IN today’s Britain of privatised public transport, passengers tend to get frequently fed-up by the fact that all-too-often you can’t get a single ticket that will allow you to travel on trains and buses run by different operators.
Well, that’s nothing new. Our top photo today shows the tram terminus at Acomb Road in about 1910. Back then, York’s spiffy new electric tram network had just been opened. But it wasn’t quite as comprehensive as you might have thought.
“At this time Acomb was in the West Riding …and trams could not pass the border,” says the caption to this photo, which comes from Explore York’s wonderful Imagine York digital archive (https://images.exploreyork.org.uk/)
We have chosen a selection of photos of old Holgate today. They include images of Holgate Mill (of course), as well as a picture of Holgate Bridge in the early stages of construction.
There are also photos of one or two streets which are no longer with us. And we couldn’t resist including a photograph from the 1910s showing cyclists hurrying along Blossom Street. It’s a very busy-looking photo, despite the absence of any cars. And we’ve justified including it here because it shows a tram emerging from Holgate Road.
There’s also a great photo of back alleys behind Back Linton Street in Holgate in about 1911. The caption gives a great glimpse of the way we used to olive then. —“The back roads are used for traffic as the residents live in the kitchens,” the caption says. “The front rooms are for show.”
According to City of York Council’s character area study of Holgate published in 2013, Holgate probably developed as a small medieval settlement around the Poppleton Road/ Acomb Road junction. The windmill dates to the 18th century, but probably replaced a much earlier mill.
In the mid 1800s, York’s prosperous middle classes spread out of the city walls and along Holgate Road. Then the coming of the railways led to an explosion of development in the area. Several rows of terraced houses were built. So Holgate today consists of a mix of grand town houses in St Paul’s Square and working class terraced houses.
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