Way we were

100 years ago: At Harrogate Police Court a motor car driver was charged with furiously driving a motor car to the danger of the public in Station Parade. A magistrate said he saw the car pass him at a great speed, heading towards the bottom of the Parade, where a little girl endeavoured to cross the road. He saw her fall, but was not near enough to see if the car touched her, and corroborative evidence was given by two cab drivers. The driver said that the car was out of order and couldn't possibly be driven furiously or beyond eight miles an hour, and it was being tried to see what was the matter with it. The horn was sounded all the way down Station Parade, the car pulling up at the side of the road, avoiding the girl altogether. The defendant and expert witnesses were called in support of this, but the Chairman said the Bench considered the case proved, that they considered the streets of a town like Harrogate improper places to try a car. The defendant would be fined £1 and costs.

50 years ago: Further excavations on a Coney Street building site had revealed the inner face of the fortress wall of Roman York, to a depth of 10ft 6in. Investigators found one coin and shards of Roman pottery, which had enabled them to date the upper portion of the wall to the fourth century AD. A member of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments demonstrated that the digging had laid bare remains which ranged from the first to the fourth centuries, and pointed out bars of blackish powder lying in the bottom of the pit. These, he said, were the timber footings to a first century clay rampart which was originally topped by a timber palisade, which lay several feet to the rear of the stone wall. Nearer the river was the fortress ditch and a paved area of rammed gravel and cobbles. The lower part of the wall was second century, probably of the time of Severus, and this was topped by a rebuilding in the fourth century.

25 years ago: All Saints' Church on Pavement in York was filled to capacity the previous day for the annual Jane Stainton service, organised by the Merchant Adventurers of York. The service dated back to 1692 when Jane Stainton, a York woman, left money for it to be conducted annually on the anniversary of the execution of Charles I by the Parliamentarians.

Updated: 15:55 Thursday, January 27, 2005