Donkey rides hail from a time of simple pleasures.

But for colourful Yorkshireman Dave Allott they were a way of life.

Otherwise known as The Donkeyman or Donkey Dave, he bred, raised, reared and raced these most loveable of creatures from his home base in Knaresborough.

In the 1950s, professional donkey races, held on proper racecourses and featuring professional jockeys, were common.

Some were even held at York Racecourse.

In the 1960s, Dave's donkeys were used in derbies, which were well-attended affairs, consisting of eight races with eight donkeys per race.

To make it more fun, the public generally had a flutter - with punters betting on numbers rather than donkeys to get round the betting laws.

There would only be one lucky winner per race.

Many of these derbies were run for charity events or as fundraisers.

Philip Allott, Donkey Dave's son and author of a new book about his father - entitled simply The Donkeyman - reckons the derbies raised in the region of £500,000 in their hey-day.

The races and derbies took Dave to Yorkshire towns and cities such as Richmond, York, Manchester, Leeds, Harrogate and Wakefield, and as far afield as Newcastle and Tynemouth.

Donkey rides are perhaps what some people remember best, however, and Donkey Dave had his regular Knaresborough river walk and also children's days out.

Children also used to turn up in York for a half day of donkey rides and riverside walks generally on summer holidays or bank holidays.

Those were the days.

The Donkeyman, by Philip Allott, is published by Sigma Leisure.

It is priced £8.95 and is available from Waterstones, Tesco online, Amazon and WH Smith.

- Barry Smyth