Friday, June 4, 2004

100 years ago: The people of Huntington had long been agitating for the extension of the telegraph to their post office, and in all probability "this additional mark of civilisation" would be conferred upon them during the next month or two. There had been an earlier meeting to guarantee the post office a certain amount of trade in "wires", and it wasn't expected that a call would be made upon the guarantors. Some of the residents in the district had had to pay porterage on their telegrams for years, the village lying about the same distance York, Haxby and Strensall, which was one of the main reasons why they had campaigned for their own telegraph.

50 years ago: The "peppering" of the walls of village shops with metal advertisement plates was criticised in the 28th annual report of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England. The signs were described as "a form of disfigurement well known in the English countryside before the war. After 1945, and even after the regulations of 1948 came into force, the threat was for some years obscured by the continuance of wartime controls over the metals of which the plates are made. But now the restrictions have ceased, and in towns and villages all over the country a profusion of these ugly little coloured signs is reappearing."

10 years ago: Passengers at York Station were greeted by a three dimensional Yorkie bar, bearing the slogan: "Welcome to York where the men are hunky and the chocolate's chunky." So a reporter duly quizzed train travellers as to whether they agreed with the sign. More than half of those asked had seen the billboard and the response was very favourable, agreeing the poster was a "good laugh", but they were not so sure it was accurate. One of woman commented: "If I see any hunky men, I will let you know." Another said: "I have not seen any evidence," although one local woman did say it was funny and probably "fair comment", and a male traveller thought the poster was "a bit sexist".

Updated: 09:49 Friday, June 04, 2004