Monday, September 26, 2005

100 years ago

Scarborough had been practically inundated with Scottish fishermen during the previous weekend, with more than 300 boats in the harbour over Sunday, and as each boat carried eight men on average, there had been nearly 3,000 fishermen staying in the town for the weekend in addition to about 300 Scottish girls engaged in cleaning and gutting the fish for export to Norway, Sweden, and Russia. There was a somewhat heavy sea running on Monday, and up to noon the boats were leaving harbour and being tossed about like cockle shells. The sea as far as the horizon was dotted with an endless procession of sails, the sight being witnessed by hundreds of interested spectators, many of whom standing on the outer pier got a soaking with the waves which broke up the wall.

50 years ago

The Lord Mayor (Alderman F Brown) was a railwayman among railwaymen when he, with the Lady Mayoress (Mrs Joy Bentley), was the first to cross the threshold of one of the six new railway bungalows in Murrough Wilson Place, Feversham Terrace, York, which had been built for retired railway workers by the North-Eastern Cottage Homes and Benefit Fund. The tenants would be a retired ticket collector and his wife, and a retired stableman and his wife. Behind these bungalows was the railway line. The chairman of the York Housing Committee, Alderman R W Buckton (himself a railwayman and a member of the cottage homes fund) referring to this, said that it had been suggested that it was a mistake to build near the main railway line, but he did not think so. "Once a railwayman, always a railwayman," he said. "I have passed many times and seen old boys leaning over the railings, giving a wave in great delight."

25 years ago

There was a serious and solemn debate whether or not we should be allowed to have breakfast television --perhaps it was the inbred streak of puritanism that made the British feel guilty about enjoying themselves. The Independent Television Authority, in the middle of its exhaustive deliberations about who should be awarded the regional commercial franchises, was also considering the pros and cons of breakfast TV. Should we have it? Would it be good for us? Those were the questions. A market research poll suggested that there was, indeed, a potential audience waiting. One third of the adult population, said the latest poll, would be likely to watch breakfast TV at some time on weekdays, and 47 per cent, at weekends. Admittedly the poll was commissioned by one of the companies seeking to provide the service, but it was conducted by a highly reputable organisation.

Updated: 11:48 Saturday, September 24, 2005