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The York Civic Trust (Charity Commission reg. 229336), is a membership organisation dedicated to the protection and enhancement of York’s architectural and cultural heritage. It works closely with, but independently of, the City of York Council, as well as with other organisations. Its offices are in Fairfax House, Castlegate, York, a fine 18th-century house which is now also a museum. Its campaigning and educational roles include a blue plaque scheme to celebrate important people, events and sites in the city.

History
The York Civic Trust (YCT) was founded in 1946 by four men : Eric Milner-White, Dean of York Minster; Oliver Sheldon, who also founded the York Georgian Society; Noel Terry, of the chocolate family; and John Bowes Morrell, who personally saved a large number of the city’s medieval buildings and by doing so laid the foundations for the establishment of another important body, the York Conservation Trust. The impetus for the founding of the Civic Trust came from an increasing concern about post-war planning and over-development. The city’s medieval core, and also the buried archaeological heritage of its much longer history, were in considerable danger from the developers. Its first meeting was held at the Mansion House, York, and was attended by, among others, the Archbishop of York, Cyril Garbett, and the Lord Mayor, Fred Gaines. In his speech, the Archbishop referred to the four threats facing the city: time and weather; war (the city had suffered some damage during the Baedeker raid in 1942); commercial greed; and ignorance – especially that of “people who thought they were improving and restoring when really they were ruining and destroying”.

Achievements since 1946
Its many achievements include helping to provide the impetus for the establishment of the University of York, something that had been hoped for since the idea was first put forward in the 17th century and was finally achieved in the early 1960s. It was influential in establishing the first pedestrianised footstreets in York, and in the 1980s this included the closing of Deangate, the road that cut across the Minster precinct and was causing damage to the Minster's foundations. Its role in protecting York's architectural heritage is cited in the Royal Commission volumes on the historical monuments of York. The impetus for the founding of the YCT came from increasing public concern about post-war planning and over-development. The city’s medieval core, and also the buried archaeological heritage of its much longer history, were in considerable danger from the developers. Its first meeting was held at the Mansion House, York, and was attended by among others the Archbishop of York, Cyril Garbett, and the Lord Mayor of York, Fred Gaines. In his speech, the Archbishop referred to the four threats facing the city: time and weather; war (the city had suffered some damage during the Baedeker raid in 1942); commercial greed; and ignorance – especially that of “people who thought they were improving and restoring when really they were ruining and destroying”.

Governance
The Trust has a full-time chief executive and thirteen other mostly part-time staff. Fairfax House, its base, is run with the assistance of many volunteers. Among the volunteers are fifteen trustees and more than sixty active committee members. Trust membership runs to well over one thousand people, from all walks of life.

Activities
In the 1950s, the YCT helped to provide the impetus for the establishment of the University of York, something that had been hoped for since the idea was first put forward in the 17th century, and was finally achieved in the early 1960s. In its role of protecting the city’s architectural heritage, the Trust has found new uses for redundant churches: for example, St Sampson’s, now an old people’s centre; and St Margaret’s, now the National Centre for Early Music; and it has restored several fine historic York houses, including Fairfax House, which opened as a museum in 1984, and is where the Trust is now based. It continues to monitor projected building developments in the city and maintains a City Enhancement Fund, which is used to help start individual projects in the city. One such was the successful restoration of the derelict Rigg Monument, at St Lawrence's Church, York, a memorial to the six children of John and Ann Rigg who drowned in an accident on the River Ouse in 1830. Another restoration project (2016/17) saved the Bridge Lane Gates, originally installed for the former Archbishop Holgate’s Grammar School playing fields, which are now occupied by the York and District Hospital. They were cast in the 1850s at the Walker Iron Foundry in Walmgate, York, an important foundry which provided ironwork for the Queen’s gardens at Kew, and the railings and gates of the British Museum in London. Repairs to the Bridge Lane gates were carried out at the workshops of Barker & Patterson in Hull. The Trust was influential in establishing the first pedestrianised footstreets in York. In the 1980s this included the closing of Deangate, the road that cut across the Minster precinct and was causing damage to the Minster's foundations. The Trust's bronze, and now blue, plaques commemorate famous York citizens, important events and sites across the city (see below). It has held major exhibitions of images of York, such as the Views of York (see Brown (2012)), and it commissioned, from the sculptor Philip Jackson, a statue of Constantine the Great. This sits on a plinth in the Minster piazza, the former Deangate, which was created in 2013. This site is deemed to be near where he was proclaimed Roman Emperor in 306 AD, in the centre of the Roman legionary fortress of Eboracum. The development of a series of “Pocket parks”, small quiet areas in the city, is an enhancement project. Examples include that next to All Saints' Church, Pavement, York, and another in Davygate. In its educational role, the Trust produces educational packs on such historical subjects in York as the suffrage movement, the workhouses, and world wars. It also holds public-speaking competitions for primary and secondary school children, are held respectively in the Merchant Adventurers' Hall, York, and the York Guildhall

Protecting York
The Trust maintains a watching brief on planning applications. Its planning club, made up of University of York post-graduate students working on conservation-related Master’s degrees, scrutinises new planning applications every week. Its planning committee then makes representations to the city council. In advance it sometimes holds consultation seminars with members and the public. It continues to protect some important and significant parts of the city from intrusive development, in particular from those seeking to build next to the city walls or in the moat, or to impinge on other architectural landmarks. The YCT is equally concerned with the day-to-day appearance of the city, the wear and tear on whose streets is caused, not only by its citizens, but also by some seven million visitors every year. It has contributed to the city council’s "Streetscape manual" and through its members, it monitors such things as street clutter and degradation, waste disposal sites, wayfinder finger posts and other street identification signs, damage to decorative detail on buildings, and buildings in need of rescue.

Blue Plaques
The YCT has been responsible for the series of plaques placed on buildings around the city to commemorate individuals and important events in the city. First started in 1951, the plaques include the YCT emblem, which is based on the York assay mark of 1423, under Henry IV. As the Trust’s website describes: in 1541 the emblem was called the “pounce of the Citie called half leopard head and half flowre de Lyce” (fleur-de-lis). The Trust’s website lists all the plaques. They include Alcuin, the poet, W. H. Auden, the nineteenth-century architect GT Andrews, the comedian Frankie Howerd, Guy Fawkes’ house in Stonegate, and one to commemorate Richard III’s investiture of his son as Prince of Wales in York in 1484. Recent additions include the composer, George Butterworth; Quaker minister and botanist, James Backhouse; and John Snow, who was Queen Victoria’s anaesthetist, and also one of the fathers of British epidemiology – it was he who noticed the significance of the link between the polluted water taken from the Broad Street pump in London and the 1854 cholera outbreak in Soho.