100 years ago

The tramway cars had proved an immense boon to Acomb, and the Cricket Club had benefited financially; numbers of people on a Saturday afternoon making use of the tramcars to visit the Green, where the matches were played, whereas had there been no tramcars the people from York would not have walked the distance.

The cricket team had had only moderate success so far as, out of a total of nine matches played, five had been won and four lost. At Acomb, again, farmers were wishing for fine weather to develop their crops. In the village were several good houses to let and for sale, and also some nicely-situated building sites.

As Acomb was one of the healthiest villages around York, owing to its high situation, the houses would not be long on the vendors' hands. Another feature of Acomb was the easy access to the allotment holdings; currently they presented a beautiful sight showing evidences of the care and industry which were bestowed upon them.

50 years ago

The United Kingdom had the highest number of daily newspapers in relation to population, the Commonwealth Press Union was told. Mr E Lloyd Sommerlad said a recent world survey by UNESCO on the needs of mass media in developing countries had shown that no less than 2000m people or 70 per cent of the world's population lacked the barest means of being informed of news at home or events abroad.

UNESCO had suggested that as an immediate target any country should aim to provide for every 100 of its inhabitants at least ten copies of daily newspapers, five radio receivers, and two cinema seats. By way of comparison, it was interesting to note that in the United Kingdom for instance there were 58 copies of daily newspapers per 100 population - the highest figure in the world - 28 radio receivers and 11 cinema seats.

25 years ago

Reviewing the previous week's General Election, the title, Britain's Most Marginal Seat, would sit lightly on York, which had seen several decades of ding-dong politics.

It would be a small consolation to Mr Hugh Bayley, the Labour candidate, who had recorded a swing to his party of Scottish proportions. It was interesting to note that in both York and Dulwich the Conservative Government's majority was less than the total number of votes cast by the Green Party in both constituencies.

Speaking after his narrow defeat by 147 votes, Mr Bayley stoically refused to blame them for the final result. The performance of Dr Vincent Cable the SDP-Lib Alliance man, was 7 per cent less than the national average and judged by those terms one of the worst third party results in York in half a century.