AUGUST traditionally marks the height of summer. It’s the month when the fruit ripens, the wasps buzz drowsily, and most of us head off for a family holiday - either abroad or, given the belt-tightening that goes with the cost of living crisis, at the seaside.

It’s also, for journalists, the height of the ‘silly season’ - when, supposedly, not much happens.

Except that plenty does happen in August, of course.

We’ve been rummaging through out archive to dig out some photos of Augusts past. And we think you’ll agree there’s plenty going on in these pictures...

Our favourite is probably the photo of Extra Stout, the dray horse from Sam Smith’s Brewery in Tadcaster who, in August 1987, had apparently been declared the world’s biggest horse. He and the rest of his team, meanwhile, had been named the world’s biggest team of drays. The challenge, of course, is working out which of these magnificent animals is Extra Stout himself...

Other photos from Augusts past show police carrying off a struggling picketer following a clash at North Selby mine during the Miner’s Strike in 1984; the damage caused at Platform 12 on York Station on August 4, 1958, when a train overran the buffers; and bomb damage at Fulford Cemetery following an air raid on August 11, 1940.

York Press:

ATS girls with sea cadets in York on VJ Day 1945

There’s also a great picture of members of York City’s 1947 squad in training - or at least, choosing a ball (and how heavy do those balls look? Wouldn’t fancy heading one of those...).

And finally, there is a joyous photo of ATS girls celebrating VJ Day in 1945 (and so the final end of the war) by linking arms with sea cadets and walking down the street in York

There’s something about their expressions that brings to mind the sheer, unbridled joy on the faces of England’s Lionesses following their recent Euro 22 triumph...