Postbag from the past

The subject of North Yorkshire's bridges, past and present, regularly crops up in this column. This prompted former Evening Press cartoonist Don Crampton to contact us.

He is not only an artist, but an avid art collector. And one of his watercolours features a previous Ouse Bridge.

The painting shows the ancient structure with stone buildings on either side, and a sailing boat in the foreground.

"There's a building on the right as you look at it which I think became the Boyes premises in the old days," Mr Crampton said.

The artist, if we have deciphered her signature correctly, is Carolian Dudley. If anyone has any information about her please contact Chris Titley at the address below.

Coming more up to date, Vera McHugh read about the city's old cinemas and wrote in with her memories of "the Theatre Royal in the glory days of the York Citizens' Theatre Trust".

This flourished from the 1930s on. "Its stars became local personalities whose careers were followed in the same way as modern football stars...

"The leading producers of the period were Geoffrey Staines and Norman Hoult. Actors who went on to national fame included Phyllis Calvert and Michael Rennie, Imelda (later being called Anne) Crawford, Alec McCowan and Leslie Phillips.

"Geoffrey Staines's wife Pauline Letts also achieved West End fame and her younger brother Barry Letts, who was in the company, became a BBC TV drama producer (involved, I think, in Dr Who and period drama, especially)."

Mrs McHugh said tickets were remarkably cheap, with the programme costing only 2d.

"'Regulars in the circle and stalls had permanent bookings for every play of the season and collected tickets for the same seats a week in advance. Any default in this meant losing the privilege, and there were always theatre-goers who wanted to join the system.

"This led to audience members getting to know each other and it reinforced the bond with the company."

Although these "glory days" are long gone, her memories of them are vivid.

"Of course over all this period the cigarettes were always 'by' Abdulla (a name one rarely saw in the tobacconist's) and the theatre was sanitised from nameless/unmentionable hazards, by Jeyes fluid.

"They too have vanished from the theatrical scene."

Mr Creaser from York wrote in response to the feature on horse-drawn cabs. He worked with horses on farms all his life.

"What a shock those poor animals must have felt. Born and bred in the grass fields and worked on the land, then transferred to town life."

When he was 12, Mr Creaser used to cycle into York. "If you arrived at Heworth Corner around six o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, there would be a stream of horses all being turned out for a summer's weekend on Monk Stray.

"How they frolicked and rolled on the grass, it was a sight to be seen."

An article about the Chopsticks Chinese Restaurant in York gave Freddie Train of Sutton on the Forest food for thought.

"I remember a friend of mine used to drink in the White Swan around the corner to the Chopsticks.

"We would then go for a meal - usually egg and chips, tea, bread and butter, for the sum of 2d 6s: 12p. The downstairs was very small, consisting of about three small tables.

"One night I was sitting near the doors when half a brick came through the door glass panel and hit me on the back of the head."

A recent Yesterday Once More, about life on Nunnery Lane in York, brought a letter from Sheila Rawson White of Fulford Road.

She was born at her grandmother's off licence on Swann Street. Her grandmother, Elizabeth Newland, was affectionately known as Fairy and had "a heart of gold".

Mrs Rawson White remembered: "Boys would start work at 14. She would lend their mothers five shillings for long trousers. They paid her back at one shilling a week."

Finally, a plea for help. Kenneth Kirby brought in a picture found by his sister of a finely whiskered man holding a trumpet.

Mr Kirby had seen the same man in a group picture taken in connection with coronation celebrations in 1911. That picture also featured George Potter-Kirby, a former York JP and alderman.

The mystery man in the picture is probably a sheriff's trumpeter. But do you know any more? Please write with information to Mr Kirby, c/o Chris Titley at the address below.

The Evening Press is preparing a series of supplements telling the story of the century. If you have an old photograph that might be suitable for these publications, taken any time from 1900 on, please send it to Chris Titley, Evening Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York YO1 9YN, along with some details about the picture and your daytime telephone number. All pictures will be returned. Chris can be e-mailed on chris.titley@ycp.co.uk

PICTURE: Former Evening Press cartoonist Don Crampton holds up one of his watercolours of a previous Ouse Bridge.