Tuesday, August 9, 2005

100 years ago

The Bridlington police ordered two travelling performing bears, with their singing guardians, out of the borough. The previous day they were the cause of a trap accident through the horse bolting at the sight of the strange animals. The owners of the bears resented the police interference. Ultimately, men and bears left for Driffield and Hornsea. The keepers protested they had come to England to earn an honest living.

50 years ago

A rival attraction to the demolition work, which had been entertaining the crowds in Coney Street, York's busiest shopping centre, for several weeks, opened in the window of a shop belonging to a famous sewing machine firm. Passers-by forsook the blockbusters to watch instead the quiet, industrious work of six little schoolgirls, each solemnly guiding the needle of a sewing machine along the guidelines of a printed card. The schoolgirls were attending the first of two 10-day courses arranged by the firm to introduce the needlewoman of the future to the art of mechanical sewing. For two hours each morning for the next fortnight, with a break on Saturday and Sunday, they would come to the shop to be taught, first how to use the machines and then how to sew an outfit for their dolls. The course was free and Butterick had also supplied patterns for the clothes for nothing, which were to be made to their accepted standard. Each one would make for her doll a frock with matching knickers and a petticoat.

25 years ago

Beekeepers near York were up against the stickiest problem of their lives -- green honey. Gallons of the bright green substance had been found in hives in an area bounded by Huntington, Haxby and Strensall. Experts were baffled about where the bees were getting it from. York Beekeepers' Association expert Councillor Bill Lockwood approached Rowntree Mackintosh Ltd and their chemist analysed the substance as two coal tar dyes used in the catering trade. " Bees would collect anything with a high sugar content, but where they get this is a mystery," The puzzle was solved later in the week. The bees had been feeding on waste sweets, bought from Terry's factory, left by a farmer for his sheep on Strensall Common. Mr Nathan Harker of Lambshill, Towthorpe, had been feeding sweets to his sheep for years. But this year they seemed to have proved more popular with swarms of bees. Beekeepers were relieved to hear the source had been discovered. The tip-off came from a York man, Mr Melvyn Race, of Lucas Avenue, who spotted bees on a pile of waste sweets during a walk on the common.

Updated: 16:22 Monday, August 08, 2005