Monday, September 5, 2005

100 years ago

Three York girls were charged at the York Police Court, before Mr J S Rowntree (Chairman), with stealing two pairs of shoes from a shop in Colliergate. It was said that the shoes, which were produced in court, were placed loose in a basket just within the shop. John Tindal, pawnbroker, said that one of the girls pledged a pair of new shoes at his shop. He allowed 9d on the shoes. Charles Atkinson, a pawnbroker's assistant at Merriman's stores in Petergate, said that after being offered a pair of shoes in pledge by the other two girls he gave the information to the police as he was suspicious. There was a second charge of stealing a pair of shoes from the shop front of Messrs Stead and Simpson, in High Ousegate. There was a painful scene in court, the girls and their mothers sobbing bitterly. The Chairman said as it was the first time the three girls had been brought up on such a charge, they would not be sent away, but would be bound over. The Bench could not help thinking that there had been a certain amount of temptation put in the way of the girls, by the manner in which the boots had been exposed.

50 years ago

Few who had been in the centre of the city during the previous week could have failed to notice the activity on the face of the Mansion House. Scaffolding had been erected for re-painting the whole of the outside of the city's most important habitation, which had been painted last in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. It was usually repainted every seven or eight years. The colour scheme would remain - a lovely Georgian blue for the door, and stone for the stonework. The first and second floor fronts would have panels in terra cotta red, and the Coat of Arms would be in heraldic colours.

25 years ago

What, wondered the Evening Press columnist, lay ahead for all of the JR portable jokes? We had coffee mugs proclaiming "I Hate JR" or "I Love JR." The streets were thronged with little lads wearing T-shirts proclaiming "I shot JR" and you could also buy that admission emblazoned across your school sandwich-case. At the rate children and coffee drinkers got through their wares, most of this JR cult wouldn't survive much longer than the Dallas TV series two. But a few of them would. What would our descendants think they were, in about 50 years' time, when they started turning up on tomorrow's antique and tat stalls? Make no mistake -- someone in 1999 would be prepared to pay a lot more, second-hand, than the 49p the JR mug cost in York Market in 1980.

Updated: 12:07 Saturday, September 03, 2005