Wednesday, March 29, 2006

100 years ago

After acting as postmaster of Helmsley for thirty years, Mr Robert Wilson, aged 73 years, who was enjoying the best of health, had resigned that office, and was succeeded by his daughter. During his thirty years of office, Mr Wilson had seen many changes in postal work on a progressive scale. In the telegraphic department great developments had taken place at Helmsley and in the districts. The average number of messages dispatched and received yearly was, formerly, as many hundreds as they were at present thousands, and, in addition, two branch telegraph offices had been opened from Helmsley to the villages of Hawnby and Nawton. As regards the delivery of letters, there was but one inward, compared with two each way now. There was one walking postman - to Hawnby. Now there were five postmen dispatched into the surrounding villages delivering to the majority of the outlying farmhouses. The Parcel Post had greatly increased the work, as also had the Money Order Department, postal orders having come into vogue since he took up his duties. Indeed, work had increased and improved in every way. Mr Wilson hoped to see a motor system instituted to take the mails round the district where the railway company did not offer early morning facilities.

50 years ago

Terry Thomas had been signed for commercial television by Granada TV, the company that would supply weekday television programmes to the North for the new commercial station broadcasts. He would be the fourth panel member of six editions of the comedy quiz, "My Wildest Dream," which had had such a big success on BBC sound radio. The other three comedians on the panel were Tommy Trinder, Alfred Marks and David Nixon. In the show, contestants challenged the panel to guess their wildest dream. Tommy Trinder and David Nixon were members of the panel in the sound radio version, with Jimmy Edwards and Ted Ray.

25 years ago

Anyone with an eye for a sausage might fancy trying to guess the weight of the 8ft whopper pictured in today's Evening Press. The sausage, believed to be the only one of its kind in Britain, was brought from Germany by Derek and Gloria Fox for their delicatessen in Wheelgate, Malton. The couple had organised a guess-the-weight competition, with a food hamper as the prize. Mr Fox said the result would be announced on Saturday week, when the bumper banger would be weighed at the couple's butcher's shop in Malton Market Place. After the weigh-in it would be sliced up and sold.

Updated: 08:40 Wednesday, March 29, 2006