Changing York: Photos of Museum Gardens through the years

Today, we are sharing some wonderful photos of the gardens, including when they used to be the home to peacocks.

One photo - from the city’s Explore archive - dates from 1909 and shows the grand stand that was built in the gardens for the1909 Historical Pageant.

The stand held 5,000 spectators.

The stand for the 1909 Historical Pageant in Museum Gardens, pictured here, held 5000 spectators comfortably.

To make sure that all the audience could see from the stand, all tickets were printed with a respectful request that ‘all ladies attending the pageant will remove their hats’.

The pageant ran from July 26 to July 31 1909, and audiences were gripped by a re-enactment of more than 2,000 years of history.

More than 2,500 actors were used, as well as dancers, schoolchildren, soldiers from the 2nd Yorkshire Regiment and the 5th Lancers and no fewer than 103 horses.

The peacocks were resident in Museum Garden for 70 years, and while they delighted visitors to the gardens - not everyone was keen.

1972 - Jim Holmes feeds the peacocks in the Museum Gardens

At one point the council received at least five complaints a day from residents furious about how much noise they made or when they strayed into nearby roads and shops.

In the end it seems nothing was done to increase their numbers and the peacock population dwindled until there was a solitary male living in the park in 2001.

We've dipped into our archive to find photos of the peacocks in the gardens from the 1970s right through to the last one standing in 2001.

For more old photos of York, do visit the city council's Explore York archive (images.exploreyork.org.uk).

If you love looking at old photos of York, make sure to buy The Press every Wednesday for our weekly nostalgia supplement and join us in our Facebook group, Why We Love York - Memories. Join us at www.facebook.com/groups/yorknostalgia/.