100 years ago

Horseshoes from many nations were among the 800 received by the Roads Improvement Association in connection with their offer of a prize of £100 for a horseshoe which would best enable a horse to keep its footing securely on roadways without damage to the road or itself.

About 75 per cent had been made in the United Kingdom. One shoe from the United States was thickly padded with rubber sunk in an iron-grooved frame, and another was made after the principle of the “chained” motor tyre. A Chinese shoe was a curious little basket shoe with a strap fastener. The shoes selected by the judges would subsequently undergo practical tests.

 

50 years ago

A warning that the colder weather of the previous two winters could be the first signs of a long-term decline in the climate was given by Mr HH Lamb, of the Meteorological Office, in the latest edition of the magazine Discovery.

Mr Lamb said that records indicated that the weather had an 800-year cycle, which probably reached its peak around 1900. If this was true, we could expect colder and colder weather until we reached a “little ice age” about the 24th century. He said that after the 12th century the weather deteriorated until the 16th century, when the climatic “pessimum” was reached.

“At this time most of Europe was in the grip of harsh winters and wet, miserable summers. This persisted for 150 years, but by the late 17th century the weather gradually began to pick up. The warm period culminated in the splendid first four decades of this century.” Mr Lamb concluded: “If the severe winter of 1962-63 was a pointer to things to come, it was nevertheless cold by any standards, and more typical of our future ‘little ice age.’”

 

25 years ago

European plans for a high-speed rail network would link North Yorkshire to virtually every country in Western Europe. By 1993, it was stated, a rail passenger would be able to step onto a fast electric train in York and travel directly to Paris in six hours.

By 2010 high-speed trains would whisk him from York to cities such as Madrid, Rome and Athens. British Rail said it would announce a timetable of through services via King’s Cross and the Channel Tunnel later in the year. European rail chiefs had unveiled a £63 billion scheme for a high-speed network linking Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff with the proposed high-speed Channel Tunnel line to the countries of the European Community. Yorkshire passengers and freight would be sped towards London at up to 140 mph on the new electrified East Coastline, due to be completed in May, 1991.