Leeds nostalgia: Police '˜ambush' and NHS rush causes dental pain

According to reports in the paper at the time, officers hid inside the darkened house on Leeds Road, Harrogate and waited... the telephone rang but no-one answered, then the door buzzer went and still, no-one answered. A short time later, three men were heard entering the building, speaking in whispers and creeping into the rooms. “They were arrested,” the article states in no uncertain terms. The three, two aged 19 and one 20, were brought to court and charged accordingly.

In other news, a Bradford man rescued his family from a burning building using a blanket.

Heroic Jim Lunn, 51, of Burlington Avenue, was woken by the whimpering of his pet spaniel Floss. When he went downstairs to check on them, he found the house ablaze and so quickly ran back upstairs and, using a blanket, lowered his wife and 17-year-old daughter out of the window onto a ladder put up by a neighbour. Floss was said to be slightly burned and suffering from smoke inhalation but survived and was treated by a vet at the scene.

And finally, spare a thought for dentists in Leeds, who were getting used to the new National Health Service, which was apparently leaving them out of pocket. One dentist said he was owed £400 for services rendered, forcing many of them to “withdraw money from personal accounts” and “contact their bank managers”.

The chairman of the Leeds Dental Committee said the situation had come about because of the rush for treatment under the new system, which he described as “overwhelming”.