THE focus of Yesterday Once More moves to Easingwold today. We have a series of wonderful old photos of the market town, courtesy of the latest book from local author Paul Chrystal.
In & Around Easingwold: The Passage Of Time is essentially 130 pages of photographs old and new – in which scenes from long ago are contrasted with the same or similar scenes today, to give a sense of how Easingwold has changed down the years. Informative captions help explain what is going on.
Our first photo today is a great picture of the Easingwold Light Railway, taken in 1905. It is a cheerful image, from the driver leaning out of the engine’s cab to the children sitting on its side and the railway staff lined up for the camera.
The line opened in 1891 as a single-track branch line from Alne, Paul notes in his caption. At just two and a half miles in length, it was the UK’s smallest as well as last privately-owned railway.
“It carried passengers (nine trains in each direction on weekdays and a Saturday night special to and from York) and goods, the former until 1948 and goods until 1957,” Paul writes.
“There was a staff of 12 in the early days. The first train was known as T’Awd Coffeepot on account of the shape of its engine.”
The track, sadly, was taken up in 1960, Paul says – but this photo is a wonderful reminder.
A different form of transport features in our next photo – which shows a horse-drawn carriage in front of the George Hotel & Posting House. The picture was taken in 1885, Paul writes, and shows the horse bus which plied between Alne and Easingwold Market Place before the railway opened in 1891. The fare? One shilling either way, Paul reports.
“Five horses and three drivers were employed.”
As well as being a stopping-off point for the horse bus, the Market Place was – well, a market place, of course. Our third photo shows agricultural implements for sale at the market, with the Angel in the background. There is no date to this photo, but going by the clothing it seems to be late Victorian.
A number of the photographs have military themes – including a beautifully clear photo taken in 1906, which shows “Colonel Legard inspecting a detachment of the Yorkshire Regiment Volunteers on the occasion of the opening of the miniature rifle range in the Town Hall on August 23, 1906.”
Col Legard, if indeed it is he, appears to have been a very small man, but possessed of a fine military bearing and neat moustache.
There is also a fine picture of Lieutenant-General Robert Baden Powell – famous for launching the Scout movement – visiting the town in 1908 as commander of the Northumbrian division of the Yeomanry. The George Hotel is again visible in the background.
Two years after this photograph was taken, Scouting came to Easingwold when the first warrant was issued, Paul writes – the centenary of that event was celebrated in 2010.
Another fascinating photograph shows workmen taking a break in 1903 from the difficult work of clearing out the pond behind the mill in Long Street to make way for the town swimming pool.
We also have an 1884 photograph of the York & Ainsty Hunt gathering in the town, and a photograph taken in 1899 that resembles a painting by a French Impressionist, and which shows Reginald Ernest Smith, editor of the Easingwold Advertiser.
He is on the far right of the picture. His future wife, Annie Elizabeth Coates, is on the left.
“She played Britannia in the Boer War parades,” Paul notes.
• In & Around Easingwold: The Passage of Time by Paul Chrystal is published by GH Smith & Son, priced £14.99. It is available from Bijou in Easingwold; from the offices of GH Smith in Market Place, Easingwold; or online at www.ghsmithbookshop.com
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