Thursday, August 25, 2005

100 years ago

At about 8 o'clock in the morning, one of the large remaining sections of the Knaresborough Castle ruins fell to the ground. The pile was one near to the entrance to the Castle Grounds. Fortunately no one was near at the time of the fall, but had the descent occurred the previous evening, even up to a late hour, it was quite probable that there would have been serious results, as the Knaresborough Silver Band, giving one of their bi-weekly concerts, and the Annual Flower Show being held in the schools, attracted a large number of people into the grounds. The debris was estimated to weigh several tons.

50 years ago

Anticipating the forthcoming introduction of British commercial television on September 22, for viewers living in and around London, an article was published detailing the prospects for viewers in the north. A site for the northern transmitter was still being sought and so it would be the latter part of 1956 at least before the north would be within the span of commercial television. Even then there might be steps necessary to adapt existing television sets in this area to receive the new programmes. It all depended on the strength of the signal received. If the signal was reasonably good - as was likely in the York area - it would be possible to add smaller rods to the existing H and X type aerials. Beyond a certain distance the fitting of adaptors would not be effective for Band 3 transmissions, and a separate, more complicated aerial would need to be erected. In addition it would be necessary to have a new low-loss co-axial cable and an adaptor for the set itself, if it was not already fitted. So it was thought likely that, unless some control was exercised, the skyline would become a sea of masts, even more unsightly than existed already.

25 years ago

Six ships had burst through the French fishermen's blockade. They were helped by French police and port authorities. Three Channel ferries, two British cargo ships and a Canadian container carrier got out of Le Havre after police cut the main blockade cable. The Townsend Thoresen ferry, Viking Venturer, was one of the six ships in the breakout. Passengers sang Rule Britannia as the ship sailed and when the vessel docked at Southampton there were tales of happy holidaymakers and furious fishermen. Many of the 600 passengers were asleep as the ferry broke out of the port. When people realised what was happening they began singing and cheering followed as the ferry headed into the Channel. The mass break-out came after 14 hours of talks between French authorities, passengers' representatives and ferry companies officials and French fishermen, failed to end the blockade.

Updated: 08:57 Thursday, August 25, 2005