100 years ago

There was urgent need not only for the reform but also for the extension of the telephone service.

In regard to telephone development, England was very backward compared to other countries.

The United States had eight telephones for every hundred of her population. Even Denmark and Sweden had three for the same number.

England had only one and a half, or less by fifty per cent than small nations with a fraction of her commercial needs. Yet no steps were being taken to make up this deficiency.


50 years ago

It was a sign of the times that the committee of the Yorkshire Club had decided to sell the premises in Museum Street, York.

Conditions had completely changed since the days, nearly 100 years before, when the club house was built for a membership of 450.

The premises were too large, inconvenient, and expensive for a membership of just over 300.

So the committee was investigating the possibility of selling the club property and acquiring a smaller house elsewhere in the city, preferably with car parking facilities.

Many members would have sentimental regrets over leaving their current home, having a genuine affection for the spacious rooms with their delightful view of the river below, and for the indefinable atmosphere which evoked memories of a vanished age.

It was in January, 1839, that the Yorkshire Club was founded at a meeting held in the Black Swan.

The original club house was in St Leonard’s, but the accommodation proved insufficient and on September 20, 1870, the current building was opened. Members of county families, officers, professional men mainly made up the membership of the Club which had been known to generations of York people as the Gentleman’s Club.

In more recent years, adapting itself to the changing times, the club admitted women to membership.


25 years ago

North Yorkshire had shot ahead of the national average for fatal and major injuries at work, according to a report.

The survey from the West Yorkshire Low Pay Unit claimed there was an 88 per cent increase in the number of serious accidents reported to the Factory Inspectorate from North and West Yorkshire between 1981 and 1985.

This compared with a national increase of 23 per cent. The findings spotlighted agriculture and construction as the areas of most concern, but researchers warned smaller companies just setting up could risk employees health by not following the letter of health and safety legislation.

At a time of high employment, there had also been reluctance on the part of some workers to draw attention to unsafe conditions.