Thursday, June 17, 2004

100 years ago: Columnist TT was credibly informed by a prominent official in York, "whose word is not only beyond doubt, but whose business it is in life to verify statements before repeating them", that a certain vicar in the city, missing his train from Leeds and finding that if he waited for the next he would disappoint his congregation at a regular service, paid £14 to the railway company and chartered a special, arriving at his church in York in time for the service. Doubtless there were a few readers who already knew the story, but TT considering it worth recording as an instance of the "thoroughness" of the man.

50 years ago: An unusual example of forgiveness in the bird world had been watched by a reader from Stamford Bridge. He had two bird boxes on a rose arch a few yards from his house. In one of them was a nest of sparrows, and in the other a nest of great tits. The male great tit was found dead on the road nearby one morning, and the hen bird had a hard struggle not only to feed her young but defend them from the tree sparrows. Her efforts to carry on the task of rearing her young in such circumstances were in vain and they all died. The hen bird then began feeding the young tree sparrows peeping out of their hole in the box, making many flight to and fro with grubs, despite all the parent birds had done to her and her young.

25 years ago: More than 60 farmers along the Derwent were blaming a barrage for the loss of valuable acres of land between Barmby and Stamford Bridge after it was hit by flooding. Before the barrage was built in 1975 the ings were used from April to October for grazing and haymaking. Now the river didn't go down far enough for the land to be of any use, the bordering dykes always having water in them, and it took only a quick rainfall for the whole area to flood. The farmers were asking Yorkshire Water Authority to install pumps to clear the land. However, a spokesman for the company said that they didn't think the barrage was responsible, but they would look into the farmers' claim to confirm this.

Updated: 10:48 Thursday, June 17, 2004