Way we were

100 years ago

The removal of the pigs from a portion of the York Cattle Market to a more convenient area of the market left a space in the wool sheds without any use being made of it, except the occasional sale of shorthorn cattle. There had been a long felt want in York and the surrounding neighbourhood that a hide, skin, and wool market, providing for the sale of wool by auction, should be opened either by municipal or private enterprise, and this area seemed ideal. Brokers on commission were doing the trade in hides and skin, but there was no public market for the disposal of such goods. The wool market where wool was sold by private treaty had greatly fallen into disuse. At a meeting of the Markets Committee of the York Corporation, Councillor Lambert said he would move that steps be taken to establish a scheme for the purpose mentioned, or failing that, probably some enterprising firm might be induced to open a market of that class.

50 years ago

York Civil Defence members had a real test of their efficiency when, in an ever thickening mist, they carried out what an officer described as a routine exercise. The Civil Defence rescue team arrived at a two-acre site between Brook Street, Pilgrim Street and Backhouse Street in the Groves - an area partly demolished in York Corporation's clearance plan. Four other members of other departments of Civil Defence were hidden in the debris of two "bombed houses." On the roof of one of them a realistic "corpse" - a tailor's dummy - was hidden. One of the Civil Defence officials proclaimed the exercise a success, "after classroom instruction, we need practical exercises, and this one worked well," he said.

25 years ago

Fears that the Yorkshire Ripper had claimed his 13th victim mounted after the discovery of the body of a young woman behind a city's suburban shopping arcade. A member of the public found the body of the woman in tangled undergrowth at the back of the Arndale Centre, Headingley, Leeds. A worker in a nearby office block said the body was lying below the ramp, which led from Alma Road, at the side of the shopping centre, into a multi-storey car park at the back. Police sealed off the area and brought in a mobile HQ. A trail of wooden duckboards led from Alma Road to the body, so as not to disturb any evidence. A police spokesman would not speculate on whether the Ripper had struck again but said a press conference would be held later. It was just over five years since the Ripper's reign of terror began. In that time, he had butchered 12 women and attacked at least three others.

Updated: 16:12 Thursday, November 17, 2005