Friday, February 25, 2005

100 years ago: An interesting feature of the weights and measures discussion at the York Chamber of Commerce was the exhibition of a 250-year-old standard yard measure, which had been used by the chamber for testing the measures of local merchants. The lecturer tested this by the modern standard, and announced that there was not a hundredth part of an inch between the two. The scales, which bore the date 1790, were also exhibited, and swung as evenly as on the day they were made.

50 years ago: Were there ants in their pants? The Evening Press reported that York and Tadcaster Hospital Management Committee had been told at its recent meeting that ants have been found in the laundry at the County Hospital, and the Chief Sanitary Inspector had been called in to deal with them.

25 years ago: A farmer from Old Malton was involved in a dispute with the county highways department, because he said that the Malton Bypass, which reduced the size of his holding from 101 acres to 93 acres, had obliterated an important ditch, causing his land to flood. Kenneth Holder, from Rainbow Farm, said he lost £15,000 in crops, and received only two-thirds of that in compensation, in the three years since the bypass was built.

Updated: 14:47 Thursday, February 24, 2005