Friday, May 14, 2004

100 years ago: At the Bulmer East Petty Sessions held in Blake Street a man of no fixed abode was charged with stealing jam and bacon, and other household goods. A coachman from Buttercrambe left some meat, jam and other eatables on a shelf near the window in his pantry one day, and when he next visited the pantry he noticed that the window, which was covered by perforated zinc, was opened, and the zinc torn or cut away.

He further discovered that three loaves of bread, three-and-a-half pounds of beef, a pound of cheese, a jar of jam, two pounds of bacon and a linen roller towel had been taken, and immediately notified the police. A young groom living nearby had seen a man with a bundle of the right size to be the missing items, and with his help an officer tracked the man down to a barn in a neighbouring village.

He still had the items in his possession, except the jam, which he had eaten straight from the jar before throwing the empty vessel over a hedge he was passing. The prisoner's boots were taken from him, and they were found to match a set of imprints under the coachman's window, and in a flower bed near the parish church, which he had also broken into. He admitted to both acts.

50 years ago: A "working party" of spiders were ready to start weaving cobwebs to create "atmosphere" in the old barn being reconstructed at York's Castle Museum, but work on the barn had not yet finished so they would not be needed for a month. Meanwhile, boredom was literally killing them, as they were fighting amongst themselves, and when spiders fight they fight to the death. The arachnids came from all over the country, nearly all of them travelling in match boxes, the curator commenting that they could start a collection of the boxes as there were so many of them. One match box, containing about 30, was sent by an eight-year-old boy from Bognor Regis, and staff were puzzled as to how he got them all in there. Another box contained five, which had been fighting, and they had all died of their injuries. Therefore people were asked to wait a while before sending any more, but when the time was right a further 1,000 would be needed.

10 years ago: A conversation was overheard, but barely believed, by a reporter as he walked in Duncombe Place in York. As two young men, clad in the day tripper's uniform of jeans and a look of boredom, walked towards the magnificent Minster, one turned to the other and said in a resigned tone: "I suppose we could always go into that big church." The "most terrifying thing," the reporter said, was that they were being absolutely serious and obviously had no idea what the 'big church' was, and "yes, they were English."

Updated: 09:05 Friday, May 14, 2004