January 16

January 16th should be kept as a feast by hatters, said a gossip, for on that date in 1797 John Hetherington had emerged from his haberdashery shop in the Strand wearing the first silk hat ever seen in public.

Hetherington had been promptly surrounded by an astonished mob of such proportions that he was arrested and charged before the Lord Mayor with inciting to riot.

The officer who arrested him testified that he “appeared upon the public highway wearing a tall structure which he called a silk hat, having a shiny lustre and calculated to frighten timid people.

Several women fainted at the unusual sight, while children screamed, dogs yelped, and a boy was thrown down by the crowd which collected, and broke his right arm.” The defendant was bound over in £500 to keep the peace.

50 years ago

The old and the new in glassware had provided an interesting contrast for the Lord Mayor of York, Alderman A Kirk, and the Sheriff, Alderman V A Bosworth, when they paid a visit to the National Glassworks Ltd in Fishergate, York.

The civic leaders were conducted on the tour by Mr John Pratt (joint managing director) and Mr Peter Redfern (sales director). The first examples seen were types of glass made on the same site dating from 1797 to 1901.

The visitors were next shown various glass containers in the process of manufacture and then ready for large companies for jams, fruit, toilet preparations and other products.

The latest types of machinery including automatic bottle-making machines, some of which made 1,000 gross of bottles a day, were inspected.

25 years ago

Tesco had been forced to close their supermarket in Piccadilly, York.

The store would close on March 4 because its lease had not been renewed by Laing Properties, the Watford-based company which owned the Piccadilly site.

A spokesman for Tesco said all 37 staff at the store had either been offered redundancy, or jobs at Tesco’s new superstore at Clifton Moor.

A spokesman for Tesco said the company was very disappointed to be leaving the Piccadilly site, but the move was inevitable.

“We were aware the new landlord wanted to redevelop and we objected to the original plans because it did not include us. The decision has since been taken out of our hands.”

The loss of one of the few remaining grocery stores in the city centre was bound to be mourned by many shoppers.

Tesco said they had received many letters asking them to stay in Piccadilly and one woman who wrote to the Evening Press said the store was very important because of its location.