York and North Yorkshire were ablaze with colour and the sight of people enjoying themselves as the first real taste of spring came to the county over the weekend.

Yesterday afternoon more than 200 Yorkshire and Teesside members of the Cyclists' Touring Club converged on St Michael's Church, Coxwold, for their 72nd annual service of remembrance.

Among them was blind York University student John Robinson, from Bolton, who arrived on a tandem, and the preacher, York's railway industry chaplain, John Riley.

The cyclists, dressed in cycling costume, acted as choristers, sidesmen, lesson reader and bell ringers.

Some of the congregation had travelled in convoys from Hull, York, Malton and Teesside, while others arrived independently.

Before the service, they had joined in their traditional noon lunch at Coxwold village hall, prepared by the villagers, and ate the tables bare.

In York members of 16 London guilds travelled north to honour their northern counterparts in a special parade through the city centre.They processed from the Merchant Adventurers' Hall, in Piccadilly, to All Saints' Church, Pavement, for a Guilds church service yesterday morning.

On Saturday evening, they attended a formal dinner at the Grand Assembly Rooms where guests included the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, and the Lord Mayor, Coun Michael Bradley.

The aim was to bring the medieval companies and guilds of York and London closer together.

More than 100 pre-1980 cars converged on the Yorkshire Farming Museum at Murton Park for a Yorkshire BMC Gathering.

Meanwhile, Tang Hall Community Centre celebrated on Saturday when the Sheriff of York, Eurig Thomas, officially opened its new £50,000 extension.

It will provide three extra meeting rooms, one of which will house York Community Church, and a darkroom.

Groups who regularly use the centre held an Open Day to celebrate the occasion with face and hand painting, roller hockey and other activities.

The extension was funded by the York Challenge Fund, Heworth and Walmgate Neighbourhood Forums and the community centre's voluntary management committee.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.