A CATHEDRAL which has suffered a year of vandalism, thefts and intimidation of worshippers has been looking back to behaviour in the teddy boy era of 1959.

Research at Ripon has found people then were also trying to find an explanation for anti-social behaviour by young people.

In 1959, the cathedral newsletter's editor picked up the teddy boy theme which had sparked a national debate. "Not all teddy boys are bad, and not all bad boys are teddy boys, not by a long way. But this curious figure of our times, with his odd clothes and air of slightly menacing vacancy, seen in so many city streets, at any rate symbolises a development in our national life which ought to give every citizen cause for anxiety," says the flashback.

The writer said the time was right for a thoughtful look at the whole problem for which the teddy boy stood. And that was a growth of lawlessness.

Only last month the Dean of Ripon, the Very Rev John Methuen, welcomed a local police change in policy which will now see anti-social behaviour by youngsters prosecuted rather than earning a telling off.