Thursday, November 17, 2005

100 years ago

At a recent meeting of the Helmsley Board of Guardians the much discussed problem of motorcars cropped up, and several suggestions were made to limit the speed of motors. Mr George Scoby was quick with a suggestion which, if impracticable, would certainly do much to decrease the speed. He suggested that cars should not be built to exceed 12 miles per hour, and that builders of cars should be fined instead of the drivers. Truly a novel suggestion. The Reverend W Hughes followed with a suggestion that the speed of motorcars should be restricted to four miles per hour on district roads which were less than eleven feet wide, and another member went so far as to suggest two miles per hour.

50 years ago

The Americans thought that York's publicity was very bad, reported Dr J S Purvis, Director of the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, having just returned from a lecture tour in the United States. A further US complaint was that York had an inadequate number of hotels catering for overseas visitors. This, it was said across the ocean, did not encourage American visitors to spend a few days in York seeing the sights. From figures obtained from the Publicity Committee of the Corporation, it was claimed that York was doing a great deal on very little money. Mr R Doherty, City Librarian, who had charge of the publicity scheme for York, told how the Committee spent its allowance of £1,100 from the rates on advertising York in the year. The British Travel and Holiday Association, Mr Doherty pointed out, had done much in advertising York in America, and through the City linking with Harrogate, 20,000 copies of a coloured folder had been circulated in the US.

25 years ago

The Keep Fit movement had been changing its image. As 600 women went through their routine at the twenty-third annual meeting of the Yorkshire and Humberside Keep Fit Association at Joseph Rowntree School, New Earswick, Mrs May Sinclair, York branch chairman, said: "There is not a press-up to be seen. Once, Keep Fit may have been drilled exercises, but now it's all total body movement like ballet training. The movement, which started in the North-East 24 years ago, has expanded all over the country. There are more than 2,000 members in Yorkshire and Humberside alone." Mrs Sinclair, of Dringhouses, added: "We help to get women out of their homes to exercise them physically, mentally and socially. This does them a power of good, and they all enjoy it."

Updated: 16:29 Wednesday, November 16, 2005