Pit community sees mining end: The week that was: May 30 to June 5, 1993.

The closure, announced at only a few day’s notice, signalled the end of mining in the Wakefield area, once a thriving pit community. Hundreds more jobs in mining support companies were due to go in subsequent weeks.

The plan to close the colliery was brought forward due to poor productivity and £2.6m losses in a matter of weeks.

Around 150 miners were moving to jobs at other pits; the rest had opted for redundancy.

Overseas, trouble was brewing in the former Yugoslavia. A year after having declared independence, 11 people died when Serb forces shelled a football match in Bosnia.

Four children were among the dead, and 100 were injured in the attack which had taken place on a makeshift pitch in the Sarajevo suburb of Dobrinja.

Several hundred men, women and children had been watching the football match when the first shell landed on the pitch.

A second hit a few minutes later, wounding those who had gone to help victims.

Dr Mufid Lazovic, a Sarajevo surgeon, said: “Today we have a very bad day, a lot of injury to patients and a lot of injury to civilians and children.”

The attack came on one of the most important Muslim festivals of the year and the area had been previously declared one of the UN’s “safe areas” – a term dismissed by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic.

He accused the international community of appeasing Bosnian Serbs and warned that without a change of policy the slaughter of Muslims would continue

Back home, an outcry from the tourist industry and the business community looked set to succeed in ensuring that the description ‘Herriot Country’ would be retained for a large tract of North Yorkshire.

The use of the name of the author – the alias of Thirsk veterinary surgeon Alf Wight – had been thrown into doubt when Hambleton Council announced a rethink of its marketing strategy.

Councillors looked likely to back the continued use of the slogan, which had been used since 1984.

The rain fell, the train was late, but no-one cared as northbound services were restored to Ribblehead station on the Settle to Carlisle line this week after a gap of 23 years.

It had taken three years of planning and negotiations for the £109,000 platform and stone waiting shelter to be built. The reopening ceremony was led by Leeds Weather Centre chief meteorological officer Alan Dorward.

Until the late 1960s, Ribblehead was an official Met Office weather station, with an average annual rainfall of 79 inches.

Nigel Clough was at the centre of a three-way tug-of-war being waged for his services by Leeds United, Liverpool and the England forward’s current club Nottingham Forest.

The 27-year-old son of colourful former Leeds boss Brian Clough was an important component of the package that Howard Wilkinson, the club’s current manager, was putting together to try to revitalise his eclipsed champions.

Already on the list were Sampdoria’s Des Walker, and David O’Leary, who had been given a free transfer after 18 years at Arsenal. Clough would only say that he was in talks with three clubs and “I’m thinking it all through.”