In this week's Yesterday Once More we go back to a time when York helped the whole country party - the 1951 Festival of Britain.

The festival was organised to celebrate the centenary of the Great Exhibition and to help Britain recover from the Second World War.

York was one of the 22 provincial centres chosen to lead the celebrations, and our first picture shows York's civic party proudly leading a procession along Stonegate.

In our second shot the smiles on the crowd's faces as they watch the procession from Parliament Street show the rain did not bother them. The West Yorkshire Regiment guardsmen were well prepared for the weather.

We also see a smaller-scale show - Mr J.Parsons proudly displaying his cactus collection.

In the above picture we see a group of happy young faces, listening intently as a railway steward explains how the ingenious mailbag "snatcher" system worked.

The snatcher allowed trains to pick up mailbags without stopping at stations.

We also see Bar Convent schoolgirls fulfilling every schoolboy's dream by standing on a locomotive's footplate.

Finally we see inside the grandeur of an immaculately-decorated train carriage. No holes in seats or soggy sandwiches here!

Updated: 11:08 Friday, May 30, 2003