HAVE you ever seen a better photograph of Clifford's Tower than this?

From this angle, with trees clustering on the castle mound, it looks wonderfully rural and peaceful. Yet the photograph was taken from inside the old Victorian prison which once stood where the Eye of York now is. To the left of Clifford's Tower you can clearly make out the millstone gatehouse which stood on Tower Street and connected the prison to the outer world. The low retaining wall which hemmed in the castle mound is also clearly visible.

What you can't see is the four prison blocks, which radiated out from a central hub like spokes from a wheel. They would have been off to the right.

The Victorian prison was built between 1825 and 1835. It functioned as a prison until 1900, after which it became a military detention centre for about 30 years, before finally being closed in the 1930s. The external prison wall - including the gatehouse you can see in the photo - was demolished.

The photograph clearly dates from before that happened: so probably from the 1920s or very early 1930s. A second photograph, taken at about the same time, shows a middle-aged couple actually standing at the gates of the prison. We think they're on the outside looking in, but we couldn't swear to it...

York Press:

Two people standing at the entrance to York Castle (the prison) probably in the early 1930s

These two photographs are among something like 5,000 digital images stored on Explore York library and archives' online gallery of old images, Imagine York.

It's a wonderful site, full of brilliant old photographs of York that you can search through at your will from your computer.

From now on we plan to bring you a regular selection of photographs from the gallery in Yesterday Once More. All the pictures on these pages today (apart from the one of the old Albion recovery truck in the panel about the two Malcolms) come from the archive.

The other photographs show:

A 1930s aerial view from the top of York Minster showing the old Deanery, which was demolished in the 1930s. Looking at it, it seems a tragic waste to have lost such a fine old building. If anyone knows why it was demolished, we'd love to hear from you...

York Press:

The Old Deanery, seen from the top of the Minster. The Deanery was demolished in the 1930s. Photo: Imagine York

A queue of people appear to be waiting for the bus in front of the west face of York Minster, in another photograph thought to date from the 1930s. Good to see that, even back then, part of the great cathedral - in this case, the central tower - was clad in scaffolding. Some things never change...

York Press:

A queue of people waiting for a bus in front of the Minster in the early 1930s. Photo: Imagine York

Walmgate in the early 1930s, with tramlines running down the centre of the street and the electric power cables used to run the trams slung overhead. Judging by the advertising poster slapped on the open-topped tram's front, Bovril was very popular back then.

York Press:

A tram travelling along Walmgate in the 1930s. Photo: Imagine York

A Humber lifeboat, moored at King's Staith with a group of people on board. "This picture probably dates from about 1930-33 but the exact occasion remains unidentified," says the caption. Robert Rook, whose name you can see painted on the warehouse on the opposite side of the river from the lifeboat, was a corn and grain factors and agricultural merchants based at 20 Skeldergate.

York Press:

A Humber Lifeboat moored at King's Staith, early 1930s. Photo: Imagine York

We plan to carry more photographs from the Imagine York website next Monday.

But if you can't wait until then why not visit the site for yourself now? Just go to www.imagineyork.co.uk and you're off. You can type in keywords you're interested in in the search box at the top of the page. So if you're from Acomb and would like to see some old photographs of Acomb, just type the name in the box. You'll be delighted with what you find...

There's even a section where you can add information about the photographs you are looking at. So if you recognise a face, a building or an event and have some information about it, fill it in there, and archivists will update the caption to the photograph using the information you supply. It is your chance to contribute to the history of York.