100 years ago

The York municipal bowling greens at Clarence Gardens had been opened for the new season.

There was no formal opening ceremony, and during the afternoon and evening the greens were monopolised by a large crowd of enthusiastic bowlers, including many of the members of the Clarence Bowling Club, who were delighted to again indulge in this pleasant recreation.

The greens were only in a moderate condition due to their not being worked during the winter months.

The club, along with other clubs in the city, was competing for the municipal trophy and anticipated being somewhere near the top at the end of the season. During the winter months a shelter had been erected in the park.


50 years ago

The individual posts of matron at York City General and County hospitals were to be abolished. Instead, there would be one principal matron (with deputy) for the group of general nurse-training hospitals in York (covering the City, County and Fulford Hospitals).

This was decided by York “A” hospital management committee –after consulting the General Nursing Council and Area Nurse Training Committee.

Both bodies recommended the appointment of one matron as head of the Nurse Training School formed by the three hospitals.

Alderman EL Keld, chairman of the management committee, stressed that the City and County hospitals were remaining as separate entities. There was no question, he said, of the City Hospital being “taken over” by the county.


25 years ago

A multimillion-pound scheme to build a huge shopping complex on the site of Naburn and Fulford hospitals had won the backing of Selby planners.

But the development would need the approval of Environment Secretary Nicholas Ridley before any building could go ahead. The proposals, which would involve the demolition of the old hospital buildings, would provide American-style shopping malls and a 2000-space car park on the 30-acre site.

When the plans were first announced, the scheme was described as a smaller version of the popular Metro Centre, at Gateshead.

Paul Stansfield, agent for the developers, predicted that the scheme would prove a huge success because of its location in the fork of the A19 and the A64 and would be ideally situated to attract people from Selby and York. Mr Stansfield revealed that retailers were already expressing a tremendous interest in the development and he considered the fears of Fulford villagers over traffic problems were unfounded.

He felt the bulk of the traffic would be generated from other directions and would have a minimal effect on Fulford itself.