100 years ago

Judgement had been given in the Court of Appeal in the appeal by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Co Ltd, in four actions for damages brought under Lord Campbell’s Act by the relatives of four Irish emigrants who had been lost in the Titanic disaster.

The damages were agreed, the only question at the trial when judgement was entered for the plaintiffs being as to the liability of the company.

Lord Justice Williams, in his judgement, said that in his view the clause at the back of the passengers’ ticket, exempting the defendants from liability for negligence, was invalid.

The practice of maintaining a course and speed did not justify the vessel maintaining her course and speed when the warnings of dangers ahead were such as the Titanic received.

He thought that the danger was neither unforeseen nor unforeseeable. There was, therefore, evidence to justify the jury’s finding of negligence.


50 years ago

Teenagers blockading phone kiosks “for a giggle” were discussed by Selby Trades Council.

Three to four crammed themselves into kiosks and took over the phone for as long as they liked, said Mr F Brown.

Mr H Shore commented: “They are only larking about. Our friend has a point.”

Mr A Barker said: “They pay fourpence just to keep other people out of a kiosk. Up to half a dozen get into the kiosk and put the money in to ring up any imaginary number.”

A former telephone operator, Mr L Lomax, said: “This is a thing the Post Office is puzzled about. There is very little they can do about it if the caller has paid fourpence.”

The Ttades council decided to write to Selby’s head postmaster to see what could be done.


25 years ago

York had staked its claim as the Northern champion of fast-food when Britain’s first Yorkshire pudding restaurant opened its doors in Jubbergate.

Grandma Batty’s Yorkshire Pudding Emporium was confident of giving the opposition a battering when it came to turning the 241-year-old Tyke favourite into a modern-day rival to the Big Mac.

The firm’s managing director, Mr Norman Waterhouse, said: “Yorkshire puddings are 241 years old but have never been brought into fast food due to the horrific and time-consuming problems of baking them to demand.”

To beat the problem, the company had come up with a unique way of freezing the puds and reheating them quickly in an oven. They were determined to introduce foreign palates to the taste – and show others just what they had been missing.