Sunday golfer hit with a summons

Borough Police. Before E Gilkes and J Richardson, Esqs. Vagrancy. – Wm. Williams, an incorrigble old man, was charged by PC Horne with being without any visible means of subsistence. The officer found the defendant on Messrs Bolckow and Vaughan’s works about 5 o’clock on Sunday morning.

He could only have got there by means of a small boat. A subscription had been set out on foot to take him back to his original employment, but he drunk the money as soon as he got hold of it. Defendant, in court, complained that his sight was bad – seven days imprisonment.

From this newspaper 100 years ago

The campaign against Sunday trading in York entered a new phase on Monday, when, as a result of the adverse decision of the magistrates, Mr Brighouse, the solicitor defending the Sunday traders, applied for the consent of the magistrates to lay an information against the caretaker of the Corporation Yearsley Baths for selling a cake of soap; againsta Corporation parkkeeper, and several licensed victuallers for selling tobacco; against two garage keepers; against Messrs. Rowntrees (Limited) gas foreman for following his occupation on Sunday morning; against pleasure boat proprietors; and one against Mr. Walter Langstaffe, a member of the Fulford Golf Club for playing golf on Sunday morning.

The latter summons was applied for under the Act of Charles I, against Mr Langstaffe for playing golf “outside his own parish, before a concourse of people, for the purpose of sport.”

The Lord Mayor said the magistrates saw no objections to the summonses being issued.

From this newspaper 50 years ago

Probably no one was sorrier than Lady Crathorne on Tuesday night that she was not able to be at the opening night of Richmond’s Georgian Theatre, but she and Lord Crathorne were in Copenhagen as Nato delegates.

Lady Crathorne, however, made a special effort to return, and was back in Crathorne Hall early yesterday evening, so that she could attend the civic night last night for the performance of Vanbrugh’s The Provok’d Wife.

The opening night was a very pleasant affair, and looking round all who were seeing the theatre for the first time since its restoration would agree that it has been beautifully done and every effort has been made to preserve the authentic atmosphere of a playhouse of the age.

Though most of the audience of 240 or so had come from a 20-mile radius, there were some who had made the trip from London, Skipton and Harrogate.

Probably the person who had come furthest was Mrs Hugh Tatlock, of Northampton, Massachusetts. She was with her son Hugh, and said she and her husband were touring Britain and happened to be in Richmond.

Whatever town they happen to be in, if it has a theatre, they attend a performance.

Mr. Iain Mackintosh, one of the directors of Prospect Productions, which is putting on the play, thought Richmond could well have its theatrical season. He envisaged one of three weeks during which productions of a high standard could be mounted.