SOME space for Yesterday Once More readers' comments is long overdue. So this week I unlocked the Evening Press safe to air some of those precious memories. We begin by hailing back to the summer, when we looked back at the opening of Rowntree Park to celebrate its relaunch.

"What a thrill you gave us oldies when you reminded us of the opening of Rowntrees Park in 1921," wrote former Yorkie and now Wakefield resident John Heley.

"Being the same age as your correspondent Mrs Mary Grant, I too remember that date with much clarity. I can still feel the excitement.

"My cousin, from Hull, had come to share school holidays with us and my mother sent us on our way - each with toy fishing net and jam jar, to the park's grand opening. But 'Parkie' Bell would have none of this. He cherished his little Stickleback and Redthroat minnows, and there was no fishing in the lake!

"Everything was fresh and clean and new and we didn't seem to have vandals in those days.

"Eventually, when the children's playing area was completed, the swimming baths were thriving under manager Charlie Wright and the Cocoa Works Band played in the band-stand, Rowntree's Park was the place to be.

"A mere six years old at the start, I was still walking the park's paths on Sundays as a late teenager. The park gate was the rendezvous of such Scarcroft Cricket Club players as Ernie Kennedy, Teddy Shearsmith, Lawrie Ruddick, Gordon Watt and Digger and Teddy Graham and Sunday tea, there was a ritual.

"The caf was managed by a pleasant lady called Mrs Ward, and her assistant was never known as any other than Auntie Lottie.

"And our team were served by all our favourite, Eileen, bonny brunette daughter of 'Parkie' Bell. They were unforgettable days and there are still members of that fellowship of ours who will have been heart-warmed by your article about Rowntree's Park.

"Away from York these past 66 years, I still sneak along Bishopthorpe Road - when I visit home - for one more sight of the old place."

Moving from cricket to football, John Andrew wrote from Abingdon, near Oxford, enclosing the picture of the Clifton Church Institute Football Club 1911-12. The club was champion of the Third Division York and District Association Football League.

"My father was TR Andrew. His Christian names were Thomas Reginald; he was born in Whitby but lived in Clifton from the age of six," John writes. "He was born in 1891 and died in 1965."

If anyone knows of the players and would like to get in touch with John they can telephone him on 01235 559071; email him at jwandrew@onetel.net.uk; or write to him at 101 Whitecross, Abingdon, Oxford OX13 6BS.

Another appeal now, this time from Warwickshire (our correspondents get about, you know). Jennifer Anne Clarke, ne Moody, attended Canon Lee School, York, between 1955 and 1959.

She sent in a copy of a photograph of speech day prize winners, probably published in the Evening Press, and asks: "Can any of your readers tell me when the picture was taken?" If you can help, write to 29 Kenilworth Road, Cubbington, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 7TN. Mrs Clarke will gladly refund your postage.

John Waite, 80, still lives in York. He called in with two pictures. One shows him and his fellow cubs from Centenary Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, on a camping trip to Stockton-on-the-Forest in about 1928.

In the other, reproduced above, he is part of the Castlegate School gym display team that performed on Knavesmire around 1930 to mark, he thinks, a royal event in the reign of King George V. Castlegate School is where Piccadilly car park is now.

Finally, Dennis Young, 78, of Burton Court, York, wrote in response to the recent piece about the city's first movie shows. It mentioned the pioneer Louis Le Prince, credited with the first ever film shot in 1888 in Leeds.

"There is a memorial plaque to M Le Prince on the building overlooking Leeds Bridge from where he took moving pictures," Mr Young writes. Worth the journey for any film buff.

Updated: 10:49 Monday, October 06, 2003