Friday, June 17, 2005

100 years ago

The clerk of works reported on the progress that was being quietly accomplished on the restoration operations at York Minster. He gave some interesting insights, especially his revelation of the very imperfect, and indeed 'scamped' work of earlier restorations. Much harm to the stonework had been done by the use of iron clasps, cramps, dowels, and tie rods, which, instead of strengthening the masonry, really weakened it by the corrosive action of the metal. Copper fastenings had been substituted in all cases in the new work. He noted the damaging effect of smoke and other elements in the atmosphere, which caused more rapid decay than the purer and less chemicalised atmosphere of a century or two before. Besides this deteriorating and disintegrating modern influence there was the fact that much of the previous restoration work at the west front was only 'dummy' or veneering work, consisting of thin slabs of stone inserted in front of defective pieces.

50 years ago

In a television documentary Walt Disney, the "animal man" of Hollywood, told about his most famous creation - Mickey Mouse. "Mickey," said Disney, "is the fellow who made Disneyland and my other ventures possible." He traced the career of the only mouse to win an academy award from the days when he was a skinny barefoot character in a black and white drawing, to the days when he became an international star. Film excerpts shown included parts of the latter cartoons when his friends Pluto, Goofy, and Donald Duck joined Mickey.

25 years ago

Work on the proposed new library for Selby had still not begun. Originally it was planned to make a start on the scheme towards the end of the previous financial year. Dorothy Hudson, County Librarian, said that everyone involved in the scheme was working "very hard" to try and get it started. The delay, she explained, arose from a requirement that a two-storey building should be put up on the site of Wren Lane. The county council's Library, Archives and Museums Committee did not want the new library to be housed on two floors. Investigations were continuing to find an acceptable joint use solution for a two-storey building. Miss Hudson could not say how much longer the investigations would take. There would be "a measure of delay" with the project but the scheme was still included in the libraries programme.

Updated: 14:36 Thursday, June 16, 2005