Last look at past for curator

Mr Clitheroe, who celebrates his 70th birthday later this year, said it was probably going to be his last – this is his fifth local history book – “unless he could find yet more inspiration from somewhere.”

He said he was inspired for his Ryedale book “by the wonderful collection of Sydney Smith photographs in the Pickering museum taken by him and his wife Maude.

“They were taken roughly between 1900 and 1962 and with around 1,000 photographs mean this area is one of the best covered in the country.”

Signed copies of the book are available from Beck Isle Museum.

Picture: Gerard Binks..