Launching York Central Heritage Forum

Connecting pasts with futures – Linking communities of now with the communities to come – Developing local economies where tourism builds community wealth 

Launch 25th February, 1-3pm, St Barnabas Church. Book your place.

York Central and its linked neighbourhoods in the Leeman Rd, Poppleton Rd and wider Holgate area are rich in heritage - from neolithic settlements and roman burials to the Holgate Windmill to the buildings, landscapes, housing and shops that grew up around the railways.

As new archaeological insights arise from the York Central development, York Central Heritage Forum will explore the area’s histories, pooling local knowledge and research, sharing archives, photos and memories and organising walks and visits. 

Throughout we will work together to enrich the heritage statements developed for the York Central Planning Application and ask:

• How can we collaboratively enrich our understandings of the area’s history and heritage?

• How can heritage of the area shape York Central’s future? 

• How can communities that already live become connected to the communities to come? 

• How might York’s heritage – and the tourism it attracts – generate community wealth in ways which support thriving, inclusive neighbourhoods (new and old)?

York Central Heritage Forum will be launched on 25th February 1-3pm. We’ll be joined by Andrew Morrison, Chief Executive, York Civic Trust and member of the York Central Design Review Panel and lead for Placemaking for York's Culture Executive and Forum.

Andrew will open up the pre-railway history of the York Central, Leeman Rd and Holgate areas from the impact of the glacial moraine, to the evidence of neolithic trading and settlements to roman burials and pre-railway cricket pitches.

Andrew will also suggest ways in which the York Central Heritage Forum might work together to add to the existing York Central heritage statements and York’s Local List in ways that might inform the site’s development.