OLD PHOTOS... Walmgate butchers in years gone by

Robinson's survived for at least three generations, Mrs Robinson believes, before closing some time in the late 1920s. For a while, her father-in-law Charles Robinson and his brother ran a Robinson's market stall at York Market in St Sampson's Square, before that too closed when Charles died at the age of 57. The brother then moved to Grimsby, where he established another butcher's shop.

Despite being Charles' son, Mrs Robinson's late husband Francis never worked in the Walmgate shop or on the market stall. "He was a motor mechanic," says Mrs Robinson, 75, who lives in Acomb.

So she doesn't remember the butcher's business herself. But she believes the three photographs represent different generations of the shop.

The most recent one, in which the shop is described as 'Robinson's, bacon and ham specialists', shows a man standing in the doorway to the right wearing a white butcher's apron. She believes that man was her husband's grandfather, another Charles.

The most recent photo of Robinson's. Is the man pictured the Charles Robinson who later went bankrupt?

He may well be the Charles Robinson referred to in a newspaper cutting dating from 1946 that is in Mrs Robinson's possession. The cutting gives an indication of why the family business fell into difficulties. "Clears family debts at 73," ran the headline, above the words: "Mr Charles Robinson, the former York butcher, was one of the victims of the between-wars slump.

"He struggled on until, in 1927, he was declared bankrupt. He was then well beyond middle age, but he started saving up the £580 needed to pay his creditors. Yesterday- his 73 birthday - he achieved his ambition, and heard Judge Ormerod at York County Court annul 'with very great pleasure' his adjudication as a bankrupt."

The other two photographs are both earlier - with the oldest probably the grainy photograph showing sides of bacon hanging in the shop window, and a man in a white coat standing in the doorway. She doesn't know who that man was, but assumes it must be another, earlier Robinson: perhaps the father or grandfather of the Charles Robinson who was later declared bankrupt.

The earliest photo of the Robinson family butchers on Walmgate

The largest photograph - which seems to date in time between the other two - shows that for a while Robinson's was clearly a successful business, one which had branched out into provisions and stores, as well as being a butcher. Among the items advertised for sale in the window are Heinz ideal pickle, Heinz Worcestershire sauce - and Heinz baked beans, still a favourite today.

The shop was at 89-91 Walmgate, which is roughly where the One Stop shop now is. We'd be interested to hear from anyone who remembers it.

The Robinson family butchers shop on Walmgate

Walmgate was a street which, from the late 1800s through to the mid 1900s, was renowned for its food shops, writes York oral historian Van Wilson in her 1996 book Humour, Heartache and Hope: Life in Walmgate. There's probably a good reason for that: the York Cattle Market, on Paragon Street, could hardly have been closer.

York cattle market

Oddly, Van's book doesn't mention Robinson's: but it does have a section on Crows', which was just inside Walmgate Bar. It was known for serving a famous 'penny duck', Van writes - a cheap nourishing meal for local people. It was effectively all the leftover scraps of pork, beef, chops and sausages, mashed up and mixed with gelatine, colouring, rusk, onions and breadcrumbs, then put onto trays and baked.

The shop was founded by brothers Albert and Fred Crow, whose ancestors had come to York in 1860. Van's book includes an interview with Anthony Gray, Albert Crow's grandson. His grandparents lived in The Groves, and he recalled a pony and trap leaving the Walmgate shop laden with sausages and meat for their dinner. Before long, a second shop was opened in The Groves, and then other branches in Acomb, Dringhouses, Haxby Road and elsewhere. By the time Anthony joined the business, there were no fewer than eight shops.

"Every week I used to buy 50 pigs, 10 bullocks, 40 sheep, to go to the eight shops," he told Van. "Every week. We used to supply with two vans. William Wright delivered Crows pork pies on a bicycle from Walmgate shop and he married Elizabeth Crow. And they set up in Goodramgate..."

Stephen Lewis