100 years ago For some years, Mr Alpheus Cleophas Morton, MP for Sutherlandshire, in the far north of Scotland, had been agitating for the provision of sleeping accommodation for third-class passengers on long-distance trains.

He had never failed since his election to bring up his pet project whenever there had been a railway Bill before Parliament. Accordingly, Mr Morton had given notice that he would move on the Railways Bill in the Commons: “That it be an introduction to the committee to consider the desirability of making provision for requiring railway companies to provide sleeping accommodation for third-class passengers on all trains on which sleeping accommodation is provided.”

50 years ago

There were about 150 Royal Air Force Servicemen who were without partners for their St Valentine’s dance. So an appeal had gone out from RAF Linton for feminine partners aged 18 or over.

This was the second time the organisers had looked beyond the camp grounds for dancing partners for the men serving at the station. “Our aim is to provide entertainment for the lads,” said one of the organisers. “Instead of the men leaving the camp for their social life, we are trying, like other Royal Air Force bases, to provide social amenities on the camp.”

Special invitations which were sent to some of York’s largest companies for women members of their staff to attend the previous dance had not gone unheeded. As a result the event had been “highly successful”. Transport to and from the forthcoming dance had been arranged and admission was free.

25 years ago

A double-looped roller coaster ride would be open in North Yorkshire by Easter. The 70 feet high “Soopa Loopa” was to be brought from its home in the south of France to Lightwater Valley, near Ripon, at a cost of some £2m.

Mr Robert Staveley, Lightwater Valley’s owner, said: “It’s like the most enormous Meccano set you have ever seen. It weighs over 500 tonnes and makes other roller coasters seem like Dinky toys in comparison.”

Mr Staveley hoped the ride would become a major attraction and boost the number of visitors to more than half a million a year. Earlier, councillors at Harrogate Council’s planning sub-committee had given permission for the ride, which would be the only one of its kind in Britain, after hearing that the major part of the roller coaster would be below tree level with only the top of it visible above the trees.

The Mayor of Ripon, Coun Roland Simpson, said: “Lightwater Valley brings a lot of pleasure to people. I give it full marks. These people have put Ripon and the outlying district well and truly on the map.”