TODAY, the spotlight in Yesterday Once More falls not on York itself, but on the suburbs - once independent villages and communities in their own right - which surround it to the north and east.

Villages Around York Through Time, by local historian Paul Chrystal, is a revised edition of an earlier book by the same name. More than half of the photographs in the new book did not appear in the earlier version, and Paul has also revised and updated the text.

The five 'villages' featured - Haxby, Wigginton, Huntington, Strensall and New Earswick - share several things in common, Paul writes in his introduction. "They are each close to or on the River Foss; they were all until fairly recently agricultural communities and they are now all rewarding and pleasant places to live."

But each also has its own unique heritage and history, he says. Haxby, the largest of the five communities, is politically a town but still a village at heart, Paul argues. He quotes the York Herald of 1911: "Haxby is a peaceful spot and one can understand that the office workers of the city of York who live here find rest and refreshment in the sight of field and garden at the close of day." The same could still be said today, Paul notes.

York Press:

White Rose dairy in New Earswick in 1904

Wigginton, smaller than Haxby so often overlooked, has its own distinctive history and character, he writes. Strensall is always associated with the military, but there is much more to it than that; Huntington has a fine church, a fine hall, and "some wonderful stories from down the ages involving royal pardons, cavalry officer chivalry, Zeppelin raids and bomber crashes"; and New Earswick is world famous for Joseph Rowntree's visionary garden village, which put it at the forefront of 20th century social reform.

As is often the case with Paul's books, it is largely the photographs that do the talking. There are almost 100 pages of photographs all told, showing everything from an army camp at Strensall in the early 1900s to land army girls working a binder on farms near Haxby in the second world war and a horse and cart trotting past the Ship Inn and Creaser's Stores in Strensall at the turn of the last century.

York Press:

Women's Land Army girls on the binder on the Lazenby farms, Haxby, second world war.

 

Many have lengthy, informative captions to help readers interpret them. There are also a good number of modern photographs showing the same scenes today, to give a sense of the way the communities have changed down the years.

We only have room for a handful of photographs today, but we hope they give at least a flavour of what the book is about - and that they prompt a few memories...

Stephen Lewis BLOB Villages Around York Through Time, revised edition, by Paul Chrystal, is published by Amberley priced £14.99