WHENEVER I want a simple recipe my first reaction is to look at an old BeRo book I have, which I expect was handed down from my mum, you know the one.

A brown cover, with a young girl in her gym slip about to do some school cookery I expect. An interesting comment at the back, says that BeRo Flour has long been on sale in the North of England and it is now being rapidly taken up by grocers in the Midlands, and that there is a depot at York.

I'm not sure even whether BeRo is on the market now, but it certainly seems to have had a heyday some years ago, and I expect many homes in and around North Yorkshire still have the same little book that I have. It says it is the seventeenth edition, totalling seventeen million, so it stands a chance of never being forgotten, but the book doesn't have a date of issue, however the photo of what looks like an Albion heavy van may give a rough clue to any husband who knows about such things. Late '20s? Right - now suet pudding's next on the menu, you know, the one with the crispy outside, I named it 'Bumpy Pudding' as a child, and that name stuck for ever more.

A friend obtained for me a little picture book entitled Trams by the Sea, which is a history of trams and early buses in Scarborough. I've had it for a year or two, and it never ceases to fascinate me, for I often get the magnifying glass out to look at a wonderful photograph of the top of Westborough with three trams in view, two United buses and two Yorkshire buses going their rounds.

Delivery boys on bikes, a stop-me-and-buy-one ice cream tricycle making its way down the street, ladies in their best deep hats, men in plus fours, or humping heavy cases into the station forecourt. A busy scene. In the front, a wonderful Lancia open charabanc, one of Robinson's fleet of identical vehicles, fully open and in gleaming white, their drivers also decked in white weatherproofs, offering a trip round the Marine Drive and Oliver's Mount at "Frequent Intervals". Each had five bench seats known as 'toast racks' the full width of the vehicle and I expect, including the driver, would carry 25 souls, 1922 I think it would be, did they have four-wheel brakes then? I was thinking of Oliver's Mount. Oh, the excitement! And they were open-topped too, hoods kept folded most of the time only were put up when it rained, and then you could head for Galaland to keep dry.

Many of you will have noticed that the face of St Leonard's clock is missing a couple of glass sections. Blown out by a strong gust of wind I expect, it's to be hoped they can be replaced with the proper material fairly soon before the winter weather finds its way into the tower. Interesting to recall that these glass panelled dials were made in the Potteries around 1897 so they're over their centenary now. They were carried from the glassworks on a barge along the River Trent, and then along the Derwent, to Malton. 'Unshipped' they came up Hawkswell's Lane, then Church Hill, no doubt hauled by strong horses on a flat wagon. Earl Fitzwilliam who gave the clock as a memorial of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee appointed a representative to start the clock going on December 31, 1897. Who would that be, I wonder?

I cycled along the bypass the other week to Brambling Fields, and was lucky to get there without a puncture, for the road from the Old Malton bridges was littered with hedge cuttings. When it is considered that hedges are something like ten metres (11 yards) from the road it seems that the equipment used for doing the cutting is unsuitable for its purpose if it scatters debris this far, and should be fitted with shields to prevent this happening.

You often see wheelbarrows advertised for sale in magazines etc, and I suppose there are those who make their purchase via mail-order. Not the lady I watched recently outside R Yates in Railway Street at Malton. She was buying something which was going to have to be pushed, and unlikely to be empty either, so it had to be right. By the time I had to move off after being held up by other traffic, she had already vetted two barrows outside the front of the premises, and given each a thorough 'test drive' along the pavement. I admired her for her obvious persistence in ensuring that she got just what she wanted, for after all, you don't buy many wheelbarrows in a lifetime do you! A big day and, I hoped, a successful one for her.

A tiny label which had parted company with the bottle to which it had one time been affixed showed its face recently and sparked off a memory or two. It said "Ben Paylor, Hairdresser etc, 10 Finkle Street, Malton. Phone 420". We smiled as we speculated what the 'etc' might mean, and I just mention his name for it is likely that many of you will have your own memories of Ben, one of Malton's best know shopkeepers 'etc'.

Fact. "The only thing that can stop hair falling is the floor." Will Rogers US Humorist 1879-1935.

Updated: 08:46 Thursday, November 22, 2001