100 years ago

A serious accident had occurred on the Devonport and District Tramway system, resulting in one person being killed and 20 injured.

A tramcar, laden both inside and outside with employees from the dockyard who had just left work after having been on the night shift, was proceeding down a steep incline leading to the London and South-Western station when the tram ran to the bottom of the hill, jumped the rails, and overturned. Some of the passengers inside managed to leap from the tramcar and escaped with slight injuries. The tramcar was wrecked.

One man was dead when taken from the debris and a large number of other passengers were found to be severely injured. Assistance was speedily at hand, and several of the injured were conveyed in ambulances to the military hospital close by, while the remainder were speedily taken to the Royal Albert Hospital. Several local doctors were promptly on the scene and rendered valuable help. Both the driver, Alfred Check, and the conductor, who stuck to their posts, were badly injured.

 

50 years ago

Tonight was the big switch-on at the York Co-operative Society’s Railway Street store when 1500 feet of cable would carry current to 1,500 bulbs in the outdoor Christmas illuminations.

Like giant fancy lollipops, the five flower set-pieces on the Rougier Street frontage had once decorated Oxford Street, London, and were designed by Beverley Pick, who was responsible for the annual decoration of Regent Street and Oxford Street. With fibreglass leaves and formed plastic flowers, the brilliantly-coloured flowers measured 10ft 6in by 8ft and provided a striking welcome to York visitors arriving by bus or train.

More than two dozen lanterns linked with 3000ft of exterior tinsel gracefully followed the curve of the store down Railway Street, and were designed by Mr H Leaper, publicity and display manager. This year’s illuminations, which followed a trend established by the store just after the war, took almost a week to erect.

 

25 years ago

Most children would receive part-time education in the 1990s, warned a new report. The report, Supply of Teachers - A National Model of the 1990s, by the Institute of Manpower Studies, showed that, on reasonable assumptions, there would be 50,000 fewer secondary teachers and 10,000 fewer primary teachers in 1997 then there had been in 1987.

Projections of the numbers of pupils indicated that in the period 1991 to 2000 they would increase by more than 500,000 in primary schools and in secondary schools by 365,000. “Pupils will be taught in morning and afternoon shifts and part-time education will be the norm for most children,” said the report.