Well, here's a great photo. It shows the old Rowntree factory on Tanner's Moat, rising like a fortress of industry above the surrounding buildings, and with Lendal Bridge visible - but half hidden by trees - in the foreground.

The picture - photo 1 in our gallery today - shows a view of the factory that we haven't seen before: it must presumably have been taken from Museum Gardens or thereabouts. What is really striking about it, however, is the huge advertising sign visible as plain as day high up on the factory wall. "This property for sale or to let," it says. "Apply Rowntree & Co Ltd Cocoa Works, York."

The old factory - a former iron foundry bought by Rowntree's in 1864 for £1,000 - had become surplus to requirements after the company bought much larger premises in Haxby Road in the 1890s. We don't know exactly when the photograph was taken, however - the old factory remained standing for many years after Rowntree's moved chocolate production to Haxby Road.

The photograph comes from a new book, Old York, by the York-based local historian and collector of old images Paul Chrystal.

The book does exactly what you'd expect from the title: it is a collection of old photos of York. Some come from Paul's own collection; others from the collections of the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society, YAYAS (Paul is editor of the YAYAS magazine, York Historian); others still by permission of The Press. There are even some that were bought in a job lot of old postcards by Paul's publisher, Stenlake, and which he has included in the book.

There's no particular theme to the book, Paul admits. "But if you like old photographs of York - well, there will be some here that you haven't seen before!"

Other photos in our gallery today, all from Old York, are:

2. Arriving for work at Terry's of York in the 1950s. Terry's moved to its purpose-built Art Deco factory building near York Racecourse in 1930, having outgrown the Clementhorpe site it had occupied since 1862. Generations of York workers were employed at the factory - until the US conglomerate Kraft Foods bought the business in 1993 and ultimately closed the factory in 2005, with the loss of 316 jobs.

3. The girls of St Stephen's Orphanage, date unknown but probably early 1900s. The orphanage was founded in the 1870s, originally in Precentor's Court, but soon moving first to Trinity Lane and then, in 1919, to The Mount. The aim of the orphanage was to accommodate and educate poor girls who had lost one or both parents. It owned a holiday house in Filey.

4. Girls from St Stephen's Orphanage enjoying a day trip to Filey in July 1919.

5. Ouse Bridge, date unknown but presumably very early 1900s, judging by the horse-drawn tram. The tall building just visible in the background behind Bushell's ironmonger is the Grand Opera House and Empire. This was originally built as York's Corn Exchange, with plans to use it only occasionally as a concert hall. But when the corn exchange failed, the building was converted into a theatre by William Peacock, opening on January 20, 1902 with Little Red Riding Hood.

6. The Dringhouses to Fulford electric tram passing through the breach in the city walls near York Railway Station, probably in the 1910s. The railed-off city wall above seems to have been a favourite viewpoint, judging by the number of elegantly-dressed people gathered there.

7. St Leonard's Place, York, during Civic Week, June 1928. Civic Week back in those days was a week-long programme of events designed to showcase York as a place to visit. The sheer number of people crowded into St Leonard's Place in the photo is evidence that, even then, this was not a particularly difficult sell...

Stephen Lewis

Old York by Paul Chrystal is published by Stenlake, priced £16.95.