Photographs of York and North Yorkshire during the second world war

They were found in an anonymous white envelope stashed away deep in the bottom of a drawer that probably hadn’t been opened for years.

“They were in an old filing cabinet used by a photographer for our sister paper The Northern Echo. He hasn’t worked from The Press building for years, so who knows how long they have lain undisturbed?” said Anne Wood of The Press’ photographic team, who discovered them.

Some of the photographs – such as the stunning image of a German Junkers 88 which came down in a field at Richmond Farm, Duggleby, in October 1940 after taking part in an air raid on Linton-on-Ouse – have been printed in The Press before.

Others, however, appear completely “new” – by which we mean, they may not have been published since originally being used in The Northern Echo decades ago.

These include a wonderful photograph, dated August 7, 1940, which shows a troop of mounted Home Guard galloping into action in an exercise near York.

The caption to this picture describes them as “England’s only mounted section of the Home Guard, which nightly patrols 100 square miles of the North Riding.”
 

A military band plays in front of the Castle Museum in York, dated October 4, 1940

The Princess Royal (Princess Mary, the Countess of Harewood) pours  tea for soldiers at York Station canteen in 1939