100 years ago

Observations had been made concerning the great difficulties which had been experienced by middle-class households during the previous few years in what had come to be known as "the great domestic problem."

That the cause of the unwillingness of many girls to perform household drudgery for hire was the increased education currently enjoyed by their class was an obvious platitude.

In brief, the solution offered by the writer of the observations was that the domestic servant should be still further educated along a certain line, until she could assimilate the idea that domestic service contained no element of degradation, inasmuch as (in addition) to its absolute necessity in the social scheme it required a higher grade of personal character than any corresponding grade of work.


50 years ago

When television personality Barbara Kelly opened Half Moon Court – the York Castle Museum’s Victorian-Edwardian Street – on June 17, she would see her name above the door of the King William IV Hotel.

A green painted board would proclaim that Miss Kelly was a "licensed retailer of ales, wines, spirits and tobacco". And it was hoped that free beer for the invited audience would be served through the beer engine and over the old pub's zinc counter.

A remarkable coincidence arising from the fact that Barbara Kelly was to be nominal licensee was revealed by the Museum Curator, Mr Robert Patterson, when he revealed the original name board removed from the King William when the building was dismantled on its Walmgate site. The board announced that the licensed retailer of ales, wines, spirits and tobacco was... Lydia Kelly!


25 years ago

Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre, one of the country's leading provincial theatres, was to stage seven world premiers during the coming year.

Theatre spokesman Russ Allen said: "It is difficult to imagine a more productive and innovative theatre company working in Britain at present."

Top of the list of new plays to be premiered was Alan Ayckbourn's latest work, Man of the Moment, which he would also be directing at the theatre where he was Director of Productions.

It would be his 35th play, all of which had been premiered at the Scarborough theatre before going to London's West End.

Mr Allen said that in the previous two years the theatre had increased its box office income by ten per cent. "We go into a new season with a buoyant confidence especially with seven new plays," said Mr Allen.