York Central Heritage Fourm: What’s in the city archives?

With a focus on Leeman Road, Poppleton Road and Holgate Road areas, Holly Waughman at the Explore York City Archives opened up different routes into the archives.

We looked at:

·       A selection of 19th and 20th century architectural plans

·       Application and report books for the Poor Law Union (containing entries relating to residents of the Holgate Road/Leeman Road/Poppleton Road area)

·       George Fettes pawnbrokers book (containing entries relating to residents of the Holgate Road/Leeman Road/Poppleton Road area) 

·       Photographs showing the area

·       Ordnance Survey maps

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Highlights include the plans for the Foundry shed – the one YoCo hope to see become a local economic incubator.

There was also a map of Leeman Road area showing infectious diseases.

 Maps that showed the development of the area over time.

The sessions raised questions in terms of the two main concerns of the York Central Heritage Forum:

·      enriching the existing heritage statement in the York Central planning documents and

·      exploring what an archive of the changes on York Central might be and might include.

Are these small pieces of research different people might contribute to enrich out understanding? This might lead, for example, to nominations for the local list.

And, if we are thinking about what is compelling about the materials we saw in the city archive about the area’s past, what might this mean for an archive of York Central for the future?