The sight a few days ago of a giant crane being floated up the River Ouse to the Guildhall (where it will remain for about a year to do the heavy lifting for the Guildhall restoration) had photographer and transport historian Malcolm Slater scurrying for his collection of old negatives.

Malcolm was on hand a couple of decades ago when a similar large crane was transported up the river by barge to help in the building of the City Screen cinema, which is 20 years old this month. And he has kindly sent us some of the photographs he took back then.

"The River Ouse was once a very busy commercial waterway," Malcolm says. "Barges would deliver timber, coal, cocoa beans and cement. There were also occasional deliveries of animal feed to Queen's Staith.

"All that trade has now long gone, but the Ouse is still used, mainly by contractors working alongside the river, thus removing many lorry loads from our roads and York’s many narrow and often fragile streets."

The big crane barge in his photos from two decades ago was the Selby Elizabeth, formerly owned by animal feeds company BOCM of Selby. "The barge is still working today although its name has been changed to Hood," Malcolm says. "All the other workboats seen in the pictures are still working."

To complement Malcolm's photographs, we also dug out of our electronic archive a very old photo - it looks as though it dates back to the late 1800s - of King's Staith. It is striking just how many tall-masted ships can be seen moored up on the wharves on both sides of the river, at both King's and Queen's Staith: the perfect illustration of Malcolm's account of the River Ouse once being a 'busy commercial waterway'.

Malcolm also dug out another photograph from his collection. Taken in 1952, it shows religious dignitaries parading along King's Staith. In the foreground are some clearly quite senior church figures. Further back, the marchers are holding up a banner with the letters SPG on it: we suspect this stands for 'Society for the Propagation of the Gospel'.

This photo wasn't actually taken by Malcolm - the images come from negatives that he bought - so he can't give full chapter and verse on it. In fact, he bought the negative not so much because he was interested in the parade itself, as in the boats and other vessels on the water in the background.

In the distance, through the arch of Ouse Bridge, you can just make out some of the barges owned by Blundy Clark, Malcolm says. This was a company of coal merchants, but also had a dredger and lighter which dredged sand from the River Nidd. The Blundy Clark coal yard site was ultimately to become the Viking Hotel, later the Park Inn.

The photograph shows that what Malcolm calls the 'port of York' was still busy in 1952, with barges moored on both staiths.What really struck him about the image, however, was the galleon berthed on King's Staith. He has no idea what it was, or what it was doing there. Any ideas, anyone?

Stephen Lewis

REDEEMING ST MARY'S

Last week we carried a photograph of St Mary's Church, Bishophill Senior. The church, we explained, had been demolished in 1963, with some of its fittings moved to St Clement's Church on Scarcroft Road.

There was nothing wrong with what we wrote, as far as it went. But reader Barbara Sawden called to say it was only half the story. Much of the fabric of St Mary's was used in the building of the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Boroughbridge Road, Barbara said. And so it was. Holy Redeemer - the first parish church to be built in York after the Second World War - was designed by architect George Pace and incorporated much of the stone - and indeed entire features such as the Norman main door, -from St Mary's. Thanks for keeping us on our toes, Barbara.