THIS week we bring you the last of the collection of wartime photographs of York that we found recently in an old envelope with the words 'Precious pics - York wartime' written on the front.

In this selection of photographs - again, all stamped 'Northern Echo' (The Press's sister newspaper) and many bearing the words 'submitted for publication under the 28 day rule' on the back - the emphasis has switched away from domestic life on the home front. These photographs more directly show the impact that the war had on York.

The most dramatic of the photographs are, of course, the two images showing the aftermath of the York Air Raid of April 29, 1942, usually known as the York Blitz or the York Baedeker Raid.

One photograph shows men picking through the rubble in Blake Street. Betty's seems to have had a shop or tea room in Blake Street at this time: and it was pretty comprehensively wrecked during the raid, by what looks as though it could have been a direct hit. In the distance can be seen the Red House standing on the corner of Duncombe Place and St Leonard's Place. This is, today, an antiques centre. The second photograph taken in the aftermath of the blitz shows the damage to St martin's Church in Coney Street. Again, rubble spills out onto the street. One tin-hatted man has climbed up onto the body of the church, presumably to assess the damage. Others stand in the rubble below. The photograph manages to capture,m n the attitude of their bodies, their air of stunned disbelief.

Another photograph shows a soldier polishing a searchlight that would have been part of one of York's anti-aircraft batteries - quite possibly one of the very batteries that sought to defend the city during the blitz.

Moving a little further afield, there is an astonishing photograph of a German bomber that was shot down in October 1940 during a raid on RAF Linton-on-Ouse. The badly damaged aircraft, one propeller twisted out of shape and the other missing altogether, is pictured lying in a field at Richmond Farm, Duggleby, near Malton, while a soldier stands guard over it. The German markings can just be seen on the upper surface of the wing that stretches out on the far side of the aircraft.

The earliest photo, by date, of all those on these pages, is the one taken on August 7, 1940, showing members of the only mounted section of the Home Guard in England on exercise near York. This photograph could surely only have been taken in the earlier stages of the war: towards the war's end nobody could possibly have thought that mounted men would have stood a chance against modern weaponry.

And finally, there is a photograph of a parade marching down Coney Street on April 19, 1941. Look carefully and you will notice that the marching figures are all women. They were members of the Women's Royal Army Corps (formerly the ATS or Auxiliary Territorial Service) and they were being inspected by Lieutenant General Sir Donald Adam, Commander in Chief of Northern Command, at the opening of an ATS campaign.

It was almost exactly a year after this photograph was taken that Coney Street was bombed during the blitz.

In date order, the photographs show:

1. August 7, 1940: Members of England's only mounted section of the Home Guard, which nightly patrolled 100 square miles of the North Riding, pictured galloping into action in an exercise near York

2. October 27, 1940: A German aircraft shot down during a raid on RAF Linton-on-Ouse lies in a field at Richmond Farm, Duggleby, near Malton

3. April 19, 1941: Lieutenant General Sir Donald Adam, Commander in Chief of Northern Command, taking the salute at York at the opening of an ATS campaign

4. A soldier belonging to an anti aircraft battery polishing up a searchlight in York

5. Blake Street in the aftermath of the York Air Raid of April 29, 1942 - ie the York Blitz

6. The east end of St Martin's Church in Coney Street following the York Air Raid (York Blitz) of April 29, 1942

Stephen Lewis