Leeds nostalgia: On this day in 1946... Leeds butcher ends up tongue tied

The South Elmsall businessman was charged and fined £315 - a significant amount in those days - for selling meat not fit for human consuumption.

However, the butcher in question, Mr W Bentley, argued the meat was good to eat but admitted buying it illegally from a knackers yard (slaughter house for horses).

The butcher, James Tether, said in his defence: “I got it to help my customers at Christmas. I know I took a risk and that I haven’t done wrong, but I have not indulged in it regularly.”

Inspectors discovered 115lb of meat and 15 tongues on the premises when they visited on December 20 of that year - Mr Tether said he had visited the slaughterhouse in Pontefract in order to buy a trailer and had at the same time, bought some meat.

Defending him, Mr G Clayton said that Tether “had been a fool, but not a knave” and that if he had not gone to the knackers yard to buy a trailer, he would not have fallen to tempataion.

He was given three months to pay the fine.

In other news, concerns were raised in Parliament over the recent nationalisation of the coal industry, with some MPs asking whether the move would mean the price of coal increasing.

In a written answer, Mr E Shinwell, minister of fuel and power, said the price would remain the same.

On January 30, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that Yorkshire farmers were to be helped with the forthcoming harvest by a large contingent of German prisoners or war, who were being flown from Canada. They would live in huts vacated by Italian prisoners of war.