Saturday, August 20, 2005

100 years ago

For all the privileges of life in cities and towns we were, according to figures quoted by Sir James Crichton-Browne in his presidential address to the Sanitary Inspectors' Association, paying a penalty which could not be regarded as anything other than heavy. "That the townsman," he said, "is shorter lived than the countryman is incontrovertible, and the children reared in towns are, on average, at all ages shorter, lighter, and of inferior chest girth when compared to those brought up in the country." The life expectancy at birth in rural districts was 51.48 years for males, and 54.04 years for females, but in towns it was ten years shorter for men and nine years shorter for women. The main complaint was overcrowding - persons living in families of two or more in one-roomed tenements, in which privacy and decency were impossible, often without the smallest ray of sunshine, with walls and floors in every stage of dirt and decay, with an atmosphere that was stifling, and frequently alive with vermin.

50 years ago

"Bacon prices would be up again in the shops the following week," said Mr Herman Kent, national secretary of the Grocers' Federation. "This is simply because the Ministry-fixed price to their agents for all imported bacon has gone up 30 shillings per cwt in a fortnight. Bacon demand from seaside towns is terrific, because Mr and Mrs John Bull will have bacon and eggs for breakfast when on holiday. This fact and the inadequate supply of English bacon pigs have combined to create a seasonal soaring of bacon prices with supplies below public demand in many places as widely apart as North-East England and South Wales. The sooner the Government get out of the imported bacon market, the better for everyone. There would be ample supplies on a free market."

25 years ago

Land at the former Layerthorpe Station could provide a site for more industry or warehousing that was needed in York. It was wasteland in the area of the Derwent Valley Railway's Layerthorpe Station, and the site had a frontage on to the railway. In one of the applications, Rohan Construction proposed industrial units, and in the other, warehousing providing 60,000 square feet of space, with parking space for 61 cars. Access would be via the existing forecourt of the station, part of which building was used for offices. The Derwent Valley Railway withdrew its steam-hauled passenger trips on the railway between Layerthorpe and Dunnington the previous year, after three years of excursions. At the time the company said reasons included spiralling costs and because land at both stations had increased considerably in value and it would pay them to develop it.

Updated: 12:21 Friday, August 19, 2005