York Civic Trust member Mrs Lesley Williams has kindly shared two fascinating photographs of Acomb Green. It ties in with our Our Place: Acomb & Westfield project. The photos provide a remarkable glimpse of a very different Acomb.
One photograph dates from 1912–23. It shows a cricket match taking place on the Green. The local team is playing against the visiting Doncaster N.E.R. Plate Works team – an intriguing detail which connects the seemingly rural scene with one of the major forces shaping Acomb’s development: the railway.
The North Eastern Railway’s carriage works at Holgate was only a short commute from Acomb on foot or by pedal, and the railway provided employment for generations of local people. The appearance of the visiting Plate Works team offers a small glimpse of those wider industrial connections.
What is perhaps most striking, however, is the landscape. Remarkably few houses surround the northeast end of the Green in the picture. Instead, mature trees dominate the view. Compared with today’s much more densely developed suburb, it has an unmistakably rustic, village-like character.
It is a particularly appropriate image for Acomb, where the term ‘the Village’ remains widely used by local residents. Acomb was incorporated into the City of York in 1937, and much of the surrounding countryside has subsequently been developed for housing, but the historic Green remains at the heart of the community.
Two surviving buildings also help us identify the location. The gabled building towards the centre-left is Wheldrake House, which helpfully carries a date tablet of 1912. The building visible on the right is nineteenth-century and initially appeared to have been lost, but survives – albeit substantially altered, rendered and converted for modern use as a Pizza Hut delivery hub.
Lesley’s photograph captures a moment when Acomb stood between its village past and suburban future; we are very grateful to Lesley for bring them to the attention of the Civic Trust and fellow members.
[We will be featuring the second image in a forthcoming post.]