Experience the Past with the ‘What Was Here?’ app
Free to download on Google Play or the App Store (search ‘what was here’)
I’ve strolled around the beautiful town of Pocklington many times before, seen it’s bustling centre and quiet winding alleyways around the churchyard, but never before like this. My walk in Pocklington, using the ‘Tour The Town‘ heritage trail on the ‘What Was here?‘ app allowed me to see the town from whole new angle and journey into its past.
It’s a short, easy stroll of around 1 mile, starting from near the Pocela Centre on Railway Street, and you just need to download the free ‘What Was Here?‘ app and locate the Pocklington trail under its ‘Trails’ menu. From here you can then navigate around 5 points of interest including Railway Street, George Street, Market Square, and Regent Street. At each point you can view an historic image of that location, hear audio commentary and, for a bit of fun, try a simple mini quiz based on the trail information.
The best feature though is the ‘Camera View’, where you can place the old photograph over the modern scene and fade it in and out to compare past and present, effectively turning your smartphone into a portal through time! I did this in the Market Square and its amazing to see how quiet things were in the early 1900s. It’s worth spending a little time, finding the best spot to line up the old image with the present day. You won’t get it exactly aligned but it’s possible to get an approximate comparison. Please do also be careful of your surroundings when doing this, taking care not to endanger yourself or others – the streets are much busier today than a hundred years ago!
Overall this is a short, simple and very pleasant walk through the town with added historic interest, even if you think you’re familiar with its streets. The great thing is, by downloading the app I’ve not only saved this heritage trail for Pocklington to walk it later, I now have over 20 others at my fingertips across East Yorkshire and Hull, with 5 more further afield covering Skipton, Harrogate, Northallerton, and Scarborough.
So I can now do a ‘walk through time’ whenever I’m in these places. It’s a great way to get active in our towns, and the short distance makes it a nice thing to do as part of your visit, and to add a bit of historic interest.
Pocklington -Tour The Town heritage trail can be accessed by downloading the free ‘What Was Here?‘ app from Google Play or the App Store.
By Sam Bartle
Digital Archivist
Archives blog 