100 years ago

A case of poisoning at Bath owing to a person eating snails which had been feeding on ivy, had called attention to the fact that in the West of England there were many people who regarded snails as a delicacy.

For 40 years Charles Reed, who was known to all his acquaintances as “Snail Charlie,” had made a living by collecting snails for commercial purposes. He claimed that a particularly fine variety of mollusc found at Bathampton were descendants of the edible snails bred and fattened by the Romans during their occupation at Bath.

Reed recalled the time when a collector of snails could earn as much as a sovereign a day by bartering salt fish for snails collected by school children, but he declared that the demand was now so large that he feared the common snail was doomed to extinction.

 

50 years ago

Cyclists, pedestrians – even motorists – had joined in a chase after flying £1 notes in a York street. It all began when a girl who had just been to the bank, opened an envelope containing sixteen £1 notes near the Yorkshire Club Museum Street.

The strong wind plucked the envelope – and the money – from her grasp, and sent the notes flying about the road. The startled girl managed to retrieve a few of them, but the rest looked like ‘getting away’ until passers-by took a hand. One cyclist ‘fielded’ a £1 note by standing on it. A second cyclist almost bumped into the back of him in surprise – but recovered in time to capture another £1.

Pedestrians chased and grabbed several more, then a motorist, temporarily stopped in a traffic queue, spotted some notes under the wheels of the car in front, and a passer-by retrieved them. After a few minutes the £16 was back in its owner’s possession. She thanked her helpers – and her good fortune that it had not all happened on Lendal Bridge, a few yards away – otherwise the money might have ended up in the river!

 

25 years ago

Television stars were threatening the future of the seaside variety show, believed a Scarborough theatre owner. The resort, which only a few years before had six big summer shows, would this year have only two, after a decision by Peter Jay, the 1960s pop star turned theatrical impresario, to stage James Bond films instead of a live show at his Royal Opera House.

He said that the previous year’s production, which had starred The Crankies and Jimmy Cricket, though first-class family entertainment, had lost money heavily. This year, faced with Cannon & Ball at the seafront Futurist Theatre, he reckoned he could not match the competition. Mr Jay said: “Artists are just pricing t