A FIRE at York's Guildhall brought a medieval banquet attended by the York Sheriff and Lord Mayor to an abrupt end.

Dignitaries, councillors and residents tucking into their beef had to down forks when firefighters arrived at just after 8pm on Saturday.

The feast was the climax to a historic annual pub crawl, the Assize Of Ale, when revellers follow the Sheriff of York and the Lord Mayor through the city.

York Sheriff Keith Hyman said the cause of the fire seemed to be a spotlight about 30 to 40ft up near the ceiling on one of the wooden pillars in the historic hall.

Coun Hyman said: "I was looking right at it when it blew.

"There was some dust and smoke that must have set the smoke alarm off.

"I didn't see any flames and nobody was hurt."

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service said there had been a small fire and the people inside had to be evacuated.

The spokesman said: "It was due to an electrical fault due to the wiring.

"Firefighters arrived at about 8.15pm and evacuated people from the building.

"The fire was out on arrival and firefighters had completed the job by just before 9pm."

Coun Hyman said the 80 guests, who included the Ancient Guild of Scriveners of the City of York, who have been organising the event for months, were only allowed back into the building to get their belongings.

Mr Hyman said: "The fire did not spoil the day because a lot of people had been out from 10am in the morning and were ready to get off anyway."

Mr Hyman said that as far as he knew the hall had not suffered any noticeably bad damage and was still open for use.

The Assize Of Ale began in the Middle Ages. Then, the sheriff was duty bound by the king to test the quality of the city's ales.

Possibly one of a succession of sheriff's favourite tasks, it has continued for centuries - but now fines collected for poor quality booze have been replaced with donations for good causes.

It began outside the Mansion House at 2pm after the York Sheriff read out an ancient proclamation.

Everyone then chose whether to tag on to the Lord Mayor's party or the Sheriff's on a tour of six pubs around the city, which finished at the White Swan in Goodramgate.