Thursday, March 3, 2005

100 years ago: A York labourer who frequently appeared before the magistrates as a result of his liking for alcoholic liquor had been fined and imprisoned but to no avail, and so the magistrates decided at his latest appearance to try a different approach. The prisoner was charged with being drunk in North Street, and instead of the usual punishments his case was adjourned for three months in order to give him an opportunity to reform. A woman from Crockey Hill, who had been charged with being drunk and incapable in Fishergate, and said by a police inspector to be "greatly addicted to drink", also had her case adjourned for three months on promising to sign the pledge. A third prisoner, this time a labourer from Walmgate, was sent to Wakefield for one month, with hard labour, as he had taken to drinking again after he had signed the pledge following a charge of being drunk and disorderly the previous year.

50 years ago: Following excavations in the Treasurer's House in October of the previous year, it was possible to add more "pieces" to the plan of a Roman fortress which existed in York. A lecturer in history at St John's College, who had supervised the excavations in the Treasurer's House, explained that the fortress in York, in the vicinity of the Treasurer's House and the Minster, seemed to be very similar to a fortress unearthed at Caerleon in South Wales. Comparatively little evidence of the York fortress had been found, but what had been discovered indicated a fortress lying in a similar position adjacent to a river and having similar roads to the Welsh fortress. During the excavation in the cellar of the Treasurer's House he found a cobbled road, which was undoubtedly Roman, and the base of a column which was part of a large building which appeared to be part of a Roman building that had stood parallel to the road.

25 years ago: A £13,000 scheme to adapt Clifton Green bus shelter as public lavatories came under fire at a council meeting, as some members claimed the money could be better spent elsewhere in the city on other projects. Other councillors welcomed the plan, one of them saying: "They have been waiting for twenty years for public lavatories in the Clifton area." A move to make an amendment to drop the plan was defeated, and so the conversion would go ahead.

Updated: 08:33 Thursday, March 03, 2005