Last week in Yesterday Once More we looked at the part played by York firm Cooke, Troughton & Simms in the remapping of Great Britain from 1935 onwards.

Reader Martin Dawson, who gives talks on astronomy and aviation, explained that many of the instruments such as theodolites, used by cartographers and those working on the mapping project (known as the Retriangulation of Great Britain) were made by Cooke’s. Good to know this ancient city played such an important role in the accurate mapping of the country.

In 1963 Cookies, as it was affectionately known, changed its name to Vickers Instruments. And this week, we open our Vickers Instruments photographic file, to bring you a series of images of employees at work in the factory during the 1960s ’70s and ’80s.

We hope some readers may recognise themselves or former co-workers.

The company that was to evolve into Vickers Instruments was initially founded as a scientific instrument maker in 1837 by Thomas Cooke. A self-taught optical engineer, by 1855 he had built a factory in Bishophill where his firm, T Cooke & Sons, made everything from spectacles and telescopes to surveying equipment and sundials, according to the Borthwick Institute, which has an extensive Vickers Instruments archive.

Following Thomas Cooke's death in 1868, the business was continued by his sons. It continued to expand, exporting worldwide, especially astronomical and surveying equipment.

In 1914, with war looming, a new factory was built in Bishophill. In 1915, control of the company was acquired by Vickers Ltd. But the firm continued under its own name until, in 1922, it merged with London-based instrument maker Troughton & Simms.

The new firm became Cooke Troughton & Simms, a name it kept even when, in 1924, it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vickers.

In 1939, another factory was built on a larger site in Haxby Road.

During the Second World War, according to the Borthwick, about 3,300 people were employed there – 1,400 of them women.

After the war, microscopes, survey equipment and measuring instruments became the firm's main products. In 1963, following the acquisition of a microscope-making company, the firm changed its name to Vickers Instruments.

In 1989, by which time it had moved into electronic and software expertise, it was sold to the American firm Bio-Rad Micromeasurements.

As we reported last week, the factory in Haxby Road was eventually demolished in 2008.

Following our piece last week, reader M Holmes sent in two photographs. One shows the Vickers Training School in 1966. The second is a photograph of John Shannon who worked as a trainer of apprentices and also in inspection after starting work at Cooke, Troughton & Simms in 1934.

Our other photographs today all come from our own archives. See if you can spot anyone you know…