Tuesday, January 25, 2005

100 years ago: A columnist thought that the directors of the City of York Gas Company should be heartily congratulated upon the steps they had taken to more brilliantly illuminate at least one part of the city at night. Those who had occasion to pass by the Castle and over to Foss Bridge "must have noticed this week" that the lamps leading to Skeldergate Bridge had been fitted with incandescent burners, and that what was hitherto an exceedingly dimly-lit thoroughfare was now a credit to the city. "Slow but sure" was a good motto, the columnist added, alluding to the time it had taken for these lamps to be put up, and he hoped that this was but a foretaste of what the future had in store when it came to illuminating the city.

50 years ago: Columnist Mr Nobody was told of an unusual expert sideline carried out by a York firm. It was famous for its pork pies which a local soldier, serving in Cyprus, told his mother he would dearly love to taste again, and so she bought him a 6s one. It cost 17s 6d to airmail, and when her received it, amazingly still in one piece, he had to pay 4s 11d duty, but it was "well worth it" wrote the grateful son. Recently the same firm sent a similar pie to Malta by airmail, which cost 18s 4d, and the same amount of duty as the Cyprus one, and it was just as gratefully received.

25 years ago: York Theatre Royal announced plans to revive a forgotten "blood and thunder" drama of Jacobean times as its contribution to the 1980 York Festival, along with one or two night concerts that would also be performed during the festival in June. The play was The Devil's Lawcase, by John Webster, who was more famous for writing The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil. The Theatre Royal revival was thought to be the first professional production of modern times, although the extremely rare tragic-comedy was put on as a student production at the Rowntree Theatre a few years previously, a complex court scene as the finale being thought to be the reason why nobody else had staged it. It was chosen by the theatre's artistic director as one of the showpieces of the 1980 season, the festival giving the theatre a chance to perform a play which they might otherwise have been reluctant to perform.

Updated: 16:30 Monday, January 24, 2005