Brownie points from the past

Back on September 10 - how eerie that date now seems - we published an article in which Muriel Perry described her memories of Micklegate just after the First World War.

We asked if readers had any similar recollections and John Heley responded with a fascinating account.

Among the businesses he recalls is JH Shouksmith. "These days, Shookies would have been called a DIY shop, because you went there for everything from a square foot of plywood to a packet of fretsaw blades."

Near the junction with Priory Street was "the wet fish shop of Eric Reed, one of whose mischievous assistants (my younger brother Stanley, in fact) used to chant, 'This is the place for plaice - and I'm not codding'."

One building Mr Heley, of Horbury, near Wakefield, will never forget is the imposing establishment of his family's physician, Dr Long.

"His successor will, I'm sure, still be remembered with affection by many octogenarians. He was Dr W Kelly and he was famous for letting the occasional, harmless swear-word slip.

"Dr Kelly - a fine physician - is still folklore in the part of York where he once went, in the small hours, to answer an emergency, and forgot the house number.

"Nothing daunted, however, he stood up in his ancient, open-topped Austin, squeezed the noisy bulb horn, and roared, in perfect time and tune: 'Is there anybody here wants Kelly?'"

A piece on bridges prompted Mr K Thomas, of Walton Place, Acomb, York, to set pen to paper about the Blue Bridge. As mentioned in a later article on war memorials, this was once home to a very unusual monument. Mr Thomas elaborates.

"The most interesting feature the bridge possessed before the last war were two guns, taken from the Russians at the fall of Sebastopol, which were placed on piers in front of the bridge.

"They were mounted on wooden carriages each bearing a small circular iron plate with the inscription 'Captured at Sebastapol 1855'.

"The guns were presented to the city after the close of the strife and paraded around the town on a miserable November day in 1858.

"These artefacts, with two other guns which were displayed facing the river on St George's Field together with all the 1914-18 guns and equipment, including a tank, were taken to be melted down for the 1939-45 conflict."

Reader Catriona Popple, of York, actually has a photo of the Blue Bridge showing the guns. She wrote in after recognising her late father-in-law's boat Oakleaf at its mooring in a Yesterday Once More photograph.

As well as the Blue Bridge photograph, which shows boats moored two and three deep but is not reproduced here, she sent in the picture below of Oakleaf from the other side of the river. "There was much more traffic on the Ouse in those days," she says. "TF Wood's barges would come unhesitatingly through one arch of Ouse Bridge then sweep round through another down river."

This summer's feature on the Garrison Church, on the site of York police station, Fulford Road, was enjoyed by Angela Sanderson of Nether Poppleton.

Her great great grandfather William Potter built the church's organ in 1911, when he was 74, and she sent a newspaper cutting recording the fact.

York, it states, "was celebrated for its organ building, and it still continues to turn out fine instruments, but the trade is not so extensive as it used to be.

"Mr Potter built the organ in the Garrison Church, York, by then in the employment of Mr Marks. Being in the music trade from early youth he naturally took to playing and could play almost all kinds of brass instruments.

"This led him to be selected as a trumpeter to the Sheriffs at the Assizes... Mr Potter was one of the official trumpeters for 32 years, and he is the last survivor of the old race of trumpeters."

Features from the golden age of the railway always prove popular with our readers. Knowing this, enthusiast Michael Clemens has written from his Worcestershire home enclosing pictures from his latest video.

East Coast Memories is made from the massive archive of cine film taken by his late father, Jim, and himself. The footage is a journey up the East Coast Main Line via steam engines in the 1960s. Among other places, stops included York, Malton, Scarborough, Bridlington, Filey, Market Weighton and Driffield.

The one-hour video costs £19.99. More details from 01386 552069.

Most of the photographs published in today's Evening Press are taken on highly sophisticated digital cameras. So it is amazing to look back on the results achieved with much more basic equipment.

Alice Theyer, 95, of York, sent in some wonderful pictures of the city taken from the fourth floor of the railway offices with a box Brownie camera in about 1926. "What a marvellous lens it had," she wrote. No argument there.

"This view is no longer available because the insurance building now obstructs it. What a pity!"

Finally, an appeal for help. Jack Alexander is writing a book about the 16th Royal Scots, one of the Edinburgh battalions raised for service in the Great War. He has been tracing the families of the men who volunteered for this unit in 1914.

One came from York. Second Lieutenant John Watson was killed in action on April 17, 1917, near Arras, France.

Jack has discovered that John, a schoolmaster who became head teacher of an Edinburgh school, came from Heworth and married local girl Annetta Kerr in 1911.

But did John and Annetta have any children? What happened to Annetta? Are any of their descendants still living around here? Does anyone have a picture of John? If you can help, write to Jack Alexander, 27 Priestfield Road, Edinburgh, EH16 5HU, or ring him on 0131 667 3953.