We recognise that some of you may be getting a bit fed up with all this staying at home and not going out business, necessary as it is.

So we thought we'd cheer you up with some photos of a grand day out to Linton Lock almost 100 years ago.

The date was August 1, 1923, and the occasion was the grand opening of the new hydro-electric power station at Linton Lock by Viscount Lascelles, later the Earl of Harewood, and his wife Princess Mary.

The Royal couple arrived for the opening to be greeted by the Lord Mayor of York, Alderman Inglis. After a brisk walk, the Royal party then took to a boat, to be rowed across the Ouse by two boys, both pupils at Bootham School, which was holding its summer camp on the other bank of the river. The Royal party then made an impromptu inspection of the camp.

The lock actually dates from 1767. It was built on the north bank of the River Ouse near Linton as part of the process of canalisation designed to make the Ouse (and further upstream, the Swale) navigable as far as Bedale.

As part of the lock construction, a weir was built on the south bank of the Ouse to help control the flow of water into the lock. Both the lock and the weir are listed.

The original 1923 hydroelectric power station was installed by the York Corporation in response to the high price of coal after the First World War. after being opened by Viscount Lascelles and Princess Mary, is lasted for almost 40 years before being abandoned in 1962 when the National Grid came into effect and power from sourced from larger generating stations fed mostly by coal.

A modern hydro plant was commissioned at Linton in 2012, with a second just to the south of it in 2017. The company behind the venture, Linton Hydro, also reconditioned the fish ladder, built a new new fish ladder nearby, and installed a new slalom canoe course via a new cut in the south bank. Those Bootham Boys in their summer camp might have approved...

Our photos today all come from Explore York's redesigned image archive. In addition tom four photographs taken on the day of the Royal visit in 1923, we have two earlier photos. One shows a pleasure boat at the lock in the 1890s; and the second a group of men 9including possibly the lock keeper) at the lock in the 1910s.

The photos show:

1. The opening of the hydro-electric power station at Linton Lock on August 1, 1923. Viscount Lascelles is pictured being greeted by Mr J. Gibbs, the Sheriff.

2. Princess Mary, Viscount Lascelles and party preparing to row across the River Ouse to inspect the Bootham School Boys Camp on the other side. The Royal party was rowed across by two of the boys. Alderman Inglis, the Lord Mayor, is photographed in the boat.

3. Viscount Lascelles and Princess Mary being rowed across the River Ouse in August 1923

4. Lord Lascelles and Princess Mary at the opening of the hydro-electric power station on August 1, 1923

5. Linton Lock in the 1910s, when it was just a lock, not a hydro-electric power stration. One of the men pictured may well have been the lock keeper.

6. Boaters at Linton Lock in the 1890s. The image comes from a glass plate negative.

Stephen Lewis