Leeds nostalgia: Cabbage for the lord mayor

Harrogate was having its largest land sale, including the 750-acre Hookstone Road and wood, which consisted of four farms, a village inn, cottages and other plots of land.

In world news, a chill wind was blowing through world politics as the Cold War began. Soviet foreign minister Mr Molotov accused Britain and the US of trying to impose their will on Russia during the so-called ‘Big Four’ talks, which came about at the end of the Second World War.

He griped: “The Anglo-Ameircan bloc is conducting no an offensive for peace but an offensive against the Soviet Union.”

Back in Leeds, plans were unveiled to create 800 homes, 230 flats and an open air bathing pool, cinema, playing fields and place of social welfare, in Belle Isle.

Penicillin went on sale for the first time in Leeds. It was described as ‘the wonder drug of the war’ and would be available on prescription through local doctors.

Long before Margaret Thatcher was lauded for her ‘Right to Buy’ policy, Viscount Sankey, president of the Building Societies’ Association, said in Brighton that people living in post-war Britain should have the choice of buying their own home. He called it “the crux of the problem”, adding: “If large numbers of people prefer to own their own homes... they cannot morally be denied.”

Finally, the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Alderman David Beevers, who had cultivated an allotment on Woodhouse Moor before the war, was presented with some cabbage seeds by the head of Leeds Parks, T R Trigg, which he planted immediately, hoping for a crop later the same year.