At the turn of the last century, much of the flat agricultural land at the southern end of the Vale of York around Tadcaster was used for agriculture. And in the days before the invention of the internal combustion engine, local farmers naturally harnessed the available technology of the time to help them with traditional agricultural chores such as threshing.

There were several threshing contractors in villages around Tadcaster who owned steam engines which could be used for this purpose, says transport historian Derek Rayner. Some of these continued to be used late into the 1930s, and one such can be seen in our first photo today. This shows threshing at Lotherton Park Farm near Aberford, just south of Tadcaster, on November 22, 1936. The engine pictured belonged to the Castle Brothers, threshing contractors whose firm, F and AH Castle, was based at Saxton, near Tadcaster.

We carried on these pages a couple of weeks ago a series of photographs supplied by Derek which showed the great steam wagons employed by the Tadcaster breweries to deliver their barrels of beer to the rail head.

Today, we have a selection of other photos supplied by Derek which show the other forms of steam-powered engine in common use in and around Tadcaster at the turn of the last century and on into the 1930s. As with last week's photos, they all come from the collection of Austin Windle who, during his lifetime, amassed a remarkable collection of images, some of which Derek has allowed us to reproduce.

In order to process locally-grown grain, a mill was established on the banks of the River Wharfe. In the early 1800s it was operated by John Allenby, and then by a Mr Rishworth, who retired in 1869. John Ingleby bought the mill in 1873, and operated the mill as Ingleby and Son (later Rishworth, Ingleby and Lofthouse Ltd). The firm had a couple of steam-powered wagons, pictured here.

In addition to threshing machines and mill haulage, the other great use for steam-powered engines was in road construction and repair. Tadcaster Rural District Council had its own road gangs - and owned a series of steam rollers. The first of these was bought in 1895, but the council was still buying steam rollers as late as 1932.

The authority's later rollers were driven by Walter 'Golly' Gibson, who is featured in a couple of the photographs reproduced here today.

Stephen Lewis