Saturday, March 5, 2005

100 years ago: A letter was printed from a licensed victualler's wife wanting a small space to give publicity to a grievance from her point of view, and to which she invited her fellow workers as licensed victuallers' wives or daughters to give their various opinions on the subject. The licensed victuallers recently held their annual banquet, whilst their "better halves" and daughters were left out "again". If they gave a ball, either instead of the banquet or in addition to the banquet, then the ladies could have attended and would have had a chance once a year of an enjoyable time, where they could make one another's acquaintance. The writer asked that next year the committee would try to consider the ladies, as she was sure there would be a lively response to such a function.

50 years ago: Mr Nobody knew that The Barefoot public house in Micklegate took its name from a racehorse, but he wondered what other York public houses which commemorated the famous names of the Turf. His investigations led him to discover that The Cotherstone in Hungate, the Eclipse in Low Petergate, and The Flying Dutchman, whose match with Voltigeur in 1851 on Knavesmire was witnessed by more than 100,000 people, and which had replaced the sign of The Bloomsbury in Grape Lane, were all named after racehorses. Eclipse was owned by a man from Marske, and was said to have covered a mile in a minute. The Bee's Wing on Hull Road replaced the sign of the Black Swan and was probably named after the celebrated racehorse, although some people said the name referred to the delicate film left in bottles by old port wine. The list wouldn't be complete without a reference to Gimcrack, "a little iron-grey horse", who was the winner of 25 races, and beloved of York although he never won a race here.

25 years ago: Pressman was puzzled by advance publicity leaflets from the organisers of York Festival. They illustrated the scores of events happening over the three weeks of the festival, using a symbol system that didn't have a key. He thought the meaning obvious for the comic and tragic masks of drama, a few musical notes together, a keyboard and a foaming pint. However, he was struggling to work out the meaning behind a smiling sun-like symbol, a new moon, and a couple of designs that looked like magnified snow crystals.

Updated: 14:55 Friday, March 04, 2005