YORK may once have been the capital of the North. But it's always also had something of the market town about it. And never more so than in this wonderful postcard from the 1860s showing sheep being herded through Walmgate Bar on their way to market.
The postcard is part of a collection given to The Press by reader Tom Langan.
Mr Langan, now 75, bought them when he had to go into the Purey Cust hospital about 30 years ago for a minor operation. They were part of a series on sale to raise money for St Leonard’s Hospice, and had been lying in a drawer in Mr Langan’s house in Scarcroft Road until he came across them when doing some research into the family history for his grandchildren.
A wonderful collectiion it is, too. Here are a few of our favourites. We’ll bring you some more another time...
Burton Stone Inn, Clifton, 1896
The photo shows the original inn at Clifton. The Burton Stone visible on the corner of the pavement may have been the base of one of several stone crosses which were erected on main approaches into the city in the 1604 plague that killed thousands, the details on the back of the postcard say.
Country folk left provisions by the stone and citizens left money in its hollows, which were filled with vinegar. The stone is still there to this day, behind iron railings in a curved front wall of the ‘new’ Burton Stone Inn which replaced the old one.
York Racecourse, 1908
Racegoers promenade in their Edwardian finery in this photo (above) taken in the days before the First World War changed everything.
The (old) White Swan Inn, Coppergate, in about 1910
No, this isn’t the distinctive black-and-white building which now stands on the corner of Piccadilly and Coppergate, but the earlier one which was demolished to allow Piccadilly to be created in 1912. Foster’s agricultural supplies next door is now Duttons for Buttons.
Millfield Road peace celebrations, August 1919
Bunting was strung across the street, and there were parades, street parties and games to celebrate the great victory of almost a year earlier.
St Mary’s Church, Clifford’s Tower and Castle Museum in the 1950s
A classic view of the Eye of York. Much of the area in the foreground is now the Coppergate centre.
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