100 years ago

At a meeting of the York City Council the town clerk read the following petition from scholars of the Castlegate Council School: “We should very much like to keep Mrs Potter as our headmistress, as we have become so attached to her, and love her very much. We should feel it very much if she had to leave us.”

Another petition from 83 parents and guardians representing 114 children was submitted protesting against the removal of Mrs Potter from the head teachership of the school. The Education Committee reported that they had appointed Mrs MB Potter as headmistress of the Castlegate Girls’ School, at £105 a year.

Alderman Hartley moved that the name of Mrs Potter be deleted, and that of Miss E A J Sylvester be substituted. He objected to the appointment on the grounds that the lady was married, and the council had previously resolved that no married woman should be given a new appointment.

Although there was an opinion that Mrs Potter was distinctly the strongest candidate a vote of 27 to nine cancelled Mrs Potter’s appointment as headmistress.


50 years ago

When Fridaythorpe farm worker Alan Jefferson and his wife returned home late to their isolated bungalow they found a pile of buttons inside the back door.

Mr Jefferson realised that one of his wife’s coats was missing and had been pulled through the letter box. This was stated at a special sitting of Pocklington Magistrates’ Court, when an elderly man, of no fixed address, was found not guilty of stealing the coat.

Inspector Frank Yeadon, prosecuting, said that he went in response to a call to the house on February 9.

“I found that no door or window had been forced, but there were green cloth fibres sticking to the letter box. The coat to which they belonged was later discovered torn up in an outhouse,” Inspector Yeadon stated. It was valued at £1.


25 years ago

The fate of the Settle to Carlisle Railway still hung in the balance after another refusal by Ministers to give a final ruling. But Public Transport Minister Mr Michael Portillo said the line would remain open at least until the end of the summer.

The Commons reply to a question by the MP for Skipton and Ripon, Mr David Curry, was intended to calm fears that the axe might fall before the summer schedule ran out in October.

But enraged campaigners hoping for news of a reprieve for the line demanded to know the reason for the latest delay. The scenic rural line had first been earmarked for closure six years before.

It was a year since the Government had said the line would close unless a private buyer could be found.