York's Hidden History

27/03/2025

Collingham, 13 1/2 miles.

This milestone on the B1224 York Road, in Acomb, shows how places’ importance can change over time. Collingham, to the southwest of Wetherby, probably isn’t somewhere that many York residents head to on a regular basis.

Before the coming of modern transport, however, and whilst both Acomb and Collingham were in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the village was very important. It was one of the best places to cross the River Wharfe. So if you were bringing goods from the Yorkshire Dales to market in York, you definitely wanted to know where it was!

If you inspect the 1852 Ordnance Survey map, you’ll see it marked clearly as the York & Collingham Road. Nowadays it’s just the York Road, the Wetherby Road, or - in the heart of Acomb - The Green.

26/03/2025

Possible explanations for this small door on the St. Leonard's side of the York Theatre Royal.

1. Small people
2. A remodelling of the building
3. Street level rising
4. It was a window
5. It's left over as part of the set of an old production of The Hobbit
6. It's a normal sized door, but is taller than everyone thinks.

Write your answers on a postcard. Then put the postcard in the recycling bin, and we'll see what happens from there.

26/03/2025

Fascinating investigation of Beverley's hidden history!

25/03/2025

Worse things to be doing of a lovely spring morning than introducing a group of Dutch school children to the history (and prehistory) of York.

20/03/2025

The Friends of Rowntree Park are looking for a part-time Wildlife Area Co-ordinator for a 1-year period. More details here:

We are seeking a Wildlife Area coordinator to run volunteer sessions at weekends - this is a part time temporary role.

19/03/2025

Another view of the smart, newly painted bike racks by Ouse Bridge. are running a series of Rejuvenation Days where York residents can get involved in helping smarten up their city like we were doing yesterday.
This flood season may be coming to an end but no doubt these racks will under water again before too long. This summer, York's Hidden History will be involved in a number of events all connected with how and why the rivers in York flood. Look out for more details as the years goes on.

18/03/2025

Spent the morning helping to paint Queen's Staithe as part of one of Rejuvenation Days. Good, wholesome fun. We were so busy that didn't even have time to talk eveyone through the fossils in cobbles there. We must have been busy

12/03/2025

Fog on the time it's all mime all mime

08/03/2025

A comprehensive victory for the big guns.

07/03/2025

The film will be shown at the York St John Creative Centre at 17:00 GMT today (Friday 7th March).

Women of York will premiere at a free screening to mark International Women's Day.

06/03/2025

A spring morning and once again sun bathes the east end of York Minster. No doubt sun is flooding in through the Great East Window, providing maximum illumination for morning worship. It was almost as if they knew what they were doing when it was built.
The sun dial is still running slow though. It should be pointed out that the 18th century dial was only placed on College Green in the 1950s, having been purchased from a stately home in Burton on Trent. Maybe it's still stuck on Staffordshire time

04/03/2025

To be fair, it does sound pretty dangerous.

15/02/2025

As the daffodils begin to pop up around the city, keep your eyes peeled for rare varieties:

As daffodils burst into bloom, experts want help in finding rare treasures hiding in plain sight.

13/02/2025

Gone! The York railway station long-stay car park gremlin (see December 10) has vanished!

Perhaps it was a short-stay parking gremlin after all? Or perhaps its disappearance is connected to the imminent closure of the car park?

12/02/2025

"The graves ended abruptly and it was originally thought that this might have been where the Victorians carried out work on the site, but it soon became clear that it was in fact a bomb crater."

A Roman cemetery with more than 200 graves and a bomb crater have been found at York Central.

11/02/2025

Why is the Queen French? Because Tadcaster was too thin.

York Minster’s 2022 statue of Queen Elizabeth II stands out from the rest of the building stone. This is because she’s sculpted from French Lepine limestone, rather than the traditional dolostone (dolomitic limestone) from Tadcaster.

The statue is 6 foot 7 inches (2m) tall and Tadcaster Stone isn’t currently available in layers thick enough to sculpt a full-size royal personage from. A tiny queen, or a queen-of-many-pieces, would have been sub-optimal, so Lepine limestone was used instead.

This kind of information may or may not feature in our , coming to the city streets this summer.

10/02/2025

Together with others interested in increasing understanding and awareness of York's waterscapes, we've created a new working group as part of the York Climate Commission.

Find out more, and get involved:
https://www.yorkclimate.org.uk/working-groups

05/02/2025

Tho’Ouse is Frozen
May the Citty Flourish

Thanks so much to Izzy Williamson and all at Thin Ice Press for letting our ice walkers make this amazing print. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed being able to print their own unique souvenir of .

Do pop into Thin Ice Press HQ in St Anthony’s Gardens, Peasholme Green, to find out more about all the amazing heritage printing and workshops at the York Centre for Print.