SOME more great photographs from reader Bryan Thornton to start off with today.

First up is a stunning photograph of the devastating fire which swept through the Boyes store on Ouse Bridge on December 8, 1910.

The fire apparently began in the toy department when Christmas decorations came into contact with gas lamps.

It took the combined forces of the Rowntree and York Corporation fire brigades six hours to bring the flames under control: and after all that effort, the building was so badly damaged it eventually had to be pulled down.

We have printed some photographs of the fire in The Press before: but never - to our knowledge - this one, which comes from Mr Thornton's collection of hundreds of old postcards.

It captures the full drama of the fire: the massed crowds watching from the bridge; the water arcing from the firefighters' hoses in a desperate - and apparently hopeless - attempt to douse the flames. You can almost feel the heat beating out from the picture.

From a moment of high drama, to something much more intimate: ladies corsets.

York Press:

Did you know that there used to be a corset warehouse on Micklegate?

Well, here it is: C Banks, 'the corset warehouse'. "Wear CB corsets", says the logo on the door. The shop certainly offered customers plenty to choose from.

C Banks was a Miss Banks, apparently. And according to Paul Chrystal and Simon Crossley's book York Industries Through Time, her warehouse specialised in "fine materials - silks, muslins and crepe de Chine".

There is no date for this photograph, sadly: so we'd love to hear from anyone who can shed light on this shop, or on Miss Banks herself.

Here's how the building looks today (Picture: Google Streetview)

York Press:

Next up: a stunning photograph of an early monoplane at the 1913 County Show in York.

According to the caption which Mr Thornton has helpfully supplied, this shows "H Blackburn's aeroplane, which he flew from Leeds to the Yorkshire Show at York in 20 minutes delivering news, end of July 1913."

York Press:

H Blackburn was Harold Blackburn, who a few months later (in October 1913, to be precise) piloted a Yorkshire-built Blackburn monoplane (perhaps the very same one seen in this photo) in an aerial 'Wars of the Roses' air race against a Lancashire-built Avro 504 biplane. To the delight of Yorkshire, Blackburn won.

Harold was, ironically, apparently no relation to Robert Blackburn, who designed the aircraft and went on to set up the Blackburn Aeroplane & Motor Company, which had a factory at Brough in East Yorkshire.

Our final two photographs from Mr Thornton today show a tram on Blossom Street in November 1935 and - a scene of tranquil rural peace - a horse-drawn carriage in Bishopthorpe. No date for that last one. Any suggestions, anybody?

York Press:
A tram travels along Blossom Street in York, close to Micklegate Bar, in 1935

York Press:
Any suggestions for a date for this scene of Bishopthorpe, from Bryan Thornton’s postcard collection?