Way we were

100 years ago: The mad cow which went on the rampage in the Walmgate area a few days ago created a scene which, though now somewhat rare in the city, was a common enough performance before the branch line to Foss Islands was laid. The city used to be in a perfect hubbub for quite three days in the fortnight, the day before the fair being taken up with arrivals as all the beasts had to pass through the city. As accommodation was limited they had to be "stored, stabled, cribbed, cabined, and confined" in all manner of spots and vacant spaces till the morning. On the fair day the animals were driven in from north, south, east, and west to the market, and on the following day the city was again given up to their progress through the streets on the return to the railway station. The drivers required to get them, more or less in order, to the pens were accused of being "two degrees worse than bandits." When not flogging their beasts in a businesslike way, they used their sticks about each other's heads. There were lively nights around the market, and a brave show of sticking plaster and wet clouts in the morning. There is an old saying: "where there's muck there's money." There was plenty of muck, and if all accounts are true plenty of money also, but for all that things are better as they are, thought the columnist.

50 years ago: Anyone wanting to get within picking distance of a daffodil at Farndale at the weekend had to be up with the lark. Two people who left York by bus hoping to spend a pleasant afternoon amid the thousands of yellow blooms came home without even seeing one. They were unable to get nearer than two miles from the flowers because of the crush of traffic. So great was the number of people on this popular Easter excursion that a policeman was on duty at every stile to control the flow of people who were allowed in and out of the area.

10 years ago: Civic dignitaries from across North Yorkshire paid their last respects to one of the country's most famous landmarks, receiving a guided tour of RAF Fylingdales to mark the imminent demolition of the "golf ball" radar domes. The station commander showed them round the new pyramid-shaped radar, the Solid State Phased Array Radar, which replaces the three familiar domes. The golf balls were scheduled to be knocked down, but the programme to restore the site back to moorland would continue into 1995.

Updated: 12:24 Saturday, April 24, 2004