ONE of York's legendary landladies has rounded on plans to convert the Bay Horse in Marygate, York, into ten flats.

Eve Briggs ran the pub with husband Arthur for an astonishing 35 years.

She married RAF hero Arthur nine days after he returned home from a German prisoner of war camp. They took over the Bay Horse in 1951, with hardly a penny to their name.

"We were poor," Eve recalled. "We couldn't have a loaf of bread the day we went in there."

No cheques back then, so all the takings had to be paid in cash. "That night I slept in a jacket with two pockets, with half the money in a brown bag in one pocket and half in the other.

"I had never seen so much money in my life."

She has fond memories of her time behind the bar. "It was lovely. I wish I were there now. My family were brought up there."

What did she remember best about her time behind the bar? "My fancy drinks. The Eve Special."

And what was in that? "I couldn't tell you - I haven't even told my pastor."

But she later relented, and revealed the full recipe for the first time.

"You have a Babycham-type glass, rub orange round the rim and drop it in sugar. Add a measure of brandy, grenadine, a little drop of lemonade and a squirt of soda, with a little umbrella and a cherry on top.

"That was an Eve Special. People would come from Hull for my special."

The couple also survived more than one flood at the Bay Horse. Once, when the water was nearly up to the top of the fireplaces, they retired to the first floor. For food they relied on a boat patrol placing provisions in a basket they dangled out of the window.

On another occasion regulars could still get into the waterlogged pub via planks. "They all had different coloured wellies, and sat around the lounge," said Eve.

"You hoped the people you didn't like would fall in on the way out."

Plans to turn the pub into flats are "ridiculous" she said. And although 85 and disabled, Eve said she would be ready to make a comeback.

"Put a swivel chair behind that till and I am there."

HE dressed like Richard Gere from An Officer And A Gentleman. But the smart white uniform was not enough to distract passers-by from the fact that he had imbibed enough for a whole regiment.

But who was that man, unsteadily hanging on to the windowsill of the Tam O'Shanter pub in Lawrence Street, York, and gesticulating at the traffic on Sunday night?

Had he overdone the Remembrance Sunday spirit? Or was he a confused strippergram? We may never know.

DO They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid 20 was being played on the radio for the first time today. Well done to 19-year-old singer Joss Stone who called Sir Bob Geldof "Gandalf" at the recording.

Residents of Geldof (or should that be Gandalf) Road in Huntington are among those waiting to see if the new version matches the original.

Not everyone was impressed by that effort however. Former Evening Press columnist Jim Kelly gave this verdict on the Band Aid line-up in December 1984: "Quite honestly they are all pretty detestable as individuals; witness the unbelievably smug Sting and the preening presence of Simon Le Bon.

"Together they are something else; to be precise a large group of detestable individuals."

Updated: 09:27 Tuesday, November 16, 2004