IT WAS all very Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.
On October 2, 1913, a monoplane built by the Yorkshire-based Blackburn aeroplane company took part in an extraordinary air race against a biplane designed and built by the Lancashire firm of AV Roe.
The 100-mile race began and ended at Moortown in Leeds - but each plane had to stop for 20 minutes at four other stations along the route: York's Bootham Stray, then Doncaster, Sheffield and Barnsley.
Inevitably, the race was dubbed the aerial Wars Of The Roses - and it ended in an emphatic win for the Yorkshire aircraft, piloted by Harold Blackburn (no relation, apparently, of the aircraft's designer Robert Blackburn).
A crowd estimated at 20,000 gathered at Moortown - but there was also clearly huge interest in the race along the route.
Our first photograph today comes from the postcard collection of retired York railwayman Bryan Thornton. And we believe it shows excited spectators streaming home after witnessing the magical new flying machines landing, then taking off again from Bootham Stray.
It was clearly a real occasion: everyone is in their Sunday best, and the children standing on the fence to the left of the photo can barely contain their excitement.
Bryan, 75, who lives off Wigginton Road, has given The Press access to scores of his old postcards, many of which we will feature in weeks to come.
We have just a taster this week: but what extraordinary photographs they are.
One shows Fossgate, in the days when it was cobbled (or might those be wooden blocks laid to provide the road surface?).
It is an enormously busy scene, and the detail in the photograph is wonderful.
A bustling Fossgate in Victorian times
From the little girl standing with her arms akimbo and back to the photographer in the foreground, to the horse drawn carriage, the bustling throngs and the rows of busy shops offering everything from printing services to boots 'ade to measure.
There is no date on the photo, but judging by the clothes and the lack of cars, it looks late Victorian.
A snowy day at the Infantry Barracks in Fulford
Other photos from postcards supplied by Mr Thornton includeYork's Infantry Barracks on a snowy day before Fulford Road had become heavily built up.
York's old Military Hospital, now long gone, which once stretched down towards the River Ouse off Fulford Road.
The Mount in the 1900s before traffic clogged this main route into York
A photograph of The Mount which appears, from the unmetalled look of the road surface, to date from about 1900 or even earlier, and a wonderfully rural scene from the village of Wheldrake.
If you've enjoyed seeing these photos, watch this space as we will be featuring more of Mr Thornton's postcard collection in the future.
A rural scene in Wheldrake
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