Wednesday, January 5, 2005

100 years ago: The death rate in the 76 great towns of England and Wales were reported by the Registrar General for the previous week, the average rate of mortality being recorded as 23.4 per thousand. But the rate for York was the lowest among the principal northern towns, at nine per thousand. The high rate of infant mortality during the October quarter had given rise to a feeling of uneasiness, as it was at the rate of 312 per thousand per annum, an extraordinary and unprecedented rate, but it was "some satisfaction" to know that it was due to an infantile malady, not a reflection on the general health of the community. The high death rate amongst children was entirely due to what was known as summer diarrhoea, which was excessively prevalent in York about July and August, claiming a very large number of victims.

50 years ago: Queen Victoria's statue at York Art Gallery was on the move, with proposals to move her to the Law Court or Technical College, so that she might be housed in one or the other of "the finest examples of Victorian architecture in the city", being rejected. Instead York City Council decided that she was going to West Bank Park in Acomb, once reassurances were made that the statue could stand the weather. There had also been a call to move William Etty, as he took up too much room in a space used as a car park and bus turning point, one York man commenting to columnist John Blunt that the statue was "neither use nor ornament". But why move his home, asked the columnist, when the logical and proud place for this son of York was where he presently stood.

25 years ago: In the last year of its Coppergate dig, York Archaeological Trust put forward a scheme preserving and displaying Viking shops, work buildings and objects unearthed there in a life-size reconstruction. The trust had plans drawn by its own architects for a Viking Centre on the Castle car park site, as the city council's planning brief for the development ruled out the "attractive idea" of displaying the finds in Coppergate where they had lain for a thousand years. The Viking Centre would be "an exciting new kind of display" aimed at recreating "the total environment of part of Viking York".

Updated: 14:41 Tuesday, January 04, 2005