York - 100 years of history in 20 pictures: the 1920s-1960s

As we reported last week, in his long life, Reg has seen and experienced many things - the building of the R100 airship; the York Blitz; the end of the great railway age of steam; the coming of diesel and electric trains.

His story underlines just how much the world has changed in one lifetime.

That’s why, in honour of his 100th birthday today, we thought we could do worse than look back at the last 100 years of history in York, though pictures from our archive.

Reg Turver, who is 100 today...

We have chosen 20 photographs - two from each decade of the last 100 years. Here, we look at the first 50 of those years, from the 1920s to the 1960s.

In a separate gallery, we cover the 1970s to the 2010s.

This gallery looking at the first 50 years covers everything from the start of work on the ‘new’ Tang Hall estate in the late 1920s to life in wartime York; the moving of York Market from Parliament Street to a new location behind Shambles in the 1950s to the building of Clifton Bridge in the 1960s.

1930s: Holy Trinity Church in King’s Square, which was demolished in 1937

We’ve also dug out a wonderfully fishy photo from the old York Market in St Sampson’s Square in the 1920s; a street scene from 1934 showing the bustling market in Parliament Street itself, at a time when British Home Stores and Marks and Spencer stood next to each other; and a picture of long-lost Holy Trinity Church in King’s Square, which was demolished in 1937.

There’s also a surprising photograph from 1959 showing the demolition of buildings in Spurriergate to make way for new block of flats - a reminder that even streets in the very heart of York have changed in the course of the century.

We hope you enjoy the start of our journey through the last 100 years...