HERE'S a cracking photo: The Royal Oak in Copmanthorpe, sometime near the turn of the last century.

The landlord at the time was T Rogerson - that is possibly him in the flat cap, standing in the doorway. Who the other people in the photo are, we don't know. And nor do we know what the row of neatly drawn-up carts flanking the pub down Main Street are all about.

They almost look as though they're for sale. Or maybe they've been placed there to host the Edwardian equivalent of a car boot sale - a 'cart boot sale', perhaps?

Mr Rogerson clearly had something of an entrepreneurial spirit. A sign on the corner of the pub says: 'cycles stored'. He was obviously not a man to miss a chance to make a little extra money.

York Press:

The Royal Oak, Copmanthorpe, early 1900s. Photo: YAYAS

Which is just as it should be in a village with the name of Copmanthorpe. According to the draft village design statement which has been drawn up as part of the proposals for a Copmanthorpe neighbourhood plan, the village's name is of Viking origin, and means 'merchants' settlement'.

The wonderful photograph of the Oak, like so many photographs that we have carried in Yesterday Once More recently, comes from the collection of the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society, YAYAS.

It is one of a series of YAYAS photographs showing Copmanthorpe in the early years of the 1900s, several of which we reproduce here today.

We don't have many details about exactly what the photographs show - but several are self-evident.

York Press:

Copmanthorpe Railway Station, probably early 1900s. Photo: YAYAS

There is Main Street itself, with the Royal Oak prominent: and St Giles' Church; and, in one rare photograph, Copmanthorpe Railway Station. This apparently opened in 1839 on the York & North Midland line, and didn't close until 1964 (although it had closed to passengers five years earlier, in 1959).

How great it would be if some way could be found of opening it up once again. That might get a few cars off the roads...