Online lessons during festival to tell history of city’s famous walls
A FESTIVAL dedicated to York’s historic walls will provide lessons in the city’s history online.
The third York Walls Festival takes place today and tomorrow, and organisers have produced free online content to accompany the open days at Red Tower and Fishergate Postern Tower.
The festival committee lost a key supporter, Simon Perry, in May, and the event is being held in his memory.
Fishergate Postern Tower on Piccadilly will be open both days from 10am to 4pm, and volunteers will show visitors around the 500-year-old tower.
Visitors are asked to wear face masks and numbers will be kept to a maximum of 20 to aid social distancing.
Volunteers will also be on hand at the Red Tower on Foss Islands Road, and refreshments will be available at both sites during the same hours on each day. The tower features in the festival’s Zoom talk on ‘York’s Red Brick Treasures’, and viewers can see the transformation from a disused structure to a community hub.
Mr Perry was one of the Red Tower directors who helped achieve the building’s transformation.
The festival’s free online content will feature a new video filmed at Clifford’s Tower featuring members of the York Liberal Jewish Community talking about the tragic past of the site, which was the scene of a massacre of Jewish families by a mob in 1190.
Two videos will also show “hidden spaces” on the city walls – towers that are normally only accessible to York Council. More information is at www. yorkwallsfestival.org.