A sample of the messages backing York in the city's bid to become designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site...
"York boasts an array of historically and architecturally
significant buildings which in addition to an extensive catalogue of well
preserved archaeological artefacts, bear testimony to a prominent city;
an amalgam of cultural traditions and civilizations which deserves to be
preserved for the present and future of the entire world citizenry."
John Grogan (former MP for Selby Constituency which covered part of York)
15 September, 2008. Download the MP's
letter in PDF format.
"We feel that York can be said to enjoy three, distinct
but inter-linked, advantages over nearly every other historic site:
• its time depth, having a pivotal role in the north of Britain, and
arguably of Europe, in at least three different periods - Roman, Early Medieval
and High Medieval.
• its unique combination of levels of preservation below and above-ground.
It is part of a crescent of towns with anaerobic deposits running from Dublin
and Carlisle, through York and London, to southern Scandinavia and on into
the fringes of the Baltic and beyond to Novgorod. Additionally, its renowned
standing structures embody a huge variety, ranging across the spectrum of
building types from the Minster downwards.
• its long history of investigation particularly in the last 35 years.
Work in York has been at the forefront of institutional practices in development
control, methodological advance in urban archaeology, and publication/other
forms of innovative mechanisms for the dissemination of information.
In the above spheres, York presents a unique opportunity."
York Archaeological Forum
18 June, 2007. Download
the Forum's letter in PDF format.
"York Minster is undoubtedly the iconic structure
of the area, but I believe we should see the whole of the city centre together.
Of course the walled city is a major aspect of it, and the view from the
top of the Minster tower reveals a superb roofscape of the kind we associate
with the Italian cities. But there is more to it than that: to stand in
Museum Gardens, for example, is to stand with a fine Roman tower on one
side, a great abbey on the other, the site of an early telescope in front
of you, the memorial to the scientific and intellectual part York played
in the 18th and early 19th century, and with the great "railway area"
in front of comprising the station (and there are two of them) and the hotels,
and the way that York was central to the railway age. I believe the heritage
status should reflect the continued engagement of York with the world-influencing
developments of science and industry that were here."
The Very Reverend Keith Jones, The Dean of York
23 March, 2007. Download the Dean's letter
in PDF format.
"There is a huge amount of archaeological heritage
that is accessible to the public, and much of this is displayed in such
a way as to draw vast numbers of students, visitors, and interested parties,
who not only admire but are enriched and educated at the same time."
The Right Reverend Martin Wallace, The Bishop of Selby
24 June, 2008. Download the Bishop's
letter in PDF format.
"The Company of Merchant Adventurers of York,
which receives many thousands of visitors a year to its own exceptional
Hall, is very conscious of the importance of the City and its many historic
buildings, and of the archaeological deposits below and around them, as
a remarkably fully preserved set of evidence about one of the world's most
important historic cities. Our many visitors from round the Globe share
this view, and we are certain that the city is of universal value as a testimony
to some of the greatest achievements of the human race. The Company thinks
it self-evident, if only from the huge numbers of visitors - several million
- who come to the city each year for its historic values, that the city
is eminently worthy of inscription on the World Heritage List".
The Company of Merchant Adventurers of the City of York
16 March, 2007. Download the
Company's letter in PDF format.
“York is pre-eminent among British cities for its outstanding historical, archaeological and social value. It has succeeded in preserving evidence of remarkable continuity of settlement from the Roman period, through Viking and medieval times to the modern era and making all this accessible to the public. The survival of so much of its archaeology and architecture, such as the city walls, the glorious Minster and the great range of vernacular buildings make it an extraordinary place to visit. A great deal is know, but there is also enormous and exciting potential for further discoveries, exemplified not least by current work in uncovering the industrial and social life of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
“The Society believes that World Heritage status would enhance York`s ability to continue its excellent record of opening up its past to present and future generations.”
Yorkshire Archaeological Society
27th July, 2010.
"It is as a result of the exciting excavations in
York in the 1970s that the Vikings are now included in the School Curriculum.
Before that, they were a mere mention in school history books, in a sentence
along with the Angles and Saxons!"
Martin Watts, York Museums Trust
2011
"It is so wonderful to live in a city that so many people want to
visit!"
York resident attending the talk on World Heritage during the Residents'
Festival
29 January, 2011