UK Snooker Championship final at York's Barbican Centre. Stuart Bennett, from Barnsley, is the referee for the climax of the second biggest tournament in world snooker. It is the biggest honour

  • Fight to speed up flood defence work

    RESIDENTS and businesses in the centre of Stamford Bridge have launched a campaign group to press for flood defences to be built as quickly as possible. The formation of the Stamford Bridge Square Flood Defence Association follows East Riding of Yorkshire

  • Reds alert

    YORK CITY midfielder Lee Bullock collected a snooker cue for winning the man of the match award in the FA Cup game against Brentford last Saturday. Bullock scored the City goal and gave a solid display as the Minstermen just failed to overcome the Second

  • Making tracks

    GEORGE WILKINSON goes on the trail of a faint path out of Glaisdale We left the straggling village of Glaisdale and climbed out on a road that becomes 'unsuitable for motors', had a sit on a bench, enjoyed the long rich views down the Esk Valley and moaned

  • Tears as flood scheme is rejected

    A £1 MILLION scheme to protect Stamford Bridge from flooding has been blocked by councillors - devastating a mother whose family home and business have twice been inundated. Jane Parsley walked out of the committee room in tears castigating councillors

  • Wait and see

    Today's walk could have been made for the Moorsbus Service. A short ride from Helmsley takes you to the top of Newgate Bank in Bilsdale and then you can walk back to the town over moors and through the bluebell valley of Riccal Dale using newly designated

  • Sad 'Rocket' fizzles out

    DETHRONED champion Ronnie O'Sullivan is locking his cue away till next year after his shock exit from the PowerHouse UK Snooker Championship in York. Far from living up to his nickname of 'The Rocket' he played more like a damp squib as he tamely surrendered

  • New horizons

    Bolton Abbey is one of my favourite starts, a sentiment shared by the populace; there were more walkers than I have seen all year. This, my fourth visit for the Evening Press, was for a newish route up the Valley of Desolation and a little-publicised

  • Flood defence bill may be £11m

    DEFENDING York against future flooding could cost as much as £11 million - and the Environment Agency admits such funding may be difficult to secure. The agency's calculations emerged as Yorkshire householders were warned today they may need to stump

  • Yorkshire title hopes vanish

    Yorkshire hopes of a white rose triumph in this year's UK Snooker Championship vanished as Leeds star Paul Hunter's sudden loss of form continued yesterday and he went out 9-4 to former world champion Ken Doherty, last year's UK beaten finalist. Trailing

  • Experts to be quizzed on flooding

    EXPERTS are to be quizzed tonight by councillors looking into the issues surrounding flooding in York. Representatives of the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water Services have agreed to attend the third meeting of City of York Council's floods scrutiny

  • Brothers get top tips from Ronnie

    TWO York brothers will be appearing on television with their snooker hero during the BBC's coverage of the PowerHouse UK Championship. Steven and Lee Gregson, from Stockton on the Forest, spent two hours at the Cueball Club in James Street, getting coaching

  • Flood watch back in York

    MOTORISTS in York and North Yorkshire were being urged to drive carefully today after the region's roads were covered with debris and standing water by strong winds and rain. A spokesman for the Environment Agency said a Flood Watch was now in place in

  • Disabled final

    THE best disabled snooker players in Britain duel for UK glory at the Barbican Centre on Wednesday morning. The four who featured in the finals of the Disability Sport England (DSE) Snooker Championship will give a repeat performance of those finals.

  • Southern style

    Ken Walker, a reader and walker from Camblesforth, near Selby, has written a kind letter to me and has requested more routes south of York. Fair point. So I went to Cawood for a big sky river ramble. We started near the arched steel swing bridge, channelled

  • Anti-flood measures on show

    HUNDREDS of North Yorkshire residents turned up to an event aimed at helping them shore up their defences against flooding. Led by North Yorkshire County Council, the "flood fair" saw more than 40 exhibitors displaying products aimed at protecting homes

  • Busy championship for Michaela

    THE only female referee on snooker's world ranking tournament circuit has been busy at the Barbican Centre this week. Michaela Tabb was an official on snooker's Main Tour last season and, as well as refereeing at Harrogate's Manhattan Club, she was on

  • Gloves off for election

    THE gloves came off today in Selby's local election campaign as the Labour and Conservative Parties launched their manifestos. The district council's Labour group vowed to tackle anti-social behaviour, while the Tories pledged to crack down on council

  • Room for all

    There were streaks of snow on the colder slopes of the Cleveland Hills but in Great Ayton, ice cream consumption continued institutionally at Suggitts' caf. Visitors to this famous refuelling stop looked out over the River Leven; hard core cyclists slurped

  • Racking up top breaks

    THERE have been 26 century breaks in the PowerHouse UK Championship this week up to end of play on Thursday night. The top break in York so far is 138 by Mark Davis, but the highest break in the whole championship is 141 by Matthew Crouch in a qualifying

  • Comfortable for slick Hendry

    STEPHEN Hendry, the seven times world champion, eased his way into the third round of the PowerHouse UK Snooker Championship, with a convincing 9-4 win over Welshman Dominic Dale last night. He came back from losing the first frame to lead 4-1 including

  • Rough ride over humps

    ROAD humps, crime and congestion charges were all on the agenda when voters of the future grilled politicians of the present at a York school election hustings event. The Evening Press-organised question-and-answer session, was held at Oaklands School

  • Battle for York

    With the local elections looming, the scramble for your votes is hotting up. The three main City of York party leaders explain why you should choose them... Dave Merrett, Labour Running a successful council requires a broad vision, local focus and determination

  • Riverside ramble from Burnsall

    The path we fancied near Grassington was still closed. So we decamped a mile or two down Wharfedale and settled on the village of Burnsall, which Wainwright described in 1991 as 'neat and compact... well endowed with nature and a lovely riverside setting

  • Walk in the woods

    We took a random route to Pickering Castle turning uphill at the North York Moors Railway station, up through the slopes of old terraced houses. I noticed three stones named Ellis in a Quaker graveyard, a pleasant place to lie, eternity with a view. The

  • Hungry work

    VICTORIA ELLIS works up an appetite after walking in Coverdale. (Please note that since this article was written on the 19th January the pub has re-opened and a warm welcome awaits you!) Carlton in Coverdale was bright, sunny and quiet on Saturday morning

  • Nought-y but nice

    Today's eight-mile route is a splendid way to stride into the New Year. We started at Pateley Bridge, crossed the River Nidd and took the quiet back road through the village of Bewerley. The next half-hour is a slog uphill and part of a popular little

  • Full steam ahead

    VICTORIA ELLIS suggests the perfect walk for Boxing Day to help clear away the post-Christmas cobwebs This is a walk for Boxing Day, and has the following characteristics - easy strolling, pubs at the start/finish and halfway round, simple navigation

  • Water world

    York's Place Research Centre published a booklet last month called A Guide To The Wetland Heritage Of the Vale Of Pickering. I just had to go out and have a look and chose the carrs and ings (one-time marshlands, reedswamps or whatever) south of West

  • Pocklington Coachworks

    POCKLINGTON Coachworks of Osbaldwick seems to make a habit of reaching the finals of the Evening Press Business of the Year awards. Last year, the organisation which builds super-duper caravans for Formula One racing teams, was in the final three in the

  • Cross roads

    VICTORIA ELLIS takes in the medieval ruins along the Magna Via from Helmsley We drive north out of the centre of Helmsley, not as usual on the busy Bilsdale road, but on a more ancient parallel highway. It is the Magna Via, first recorded in 1145. We

  • A firm built on a rock solid base

    YOU'VE got to tip your hard hat to the founder of the booming York company, Guildford Construction Ltd. As a builder to his toecaps, John Guildford, knows that the forecast of £7 million turnover was achieved on good foundations made rock solid through

  • Squeezed in

    IF YOU travel out of Helmsley on the Scarborough road, you soon slip through two little villages squeezed together, Beadlam then Nawton. The pair persist as separate identities which is confusing. Every reference book has two sets of entries. In 1754

  • On the road with mobile Net link

    CONVERGENT Telecom Limited, which, with 225 staff, is one of the biggest employers in Pocklington, is setting its sights on the Innovative Use of New Technology Award. Tony Farmer, chief executive, believes that his firm's latest product, SmartLinx is

  • Victoria falls

    Victoria Ellis discovers a mobile phone is an essential piece of kit for lone walkers There were walkers about but the goose presiding over West Ayton's village green was hardly welcoming, very protective and advancing with lots of hissing. I gave a bit

  • Green means gold for Thirsk company

    A ROAD-building and haulage business in Thirsk has since diversified into such a model of waste disposal, recycling and management that it is pitching for our Best Environmental Company of the Year. The 30 people working at Todd Waste Management, on the

  • Just Swale

    GEORGE WILKINSON stretches his legs before an appointment with the surgeon's table... If you drive the road from Thirsk to Ripon you will have been stopped at the start of this walk by the traffic lights on the bridge over the river at Skipton-on-Swale

  • Fast track to skills accolade

    IT took only ten weeks for rapidly expanding e-commerce firm Management Services 2000 Ltd of York (MS2M) to attain the Investors in People standard. The speed was an expression of a philosophy that has always existed at MS2M - that if you support and

  • Firm's growing client list

    WITH a name like Acute Marketing, Nick Eggleton expects his York business to take sudden tangents, but in his case they are always on an upward path. Nick had to issue a quick update on his entry for the Evening Press Business Awards, both in the Growth

  • Back on track

    George Wilkinson hits the trail again, for a moorland walk among the heather. Regular readers will have noticed that a couple of weeks ago the paper described me as 'incapacitated' (much to the amusement of my friends) and Victoria Ellis has kindly done

  • Coasting along

    Victoria Ellis takes in the views on a walk along the coast from Scarborough. The car park took a bit of finding, being curiously unsigned, but when I pulled up it would have been worth the drive just to sit there and enjoy the views of Scarborough Castle

  • Colour purple

    VICTORIA ELLIS temporarily takes over from George Wilkinson, who is incapacitated, and leads a walk to Cawthorne. Cawthorne Camp on a midweek morning was busy with walkers and dog walkers and lorries delivering topsoil. In the first century you might

  • Healing Clinic, York

    APPLYING feng shui, the ancient art of positioning furniture to create a more harmonious flow of chi, or energy, helped to boost turnover at the Healing Clinic in York tenfold. That is the claim of June Tranmer, founder-proprietor the natural health centre

  • Clive Owen & Company

    IN only seven years Clive Owen & Company has become one of the top firms of chartered accountants and business advisers in the York area - and it believes in training with a passion Good enough reason for the firm, which in March had to move from

  • To the edge

    GEORGE WILKINSON hops on the Moorsbus for the 'forbidden land' The Moorsbuses have been cruising the North York Moors like a fleet of Marie Celestes. Here is a chance to take a ride and do a linear route recommended by the parks authority. You jump off

  • Payroll award for Mitrefinch

    STAFF at York-based Mitrefinch are today celebrating the news that the company has won the Pay Awards 2001 Best Support Product or Service for the Payroll Industry category. The glass trophy, awarded by Pay Magazine in National Payroll Week, was accepted

  • Inspiring lessons from animal feed supplier

    ALL those starting out on the hard, but rewarding road to exports, can learn inspiring lessons from Norfeed UK Ltd. The Boroughbridge supplier of nutritional and technical animal feed ingredients has just one family working against the challenges of BSE

  • Big is beautiful for York housebuilder

    ENTRANTS in the Evening Press Business of the Year 2001 do not come much bigger than Persimmon plc, the York-based housebuilder which boasts 4,453 employees nationally. And not one of them would be surprised that the firm, which is based at Persimmon

  • Rapid reaction to world crisis pays off

    NO sooner had Saville Audio Visual, of Millfield Lane, Nether Poppleton, submitted its entry for the Evening Press Business of the Year Awards when it found itself playing a major role in international preparations in the aftermath of the U.S. terrorist

  • Tadcaster brewery giant goes back to nature

    Bass Brewers, which employs 123 people at the Tower Brewery, Tadcaster, keeps up the good work which earned the company so much praise as finalists of last year's Evening Press Business Awards. Once again, the brewery is seeking the Best Environmental

  • Fiona is life and soul of the parties

    THERE has been a lot of glittering revelry since the last time Fiona Sidwell entered her York-based corporate hospitality and events company, Exclusive Events, in the Evening Press Business of the Year. There has also been a lot of money raised for good

  • Agar's warning

    COMPLACENCY could be the silent killer in the Knights camp if attitudes do not change, Richard Agar has warned. Several players were 'spoken to' this week about their attitude in training following their 20-year record-equalling seventh consecutive win

  • Couple's talents go to waste

    SHEY were finalists in last year's tough category for Best Environmental Company - and this time Chris and Christine Dennis justifiably expect their Tadcaster business, Waste To Compost to be up there among this year's leaders. The couple used to count

  • Elusive label is aim for Sessions

    OF all the millions of labels produced by Sessions of York, the huge label printing and application machinery company on a five-acre site in Huntington, York, there is one yet to be worn by the firm itself - the Evening Press Exporter of the Year. Its

  • CPP's rapid growth shows in turnover

    EVERYONE has gasped at the speed with which CPP - Card Protection Plan - has become one of the biggest employers in York, operating out of its new £10 million flagship HQ at Holgate Park. Now the company, which at the latest count has 1,100 on the payroll

  • Corus Rail Consultancy

    It's not just that York-based Corus Rail Consultancy has almost doubled its staff - from 195 to 350 - since it moved into the private sector from British Rail that makes it a strong contender for the Growth Business of the Year category. It is the high-tech

  • Spicing up contest

    SALEEM AKHTAR, the man who has built up an expanding chain of Asian restaurants across the region, is spicing up the Evening Press Business Awards. As leader of a family business of eight restaurants and takeaways in York, Harrogate, Flaxton and Bradford

  • Courses revered

    NEARLY three years ago when Maureen Ryan, then aged 53, was suddenly, shockingly, made redundant she promised herself that from now on she would never work at anything she did not enjoy. So, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, she began Phoenix Training

  • Growth title is the goal for turf firm

    IF the turf at St James's Park football pitch in Newcastle now becomes hallowed as a result of England's 2 - 0 victory over the Albanians in this week's World Cup qualifier, then give thanks to an East Riding turfmaker. The ground, as with the late and

  • Firm that changed skyline of York joins race for our awards

    FEW organisations could have had more of an impact on York than the 127-year-old firm of family builders, William Birch & Son. Time and again it has changed the skyline of the city and beyond with its new schools, factories, churches, houses and shops

  • Millennium Bridge opening delayed

    York is set to enter the year 2001 with its Millennium Bridge still closed to the public. Chairman of the Millennium Bridge Trust Paul Chesmore told the Evening Press today the heavy flooding of the Ouse had "severely delayed" work on the £4.2m bridge

  • A great achievement

    Workers laboured into the early hours to make sure York awoke to see its Millennium Bridge proudly in position. The river reopened after a 30-hour closure at 6am, with the new 310-ton bridge secured three hours earlier. After a meticulous operation the

  • 'Slow but sure' bridge in place

    Anticipation was written on the faces of Millennium Bridge watchers as they squinted in the autumn sun and waited...and waited...and waited for York's new superstructure to glide in to place. The engineers never promised it would be a fast show, and even

  • Bridge of sighs as downpour sinks big day

    YORK'S Millennium Bridge has 'fallen' victim to October's heavy downpours. Heavy rain, a week's worth falling yesterday alone, and a 'flood watch' now in force, scuppered plans to launch the bridge tomorrow because the River Ouse is becoming too swollen

  • York's new bridge takes shape to span the millenia

    THE elegant arch of York's new Millennium Bridge rises above the banks of the River Ouse. The structure, inspired by the simple design of a bicycle wheel, is now almost ready to be swung out over the water from its resting place near Rowntree Park, and

  • Champ Stevens' gets top billing

    MATTHEW Stevens has gone top in snooker's LG Electronics Tour Order of Merit following his victory in the Travis Perkins UK Championship in York on Sunday. The hundred points he got for his dramatic victory over Stephen Hendry in the Barbican Centre final

  • Double delight for Stevens

    WINNING a world ranking tournament for the first time in his career after a dramatic Travis Perkins UK Snooker Championship final in York gives Matthew Stevens double reason to celebrate this Christmas. The 26-year-old Welshman, who hit back from 4-0

  • Ronnie rockets to ton mastery

    RONNIE O'Sullivan was leading the way with most centuries at this year's UK Championship ahead of the semi-finals and final. Three tons in his opening win over Ian McCulloch, five in knocking out Alan McManus and three more in beating Quentin Hann put

  • Jimmy hoping to be White on cue

    JIMMY White is hoping to be at his best as he bids tonight to earn a place in the Travis Perkins UK Snooker Championship semi-finals in York. Stephen Hendry, meanwhile, booked his place in the last eight thanks to cashing in after his third round opponent

  • Hunter keeps nerve to overthrow King

    KEEPING positive under intense pressure helped Yorkshire star Paul Hunter stay on course in his bid to capture the Travis Perkins UK Snooker Championship. Playing well below his best form, Hunter was taken to a deciding frame by Romford's Mark King at

  • Williams starts bid for double

    MARK Williams, the world's top-ranked snooker player, whose opening match in this year's Travis Perkins UK Championship ends tonight, is attempting to become the first player for seven years to successfully defend the title. The first session of his second

  • Brian's second chance

    BRIAN Pritchard has won a second crack at winning some glory for Harrogate at this year's UK Snooker Championship. On Tuesday he will play Kevin Hopper in the Harrogate v York annual amateur challenge match in the CueZone tent at the Barbican Centre.

  • Head-to-head it's a case of contrasting styles

    QUIP of the week at the Barbican this week was by Mark King after his first round win over Alain Robidoux. The bald Romford cueman takes on hair-flair idol Paul Hunter in the second round starting tomorrow night. King returned home after his opening match

  • Tough reward for battling Parrott

    THE 1991 world champion John Parrott faces a tough second round match in the Travis Perkins UK Snooker Championship in York on Saturday against Stephen Hendry, winner of the British Open last Sunday. Parrott came from 4-0 down to beat world number 42

  • Hunter on track of King victory

    A RELIEVED Paul Hunter has moved into the televised rounds of the Travis Perkins UK Snooker Championship, but Irish star Ken Doherty, beaten finalist in the last two UK tournaments in York, is on his way home after suffering a shock early exit. The Leeds

  • Barbican scalp Hunter

    SNOOKER'S glamour boy, Yorkshire's own Paul Hunter, makes his bow in this year's UK Championship in York at 10am on Wednesday morning. His second round opponent will be the winner of the first round match between world number 31 Anthony Davies and world

  • Ironsides dented in final

    YORK was conquered by the French this weekend as Lezignan won the city's second International 9's tournament. It was second-time lucky for the Frenchmen, who went down narrowly to London Koogas in last year's inaugural event. This time around, Lezignan

  • French blunt brave Ironsides

    YORK Ironsides came close to a famous victory in the York International 9s tournament at Heworth yesterday. They were narrowly beaten in the final by a French club FC Lezignan-Corbieres. More than 20 teams from seven nations descended on Heworth ARLFC

  • St Oswald's are Moor the merrier

    YOUTH rugby in York is making giant steps to keep up with the big boys. The York International 9s competition saw little brother being played out alongside the Fairfax Cup - the Marston Moor Cup. Young rugby players, both boys and girls, from nine primary

  • York trio hope for England call

    A TRIO from York hope to don international jerseys tonight when England take on Scotland at Heworth ARLC's Elm Park Way. It is the opening game of the amateur Home Nations Championships featuring players from the Rugby League Summer Conference, a match

  • Ironsides test mettle

    YORK IRONSIDES player-coach Brendan Carlyle reckons he has a squad good enough to win the York International 9s this weekend. Carlyle - player-coach of Heworth ARLC, where the tournament will be played tomorrow and Sunday - announced his line-up last

  • Festival is Kazan-tastic

    THE Russians descended on York yesterday as their representatives in the York International 9s, Strela Kazan, arrived in the city. Strela, who made history when they took part in the Challenge Cup, are one of 26 teams from all over Europe who will battle

  • Old foes in York clash

    A NEW dimension will be added to the forthcoming York 9s tournament with the news it will include an England v Scotland international fixture. The rugby league festival - which will see 26 club teams from all over the world battle over two days for the

  • On a diet? Have a low-carb Kit Kat!

    NESTL Rowntree's new low-carb versions of Kit Kat and Rolo hit the shops next week as bosses praised the efforts of the York production team which developed them. The company reaffirmed its commitment to the future of its York site after millions of pounds

  • Hopes high for new college

    AMBITIOUS plans for a new £50 million York College look set to win the go-ahead next week. Officers are recommending City of York Council planning committee to approve the scheme for a 29,000 square metre building in Sim Balk Lane - subject to a number

  • New bridge still causing problems

    FRESH problems are dogging York's Millennium Bridge, with council chiefs admitting that they have no idea what is causing cracks on the walkway. In the latest of a series of problems to hit the £4.2 million project, parts of the bridge have been fenced

  • Bridge bollards to put the brake on drivers

    DRIVERS who take their vehicles across York's newest bridge are set to be blocked by new laws. City of York councillors will be asked to ban motor vehicles from New Walk, the riverside footpath from the Blue Bridge up to Fulford, and the Millennium Bridge

  • Duke to view York's new bridge

    The Duke of York will give York's Millennium Bridge the royal seal of approval when he visits later this month, City of York Council revealed today. The Duke has accepted the council's invitation to visit the £4.2m bridge project during a trip to York

  • Cracks on city's new bridge

    Walkers and cyclists were reassured today that York's Millennium Bridge is safe to use after cracks appeared on the pathway. City of York Council said the network of jagged lines in the asphalt surface had been caused by someone apparently driving a Transit

  • Bridge floodlights not such a bright idea

    YORK'S shiny new Millennium Bridge may have opened in a blaze of publicity this week, but residents living nearby think its glaring night-time lights are not such a bright idea. Anne Tracy, a teacher at All Saints School, who lives in Finsbury Avenue

  • Bridging the divide

    Two communities from either side of the Ouse were united today with the opening of York's Millennium Bridge. Residents from the Fulford Road and Fishergate area met up on the crossing with their counterparts from the South Bank and Bishopthorpe Road district

  • Opening date for Millennium Bridge

    York's Millennium Bridge will finally open today - in time for the Easter holidays. The Lord Mayor, Councillor Shan Braund, will cut a ribbon at 10:45am to officially open the foot and cycle bridge over the River Ouse this morning. The York Millennium

  • Your lovely Jubilee!

    WHAT a Golden Jubilee weekend you had. When the celebrations were at their height earlier this month, we went out and captured events across North and East Yorkshire on camera. But there were far more street parties and other events than we could get

  • A golden weekend

    THE Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations in York got off to a cracking start with a weekend of colourful events in the city. Bunting, balloons and Union flags were draped across York as people came together to celebrate the Queen's 50 years on the throne

  • A golden chance

    YORK residents are grabbing a golden opportunity to celebrate 50 years of the Queen's reign this Bank Holiday weekend. People from York will be joining events in the city and around the country as the nation marks the historic occasion. Army veteran John

  • Roll up, roll up for a Jubilee jamboree

    JUBILEE joy is on the cards for York and North Yorkshire this bank holiday, say tourist chiefs. Despite gloomy weather reports for Monday and Tuesday, attractions anticipate a bumper session as the Queen celebrates and Sven's men go into battle. Many

  • All you need... is a love of music

    The nation's biggest ever sing-song will take place when the Beatles' classic All You Need Is Love rings round the country on Monday. Following the success of the massed performance of Lou Reed's Perfect Day in 2000, Sir Paul McCartney has endorsed the

  • A royal salute

    ROYALIST and photographer Jim Wilson took these pictures of the Queen while she was staying at her Sandringham estate in Norfolk. Although she is the most photographed woman in the world, Mr Wilson, a former president of the York Camera Club, does not

  • York's proudest moment

    THE Queen's association with York Minster continued in the 1980s. After celebrating the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Kent there in 1961, and distributing the Maundy Money there in 1972 she toured the great church again in November 1988. This was

  • Celebrations in York

    TEN years after the royal wedding, York was celebrating again. It was the city's 1,900th birthday, a wonderful reason for a year-long party. And the guests of honour were the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. York had organised hundreds of events scattered

  • All in a Royal day

    The Queen's day follows a pattern reflecting her life of service. THE Queen's day begins at 7.30am when her maid brings morning tea. Two solid silver pots contain Earl Grey - the Queen's favourite brew - and hot water for a top-up. There is milk but no

  • Crowd pleaser

    YORK and North Yorkshire have welcomed the Queen on many occasions during the first five decades of this Elizabethan age. Her first official visits came before she acceded to the throne. Princess Elizabeth toured North Yorkshire's air bases in 1944, including

  • From Princess to Queen

    On June 22, the Queen will become the fourth longest-reigning monarch in 1,000 years of English history. That is the day when she will overtake Edward III who died in 1377 after 50 years and 148 days as king. Then, only Queen Victoria, George III and

  • Princess who became Queen

    SHE was not born to be Queen. Until her uncle's scandalous love affair rocked the monarchy, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was destined to spend her life a step removed from the heavy burdens of sovereignty. Her royal pedigree, however, could never be questioned

  • Shop's golden opportunity

    THE past came alive in a memorabilia shop which celebrated the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Staff at Past Times, in Castlegate, York, dressed in 1950s costumes and offered old-fashioned prices as they knocked ten per cent off everything that was bought. Customers

  • Town ready to light Jubilee touchpaper

    THE QUEEN'S Golden Jubilee is set to go off with a bang in Tadcaster with a grand fireworks display. The display will be the finale of four days of celebration in the town which will include a street fair, a tug-of-war and a Jubilee ball. The ball will

  • Signallers fly to Kuwait in advance party

    YORK-based soldiers have already flown out to the Gulf to make preparations for a possible war with Iraq, the Evening Press can reveal today. A handful of signallers from 2 Signal Regiment, based at Imphal Barracks, in Fulford Road, have been among the

  • The Royal Dragon Hotel, 16 Barbican Road, York.

    Stephen Lewis finds his tastebuds being tickled by the mysterious la yu. WE HAD just placed our orders and were settling down with our drinks in pleased anticipation of the feast to come when our waitress came over. "Excuse me. Do you speak Chinese?"

  • Army couple wed as war threatens

    A MILITARY couple brought their York wedding plans forward because of the increasing threat of war in the Gulf. Corporal Leah Sandys-Parsons, 28, is on 24-hour stand-by to be flown to the region within two weeks as a member of the Catterick-based Royal

  • Offside? What's that then?

    THE mystery of football's offside rule will be unravelled at this year's York Learning Festival. Tutors at Future Prospects, in Swinegate, will use digital technology to explain the complicated rule on Saturday, July 3, from 11am, as part of a drive to

  • Daughter's 'grand gesture' backed

    A YORK couple told today why they are backing their daughter's plans to become a human shield in Iraq. John and Mairi McCormick - who both served in the Second World War - say they do not believe an American attack on Iraq would be a just war. The couple