HIGHLAND cattle at Terry's? What's going on here?

These photos were actually taken years apart - one in the late 1940s and one in 1965. They were brought to us - along with our other photos today - by Chris Knowles, whose family have farmed in the area since the 1890s, first as tenants of the Terry family, and later in their own right.

It was Chris's grandfather Harold who first came to farm in the area. Originally from West Yorkshire, he came to York to take over Stud Farm, owned by the Terrys, in about 1895.

By the 1930s, Harold's son John (Chris' father) had taken over both Stud Farm and Manor Farm next door, meaning that he farmed something like 250 acres that stretched from the Terry's factory down to Bishopthorpe itself.

Originally tenants of the Terry family, the Knowles' bought the two farms outright in the 1980s. Chris, his wife Bridget, and their two sons David and Matthew still farm there today, and also run a caravan site.

Our photos today were taken between the 1940s and the 1960s, and show various aspects of life on the farms.

In their days as tenant farmers, the Terry's more or less left them to get on with things, Chris says. The farms were run as typical mixed farms - with milk cows, bullocks for fattening, plus crops including potatoes, sugar beet, barley and wheat.

The photos show:

1. Highland cattle in the snow in the late 1940s, with the Terry's factory just visible in the background. Straw has been forked out onto the ground to feed the animals. Perched on the tractor (the boy in the cap next to the tractor's driver) is Sir Francis Terry's grandson, Desmond Gwynne

2. A similar scene in 1965, showing the terry's factory and famous clocktower much more clearly. This picture was actually taken by a photographer from The Northern Echo, The Press's sister newspaper

3. Chris's father John Knowles (in braces in the foreground) raking hay. The hay would be swept into big bales, Chris says.

4. Chris's brother Colin raking with the help of a carthorse, probably 1950s

5. One of the 'Land Girls' who worked on the farms during the war years

6. Chris as a young boy of perhaps five, standing next to Dave Potter, who worked for the Knowles family for about 17 years

7. Chris today.

Stephen Lewis

It's not Leeman Road...

Ten days or so ago, we ran a photograph from 1960 showing a rooftop view of closely-packed York terraced houses, all with smoke pouring from their chimneys.

The photograph came from our own archive, but the caption didn't say exactly where it had been taken. However, we pointed out that in the background of the photograph it was possible to make out some curved railway sidings. Those must be the carriageworks, we speculated: so we guessed the photograph (reproduced bottom right) showed

the Leeman Road area.

Several readers have got in touch since to gently correct us, among them Berny McCluskey. "I believe it was taken from the eastern side of Lowther Terrace in the Holgate area," Berny wrote. "These terraced houses no longer exist and have been replaced by a configuration of modern housing. The photo was clearly taken from high above the terraces - presumably the photographer may have taken it from the roof of a large building that once existed on the northeast side of Lowther Terrace, or perhaps from an upper floor of the three storey terraced house on The Crescent."

Thanks, Berny. Anyone agree - or disagree?