Wednesday, November 23, 2005

100 years ago

A great crowd filled the York Market for the Martinmas Fair. Round and round the muddy thoroughfare they walked, pushing and jostling each other, drinking in the noisy attractions of the travelling showmen. Steam organs one at a time and at a respectable distance - say in the next parish - were bearable, thought the Evening Press correspondent, but there were five or six going at full pressure, one against the other, and the blending of the National Anthem with snatches of Ora Pro Nobis and other well-known ditties did not tend to make any of them more harmonious, and added to this inducement was a dazzling display of electric lights. A menagerie and all the smaller shows, shooting galleries, pictorial exhibitions, and the smallest pony in the world, filled in the vacant spaces between the bigger concerns. Amongst the crowd at the Pavement end were a good proportion of city youths who, failing to find work in York, were offering themselves for agricultural jobs. Only a few men were hired, waggoners ranging from £18 to £22. The supply of good girls was still below the demand, and many ladies were unable to find the class of domestics they required.

50 years ago

G Watson Taylor, of 4, High Petergate, York, wrote to the editor saying: "Your leading article on the need for a first class hotel in York is timely. In what other country in the world would a city of the renown and with the attractions of York not be able to boast two or three top-grade hotels or restaurants? In the good food guide, York is not mentioned once, though neighbouring Doncaster has two entries - whoever goes there to visit? There are, I think, two or three hotels in the city where one can obtain a meal after 7 o'clock, after 10 one is reduced to fish and chips, and from the litter in the streets every morning one must presume that a vast number of York's citizens dine late."

25 years ago

Water meters for homes were on the way in Yorkshire. From April 1982 every consumer would be able to choose to have a meter. This, it was thought, should help to answer increasing criticism of the existing system of charging domestic consumers according to the rateable value of their homes. The existing system -- under which only commercial users with a rateable value of more than £5,000 could choose to have a meter -- was said to be unfair, particularly to people living alone. The new plan approved by the Yorkshire Water Authority provided for a two-part tariff for all consumers. Consumers would be able to choose to have their water meter or to pay a standing charge plus a sum based on their rateable value.

Updated: 08:59 Wednesday, November 23, 2005