WE'RE all probably getting a bit stir crazy by now.

It's absolutely vital that we all keep up the discipline, and maintain the isolation and social distancing, no matter how much it goes against our every instinct. That's how we're going to slow and eventually stop the spread of this virus.

But by nature, we do need human company.

So today we've dug out some 'photographic' company for you - another gallery of faces and gatherings from York;s past, all courtesy of Explore York's wonderful digital archive.

We begin with a garden party. Once this is all over, many of us are probably going to want to throw the biggest party ever. The sheer elegance of the garden parties thrown by Alderman Agar at Kilburn House in Fulford in July of 1912 and 1913 might give us a few pointers.

We also have a photos of the opening ceremony for Rowntree Park; the laying of the foundation stone for York's new adult school in 1908 - and of a clerical walking tour of the city walls in 1911.

Here are more details:

1. A garden party at Kilburn House in Fulford in July 1913. This was the home of Alderman Agar. The house had previously been called Fulford Lodge but was renamed by the alderman because his family came from Kilburn in North Yorkshire. It is said that when developers built houses on the land in the 1930s they had only heard of Kilburn in London, and so named the new roads after other London areas such as Edgware.

2. Another garden party at Alderman Agar's house, Kilburn House in Fulford, this time 1912. Joseph Agar, the bearded man on the left of the image, was an alderman for nearly 40 years and was also an important Methodist, a Sunday School Superintendent, and a Director of York Coffee House, York Waterworks, York Cemetery, and the Wesleyan Chapel Company.

3. A large crowd watching the ceremony which marked the official opening of Rowntree Park in 1921. Joseph Rowntree handed over the deeds to the Lord Mayor on behalf of the people and also unveiled a memorial to the 200 men from Rowntree's who had been killed in the First World War

4. Another ceremony, this time one to mark the laying of the foundations for a new Adult School in Burton Lane in 1908.The new building cost £1,200 to complete: 500 people turned up to celebrate. According to the Rowntree Society, one man in five and one woman in three could neither read nor write in mid-Victorian York. The first adult school in York was set up by Joseph Rowntree (Senior) and other leading Quakers at Hope Street in 1848 to teach youths ‘to apply the teaching of the Bible to everyday life and the problems of society’. Using scripture lessons, the classes taught men to read and write. Separate classes for women were also set up.

5. Another photograph relating to adult schools: this one shows the celebrations held for the Adult Schools' jubilee (we don't know which jubilee - perhaps readers can help out?)on Sunday October 13, 1907. The celebrations included tea in the Theatre Royal with slide shows of Adult School Events and various speakers. More than 2,000 people attended. Others, such as the people in this photo, put up decorations in their street: a sign of just how much loved the adult schools were. We're not sure which street this was - can anyone recognise it?

6. A clerical group 'Beating the Bounds' of St Cuthbert's parish. They are pictured on the city walls above Jewbury in 1911. Pictured are (front row left to right): Mr Scott, Mr Ankers, Miss Julia Pyne, Reverend G. Pyne, Rev. Benson. Information for the back row is sketchier but we know that the gentleman on the far right is the representative of the Herald newspaper and next to him is Mr Holmes. The Reverend Reginald Pyne was born in 1867 and he was the vicar of St Cuthbert's from 1910 to 1934 when he died. His sister Julia, pictured here, was born in 1865, so at the time of the photograph he was 44 and she was 46.

Stephen Lewis

All the photos on these pages, and thousands more, are held on Explore York’s redesigned digital archive of historic images. You can browse it at images.exploreyork.org.uk/