Way we were

100 years ago: Members of the North and East Ridings Association of the National Union of Teachers discussed the question of physical training in schools, and one of them was deemed to touch the spot when he said that "teachers should themselves practice so that they might explain what the exercises were intended to accomplish." It was "pathetic" to see some of the young men on the drill ground shouting out the orders, but columnist TT added that if it were not pathetic it would be ludicrous, but it wasn't the teacher's fault. Many of them had to devote pretty well all their time to capturing the necessary certificates for their positions, and there had not been either inducement or opportunity at the schools they had attended for field sports and exercises. This regrettable deficiency was expected to remedy itself in time, for the education authorities were beginning to see the need of sports and drilling. TT thought it would be well in the interval if properly qualified gymnastic instructors were appointed for the public elementary schools. Every school should have its horizontal and parallel bars, its Roman rings, its bar bells, and clubs, in fact no private school would be deemed complete without them, and the public school fails where the copy book and the black board sum up the furnishing.

50 years ago: The inauguration of the mobile pageant play, The Flood, was performed in front of the City Art Gallery by the Sheriff's Lady, the Sheriff being the chairman of the Festival Society. After she had officially "launched" The Flood vehicle with a bottle of champagne, it moved off to the West Front of the Minster, where the first performance was given. This performance in the streets was first seen 600 years ago and had not been seen in York since 1572. The Flood would be repeated for most nights of the York Festival period, on the 16ft iron-shod wheeled rully, and every care had been taken to make the performance the same as in the Middle Ages, so far as information can be found.

25 years ago: Buyers from London and abroad were being accused of forcing house prices to rocket in the York area. Recently, a house was sold for £60,000, after it had been valued at £45,000 only last September, a 33 per cent increase. A Georgian house in Heworth Green was sold for £50,000 to an overseas man, and The Old Brewery at Thornton-le-Clay sold at auction to a London businessman for £12,000 more than expected. At the time, a two-bedroom terrace house in the Leeman Road area normally sold for less than £10,000.

Updated: 16:04 Thursday, June 17, 2004