STANDING in a snowstorm on a traffic island on the corner of Nessgate and High Ousegate directing traffic? Not a job for the faint-hearted.

It was all in a day's work for PC Brian Holland, however.

In our first photograph today PC Holland is pictured directing traffic on January 28, 1952.

This photo, like the others on these pages, was sent to us by Brian's son, Kevin, a 50-something IT consultant from Heworth.

In November 1958, more than six years after the photograph was taken, Kevin's dad was once again standing at the selfsame spot on the corner of Nessgate and High Ousegate, when a colleague suddenly came to relieve him from duty early. "Fulford Maternity Hospital had just rung to announce my birth!" Kevin says. "He went into the newsagents that used to be on the corner of Coppergate, bought a teddy bear, and rushed to the hospital on his motorcycle. I still have the teddy!"

Speaking of his dad's motorcycle, Kevin has a photo of him on that, too. Brian Holland and Eric Telfer were York's first two motorcycle policemen. Kevin's photograph shows the pair of them (Brian on the right, Eric on the left) on their bikes at London Bridge, Dringhouses, in April 1958.

"The bikes were supplied by Shearsmiths of Blossom Street," Kevin says. "The only modifications were the screens and leg guards.

"They both had to wear the standard uniform - with a cork motorcycle helmet instead of the standard police helmet. They weren’t given any proper motorcycle clothing for a while (but) soon after this photo was taken they were given leather gaiters borrowed from the mounted division!" In case you're wondering, the bikes are BSAs. "I think A10s," Kevin says.

Other photos from Kevin's archive of police-related photographs include:

- King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) on the steps of the Mansion House in 1948. "The policeman is Arthur Helps, PC 124, who was in the guards in the Second World War before joining the police," Kevin says. You can see that in PC Helps' ramrod-straight stance as he stands to attention...

- Sergeant Bill Andrews of York's mounted police in a photograph taken in the 1960s by the above-mentioned PC Helps. "The horses were rented from Manor Farm in Rawcliffe (later demolished for the Monroe shock absorber factory, now houses)," Kevin says. "Bill was in charge of the horses and used to look after all the tack and plait the horses' manes. One day one of the policeman tried to buff up the saddles using engine oil - apparently Bill was furious!"

- A clipping from the Yorkshire Evening Press in 1951 showing a police inspection parade. "The chap on the left in the light suit is William Bridge, who became Lord Mayor in 1965," Kevin says. "He was my maternal grandmother's cousin. His grandfather (and my great great grandfather) was also William Bridge - he moved to York with his mum, brothers and sisters from Essex in about 1855. He was a horse dealer, and he owned the slaughterhouse in Little Hallfield Road in Layerthorpe."

- Members of the York City Police Rugby Union team, taken in 1957, probably at the Railway Institute Sports Ground in Holgate. It is a black and white photograph. "But the rugby kit was white with red stripes!" Kevin says helpfully.

Kevin supplied one final photograph, though this one doesn't have anything to do with the York police. It shows his grandmother Annie Chaplin (née Grist). As a child she lived in Little Hallfield Road, where her dad still worked in the slaughterhouse. Another of her relatives was a Tang Hall milkman, and before she went to school each day Annie had to carry a yoke with two pails of milk from the farm to the dairy. The photograph was taken for the Yorkshire Evening Press and shows her holding several loaves of bread when bread rationing finally ended after the Second World War.

Stephen Lewis