Nostalgia: Life meanders on... down by the Yorkshire riverside

Knaresborough and the River Nidd, Yorkshire, circa 1960. (Photo by Bertram Unne/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)Knaresborough and the River Nidd, Yorkshire, circa 1960. (Photo by Bertram Unne/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Knaresborough and the River Nidd, Yorkshire, circa 1960. (Photo by Bertram Unne/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) | 2011 Getty Images
Since before time was recorded, Yorkshire’s landscape has been defined by its waterways. The settlements that grew up along their banks, where the land was fertile and the possibilities endless, have changed with the ebb and flow but their essential character never has.

Our collection of rarely-seen photographs of some of the county’s best-loved riverside locations encapsulates nearly a century and a half of life on the water’s edge. The timeline begins on Skeldergate in York, where an early photographer has captured the view towards the Ouse Bridge. In the middleground, the old warehouses cling to the riverbank and a woman poses awkwardly with her basket.

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The scene could not be more different to the aerial view of Hull in its industrial heyday, before the Second World War, as the smoke from 100 factory chimneys rises above the gasometers. Barely any remain, but the River Hull winds through the city and the Old Town as ever it did, on its way to the Humber.

Further inland on the Leeds waterfront, coal is delivered by barge en route to the new electricity generating stations at Kirkstall and Crown Point. The Aire and adjacent canal were important conduits too for stone, timber, grain and potatoes.

circa 1935:  The industrial city of Hull, situated at the mouth of the River Humber as it flows into the North Sea.  (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)circa 1935:  The industrial city of Hull, situated at the mouth of the River Humber as it flows into the North Sea.  (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)
circa 1935: The industrial city of Hull, situated at the mouth of the River Humber as it flows into the North Sea. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

By contrast, in Staithes, the presence of washing hanging outside the cottages strung along the beck is almost the only evidence that the picture was taken 70 years ago. And but for a few signs outside the shops, the view from 1960 of the River Nidd at Knaresborough, one of the most photographed in the county, might almost have been taken last summer.

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Yet none are more timeless than the stepping stones across the Wharfe at Bolton Abbey, or the hump-backed bridge at Gunnerside in Swaledale. The boy watching for trout there will be drawing his pension now.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

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circa 1915:  A man fishing in the River Derwent in the Forge Valley near Scarborough.  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)circa 1915:  A man fishing in the River Derwent in the Forge Valley near Scarborough.  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
circa 1915: A man fishing in the River Derwent in the Forge Valley near Scarborough. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson, Editor

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