The recent floods in York brought back painful memories of the great floods of 2000. But what about the floods of 1892?

This photograph shows Tower Street three feet deep in water, with waves lapping up against the castle walls, behind which was a debtors' prison.

The horse-drawn wagonette shown splashing bravely through the water may well have been used to ferry people across the floods.

This remarkable photograph makes a good starting point for a series of unusual pictures of Clifford's Tower.

In the photograph below we go back, remarkably, to the year 1853. Photographer William Pumphrey took this photo, which shows "the Castle yard in front of the debtors' prison".

The building on the right is the house of the governor of the civil prison.

Look carefully and in the foreground, on the grassed area in front of Clifford's Tower, you can see ghost' images of deer.

These ghostly, transparent images were an effect often created in early photos because of the long exposure time needed.

In 1900 the prison and castle were handed over to the military and used as a military prison until 1929.

In 1934 the site was sold to the York Corporation.

A year later, in 1935, the great walls that had for so long hidden the castle yard from passers-by were demolished.

Our final sequence of photos shows cranes at work during the process of demolition, and the gradual revelation of the castle precinct inside.

* These photographs have been reproduced courtesy of the City of York Council's Imagine York website, www.imagineyork.co.uk