Summer is drawing gradually to a close, and we're more than half way through this eventful year of 2021.

This seems as good a time as any to take a look back at what York was doing 100 years ago, in 1921.

The city was still emerging into the new world left behind by the ending of the First World War. And one of the main events that year - the official opening of Rowntree Park - was very much a legacy of the war.

The park was given to the people of York by Joseph Rowntree. But when he handed over the deeds to the park to Lord Mayor Edward Walker on July 16, he also unveiled a memorial to the 200 men from Rowntree’s who had been killed in the First World War. The park remains as a reminder of their sacrifice today.

York Press:

Dignitaries at the opening of Rowntree Park on July 16, 1921. Joseph Rowntree is front row centre.

The opening of the park was a major event in the city - as our photos (from the wonderful Explore York archive) show, large crowds turned out to watch the ceremony.

Elsewhere in York in 1921, the city's health department had acquired a new motor ambulance - something of which it was clearly very proud. The ambulance was parked in front of York minster for a series of celebratory photographs, two of which we carry here, again courtesy of Explore York.

York Press:

the York Health Department's new motor ambulance parked outside York Minster in April 1921.

The Yorkshire Agricultural Show was held in York in July that year, and was attended by various dignitaries - among them Chief Constable Henry Woolnough and William Henry Birch, who became Lord Mayor.

And the children of Shipton Street School posed for a photo - one that has endured, even though the school itself is no more...

York Press:

The children of Shipton Street School in 1921/22