Tuesday, June 8, 2004

100 years ago: A company had been formed in Bridlington called "The Bridlington Pier and Pavilion Company, Limited", with the object of carrying out the Provisional Order granted in 1900 authorising the construction of a pier and pavilion on the north shore in front of the Beaconsfield Estate. It was proposed to erect a pier about 240 yards long, and a pavilion to accommodate about 2,000 people, and in which entertainments would be given.

50 years ago: Throughout the daylight hours of one day and restarting at dawn the following day there was fought out the "battle of the bungalow" at Stockton Road in Thirsk. With wings outspread and orange beak flashing, a cock blackbird waged an unceasing assault on an intruder on his bit of territory. While the hen bird sat tight on her clutch in the hedgerow nearby, the male was hammering his spring finery to tatters in his determination to liquidate his rival, watched by an amazed reader of the paper. Flitting from tree to windowsill, the nearer the bird got to the thing that annoyed him the more aggressive he became, as his rival mimicked his every move - the poor blackbird being unaware that he was fighting his own reflection.

25 years ago: A new peal of bells arrived at St Martin's Church, Coney Street, to replace bells damaged when the church was bombed in 1941. More than 50 bellringers and their friends had worked hard for the last ten years to raise money to pay for the new peal, which consisted of four bells from St Mary's Church, Illingworth, near Halifax, and other four newly-cast at a foundry at Loughborough, ranging in size from ten hundredweight to four hundredweight. The original bells were damaged but stored awaiting restoration, but they were stolen in about 1960.

Updated: 09:06 Tuesday, June 08, 2004