WE'VE had quite a response to our piece last week about the old church cottages on North Street.

The cottages, at No 31 North Street, dated back to the late 1400s, we said. By the 1920s the building on the corner housed Arthur Hemmen's shop. It remained a shop until the 1960s, but by the 1970s had fallen derelict. The row of cottages was then restored by the All Saints Trust as homes.

Several readers have been in touch since. One of them was John Shaw, the chairman of the Yorkshire Architectural & York Archaeological Society (YAYAS). In the late 1880s, John's three times great-grandfather George Boocock, a cordwainer, lived in the corner cottage that was to become Hemmen's.

George's father John Headon Boocock, a shoemaker, settled in Shambles with his family after the Napoleonic war. (They were the only shoemakers amongst all the butchers," John writes. "George was made a Freeman in 1839 by birthright and eventually settled at No. 1 Church Lane by 1875; he is recorded on the parish records of All Saints as paying rent and having a few pennies discounted as he was the church's organ blower. He died on Church Lane in 1886."

Another reader, who gave his name only as 'Perict', commented on the Press website that after Arthur Hemmen died the shop was run by his daughter Cissie (who was Perict's great aunt) until about 1967. "It would have remained trading for a little longer but one night Cissie was attacked by youths stealing cigarettes and was left too frightened to stay in the house on her own.

"By that time the place was fairly isolated with the gardens having been built opposite. I well remember her doing a roaring trade in lunchtime ham sandwiches for construction workers whilst the Viking hotel (as was) was being built.

"Cissie went to live with relatives (my parents, etc.) for a while and died in a Haxby care home at the age of 99, just missing out on her wish to receive a telegram from the Queen."

A second online commenter, who gave his name as 'Birkhill', added that recent research had revealed that the church cottages were slightly older than we had reported. They were originally built in 1396 - immediately after the west wall and spire of All Saints were finished.

"They started life as a college for chantry priests, with the bit to the right of the shop window serving as a double height refectory, and a now demolished kitchen behind No. 2 All Saints Lane."

The photograph we carried of the 'smallest house in England' also prompted some comment. This, too, was on North Street next to All Saints, and was named as England's smallest house in the AA touring Guide. The idea was pooh-poohed back in the 1980s by former Vicar of All Saints, the Rev Alban Howard, who claimed it had only ever been a store-room.

Not so, insists reader Desmond Feakes, who also got in touch.The 'smallest house in England', built in the early 1900s, was actually at one time the home of Walter Wilman, the church verger.

"It was furnished with a desk, a chair and a bed," Desmond wrote. "This was the only room in the building. It had a small door inside that Walter would open to see how far the service had progressed: he had to attend the church to perform duties whilst the service was in progress."

Many thanks to all who responded. We have reproduced again this week our original photo from a week ago showing children looking in at the window of Arthur Hemmen's shop in the 1920s, and also the photograph of the 'smallest house in England'.

We also print some more brilliant photographs of North Street that we found on Explore York's wonderful 'Imagine York' archive. Appropriately enough, given the weather we've been having recently, a couple of these were taken when North Street was flooded. The photos show:

- Arthur Hemmen's grocery shop in North Street in the 1910s

- A Mr and Mrs Press standing on a raised walkway outside their flooded home at 33 North Street in 1931.

- The floods in North Street in September 1931. At this time North Street was a busy commercial and residential street, with businesses including printers, hairdressers, 'drysalters', a 'fried fish dealer', importers, builders merchants, confectioners, grocers, motor engineers, a tin smith and, of course, public houses

- The 'White House' on North Street in the early 1900s. Blundy's coal merchants is to the far left