100 years ago

The Minster bells, nine in all, had now arrived in York and had been removed to the Minster.

The work of raising the bells into the belfry, and fitting up the bearings, had been commenced, and so far three had been raised and partly fitted up. The process of raising the bells into the belfry called for considerable care, but Messrs Warner and Son, London, had a capable band of men on the work, and the utmost attention was paid to the various bells as they were raised from the ground-level into the loft above by means of a winding-winch.

A large number of people had visited the Minster and viewed with interest the work that was in progress. The work of raising and fitting the bells would be proceeded with as quickly as possible, and the probability was that the call to the Easter services in the Minster would take the form of a peal of the old bells with which York people were so familiar, but which they had had to do without for some time.

 

50 years ago

Hollywood film star Elizabeth Taylor had been granted a divorce from singer Eddie Fisher at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

A Mexican judge, Arcadio Estrada, ruled that both were now free to marry—clearing the way for Miss Taylor to wed the Welsh actor Richard Burton. Judge Estrada gave Miss Taylor custody of her daughter by the late producer Mike Todd. A New York radio station, WNBC, said the judge ruled that Fisher’s failure to contest the suit meant he presumably had admitted Miss Taylor’s charge that he had abandoned her.

In granting the decree, the judge declared that it was impossible to rule on a financial settlement because Mexico had no community property law.

 

25 years ago

If you were a woman with a yearning to climb ladders, crawl through smoke-filled rooms and save lives, you would have been just what North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service was looking for.

It had launched its recruiting drive for 1989 but had had no female applications. Fire chiefs were keen for women interested in taking the entrance tests to contact them. Currently there was only one part-time woman out of a total of 804 retained and full-time firefighters.

The brigade’s recruitment officer said: “I think one of the problems is that women are conned from when they are little girls into playing with dolls and behaving in a “ladylike” way while boys are encouraged to act macho with their Action Man. Women with the right qualifications are just as capable of doing this job as the men – it’s all a question of mental attitude.”