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Instituted in 1837 as independent and non-partisan charitable trustees for the city's former municipal charities including many centuries-old private bequests or "gifts". In 1898, only 5 trustees were alive and political and religious views became involved in the appointment process. The Charity Commissioners raised the number to 18 to allow a balanced membership. In 1902 this was reduced back to 13, including for the first time 5 members of the corporation.
Municipal charities transferred from Lord Mayor and Corporation in 1837.

The basis of the "Old Poor Law" system. Each parish was required to select two Overseers of the Poor each year to collect money from parishioners and distribute locally to those in need. York had previously established its own corporate weekly poor rate in the 1570s.
In York, distribution functions transferred to Board of Guardians in 1837. Rate-collecting functions transferred to council Rating and Valuation Committee in 1925.

Basis of the "New Poor Law". Previously, poor relief had been organised at the parish level. The New Poor Law grouped parishes into Poor Law Unions to better distribute the balance of poor rate payers and receivers within an area. In York, the system was not implemented until 1837. Board of Guardians were elected annually by property owners and rate-payers. The York Poor Law Union was founded with 32 urban and 48 rural parishes.
Not part of corporation but supported by a council officer: Clerk to the Guardians. Poor relief function transferred from Overseers of the Poor in 1837. Administration of institutions transferred to council Welfare Committee in 1948.

Required by the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 , which also instigated a director of social services. A new social services department was also setup within the City of York Council with broad responsibility for social care.
Replaced the Welfare Committee (1948-1970) (with an overlap of two months). See also Director of Social Services.

Established with the The National Assistance Act which formally abolished the Poor Law system and replaced it with a National Assistance Scheme. It covered those not covered by National Insurance Act 1946 including the physically disabled, homeless persons, the elderly and unmarried mothers.
Replaced the Public Assistance Committee, later the Social Welfare Committee (1929-1948), which itself had previously taken over functions from the Board of Guardians (1837-1930). Replaced by the Social Services Committee (1970-71) (with an overlap of two months).

Founded in 1929 under the Local Government Act 1929 administrative scheme for the county borough of York. It had 24 members, consisting of 16 members of the corporation and 8 non-members (of which a minimum of two had to be women). For a short period from 17 July 1947 until August 1948 it was renamed the Social Welfare Committee. The Public Assistance Committee effectively replaced the York Poor Law Union/Board of Guardians as the principal administrators of the Poor Law in the York City area. Areas of the York Poor Law Union that lay in the North, East or West Ridings became the responsibility of the Public Assistance Committee for their relevant county.
Inherited administration of poor relief in the York City area from the York Poor Law Union and Board of Guardians, which were abolished in 1930 by the Local Government Act 1929. Also carried out functions relating to unemployment previously carried out by the Distress Committee (1905-1911). It was replaced by the Welfare Committee (1948-1970).

Originally formed as a special sub-committee to carry out new duties of the Health Committee under the 1919 Housing Acts. It gained wider responsibilites over the course of the twentieth century.
Originally sub-committee of Health Committee.

Formed to carry out the provisions of the the Unemployed Workers Act in 1905, the membership was comprised of members of the corporation and members of the Board of Guardians.

In 1996 York became a unitary authority once more as the City of York Council.
Previously known as "the Mayor and Commonality of the City of York", it developed into the historical Corporation (see City of York Corporation (Unreformed). The corporation was reformed in 1835, became a district council with North Yorkshire County Council in 1974 and a unitary authority once more as the City of York Council in 1996.

In 1974 York lost its status as a county borough and became a district council within North Yorkshire County Council.
Previously known as "the Mayor and Commonality of the City of York", it deveoped into the historical Corporation (see City of York Corporation (Unreformed). The corporation was reformed in 1835, became a district council with North Yorkshire County Council in 1974 and a unitary authority once more as the City of York Council in 1996.

Created in 1835 as fixed-term elected representatives, they formed the core of the reformed Corporation. They are elected based on geographical wards. In 1925 the number of wards increased from 6 to 12.

The councillors or "24" were drawn from the common council or "48 / 72" and had often previously served as a civic official such as sheriff. Along with the aldermen they formed the upper tier of the Corporation. They were elected geographically by wards, only freemen could vote.

Following the Municipal Reform Act, aldermen continued to be at the heart of local government in York, but their status was changed. The number remained the same at twelve, one third of the total body of councillors, but appointments were for 6 years only, rather than life. They were selected by the council, not the electorate (including the outgoing aldermen, until this was ended by national legislation in 1910).

The inner circle of twelve became known as aldermen by 1399. They were elected for life until the corporation was reformed in 1835..

Bert Hazell was a Labour Party politician and trade union activist. He became a District Organiser within the Yorkshire County Committee in the 1930s, after which he moved to Acomb, York. He was the president of the National Union of Agricultural Workers, and then the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers between 1966 and 1978. Having previously campaigned unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate, he became the Labour Party MP for North Norfolk and retained this position until 1970.

He was made an MBE in 1946 for services to agriculture, and a CBE in 1962 for services as chairman of the regional board for industry.

Later in life Hazell sat on committees within York, including the North Yorkshire Manpower Services Commission and the York Health Board.

The Yorkshire County Committee was established in 1920, as a regional committee of what was then the The National Union of Agricultural Workers (NUAW). The name was later changed to the Yorkshire Area Committee until the NUAAW's merger with TGWU in 1981. The committee, and the NUAW in general, worked closely with the Labour Party, and several prominent individuals with the Yorkshire area, in particular Joan Maynard (1921-1998) and Bert Hazell (1907-2009) who went on to take positions within the national Executive Committee of the NUAAW, later became Labour Party MPs.

The union also worked closed with other unions in the area, including the Northern Regional Council for County Council Roadmen.

The National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers
The NUAW was the first successful national body for farm workers, initially presided over by Joseph Arch. It began as the National Agricultural Labourers' Union in 1872 before changing to the National Union of Agricultural Workers in July 1906. In 1910 they changed their name to the National Agricultural Labourers and Rural Workers Union, again in 1920 to the National Union of Agricultural Workers (NUAW), and again in 1968 to the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers (NUAAW). This name then remained until the union was amalgamated with the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) in 1981. TGWU merged with Amicus in 2007 to form part of the new, Unite the Union.

NUAW membership was largely made up of farm agricultural labourers but also catered for non-farm workers such as those in forestry, market gardening, and gardeners. The union published its own journal, 'The Land Worker', which included reports on the activities of the unions across the country.

The Mister Ladies Bowls Club was established in 1971. The club was named after The Minster Inn on Marygate, York, where the club members used to meet. The club originally used Exhibition Green to bowl, which was located behind the York Art Gallery, before moving to Clarence Gardens, where they paid to use the facilities. The club was closed in 2017.

Leslie Peter Wenham was a British archaeologist and historian, who specialised in the excavations of areas in York, Malton, and Hadrian's Wall. He excavated extensively in York in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and published on a range of archaeological topics, especially in the York Archaeological Journal.

First listed in Kelly's Directory of York in 1896-1897 as R.B. Mills, auctioneer and emigration agent, 16 Stonegate. By 1900, the business is listed as Richard Bell Mills, valuer and ocean passenger agent, Minster Gates.

R.B. Mills occupied 7 Minster Gates as a travel agency, variously described as an ocean passenger agent, a shipping agent, and a tourist agent, until at least 1975, but appears to have stopped trading by 1985.

At least two generations of the Loadman family ran a shop initially at 5 College Street, then at 37 Stonegate and at Minster Gates, York, as a dealer in antiques, old china, furniture, and curios.

The shop was started by Thomas Loadman between 1871 and 1881, and operated until at least the 1950s. Thomas Loadman was born in Helmsley in 1819 as the son of a brewer. He married Jane Sollitt in 1845 in York. Thomas Loadman worked as a gas inspector for most of his career and appears to have opened the shop as a dealer in old china alongside this role later in life with the support of his wife and children. Several of his children helped to run the shop and continued to run it after his death. This includes: Margaret Elizabeth Loadman, born 1847, who moved the shop to Stonegate after Thomas Loadman's death; Eugene Loadman, born c 1865; and Herbert Myers Loadman, born c 1873.

Family living at Alma Terrace in York.

Resident of York who collected an extensive collection of theatre programmes for performances in York theatres and by York theatre groups.

The York Society of Magicians was founded in 1945 by the then Lord Mayor of York, Harold Chapman de Bourg. De Bourg was a magician and wanted to establish a magic society in York to meet likeminded people. De Bourg invited other amateur magicians to Mansion House, where the inaugural meeting of the Society was held on 8th March 1945. At that first meeting the York Society of Magicians was established.

The society’s first headquarters were in the Rechabite building and then afterwards Middleton House in Monkgate.

The society started its ‘Night of Magic’ shows at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in 1951, which were held annually until 1987. The Society’s other activities include annual dinners, and monthly meetings where members discuss magic and share magic tricks.

The society includes amateur magicians, hobbyists and professionals. In some periods the society has had an active junior department as well as an adult society.

The society was closed down in 2021.

The Huntington Good News Association was founded at a public meeting in 1977. The organisation was established to create a group of volunteers who could held those living in and around Huntington who needed support, including tasks such as taking people to hospital appointments, collecting and delivering shopping, running a lunch club, and picking up prescriptions.

During its years of operation, the group remained solvent and received grants for their work, including from the City Council, Parish Councils, the York Common Good Trust, the Norman Collinson Charitable Trust, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundations.

The decision was taken to close the organisation in July 2021. Many of the functions of the group were being carried out by other organisations, and it was felt that the Covid-19 pandemic made it difficult to continue operating as they had been.

The York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir was founded in York in 1925, by a group of men from the Leeman Road Adult Boy’s Club. They came together out of a love of singing, rehearsing in the front parlour of a house on Leeman Road. The founding members sought the direction of conductor Cecil H. Fletcher, and over the next ten years Fletcher oversaw the growth of the choir to over fifty members.

The choir experienced a severe decline in membership as a result of the World Wars, followed by the death of conductor Fletcher. The choir survived this period, becoming informally known as the Cecil H Fletcher Memorial Choir into the 1980s.

Sefton Fearne took over as conductor, and worked to rebuild the choir following the drop in membership. In 1950 Fearne retired due to ill health and was succeeded by Archie W. Sargent.

Sargent retired in 1962 and was succeeded by Richard B. Lister. In 1962; with Robert Patterson, then curator at York Castle Museum; Lister helped initiate the first the ‘Carols in Kirkgate’ concert, which raised money for the Lord Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund. The York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir performed at the first ‘Carols in Kirkgate’ event, which continued for over fifty years.

In 1968 the choir formed a relationship with Münsterscher Männergesangverein (Münster Male Choral Society), a choir from York’s twin city Münster, in Germany. The choirs have done multiple visits to each other’s respective cities.

In 1972 the choir became a registered charity, to help improve public knowledge of the choir, and to help the choir to support other charities through their performances.

Richard B. Lister stepped down as Musical Director in 1980, at which point David Keeffe took over the role. Subsequent Music Directors also include Richard Bowman, Margaret Martin, Ian Colling and Berenice ‘Berry’ Lewis.

As well as performances and charity concerts, the choir have historically competed in competitions across Britain and Europe.

The "48" were the most junior tier of representation and emerged in the 14th century from the craft gilds. A common council was instituted in 1518, made up of two members from each of thirteen crafts. This was then expanded in 1633 and switched to geographical representation, with 72 members elected from the four wards. In 1663, outside elections ceased, and vacancies were filled by nomination.
See also Aldermen / The "12" and Councillors / "The 24"

York Scribes was established as a group in 1990 to promote calligraphy, illumination, and lettering through informal meetings, lectures, workshops, and other events. The group was aimed at participants across North Yorkshire, both beginners and experienced calligraphers. Pauline Hall, a professional calligrapher, chaired the group for the first few years before being made Life President in 1996.

An initial open meeting was held to gauge interest, which attracted 30 attendees. This group went on to establish the York Scribes and write a constitution. Membership later grew to, and stabilised at, around 60-70 members.

The group was established with the support of the London based group the Society of Scribes and Illuminators and of the Bar Convent's education programme. Meetings and workshops were held at the Bar Convent until 1993.

David Hughes was born in North Berwick, East Lothian, the son of Mary and John Hughes. His father was an Anglican clergyman who became a Quaker after his experiences as a chaplain in the First World War. David and his siblings, Michael and Barbara, went to Quaker schools in York, where the family lived. They spent two years in America in the 1930s, when John was appointed director of the Quaker study centre Pendle Hill, in Pennsylvania – a formative experience for David.

He read geography at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but his studies were interrupted by the Second World War and he was awarded a 'war degree' after two years. As conscientious objectors, David and Michael both faced military tribunals, but neither was jailed. David took the alternative of joining the Friends Relief Service, delivering relief to war-affected citizens. He spent six years with the FRS, in London and also in Holland, where he drove ambulances and lorries, and in Germany working in refugee camps.

In 1938 he volunteered at Dovercourt camp, Harwich, which took in, and found homes for, Jewish children fleeing the Nazis via the Kindertransport evacuation. David persuaded his parents to take in a young brother and sister. (His mother was already active in refugee work in York.) The boy, Harry Baum, later became very successful in the travel industry. All his life David kept on his key ring a small brass disc with his name and Dovercourt room number on it. He gave public talks about these experiences, into his 90s, and was interviewed by members of the Holocaust Education Trust.

While teaching at Ottershaw School, Surrey, the UK's first state boarding school for boys, David met Betty Wilson, who had come from Northern Ireland to work as a cook at the school. They married in Antrim in 1951, and daughter Lotte was born a year later. The family emigrated in 1952 as 'Ten Pound Poms' to Australia, where my father taught at a Quaker school in Hobart. My parents did not much like Tasmania, however, and returned after two years. The best part of the adventure was sailing round the world and visiting exotic lands.

The family settled in Shropshire, where David began teaching at Wellington Boys' Grammar School. His daughter Tanya was born in 1956. David retired in 1979 and he and Betty later moved to Church Stretton, where they were active in the local United Nations Association and the Liberal Democrats.

Sadly, Betty's dementia and move to a care home later forced them to live separately. David moved to Bishop's Castle at the age of 94 and enjoyed an unexpected new lease of life. In his 90s he published an anthology, The Seven Ages of William Shakespeare (2010), and a book in 2016 on the moral teachings of Jesus.

Betty died in 2019, and David died on 3 December 2020, aged 101. He is survived by his two daughters
Mary Hughes, mother.

William White was born on 10 June 1744 in Castlegate, son of Timothy White, linen draper, and Marta his wife, both Quakers. Although no records have been found, it is possible he started his training with the Quaker apothecary Benjamin Bartlett, Jnr. in London. As a non-conformist he would not have been eligible to attend Oxford or Cambridge universities but many English doctors at that time travelled to Scottish universities for medical training.

In 1765-6 White attended Edinburgh where he joined the Medical Society of Edinburgh and matriculated in 1766. From at least 1768 he was back in York, once again living in Castlegate, and working at the County Hospital. When he registered as a freeman of the City of York in 1771 he did so as the son of a York freeman and an apothecary. To complete his training he attended the University of Leiden in 1775 graduating Medicinae Doctor with a thesis on ‘recurrent fever’. On returning to York he resumed work with the County Hospital and then the York Dispensary. White’s approach to medicine was also scientific as he carried out experiments and ‘observations’ that were published as books, in privately printed articles and in medical and scientific journals. Two of his articles were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. He died aged 45 on 28th October 1790 from consumption, one of the diseases he had been researching. His observations on this topic were published posthumously in 1792 by his friend and colleague Dr Alexander Hunter.

Of particular interest to York local researchers is White’s ‘Analecta Eboracensia’ or Memorandum Book’ (WHI/1). The greater part (21 pages) covers the period 26 January 1782 to 21 September 1785 with follow up items by his Quaker friend, the printer William Alexander. The 50 entries by White focus on improvements to the city streets and buildings, local, regional and national political events and the weather, including York’s perennial problem of flooding. Most interesting and useful to local historians are the depictions of streets – Castlegate, Castlegate Postern Lane, Coppergate, Fishergate, approach to Fishergate, ‘Road to Fulford’, High Ousegate, Hosier Lane, Low Ousegate, Nessgate, Ousebridge, Pavement and Spurriergate. What is exceptional is that they delineate individual buildings with the names of their occupiers or owners. The plans in the Memorandum Book are somewhat roughly drawn but a ruler-drawn or ‘neat’ copy also survives (WHI/2). Photographs of these neat copy maps can be found in PHO/2/111 and PHO/3/1835. There is no indication who drew the neater version.
For further detail see: ‘Dr William White (1744 - 1790) of Castlegate, ‘a Physician of considerable talent’. Sylvia D. Hogarth. York Historian 2007, vol.24, pages 19-36.

Harriett was a PhD candidate at University of York between 2017 and 2020. As part of her PhD research, she carried out face to face interviews with a number of Second World War veterans.

The Black Swan Folk Club was formed in September 1979. It meetings at 8.15pm every Thursday night at the Black Swan pub, Peaseholme Green, York, and offers a range of resident musicians and perfomers, formal concerts and guest singers. From the 1980s until 2019 the club was run by Roland Walls. Since 2001 the club has also held larger concerts of bigger name performers in the National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, and the Crescent Club.

In 2020 the club posted weekly 'Virtual' sessions on YouTube during the coronavirus lockdown.
Walls; Roland (1954-2019)

Roland Walls was born into a North Yorkshire farming family and, after graduating from Cambridge University, pursued a career as a librarian. He spent a large part of his career at York City Library (now York Explore Library) before becoming a senior regional manager for North Yorkshire Libraries in Northallerton. He was committed to supporting his local community, and championing traditional music and cultures.

In the 1980s, Walls became the sole organiser of the recently-formed Black Swan Folk Club. Whilst he was neither a musician nor a performer, he was dedicated to the running of the Folk Club, and won the BBC Folk Club of the Year award in 2009. The club also won Best Small Venue in the Yorkshire Gig Guide in 2016. From 2001 he also arranged folk concerts at the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, in tandem with the NCEM.

After a cancer diagnosis in 2010, Walls was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2018. Nevertheless he organised the annual City of York Weekend at the Black Swan, where 45 acts performed over three days. That same year, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Yorkshire Gig Guide.

Roland Walls died from Motor Neurone Disease in June 2019.
Black Swan Folk Club; York Public Library

Robert Kay was a successful bootmaker with a number of shops in York. He was the son of an intemperate shoemaker. A Wesleyan temperance reformer, he ran Priory Street Wesleyan Young Men's class in around 1894. His notebook, also called Grandfather Robert Kay's diary and covering the period 1875-1900, was created to record 'what I remember in connection with, and a record of, any noteworthy incident occurring at any of the public houses between Fossgate and Walmgate Bar.' The notebook, whose original is still in the possession of the Kay family, is addressed to 'my much beloved children' and signed 'drink, debt, dirt and the devil I HATE, Robert Kay'.

The Yorkshire Association was formed in December 1779 to lobby for economic reform at a time of high taxation during the American War of Independence. Though conservatives denounced associations as potentially seditious, a number of other counties formed committees and joined with Yorkshire in petitioning Parliament. Their greatest success came in April 1780 when Dunning's motion, deploring the influence of the crown, was carried against Lord North, and in 1782 the short-lived Rockingham administration undertook some useful reforms. But Christopher Wyvill, founder of the association, had difficulty in holding his supporters in line. They soon moved on to advocate parliamentary reform and a split developed between the radicals of the Westminster Committee, pushing for manhood suffrage, and moderate reformers, content to augment the representation of the counties. The end of the war took much wind out of the association's sails, though Pitt moved for parliamentary reform in 1783 and again in 1785. The association was a remarkable attempt to mobilize public opinion and bring it to bear on Parliament, looking back to the Wilkites and forward to the chartists.

Gansolite Ltd established a factory on former Rowntree land in Haxby Road, York, in 1929, when Dutchman Jacob Gans moved his factory from Holland to the city. The factory produced buttons for a number of commercial clothing manufacturers. In 1983 the firm, then trading as British Buttons, was acquired by Ashley Goff and his son Stephen as part of a management buyout.

By 1990 British Buttons employed 70 people and manufactured an average of five million buttons a week. At that point it was the biggest selling button maker in Britain. That same year, production moved to Sutton on the Forest so that the Haxby Road premises in York could be cleared for redevelopment.

During the 1990s British button maufacturing began to go into decline. With the firm losing Marks & Spencer as a client in 1998 following a review of their materials purchasing, 30 to 40 per cent of business was lost in a year. This resulted in the firm filing for bankruptcy, before being rescued by Peter Bownes in 2000. With a continued decline in customers due to cheaper options being produced abroad, by 2003 the firm employed 18 staff and was manufacturing between 750,000 and 1.5 million buttons a week.

On 27 January 2003 staff were told that due to the the decline in orders the company had been placed in voluntary liquidation.

The ancient corporation was dramatically altered by the Municipal Corporation Act. It lost many legal rights and privileges, the electorate was widened, various officials were changed or renamed and a single chamber was instituted.
Previously known as "the Mayor and Commonality of the City of York", it developed into the historical Corporation (see City of York Corporation (Unreformed). The corporation was reformed in 1835, became a district council with North Yorkshire County Council in 1974 and a unitary authority once more as the City of York Council in 1996. Municipal charities passed to York Charity Trustees in 1837.

The 1947 Transport Act which set up the Central Transport Consultative Committee (CTCC) and a network of regional Transport Users' Consultative Committees as passenger representative bodies. The original CTCC and the TUCCs were abolished by the Transport Act 1962 and replaced with new bodies of the same name, although with extended powers. Those powers were extended again in 1968.

The Railways Act 1993 abolished the 1962 structure and replaced it with the Rail Users' Consultative Committee (RUCC) network comprising the Central Rail Users' Consultative Committee (CRUCC), as the national coordinating body, and eight regional committees. The new bodies were sponsored by the Office of the Rail Regulator, since renamed the Office of Rail and Road, and spoke up for passengers in the new era of privatised train companies. The CRUCC and RUCCs were renamed the Rail Passengers' Council and Rail Passengers' Committees by the Transport Act 2000, with sponsorship transferring to the newly-created Strategic Rail Authority (SRA). The new Rail Passengers Council and Committees (RPC) network was launched at the Rail Summit in May 2000.

In January 2004 the Secretary of State for Transport announced a review of the rail industry which led to a White Paper entitled 'The Future of Rail'. Amongst other things, the White Paper called for a more independent and focused rail passenger organisation that offered better value for money and achieved higher levels of passenger awareness. The resulting Railways Act 2005 abolished the Rail Passengers' Council and regional Rail Passengers' Committees, replacing them with a new Rail Passengers' Council as a single Great Britain-wide organisation.

In 1969 Rowntree & Co merged with John Mackintosh & Sons to become Rowntree Mackintosh PLC.

The divisional structure of Rowntree Mackintosh was very similar to that operating within Rowntree & Co prior to the merger. Central control was from Group Headquarters in York and the boards of the various operating divisions within Rowntree Mackintosh were responsible for strategic control of specific geographic or product markets. Supply, Transport and Distribution were also divisional functions.

UK Confectionery Division: factories in Castleford, Edinburgh, Egremont, Fawdon, Halifax, Leicester, Mallow, Norwich and York.
UK Grocery Division: factories in Ashton-Under-Lyne, Hadfield and Glasgow.
UK Associated Companies (ref. RAC): manufacturing of non-branded confectionery and engineering companies.
European Division: factories in France and West Germany; sales forces in Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy and West Germany.
Overseas Division: markets in which the group has production facilities; factories and sales forces in Australia, Canada, Eire and South Africa; licensing agreement in New Zealand.
Export Division: All markets where the group does not have local production facilities. Selling operations in more than 120 counties. Licensing agreements in eight countries.

Yorkshire Association for the Disabled was operating by 1964. It appears to have championed disabled people in the Yorkshire area, and published a regular newsletter to members. It is unknown when the association ceased operating, but it was still in operation by 1974.

York Centre for Voluntary Service (known as York CVS) was incorporated on 30 March 1951 as York Council for Voluntary Service. It was then known as York Community Council Ltd (1983-1985) and York Council for Voluntary Services (2010-2013) before being renamed to its present configuration in 2013. It is a social action organisation; supporting and championing York's voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector to make positive change, challenge issues and grow new ideas for the future in order to strengthen communities.

The pressing need for a girls hostel in York became obvious to the Committee of St Stephen's Children's Home in 1953. It had become almost impossible to find suitable accommodation in York for the girls from St Stephen's who had reached school leaving age. Home Office regulations would not allow girls who had started work to remain in children's homes indefinitely. A survey showed the shortage of accommodation across the city to be very acute, and as such York Corporation was approached and asked whether they might be able to provide suitable accommodation under the Children's and Young Persons' Act, 1948, provided to residents at a cost which they could afford. The answer received was that the need in York was thought to be too small to warrant the expenditure by the Corporation. At the same time, it was suggested that if a voluntary committee could be formed to start the process of creating accommodation for young women, the Corporation would support it. Accordingly, a provisional committee was formed on 8 February 1954, and the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust was approached for financial aid. The Trustees provided £300 per year for three years to cover staff salaries, and a further £150 for one year to cover rent.

Soon afterwards, the Trustees were offered the opportunity to acquire Rawcliffe Holt, and the committee accepted the tenancy for three years in the first instance. Official sanction for a girls' hostel had already been acquired by the Home Office.

The provisional committee of the hostel was advised to form a Trust for administrative purposes. As a result, the Catherine Cappe Memorial Trust was set up in York following a public meeting at York Mansion House on 16 July 1954. The Trust was named in honour of Catherine Cappe, a writer in York in the 18th and 19th centuries who concerned herself with improving lives of young women and girls.

At the meeting in 1954 the Catherine Cappe Memorial Trust was formed, and a provisional committee appointed. The accommodation was made available from 1 January 1955, and the hostel welcomed its first residents on 29 January 1955.

It is unknown when the Trust officially ceased trading, however the Trust was still producing annual reports in 1973.
St Stephen's Orphanage

York Adoption Society was registered with the Charities Commission on 23 September 1963, as a charity arranging the legal adoption of children in the York area. It continued until 16 January 1996, by which point it had ceased to exist.

Saint Stephen's Orphanage was founded by Lady Harriet, wife of Augustus Duncombe, Dean of York Minster, her two daughters, Mrs Harcourt and Mrs Egerton, and Reverend James Douglas, curate at Kirby Misperton. It was named after Saint Stephen who was one of the seven deacons charged by the apostles to minister to widows, orphans and the poor.

The orphanage was originally housed in Precentor's Court and provided shelter for up to 13 female orphans under the supervision of Miss Mathew and Mrs Blencowe. The accommodation proved to be too small so two houses were purchased in Trinity Lane, off Micklegate, in 1872.

By 1874 Major William Cayley Worsley of Hovingham, his wife and some of his friends, formed a committee of management which came to the rescue of the society, which was facing funding pressures. The committee provided a loan of £125 until a legacy of a further £660 came to fruition.

A new superintendent, Miss Mary Arlidge, was appointed in 1876. By the following year the orphanage was home to 26 children, and 25 Trinity Lane was purchased to provide a laundry, bathroom, larger dormitories and a playground. In 1878 27 Trinity Lane was also purchased, enabling an additional dining room, dormitory and an isolation room to be added.

By 1879, 31 girls were living in Trinity Lane and, although there was enough room for them, there were insufficient funds available. The number of girls needing a home continued to expand so, in 1881, 21 and 23 Trinity Lane were purchased. By 1885 there were 49 girls in residence of whom 23 paid no fees while the others were supported by an annual fee of £12 each.

During the 1880s, the orphanage expanded its facilities to provide free dinners for poor children all over the city. Dinners were provided in the orphanage dining room in sittings, and by 1887 10,255 dinners were being provided annually.

Dr William A. Evelyn became involved in the orphanage when he married and moved to 24 (now 61) Micklegate in 1885. In 1910 he was asked to review the fire appliances, following which he worked for the home for the next 22 years, becoming its medical officer in 1920 and vice-chairman of the management committee in 1926. In order to raise funds, he prepared a series of five lectures with lantern slides given in St Mary's Hall, Marygate, between 1 and 29 November 1911, entitled 'Walks through Old York' which would be of interest to those who were keen on preserving York's buildings. Although the hall was not full, £104 was collected for the orphanage. These lectures continued and in 1917 took £115. In 1919 the lectures were held in the larger Tempest Anderson Hall where admission was five shillings and £166 was raised. In 1921 it was £104 and in 1923 was £170.

At a management meeting at the end of 1919 it was reported that the state of the buildings in Trinity Lane had deteriorated and were no longer suited to the care of young children. It was proposed that a house which was for sale at 89 The Mount, on the corner of Scarcroft Road, be investigated as a possible home. Within two weeks the house had been purchased for £4,500. The cost of converting the house was £429 and the move to the new home began. Whilst this was being done the children were sent away to a holiday home at Filey. As the committee now carried a debt of £5,000, it sought ways to increase its revenue. It calculated that the annual cost of keeping a child was approaching £40 a year and decided to ask ladies who supported individual children financially to increase their contribution to £35.

By early 1922 the number of girls had fallen to 28 but Ministry of Health recognition was achieved in the same year, a classification which authorised the home to receive children from Boards of Guardians. Unfortunately this did not lead to an increase in the number of residents which remained fairly constant for the next two years, so it was agreed to offer places to York City Council when corporation children's homes were full. Four years later requests for places were received from Boards of Guardians at Leeds and South Shields, a development which again did not lead to any significant increase in numbers. Occasionally children were now being sent out from the home for adoption, a measure which further depleted numbers.

When the Second World War broke out in September 1939 the children were evacuated to the home of Mrs Stapleton at Myton-on-Swale. There the hostess was paid five shillings per week for each child and member of staff. The potting shed at the home was converted into an air-raid shelter and bunks were fitted with anti-splinter netting applied to the windows. Soon after this was completed the girls returned to York and, when enemy bombs fell on the nearby Bar Convent, the girls sang hymns in the area shelter.

In the post-war years fundraising was still an issue; the age for leaving was raised to 16; Miss Govan, a new matron, was appointed and she served for 22 years; the Sunday services moved from St Clement's in Scarcroft Road to Holy Trinity in Micklegate; the National Spastic Society agreed to use a vacant wing of the home; a hostel at Rawcliffe Holt was set up for older girls to live under supervision; in the 1950's children were inoculated against poliomyelitis; in 1957 there were 15 girls and 10 boys.

In the 1960s there was a steady decline in numbers and liaison meetings with Blue and Grey Coat Schools led to their amalgamation with St Stephens on 14 August 1969 and the formation of York Children's Trust. Thus ended the life of the home after almost 100 years, providing a caring home life for orphans in the early days of the venture, and for children with difficult home circumstances latterly.
Catherine Cappe Memorial Trust

The Health and Housing Reform Association was set up in York to ensure 'the spread of knowledge regarding health and sanitation, and thus to improve the health condition in the houses of the public'. Amongst its membership was Oscar Rowntree, and it was supported by York's Medical Officer of Health. Members were due to pay an annual subscription, and a committee was appointed annually consisting of a Secretary, Treasurer and Chairman. Five members were to retire each year, but could stand for re-election.

Churches Together in York was founded to encourage and provide the means for Churches to worship, pray and reflect together on the nature and purpose of the church, each church sharing with others its traditions and values with the diversity of tradition and practice being respected by all members, thus enabling churches to live and share the Gospel and to put the teachings of Christ into action by responding to the needs of society.

John Hawksby was the brother of professional boxer Fred Hawksby. It also thought that he was a boxer, at least at amateur level. With his brother, he was also active in the management of local charitable tournaments in York.
Fred Hawksby (brother).

Fred Hawksby was a professional boxer from York who was active between 1929 and 1935. He was also active in the management of local charitable tournaments in York, alongside his brother John.

Fred boxed at featherweight; lightweight and took part in 27 professional contests.
John Hawksby (brother).

Founded in 1837, the Yorkshire Geological Society was the first geological society in the North of England. A membership-led organisation with a governing council and President, its main objective is to promote and record the results of research in geosciences in Yorkshire.

Crombie Wilkinson solicitors is a law firm in North Yorkshire, with branches in York, Malton, Selby and Pickering. The firm employs over a 110 staff across the four branches. The firm is one of the NFU Legal Panel Firm members for the North East region providing specialist agricultural law services to the farming and rural community. The firm has been listed in The Legal 500 2020 Edition - United Kingdom, Private Client, Agricultural & Estates. The firm is also one of only a few solicitors in the country, who act for clients nationally, to provide a specialist operation providing legal services for dentists. Specialist legal services also extend to doctors, schools, care homes food and drink sector and property developers. Crombie Wilkinson is also one of the few law firms in North Yorkshire to have a specialist team offering family mediation services.

Upper Poppleton was originally a chapelry within the medieval parish of York, St Mary Bishophill Junior and thus subject to the peculiar jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter of York until the nineteenth century. In 1844 the chapelry became part of a new parish of Copmanthorpe with Upper Poppleton, and then in 1866 it separated from Copmanthorpe to join the existing parish and benefice of Nether Poppleton, which became Nether Poppleton with Upper Poppleton.

The present church, which is dedicated to All Saints, was built in 1890 by architect Charles Hodgson Fowler, replacing the medieval chapel of All Hallows. The church was altered in 1959-1972 by George Pace.

There was a church at Nether Poppleton from at least the eleventh century. It was appropriated to St Mary's Abbey, York, at its foundation in 1088 and the Abbey held the advowson until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century, at which time it passed to the Crown and then to the Archbishop of York. It is not known when a vicarage was ordained there but it was described as such by the seventeenth century. The living was augmented in 1829.

The present parish church dates to the twelfth century. It is dedicated to the seventh century Saxon saint Everilda, who is believed to have led a monastic community at either Everingham or Nether Poppleton. The church was restored in the nineteenth century and in 1939 a new altar was installed, carved by Robert 'the Mouseman' Thompson of Kilburn. In 2015 an extension was added to house new kitchen and storage facilities.

In 1866 Upper Poppleton chapelry separated from Copmanthorpe parish to join that of Nether Poppleton. Today Nether Poppleton is part of the united parish and benefice of Nether with Upper Poppleton.

The Yorkshire Regiment was created in 2006 following the amalgamation of the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire, the Green Howards, and the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. t is currently the only line infantry or rifles unit to represent a single geographical county in the Britsh Army infantry structure, serving as the county regiment of Yorkshire.

The regiment's recruitment area today covers almost all the historic county (the three ridings of the county: East Riding of Yorkshire, North Riding of Yorkshire and West Riding of Yorkshire) except for the eastern half of South Yorkshire and the southeast of West Yorkshire, which is a recruitment area for the Rifles, and the part of the West Riding that is now in Greater Manchester.
Successor to the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire; Green Howards; Duke of Wellington's Regiment.

Your Local Link is a monthly free magazine delivered to all households in York and the surrounding villages, with an events guide and articles about what is happening in the city.

William Patrick Hall, also known as Patrick Hall, was born in York on 16 December 1906. While still a teenager, he worked on a conservation project restoring the stained glass windows of York Minster, and also had a spell working in the family tanning business at Earswick while studying art on a part-time basis. He studied part-time at both the York and Northampton Art Schools and showed an early aptitude for etching and drypoint work.

During World War Two, the War Artists' Advisory Committee commissioned Hall to produce a number of watercolours depicting the training of paratroopers at the Parachute Training School at RAF Ringway in Cheshire. After the war Hall moved to London and set up a studio and worked full-time as an artist. He had a number of solo exhibitions, mainly focusing on landscapes and town scenes, at the Waddington Gallery, Gilbert Parr Gallery and at the Marjore Parr Gallery. He also showed works at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and the Paris Salon. Works by Hall are held in the collection of the Guildhall in London, the Imperial War Museum and the National Gallery of Australia. For the last twenty years of his life, Hall lived in Sellindge and died at Ashford in Kent on 10 June 1992.

The Gild of Freemen of the City of York was founded on 9th September 1953 on a unanimous vote of nearly two hundred freemen representing all four wards in the city. It was formed for the benefit of all freemen who no longer had a craft guild and to maintain the heritage of the gift of freedom.

The Gild upholds the vows of Freedom, promotes the good reputation of the City, acts as guardian in protecting and developing the traditional rights of Freemen, preserves the custom of caring for the welfare of Gild Freemen, operates a benevolent fund, subscribes to charitable causes and provides a range of social activities.

The Gild also takes part in the York cycle of Mystery Plays alongside other guilds in the city.

The ancient corporation of York, with rights and privileges gradually accrued over time by royal degree and legislation. It was dramatically reformed in 1835 following the Municipal Corporations Act.
Previously known as "the Mayor and Commonality of the City of York", it developed into the historical corporation. The corporation was reformed in 1835, became a district council within North Yorkshire County Council in 1974 and a unitary authority once more as the City of York Council in 1996.

The Diocese of York is the adminstrative body responsible for supporting and growing the Church of England membership in its area. By 2020 its jurisdiction included 589 churches and 125 schools in 443 parishes. The Diocese is committed to the praise of God through Jesus Christ and service to others, and is led and guided in their faith and work by the Archbishop of York.

The North Eastern Railway Association was formed for those interested in the history of the North Eastern Railway. It is a forum for members to share experiences, and to attend events about t the railway.

York Blind and Partially Sighted Society was originally formed in 1979 as an organisation to provide services and facilities to those who are blind or partially sighted. The aim of the organisation is for its users to achieve independence in all aspects of life and sectors of society. The organisation is based in York city centre, and by 2020 had over 1,100 members. In 2019, to coincide with their 40th anniversary, the organisation changed its name to MySight York.

The Yorkshire and Humberside Museums Council was an umbrella organisation for member institutions in the region. It produced an annual magazine called 'Museums Alive!'

Northern Command was a Home Command of the British Army from 1793-1889 and 1905–1972.

Great Britain was divided into military districts on the outbreak of war with France in 1793. The formation in the North, which included Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland and Durham, was originally based at Fenham Barracks in Newcastle upon Tyne until other districts were merged in after the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1840 Northern Command was held by Major-General Sir Charles James Napier, appointed in 1838. During his time the troops stationed within Northern Command were frequently deployed in support of the civil authorities during the Chartist unrest in the northern industrial cities. Napier was succeeded in 1841 by Major-General Sir William Gomm, when the command included the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, Durham, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Flintshire, Denbighshire and the Isle of Man, with HQ at Manchester. Later the Midland Counties of Shropshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire were added and from 1850 to 1854 the Command included three sub-commands: NW Counties (HQ Manchester), NE Counties (HQ York) and Midlands (HQ Birmingham). From 1854 to 1857 there were two sub-commands, Northern Counties and Midland Counties, each with a brigade staff, but after that they disappeared and Northern Command remained a unitary command.

In 1876 a Mobilisation Scheme for the forces in Great Britain and Ireland was published, with the 'Active Army' divided into eight army corps based on the District Commands. 6th Corps and 7th Corps were to be formed within Northern Command, based at Chester and York respectively. The Northern Command Headquarters itself moved from Manchester to Tower House in Fishergate in York in 1878. The corps scheme disappeared in 1881, when the districts were retitled 'District Commands. Northern Command continued to be an important administrative organisation until 1 July 1889, when it was divided into two separate Commands: North Eastern, under Major-General Nathaniel Stevenson (HQ York), and North Western, under Major-General William Goodenough (HQ Chester).

The 1901 Army Estimates introduced by St John Brodrick allowed for six army corps based on six regional commands. As outlined in a paper published in 1903, V Corps was to be formed in a reconstituted Northern Command, with HQ at York. Major-General Sir Leslie Rundle was appointed acting General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOCinC) of Northern Command on 10 October 1903, and it reappears in the Army List in 1905, with the boundaries defined as 'Berwick-on-Tweed (so far as regards the Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers) and the Counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Isle of Man. The defences on the southern shores of the estuaries of the Humber and Mersey are included in the Northern Command'.[9] By 1908 the Midland Counties of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Rutland had been added, but Westmoreland, Cumberland and Lancashire had been moved into Western Command.

The Command HQ was established at Tower House in Fishergate in York in 1905. The Fishergate site was named Imphal Barracks in 1951, but closed in 1958, when Northern Command HQ moved to a new Imphal Barracks on Fulford Road, York. Portions of the former headquarters at Fishergate are now serviced accommodation. The Command was merged into HQ UK Land Forces (HQ UKLF) in 1972.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) was founded in 1904 as the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust (JRVT), before changing its name to the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust (JRMT) in 1959 and finally to its present form in 1990. It was one of three Trusts established by the York Quaker philanthropist and businessman Joseph Rowntree to continue his family's pioneering work in the field of social reform; the others being the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust (now the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust) and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

The JRF is also the owner of a subsidiary private limited company, Clifton Estate Ltd, which was created in 1926 to manage land and properties in Clifton. Since 1968 the Trust's housing operations have been managed through the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Housing Trust, later renamed the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, as well as through the Joseph Rowntree Housing Society Ltd (between 1980 and 1996).

As of 2018 the JRF describes itself as an independent social change organisation working to solve UK poverty through research, policy, collaboration, and practical solutions.

THE JOSEPH ROWNTREE VILLAGE TRUST (JRVT) 1904-1959

From its foundation the JRVT was closely tied to the Rowntree family and the family owned confectionery company Rowntree & Co Ltd. Joseph Rowntree endowed all three Trusts with shares in the company and the six founding Trustees (shared by all the Trusts) were members of his family and company directors. However each Trust had its own distinct character and mission, albeit all in service of Joseph Rowntree's overriding commitment, set out in his 1904 Trust deed, to seeking out the 'underlying causes of weakness or evil in a community' rather than merely 'remedying their more superficial manifestations.'

The JRVT was envisioned as a Housing Trust that would provide attractive, sanitary and well built homes for rent in village communities with good quality recreational and communal facilities. Its tenants were to be drawn from all levels of society, with a mix of houses and rents so that village life would be within the reach of the average working man. In setting out his plans for such communities, Joseph Rowntree drew on the experience of fellow Quakers such as the Cadburys who had created a model village at Bournville in the 1890s although Rowntree did not intend to create 'company villages' but rather communities open to all.

To this end the JRVT was endowed with a significant amount of property as well as company shares, making it the wealthiest of the Trusts and the only one intended from the very beginning to be permanent. This property included the West Huntington estate, on which Joseph Rowntree had already begun work on his own model village of New Earswick. He had purchased the 163 acre estate in 1901 and the first twenty-eight cottages, designed by innovative architects Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker, were built in 1902-1903. The JRVT took over responsibility for the development of New Earswick in 1904 and this remained its primary function until the 1950s.

The first phase of building under the JRVT took place between 1904 and 1918 when work on the estate was funded entirely by the Trust to a plan prepared by Unwin and Parker. Bricks and tiles were provided by the Trust's own works and the Trust was also responsible for all road repairs, sewage disposal, street lighting and landscaping. The plan included wide tree-lined avenues and around twelve acres of land to be reserved for recreational use and provided sites for key amenities such as the central Folk Hall, completed in 1906, which provided space for meetings, concerts, the village library and other functions, and the New Earswick Elementary School (renamed New Earswick Primary School in 1942) completed in 1911. The Trust also operated a model dairy at White Rose Farm, using Carl Sorensen's pioneering methods of milk production to provide a high quality supply for the village.

In 1919 Raymond Unwin was appointed Chief Architect to the Ministry of Health and Barry Parker took over his work for the Trust, beginning the second phase of development at New Earswick which lasted until 1936. In the post war period rising costs and a shortage of materials meant the Trust could no longer support the full cost of development and were obliged to make use of government subsidies and to simplify their designs. The resulting drive for economy in all aspects of building had a significant effect on the original plan for the village. The building programme was continued on a year by year basis, Parker introducing a series of cul-de-sacs so that each expansion could be completed within a year and shorter roads were needed to supply each new development.

Approximately 259 new houses were completed in New Earswick between 1919 and 1936 and the Folk Hall was considerably enlarged in 1935. At the same time the Trust was developing the Clifton estate left to the Rowntree Trusts at Joseph Rowntree's death and fully controlled by the JRVT from 1928. Unlike New Earswick the estate at Clifton was developed for sale, although by 1941 a minority of the houses there still remained unsold and were let as rentals.

However the building programme began to slow in the economic depression of the 1930s, with the closure of the Trust's own brick and tile works in 1934 followed by a complete cessation of house building in 1936. Work did not cease entirely however, with work beginning on the new Joseph Rowntree Senior School in 1939, a joint venture between the Trust and Local Authority. The school was opened in 1942 and in the same year the Trust appointed Louis de Soissons as their new consultant architect. The Trust also acquired Homestead House at Clifton from Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree in 1936, on the condition that the grounds were maintained by the Trust as a public park. The House was subsequently let to Seebohm's son Peter Rowntree who oversaw the park and also ran a market garden on the site known as the Clifton Fruit Company.

The development of New Earswick entered its third phase with the close of the Second World War. The Trust purchased adjacent land at Kettlestring Farms in 1945 and began a substantial expansion of the village in 1949 into the area previously occupied by White Rose Farm. The work continued throughout the 1950s and included a mixture of houses, bungalows and flats as the Trust began to focus their efforts on creating a better balance of accommodation in the village. At the same time the Trust continued to improve their existing housing stock with the use of government Improvement Grants, in particular through the installation of central heating and indoor bathrooms.

The new balance of accommodation included housing for the elderly and for single professional people. The Trust entered into discussions with the Local Authority concerning the provision of accommodation for the elderly within the confines of the National Assistance Act of 1948 which had extended the role of voluntary organisations in this area. In this the Trust was influenced by Seebohm Rowntree's 1947 report on the welfare of the elderly which had recommended small, well designed homes and group homes for those no longer able to fully care for themselves. Consequently the Trust built twelve cottages for the elderly and converted Westbrook House on Western Terrace into a small group home with a resident warden. The home proved so popular that it was transferred to a larger house, The Garth, in 1949 and extended in 1958-1960 to provide interconnected bungalows for the elderly known as Garth Court.

The Trust also commissioned a block of twenty flats for single business and professional people between 1957 and 1960. Recognising that this kind of accommodation was more common in continental Europe, they commissioned two Swedish architects to design and equip the flats. The completed flats boasted the first use of underfloor heating in New Earswick and Swedish standards of insulation with extensive use of double glazing.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE JRVT

The administration of the JRVT was overseen by its Trustees, in whom was vested all of the property and income belonging to the Trust. Initially limited to eight in number, the Trustees were required to meet quarterly, but usually met more often in the early decades when New Earswick was still under development. New Trustee appointments could be made by Joseph Rowntree or, after his death, by the original Trustees, and thereafter alternatively by continuing Trustees and the Religious Society of Friends. The first Trustee from outside the family was Thomas Henry Appleton who was appointed in 1906 following the death of Joseph's son, John Wilhelm Rowntree. The Trustees appointed a Chairman from among their number and the Chair was re-elected on a yearly basis.

The Trustees took all major decisions relating to the work and policies of the JRVT but the day to day administration was increasingly carried out by a range of sub-committees and a growing number of office staff. In the first three decades there was a great deal of overlap between Trust and Rowntree Company administration. All three Rowntree Trusts initially shared an office at the Cocoa Works, the company headquarters in York, and in many cases also shared staff with each other and with Rowntrees. The Trust's first permanent secretary, Percy Jackson Pfluger, joined Rowntree & Co in 1913 and was assigned to the Trusts' office but remained, like many early 'Trust staff' on the company payroll. He was appointed as JRVT secretary in 1933, whilst also serving as temporary secretary to the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust. In addition to acting as secretary for the JRVT, he prepared the Trust's annual reports and accounts. He remained in post for the next fifty years, retiring in 1963. The Rowntree Company's legal and building departments also regularly advised the JRVT and carried out work on its behalf.

It was not until the 1940s that the administration of company and Trusts began to diverge, although the company's solicitor continued to act for the Trust. In 1942 it was noted in the Trust minutes that its staff were now no longer part of the Rowntree company or of their pension scheme. In 1948 the JRVT finally moved from the shared Trust office in the Cocoa Works to the ground floor of Beverley House, Clifton, which had been acquired by the Trust during the war. Beverley House was the headquarters of the JRVT, JRCT and later also the JRSST until 1990 and underwent a number of alterations and extensions during that time as the Trusts' activities grew.

In 1946 the first full time officer, Lewis E. Waddilove, joined the Trust as 'social investigator' and assistant to the Trustees. In 1947 he was added to the newly created Executive Committee consisting of York-based Trustees John Stephenson Rowntree and Peter Rowntree and secretary Pfluger, which was set up to deal with the routine work of the Trust, leaving more important matters and policy decisions to the quarterly meetings. By 1954 Waddilove was described as the Trust's Executive Officer.

The Executive Committee was supported by a number of other sub-committees of varied duration. One of the most important of these was the Earswick Committee which was created at the inaugural Trust meeting in 1904 'to exercise the powers of the Trustees in respect of the Earswick estate'. The committee comprised non-Trustees and included the New Earswick Housing Manager (originally called the Estate Agent) who was responsible for the welfare of tenants, allocation of houses and collection of rents. The post, which was held by a succession of women, was originally a part time one, but was made full time in 1918 and continued until 1967. The Earswick Committee reported directly to the Trustees at their quarterly meetings.

Other sub-committees were appointed as and when needed and their minutes and reports were shared with Trustees. An Education Committee was appointed in 1909 for example to report on the type of school most suitable for the village and the resulting Primary School and Senior School was managed by a Foundation Managers Committee and a Modern School Committee. In the late 1940s The Garth Committee was formed to manage the home for the elderly founded first at Westbrook House in New Earswick, before being transferred to The Garth in 1951. There was additionally a Pension Fund Committee from 1950, a Plans Committee of villagers to give feedback on proposed building developments, and a House Selection Committee to assist the Housing Manager with the selection of tenants.

The Trustees and its Earswick Sub-Committee also worked in conjunction with a representative council of villagers who met first as the Earswick Council in November 1904 and then as the New Earswick Village Council from October 1907. Consisting of eleven members, one of whom was appointed by the Trustees, the Village Council managed the Folk Hall, arranged lectures and classes, and represented the village in all matters concerning housing and village life. From 1935 they also administered an Amenities Grant in the village on behalf of the Trust, contributing to the funding of the village's many social clubs and services, as well as issuing a regular New Earswick Bulletin of news and community information.

THE JOSEPH ROWNTREE MEMORIAL TRUST (JRMT) 1959-1989

Though its primary concern before the 1950s was the development and management of New Earswick, the JRVT had also made a number of important contributions to housing policy and planning on a national and international level. New Earswick itself was a living and working example of the kind of housing standards the JRVT hoped to promote elsewhere and the Trust frequently welcomed visitors to the village, including over 200 members of the German Garden Cities Association in 1909.

They also made grants to organisations working to improve housing standards. In 1910 they made a grant to the National Housing Reform Council and in 1912 they began a long association with the National Housing and Town Planning Council. From 1919 the Trust also gave support to the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association which became the Town and Country Planning Association in 1940, as well as the London Housing Committee. In York the Trust funded an architect and planning consultant to prepare a master plan of improvement works in the city which became the 1948 exhibition 'A Plan for the City of York.'

The wider part that the Trust could play in questions of housing policy and social life came increasingly to the fore in the 1940s and 50s. In the early 1940s Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree wrote to his fellow Trustees to remind them that the 1904 Trust Deed allowed them to use their resources for any object that was of benefit to the working classes. As work on New Earswick inevitably slowed, the Trust would have more income at its disposal to devote to other projects and should think seriously about what its future role should be.

The resulting discussion continued, on and off, for the next fifteen years and involved not just the JRVT but also their sister Trusts. Meetings held in 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957 between the JRVT, their sister Trusts, the Charity Commission and consultants drawn from the world of academia and social policy considered at length the powers afforded to the Trust by its founding Deed and the future direction of its work, taking into consideration potential overlap with the work of the JRCT and JRSST. It was decided that the JRVT should broaden their work to include that of social research and enquiry, seeking out the 'underlying causes' of social ills stressed by Joseph Rowntree in 1904. These new far-reaching powers were enshrined in a private Act of Parliament brought by the JRVT in 1959 which allowed the Trust to support research into housing and social questions and to work overseas.

To match this wider scope of activity the Trust's name was formally changed to the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust (JRMT) and from 1960 the Trust began to publish triennial reports detailing its work. Its administrative structure was also revised to reflect its increase in activity. In 1961 the positions of Trust Director and Assistant Director were created with responsibility for the day to day management of the Trust. Lewis Waddilove became the first Director, a post he held until 1979, and James Edward Ford Longman the first Assistant Director. The Director liaised directly with the Trust Chairman and reported to the quarterly meeting of Trustees which continued to take all strategic and policy decisions and approve the allocation of funds. Every project supported by the Trust was in addition to have its own Advisory Committee to act as an intermediary between Trust and grant recipient. These committees usually included a Trustee and the Trust Director.

From 1959 onwards there was therefore a significant expansion of the Trust's activities into the fields of housing policy and research, community and family life, the training of social workers, and social services in the UK and abroad, as well as support for Yorkshire based projects. Many projects were initiated by the Trust itself, in keeping with Joseph Rowntree's instruction to his Trusts to 'seek out' and address the underlying causes of social ills. In 1958 the Trust had launched a group of influential studies on national housing policy and rents under the direction of David Donnison known collectively as the Rowntree Trust Housing Study. Over the next twenty years other JRMT funded studies followed, investigating the effects of the 1957 Rent Act, the Voluntary Housing Movement, housing and the mobility of labour, and the development of Housing Associations amongst other subjects. The Trust also offered financial aid to a number of housing organisations, including the National Federation of Housing Societies, the Shelter Housing Advice Centre (part of the charity Shelter) and the National Association of Almshouses. In 1971 the JRMT supported the creation of the Tuke Housing Association which provided social housing in and around York, taking responsibility for its administration (which it later transferred to the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust).

In the field of community and family life the Trust turned its attention to the rapid changes in urban life, funding a 1961 study of 'high rise' living that led to further guidance, again funded by the Trust, on the design and care of playgrounds for children in urban areas. Other early projects supported by the Trust included a study of services for the elderly in Tyneside, York Family Service Units, and the National Birthday Trust Fund's research into perinatal mortality, as well as work on such wide ranging subjects as the sociology of law, race relations, drugs, and teenage delinquency. In 1959 the Trust also made a five year grant to the Institute of Community Studies to support a broad range of social research with a Trustee and Executive Officer Lewis Waddilove joining the Institute's Advisory Committee.

The Trust also gave key support to the Social Work Staff College (later the National Institute for Social Work Training) which was founded in 1961 with the joint funding of the JRMT and the Nuffield Foundation. The need for an Institute to coordinate professional social work training and support had been recognised in the 1959 report of the Younghusband Working Party which examined the role and training of social workers in health and welfare services. Together the JRMT and Nuffield Foundation purchased and adapted Mary Ward House as a site for the Institute and provided further funding over the next ten years. In 1972 the Institute's first Director, Robin Huws Jones, was invited to join the JRMT as Associate Director and he remained with the Trust as a consultant following his retirement, helping to shape its work in this area. In addition to this institutional support the Trust also contributed funding to a number of regional social work training courses at Liverpool, Tyneside and York.

At York the JRMT played a key role in the foundation of the university in 1963, making a contribution of £100,000 to be spread over ten years. In addition to financial support the Trust also stated its intention to co-operate with any university departments that shared its research interests, particular in the social sciences. In 1962 the Trust was approached by the university regarding a proposed Institute of Social and Economic Research that would further the kind of social research pursued by the Rowntree family and Trusts and employ research students from the social science departments. The Trust agreed to make a grant of £23,500 over five years towards the general expenses of the institute and to fund two research projects. The Institute was launched the following year under the management of an Advisory Committee which included a representative of the Trust.

Whilst the Trust's initial funding to the Institute ended after five years, it continued to provide grants for individual projects such as Tony Atkinson and A. K. Maynard's re-analysis of Seebohm Rowntree's 1950 poverty survey, the report for which was published in 1981. Between 1981 and 1983 the Trust provided further funding for the creation of a broader social science research organisation, the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, which would include the Institute for Social and Economic Research as well as staff and research units from other disciplines. In 1989 the Trust founded a Chair of Housing Policy at the university as part of the new Centre for Housing Policy (CHP).

The effect of this wide-ranging work on the effects of housing policy, investigations into family and community life and social services and social science research was to focus the Trust more clearly on the need to influence the implementation of social policy at national level. In January 1971 the Trust made the decision to establish a national Centre for Studies in Social Policy, funded by the Trust but independent from it. The Centre launched in 1972 with the mission to advise government and local authorities in taking social policy decisions. In 1977 it merged with Political and Economic Planning to form the Policy Studies Institute which continued to enjoy the support of the Trust. In the 1980s the JRMT found, bought and converted a new headquarters for the Institute in Park Village East, London.

In the same year that the Centre for Studies in Social Policy was launched the Trust took responsibility for a government initiative that would lead to the formation of the influential Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York. In December 1972, in the wake of the Thalidomide scandal, the Trust agreed to administer the Family Fund set up by the government to allocate money to families who had a child suffering from congenital disability. The Trust allocated the funds within guidelines agreed with the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), the first time that an independent trust had thus administered public funds to deliver a service akin to that directed locally by statutory authorities.

In order to monitor the progress of the Fund, to collate the necessary data reports to administer it and explore the broader research opportunities in social policy it presented, the Trust established an independent research project in the Department of Social Administration and Social Work at the University of York, led by Jonathan Bradshaw. The project was launched in August 1973, with the costs shared between the DHSS and the Trust. It was originally intended that the research project would run for three years but in 1975 the research team were asked by the DHSS to become one of their standing research units, developing a broader research programme on children with disabilities. The DHSS subsequently took over the funding of the unit and it was renamed the Social Policy Research Unit, although the unit continued to maintain close links with the Family Fund and would later undertake other large scale projects for the JRF. These included the Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey in Britain in 1999 and the Minimum Income Standards project in 2006-2008.

OVERSEAS WORK OF THE JRMT

The Trust's work in this area was not confined to the UK. The 1959 parliamentary Act established the Trust's authority to provide houses and community services anywhere in the Commonwealth and to pursue research anywhere in the world. The initiative for this work came from the Trust's involvement with the National Citizens Advice Bureaux, run by the National Council of Social Service in the UK, and the suggestion that a similar service, adapted to local needs, could be of use in those Commonwealth countries adapting to the pressures of rapid industrial and urban change. The Trust secured the services of an experienced officer from the National Citizens Advice Bureaux Committee who visited Northern and Southern Rhodesia (later Zambia) in late 1959 to meet people engaged in voluntary social work there. Her report claimed that a Council of Social Service would be of more use to coordinate the various voluntary services before Citizens Advice Bureaux could be established.

The Trust subsequently arranged for other experienced officer to travel to Rhodesia for six months in 1960 to coordinate services, leading to the creation of Citizens Advice Bureaux in Salisbury, Bulawayo and two additional African townships in Southern Rhodesia. In order to establish the permanent body needed to manage these new bureaux the Trust engaged H. R. Poole of the Liverpool Council of Social Service who set up a base in Salisbury for a year and helped establish a Northern Rhodesian Council of Social Service with subsidiary local councils and a series of related committees and conferences, as well as responding to enquiries from Uganda and Nyasaland (later Malawi). The Trust subsequently helped to set up Councils of Social Service in Southern Rhodesia, Uganda and Kenya.

The considerations that governed these initial forays into overseas aid also shaped their support of other projects in Africa. The Trust's annual reports made it clear that they were all too aware of the pitfalls of a British charity influencing social and political developments in societies they had little direct knowledge of. Thus they sought to use their funds to support projects they could maintain a personal relationship with, that furthered their key commitment to improved social and community services and housing, and to allow these projects to be shaped by their own evolving societies, funding trained staff and necessary equipment for existing projects rather than establishing wholly new projects of their own.

Between 1960 and 1963 the Trust provided funding for the Uganda Youth Council's youth leader training courses in Kampala. They also made a grant to the Outward Bound Association of Rhodesia to fund a Training Officer from 1965 and paid for a full time warden at the Waddington Community Centre at Lusaka which was open to both Africans and Europeans. They also made a contribution towards fellowships for three African graduate students to come to Britain to study social administration and supported the secretarial training of twenty girls in Zambia. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s they also made several grants to the pioneering Jairos Jiri Association for Rehabilitation of the Disabled and Blind in Bulawayo to pay for trained staff.

In housing too the Trust worked with existing organisations, advancing a loan for the purchase of land and the building of co-operative housing and shops in Bulawayo in 1962-1963, managed by the Mhlahlandhlela Housing Co-operative in collaboration with the Bulawayo Municipality. In the 1970s the Trust also made a financial contribution towards staff costs at a self-help housing scheme in Kafue, near Lusaka, which had been set up by the American Friends Service Committee and the Zambian government, as well as to a group of housing co-operatives in Lesotho.

The Trust took the decision to discontinue its work in Africa in 1988.

THE HOUSING TRUST

The broader powers exercised by the Trust in the fields of social and housing policy and research did not undermine its core commitment to New Earswick and the practical provision of affordable and good quality housing and amenities in the UK. However its new dual role as a charitable body administering an endowment for the purposes of social research and experiment and as a housing association developing a housing programme with the aid of government subsidies gave rise to a number of legal difficulties. In 1967 the Trust took the decision to separate its role as a housing association from its other activities in order to divide and safeguard its status as a housing trust and an endowed charity, and to ensure its housing work could continue to qualify for statutory grants and loans. The Joseph Rowntree Memorial Housing Trust (later the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust) was launched on 1 January 1968 and was vested with all of the land and property of the JRMT, including the New Earswick estate and adjacent Kettlestring Farms. In addition it received an annual grant from the JRMT to carry out its work.

The legal distinction between the two Trusts was not, at least in its early decades, always reflected in its operations and administration. The JRMT and JRMHT shared Trustees, staff and offices, although the administration of the JRMHT was delegated to a New Earswick Management Committee and the finances of the two were kept separate. The housing programme followed by the JRMHT was to continue on from that of the JRMT and included the extensive New Earswick modernisation programme begun in 1966 and continued throughout the 1970s which saw the interiors of the oldest houses in the village extensively remodelled.

The two Trusts have continued to work closely together and this is reflected in their archives which show a significant degree of overlap. The JRMT had the power to contribute to any part of the work of the Housing Trust that was legally defined as charitable and the work of both Trusts was included in the published Triennial Reports from 1968 to 1991 and then in the Annual Reports from 1991 to 2003. It was only in 2004 that the two Trusts began to publish separate Annual Reports, although the first two Housing Trust reports describe it as the 'operational arm' of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and thereafter they are described as working in partnership.

THE JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION (1990-)

The late 1980s were a time of significant change for the Trust. In 1988 Rowntree Mackintosh was taken over by the Swiss company Nestlé. Although the JRMT, like the JRCT, had divested itself of some of its Rowntree shares and diversified its investments following the Cocoa Losses of 1973, company shares still accounted for 60 per cent of the JRMT's income in 1988, and made up 3.8 per cent of the company's ordinary share capital. The takeover was opposed by both the JRMT and JRCT (the JRSST had disposed of its Rowntree shares in the 1970s) and its success obliged both to sell their remaining company shares, severing the direct link between the Trusts and the company but almost doubling the value of the JRMT's assets to £110 million.

As a result of the takeover the JRMT was able to take back ownership of The Homestead, previously the home of Seebohm Rowntree and then leased to Rowntree Mackintosh as their international headquarters. In 1990 the Trust moved their offices from Beverley House to The Homestead and as of 2018 it remains their York headquarters.

It was also able to devote more money to its research and development programme, which came under review in the same year as the takeover. In its 1988-1991 Triennial Report the Director was keen to stress the active role of the Trust in research and development, stating that it did not make grants 'in the traditional sense' of contributing to charitable appeals or giving to good causes, but rather supported specific programmes of original work decided, and often initiated, by the Trustees, and subject to regular review. This was described in later reports as a mandate to search, demonstrate and influence. The boost to Trust income meant that the Trust now had considerably more resources to develop its programmes, in 1987 the JRMT gave £2.8 million in new grant commitments, by 1991 this had risen to £6.1 million.

In their 1988 review Trustees agreed that housing would continue to be a major activity of the Trust, as would social care, which would be expanded to include community care and the delivery of services to support families and carers. Its work for those with learning difficulties would also be broadened to include all aspects of disability. Social policy, which had been a major area of Trust work since the 1960s, was in turn to be confined in the future to social security issues and income support, with the Trust's work on employment (and Africa) discontinued. The Trust also established Local and Central Government Relations as a distinct area of activity, a field of work that had begun in the mid 1980s under the direction of Deputy Trust Chairman, Sir Charles Carter.

These areas of work were to be supported by committees of Trustees and outside experts. In 1991 these were the Housing Research Committee, the Social Policy Research Committee, the Community Care and Disability Committee, and the Local and Central Government Relations Research Committee. Most grant funded projects also had an individual Advisory Committee to offer support and enable the Trust to review its progress, and all were from 1990 subject to new Project Agreements which set out the expectations of both the Trust and the researchers and committed them to contributing a clear summary of their work for the 'Findings' series of four page summaries of Trust funded research projects.

At the same time there were changes to the Trust's staff as Director Robin Guthrie left to take up the role of Chief Charity Commissioner and was replaced by Richard Best, previously the Director of the National Federation of Housing Associations. Under his directorship the Trust changed its name to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to better differentiate it from its sister Trusts, and set about raising its public profile.

Best saw an immediate need to make the results of the JRF's broad range of research more readily available to policy makers, the press and the public, and in 1989 Roland Hurst, the Trust's first Director of Information Services, was appointed to manage the dissemination of the Trust's research output through new publications, specialist briefings and a closer relationship with the media. As part of his work he launched the 'Findings', as well as 'Search', a more detailed quarterly magazine.

By the end of 1991 the Directorate and staff of the JRF and JRHT combined numbered some 250 people. This included five Directors: the Director of the Foundation and the Directors of the Family Fund, of Housing and Property Services, Research, Finance, and of Information Services, and, where relevant, their reporting committees. Reporting to the Director of Research were the Social Policy Research, Housing Research, Local and Central Government Relations Research, and the Community Care and Disability Committees.

Meanwhile the housing operations undertaken by the JRF and its associated bodies (the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Society Ltd) were administered by the Housing Committee and New Earswick Management Committee, both reporting to the Director of Housing and Property Services. In 1993 the JRF added the new post of Housing Research Development Officer to bridge the gap between housing research and housing operations and to ensure the research directly influenced the work of the JRHT. In 1995 a new Development Overview Committee was added to support research and development projects involving the JRHT.

Although the work of the Trust focused in the early 1990s on the five main areas set out in 1988, projects within these programmes were often grouped together around a particular theme, with their results analysed in a final overarching report commissioned by the JRF. The Trust's 'Action on Estates' programme in 1993-1994 for example brought together eight research projects in the housing field, as well as practical work at the Bell Farm housing estate in York, to make detailed recommendations on ways to empower residents of estates across the whole of the UK, including the influential report 'Unleashing the Potential' by Marilyn Taylor.

From the mid 1990s the JRF adopted the overarching theme of 'strengthening communities and combating exclusion', and this began to shape much of their programme of research and development. In 1995 it brought together 30 research projects under a Trust commissioned Income and Wealth Inquiry, chaired by JRF Chairman Sir Peter Barclay, the final report of which received a great deal of publicity. In the same year the Trust's Family and Parenthood programme brought together 22 research projects in the report 'Family and Parenthood: Supporting Families, Preventing Breakdown' by David Utting. In 1996 Lynn Watson brought together findings from 20 Trust funded projects in the field of housing and community care to analyse the housing needs of care users and the effects of the 1993 Community Care Act. Where relevant, this research could directly influence the practical work of the Housing Trust, such as with the 'Lifetime Homes' scheme that saw the design criteria of the JRF's Lifetime Homes Group applied to the JRHT's 'Woodlands' housing development in York.

A major area of work during this period was the establishment by the JRF of Communities that Care UK, a company that received its core funding from the Trust between 1997 and 2001, when it became financially independent. Based on an American scheme, CTC UK focused on early intervention and prevention services for children and their families at risk of developing social problems. The scheme was trialled in three areas and, following an evaluation commissioned by the JRF, was extended to more than twenty communities by the end of 2001.

Trust committees changed to reflect these new and emerging priorities. Community Care and Disability became the Social Care and Disability Committee in the mid 1990s. In 1997 the Social Policy Research Committee became the Work, Income and Social Policy Committee, and in 1998 the Housing Committee became the Housing and Neighbourhoods Committee. In 1997 the Trust also added a Young People and Families Committee to direct its expanding youth intervention work.

So that it could continue to respond to wider change and ensure its work remained relevant, in 1998 the Trust created a new Policy and Practice Development Department, led by a new Director, to engage with external developments and agendas and liaise directly with the JRHT and Care Services department when needed. In 2002, as it approached its centenary year, the Trust conducted a further strategic review of its programmes in order to identify new areas of work and adjust its committee structure where necessary. The review identified the Trust's core areas of work as housing and deprivation, the twin issues of 'poverty' and 'place' which lay at the heart of the work undertaken by Joseph and Seebohm Rowntree and in the foundation of the JRVT itself in 1904.

Research and development programmes in these two areas were to be overseen by two existing committees, the Housing and Neighbourhoods Committee, and the Work, Income and Social Policy Committee which was renamed the Poverty and Disadvantage Committee.
Beyond these core areas the review recommended the replacement of standing research and development committees with a series of more flexible time-limited committees, responsible for individual programmes of work. Thus the Social Care and Disability Committee and the Children, Young People and Families Committee closed in 2003. They were replaced by a number of single programme committees, including a Drug and Alcohol Research Committee, an Immigration and Inclusion Committee and a Parenting Research and Development Committee.

Between 2002 and 2005 the JRF carried out a wide range of work through these standing and single programme committees. In the field of housing the Trust advocated for more affordable housing, as exemplified by its CASPAR (City Centre Apartments for Single People at Affordable Rents) scheme in Leeds and Birmingham, and its administrative support for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on homelessness and housing need. In the field of 'deprivation' the Trust produced its annual Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion survey, which it extended to Northern Ireland in 2006, as well as launching the Public Interest in Poverty initiative which surveyed public attitudes towards poverty, and advocating for access to affordable credit. In response to wider changes the JRF also commissioned research into the experiences and perceptions of migrants working in low waged jobs in the UK and carried out a comprehensive review of modern slavery.

Its work with families and young people included research into anti-social behaviour and funding a 2005 independent Commission on Families and Wellbeing of Children which was set up to look at the relationship between the state and the family. This work intersected with research on educational and employment opportunities available to disabled young people. The Foundation also continued to advocate for sustainable funding for long term care for the elderly, producing a series of costed policy options and working in partnership with the King's Fund, Age Concern, and Help the Aged to discuss these policy concerns with older people.

To aid the dissemination of this work, Trustees also approved a number of new programmes for the Policy and Practice Development Department which would build on the findings of JRF research and development activity with the aim of influencing policy makers on key issues such as neighbourhood regeneration, affordable homes for single people, the value of mixed income communities, and meeting the challenge of long term care for the elderly.

The long-serving Director of both the JRF and JRHT, Richard Best, retired in 2006 and was replaced in 2007 by Julia Unwin. A further review of the strategic direction of the JRF took place in 2007 which expanded the Foundation's core interests to poverty, place and empowerment. As a result of the review the Foundation established three new strategy groups to advice Trustees on its search, demonstration and influencing work under these three themes. Key research in these areas included routes out of poverty, barriers to reducing inequality, the regeneration of places, and meeting housing needs in times of change. The Foundation also sought to return to its founding principles by commissioning a public consultation on the nature of 'social evils' in the twenty-first century and how these had changed over the previous century, followed by analysis of the issues identified and exploration of possible solutions. This work was published in 2009 as 'Contemporary Social Evils', incorporating new research by the National Centre for Social Research.

A number of new programmes were introduced in 2009 under these three key themes. These included an examination of how climate change would affect the people and places facing poverty and disadvantage in the UK, how to offer a 'better life' to older people in residential care, and an exploration of the impact of globalisation on UK poverty. The Foundation also launched the JRF Housing Market Taskforce to work towards the establishment of a more stable housing market, particularly for vulnerable households.

In 2012 the JRF agreed a new Strategic Plan for 2012-2014 following consultations with staff, Trustees, and external stakeholders across the UK. The plan organised the Foundation's work around the themes of poverty, place, and ageing society and introduced a number of new programmes. These included a three year programme to contribute to evidence and debate on the wider implications of an ageing society, care for people with dementia, and care homes as places to live and work, as well as initiatives encouraging businesses to become 'anti poverty employers' and a partnership with the charity Crisis to monitor UK homelessness. The Foundation also made substantial grants to a programme exploring the relationship between housing and poverty, and to a major new four year programme to develop an anti-poverty strategy for the UK. The latter culminated in the launch of the country's first comprehensive plan to solve UK poverty, 'We Can Solve UK Poverty', in September 2016.

The 2015-2017 Strategic Plan adopted the three core themes of individuals and relationships, the places where people live, and work and worth. New programmes of work included the promotion of inclusive growth in cities, the 'reframing' of poverty to improve public and political debate on the subject, research into minimum income standards across the UK, and the relationship between poverty and ethnicity. The Foundation's current strategic plan sets out its priorities for 2018-2021, based upon the two overarching outcomes that everyone should have a decent home in a good place, and that everyone should have decent living standards and prospects.

The City of York and District Family History Society was founded in 1975 in order to further the interest in Family History Research. It is run entirely by volunteers working in their spare time, with the aim of bringing together local people who share the same interest and to provide a point of contact for those members who, although not living in the area, have their roots within the modern Archdeaconry.

The Society covers the modern Archdeaconry of York which stretches from Coxwold, Hovingham and Sherburn in Harfordlythe in the North to Ledsham, Birkin, Selby and Drax in the South, as well as from Bramham, Bilton and Sherburn in Elmet in the West to Huggate and Bubwith in the East.

The Society's area overlaps parishes covered in the West by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society Family History Section, in the East by The East Yorkshire Family History Society and in the North by Ryedale Family History Society.

The East Riding Dialect Society was founded in 1984 by Donald Bemrose of Bridlington who was concerned about the erosion of the East Riding dialect. It is a membership-based organisation with an active events programme.

The University of York was founded in October 1963 by royal charter. It provides higher level education and degree programmes for students.

As a self-governing institution with charitable status, the University enjoys a high degree of autonomy. It receives funding for teaching from the Government's Office for Students (OfS) which also acts as the main regulator for universities to ensure they fulfil their charity law obligations. It also receives funding from Research England, the council which oversees research and knowledge exchange in the English universities. The University makes annual returns of information to the OfS and also submits an annual Operating and Financial Review to Companies House.

The Yorkshire Naturalists Union is an association of amateur and professional naturalists covering a wide range of aspects of natural history. It has been in existence for over 150 years.

Members study the 'old' county of Yorkshire, as individuals and through our many Affiliated Societies, many of which are local naturalists' groups. The YNU organises field meetings throughout the county and an annual conference.

This is the original title of the corporate body of the citizens of York, as used in charters and other legal documents.
This is the original title of the ancient corporation, which was reformed in 1835. In 1974 it became a district council within North Yorkshire County Council and then a unitary authority once more as the City of York Council in 1996.

The York Insurance Committee was established as a result of the National Insurance Act of 1911. It's purpose was to administer the panel of participating doctors, chemists and others who participated in the scheme under which insured working people had access to free medical care.

After the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, the York Insurance Committee was superseded by the York Executive Council which oversaw NHS doctors, pharmacists and others.

On 10 November 1894, Joseph Wright addressed a meeting about a mammoth project to prepare and publish an English Dialect Dictionary. The committee formed as a result of this meeting, which eventually collected some 350,000 Yorkshire words and phrases, was to be the nucleus of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, officially inaugurated on 27th March 1897.

Professor Wright was born in 1855 in Idle, Bradford, started work at the age of six, and on reaching his teens and while working in one of the many mills in the West Riding, he taught himself to read and write, set up his own night school at home to supplement his income, and went on to become a teacher, and eventually a professor at Oxford.

Even his dream of publishing the Dictionary was marred by him not finding anyone willing to take the risk, and he ended up publishing it at his own, not inconsiderable, expense. He went on expanding his academic knowledge until his death in 1930.

In 1946, Professor Harold Orton, in a lecture delivered at Sheffield University, spoke of the urgent need for an English dialect atlas. This became the well-known Survey of English Dialects which was directed from the University of Leeds in the 1950 and 1960s. Members of the Society took part in this survey, most notably a former Honorary Secretary, Stanley Ellis, who played a leading role in the fieldwork. In 1949 a collection of dialect was published under the title A White Rose Garland. Containing a wealth of poems, prose, sayings, colloquialisms, and information about the county, it is long out of print but copies are occasionally to be found in second-hand bookshops.

In 1997, the Society organised a series of get-togethers to celebrate us reaching the magical 100 mark. No telegram from the Palace, but lots of kind and supportive comments, plus our AGM and dinner in York, and meetings at the Hovingham home of our then President, Sir Marcus Worsley, and at Saltaire, where Joseph Wright, at an early age, had worked in Salt's Mill.

The Society remains one of the world's-oldest dialect societies.

The Society was established in Huddersfield in 1863 but within a few years extended its scope to the whole county and adopted the title 'The Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Association'. Archaeology and history have since become two scholarly disciplines, and the Society has become 'The Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society'.

The aims and objects of the Society are around the 'examination, preservation and illustration of the History, Architecture, Antiquities, Manners, Customs, Arts and Traditions of the county of York…'

These aims guide the work of the Society, although the emphasis on one theme or another may change with the passage of time. Members share a passion for Yorkshire's past and a commitment to the Society's aims, and, as volunteers, their commitment drives all our activities forward.

Over the years, much has been achieved but more remains to be done to ensure that future generations have as much information about their origins as can realistically be recorded.

Financially, in addition to the subscriptions of members, large projects depend increasingly on the generosity of donors, grant-giving bodies and on partnerships with other organisations.

The Yorkshire Archaeological Society was founded 'to promote the study of ecclesiastical architecture, antiquities, and design, the restoration of mutilated remains, and of churches which may have been desecrated, within the county of York: and the improvement, as far as may be within its province, of the character of ecclesiastical edifices to be erected in the future'. The first meeting of the Society, to be called the Yorkshire Architectural Society, was held in York on 7 October 1842. Its membership consisted of patrons, The Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Ripon; Presidents, the Lords Lieutenants of the three Ridings: Vice-Presidents, local nobility, knights and Members of Parliament; and ordinary members, clergymen and lay members of the Church of England.

An early pioneer in its chosen field (The Oxford Architectural Society and the Cambridge Camden Society had been formed only two years earlier), the society met twice a year for the reading of papers and the dispatch of ordinary business. This included the consideration of grants from its funds for the restoration of churches. An early indication of its reputation was a request from the Vicar of Wakefield for the Society to undertake the complete restoration of the Chantry Chapel of the Blessed Virgin on the bridge there. The undertaking of this project was, in fact, to be a unique event in the annals of the Society.

Excursions to places of interest became a regular part of the Society's activities in 1845, when a visit was made to Adel church. A seal was designed for the Society by John West Hugall, a YAYAS secretary, in 1850. A year later, the Society entered the publishing field as a member of the union of architectural societies which produced The Associated Societies' Reports and Papers, a venture which continued until 1935. The pattern of lectures, excursions and grants continued until the last two decades of the 19th Century when the Society went into an almost terminal decline.

With the birth of the new century however, the seeds of a revival were sown. New members were recruited, including Dr W.A. Evelyn who exerted an influence that was to make the Society a significant force in the affairs of the City of York. To recognise the change of emphasis in its interests the words 'and York Archaeological' were added to its title to give it the usually used acronym of YAYAS.

Until he died in 1935 Dr Evelyn led many campaigns, with varying degrees of success, in an attempt to prevent the City's historic heritage being eroded. After the Second World War, the Society continued to exert its influence and was particularly well represented on the Corporation's Shambles Area Committee which planned the creation of Newgate Market. Now, as a member of the Conservation Areas Advisory Panel, it continues to make informed comment on planning matters in the City.
Thus on a more secure footing the Society has completed the 20th century without any further causes for disquiet: in 1992 the Society celebrated its 150th anniversary with a series of special events for its members.

YAYAS still continues to provide lectures and excursions and has become a considerable publisher of books and journals pertaining to its field of interest. As the success of any Society depends on a healthy membership, YAYAS invites all those with an interest in the architectural and archaeological heritage of York and Yorkshire to join and ensure that the Society continues its good work well into the 21st century.

Christopher Wyvill was born in Edinburgh in 1740, the son of Edward Wyvill (died 1791), supervisor of excise there, by Christian Catherine, daughter of William Clifton of Edinburgh. Sir Christopher Wyvill, 3rd Baronet, of Constable Burton, was his great-great-grandfather.

Christopher Wyvill matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1756, obtaining an honorary degree of LL.B. in 1764. In 1774 he came in for the large landed estates of the family in Yorkshire and elsewhere, and the mansion at Constable Burton, the building of which he completed from his cousin, Sir Marmaduke's, designs. He had some years previously taken orders and been presented through his cousin's influence to the rectory of Black Notley in Essex, which he continued to hold and administer by means of a curate, down to 22 September 1806. Debarred from entering the House of Commons, Wyvill began to take a prominent part in county politics.

In 1779 Wyvill was appointed secretary of the Yorkshire Association, which had for its main objects to shorten the duration of parliaments, and to equalise the representation. He shortly became chairman of the association.

Wyvill drew up a circular letter enunciating its political sentiments, and took a leading part in drawing up the Yorkshire petition presented to parliament on 8 February 1780. A number of moderate Whigs, including Horace Walpole, regarded Wyvill's manifesto as chimerical, Walpole writing that it was full of 'obscurity, bombast, and futility'. Sir Cecil Wray wrote in a similar vein, and Rockingham wanted to know if the Association had ever considered the practicability of the annual parliaments which they recommended. Wyvill's contention was that the long American war was due primarily, not to the wish of the people, but to the votes of the members of the close boroughs. The Association had the sympathy of politicians including Pitt and Charles James Fox.

A committee under Wyvill was appointed to continue the pressure by correspondence, and the example of Yorkshire was followed by other counties, 25 in all. In the period 1779 to 1781, when there was a delegate conference, the movement gained a broad base. Supporters included John Baynes, Sir Robert Bernard, Newcome Cappe, John Fountayne, Sir James Grant, Thomas Brand Hollis, Sir James Innes-Ker, John Lee, Gamaliel Lloyd, George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester, John Smyth, Charles Stanhope, and William Johnson Temple.

With the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, however, and the fall of Lord North, the Association disintegrated. Wyvill's supporters dwindled, to a small group including Sir George Savile, and Sir Charles Turner, who spoke of the House of Commons as resembling a parcel of thieves that had stolen an estate and were afraid of letting any person look into their title-deeds for fear of losing it.

Wyvill strongly disapproved of the subsequent war with France, to which he attributed industrial distress in Yorkshire, and this completed his alienation from Pitt. In 1793 Wyvill published in pamphlet form correspondence that had passed between them. Some supplementary letters appeared at Newcastle in a further brochure, and both had a large sale. Wyvill attached himself to the extreme Whig opposition, and he defended in a short pamphlet (early 1799) the secession of 1798. After Fox's death he gave his support to Samuel Whitbread and the peace-at-any-price party.

Wyvill returned in later life to his early enthusiasm in the cause of universal toleration; in particular he published on Catholic emancipation. He died at his seat, Burton Hall, near Bedale in the North Riding, on 8 March 1822, at the age of 82, and was buried at Spennithorne.

Brian Wragg was a resident of York, who completed his PhD, entitled 'The Life and Works of John Carr of York: Palladian Architect'. His PhD was awarded by the University of Sheffield.

John Walker was a railwayman, and one-time resident of 20 Portland Street, York. It is believed that he may have also fought in the First World War.

Wigginton Parish Council was officially created when the Local Government Act of 1894 formed Parish Councils. The new Parish Councils assumed responsibility for local civic and social welfare which was previously managed through ecclesiastical parishes.

The first Treasurer for York Minster was appointed in 1091 when the office was established by Archbishop of York Thomas of Bayeux, but all that remains of his original house is an external wall which forms part of Grays Court and sections of 12th-century masonry in the present Treasurer's House for which it is uncertain whether they are in-situ or have been reused. As the controller of the finances of the Minster the Treasurer required a grand residence to be able to entertain important guests.

The residence served in this capacity until 1547, when the Reformation of the English Church brought the job of Treasurer to an end. The last Treasurer surrendered the house to the crown on 26 May and it was granted to Protector Somerset by whom it was sold to Archbishop Robert Holgate. Thomas Young, Archbishop between 1561 and 1568, and his descendants are responsible for the structure of house as it is today. In the early 17th century the Young family added the symmetrical front and almost entirely rebuilt the house. In 1617, the Treasurer's House played host to royalty when Sir George Young entertained King James I. The house then passed through a number of private owners including Lord Fairfax and over time was sub-divided into separate tenements.

The house was restored to its present state by Frank Green, a wealthy local industrialist, who between 1897 and 1898 bought each part of the house. He appointed Temple Moore to restore the house and remove numerous earlier additions. This work was mostly completed by 1900 and when Frank Green retired and moved away from York in 1930 the house and its contents were given to the National Trust.

The house was built directly over one of the main Roman roads leading out of Roman York to the North. During major structural changes, carried out by Green, four Roman column bases were uncovered, one of which remains in-situ in the cellar and one of which was used as a base for a modern set of columns in the main hall.

Today, the National Trust continues to manage the hall and gardens, and opens the building to the public as a visitor attraction.

T P Cooper was a local historian, specialising in the history of York, in the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries.

The 1212 charter included the right to select a mayor and pay the city's fee farm directly. The Lord Mayor serves a one year term at a time, but may be Mayor more than once. The Lord Mayor was traditionally drawn from the pool of aldermen, and returned to being an aldermen afterwards. The Lord Mayor is supported by the Lady Mayoress who may be a spouse or other female relative. The first female Lord Mayor of York was Edna Crichton in 1941-1942.
See also Mayor and Commonality of the City of York. Charitable functions chiefly transferred to York Charity Trustees in 1837, though some individual cases remained.

Tate Wilkinson was born in 1739. The son of a clergyman, he was educated at Harrow.

His first attempts at acting were badly received, and it was to his wonderful gift of mimicry that he owed his success. His imitations, however, naturally gave offence to the important actors and managers whose peculiarities he hit off to the life. Garrick, Peg Woffington, Samuel Foote and Sheridan, after being delighted with the imitations of the others, were among the most angry when it came to their turn, and threatened never to forgive him. Garrick never did.

As an actor, Wilkinson was most successful in Foote's plays, but his list of parts was a long one. In Shakespearian characters he was very popular in the provinces. In 1766 he became a partner of Joseph Baker in the management of several Yorkshire theatres, and married about 1768. He became sole manager after his partner's death in 1770 of a number of theatres on what was then called the Yorkshire Circuit, and he was both liberal and successful. The Theatre, Leeds, built to his order in 1771, was part of the circuit. In 1769 he took over York Theatre Royal, where he also had living quarters.

He died in 1803.

Violet Vivian Finlay was born in Berkshire, England on 2 January 1914. She was the daughter of Alice Kathleen (née Norton) and Sir Campbell Kirkman Finlay, the owner and director of Burmah Oil Company Ltd., whose Scottish family also owned James Finlay and Company Ltd. The majority of her childhood and youth was spent in Rangoon, Burma (now also known as Myanmar), where her father worked.

Finlay married four times and bore five children, Gillian Rushton (née Porch), Kim Santow, Jennifer Gooch (née Stuart), and twins Vary and Valerie Stuart.

Following the dissolution of her first marriage, she studied for a time Law in London in the mid 1930s, before decided studied Medicine at the University of London. Later she spent time in Hungary in the capacity of private tutor in English, while she obtained a pathologist qualification at the University of Budapest in 1938. In 1939, she emigrated to Australia with her second husband, a Hungarian Doctor Geza Santow with whom she worked. In 1942, she obtained a diploma in industrial chemistry and laboratory technique at Technical Institute of Newcastle. Having earned an ambulance driver's certificate, she joined the Australian Forces at the Women's Auxiliary Service during World War II. She was attached to the IVth Army, and raised to the rank of sergeant, she was posted to British XIV Army in Rangoon, Burma in October 1945, and was then transferred to Sumatra in December. After the war she returned to England.

She published her first novels in 1953. She signed her romantic fiction as Vivian Stuart, one of her married names, and under the pen names of Alex Stuart, Barbara Allen, Fiona Finlay and Robyn Stuart, while for her military sagas, 'Alexander Sheridan Saga' and 'Phillip Hazard Saga' she used the name V.A. Stuart, and William Stuart Long was her pen name for the popular historical series: 'Australians', based on her research at The Mitchell Library Sydney; The National Maritime Museum; British Public Records Office and the New York Public Library.

Many of her romance novels were protagonized by doctors or nurses, and set in Asia, Australia or other places she had visited. Her novel, 'Gay Cavalier' (1955 as Alex Stuart) caused trouble between Vivian and her Mills & Boon editors. She featured a secondary story line featuring a Catholic male and Protestant female who chose to marry. This so-called 'mixed marriage' outraged many people in the United Kingdom at the time.

On 24 October 1958, she married her fourth and last husband, Cyril William Mann, an investment banker.

In 1960, she was a founder of the Romantic Novelists' Association, along with Denise Robins, Barbara Cartland, and others; she was elected the first Chairman. In 1970, she became the first woman to chair Swanwick writers' summer school.

Violet Vivian Mann died in 1986 in York, at age 72. She continued writing until her death.

The university descends from two Anglican teacher training colleges, which were founded in York in 1841 (for men) and 1846 (for women). In 1862, the women's college relocated to Ripon. Over the next century, the colleges gradually diversified their education programmes. The colleges, St John's College and Ripon College, merged in 1974 to form the 'College of Ripon and York St John'.

In 1990 the combined institution formally became a college of the University of Leeds; this arrangement allowed it to award degrees in the name of the latter, while remaining in practice largely autonomous. Between 1999 and 2001, all activities were transferred to York and the college received the name 'York St John College'.

In February 2006, the College was granted the right to award degrees in its own name and the right to call itself a University College. On 10 July 2006 the Privy Council approved a request from the college to become a full-fledged University; the name became 'York St John University' on 1 October 2006, and the first Chancellor (installed at a ceremony in York Minster on 7 March 2007) was the Archbishop of York John Sentamu.

The Sheldon Memorial Trust was established to perpetuate the memory of Oliver Sheldon. Sheldon died on 7 August 1951 at the age of 57.

A Director of Rowntree and Company Limited, he was a scholar and a man of wide culture who made an outstanding contribution to art and culture of the north. He was founder and first Chairman of York Georgian Society, co-founder and first Secretary of York Civic Trust, heavily involved in the restoration of York's Assembly Rooms, and a prime mover in the establishment of the Borthwick Institute in St Anthony's Hall and the Summer Schools which became the foundations of the University of York.

The Sheldon Memorial Trust today furthers its founding principles by applying funds in the following areas:

• The award of essay prizes on subjects within the Charity's objectives.
• The provision of financial assistance by way of grants or loans for publications or projects.
• ​A competition rewarding schools to explore their prehistoric local landscape.
  ​- Organising lectures celebrating York's history and heritage.

The Sheldon Memorial Trust is a registered charity Number 529733.

Met occasionally to negotiate with the National Telephone Company Ltd regarding costs, installing telegraph poles and cables.

Strensall Local History Group is an informal group of people interested in learning about all aspects of the history of Strensall, York and the surrounding area. The Group holds regular monthly meetings to listen to speakers on wide-ranging subjects, and in summer there are usually two outings/outside events.

A regular newsletter keeps members in touch with developments.

Sydney John Holmes was born and raised in Acomb near York. He fought in the First World War, incuding in Ypres in 1917-1918.

Alison Sinclair is a retired archaeologist and architectural historian, who served as chair of the Conservation Area Advisory Panel for many years. She is a committed conservationist, particularly as regards York's built heritage.

In 1953, founders Richard and Mary Cave were frustrated at the lack of treatments and support available for Mary's MS. So they decided to do something about it. They set up their first meeting in West London, a small number of people came and the MS Society was born. Today, the Society has around 30,000 members and groups in every part of the UK. Richard and Mary's work has inspired thousands of volunteers, supporters and staff members to make a difference to the lives people affected by MS.

The York branch was started in the same year as the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and it is believed that it continues to this day.

Following a series of quarterly ringing meetings held in the early 1870's a meeting was held in Bradford on 2nd January 1875. After some ringing, those present adjourned to the Church Steps Inn for a business meeting and it was agreed to form a Yorkshire Society to promote ringing. Jasper Snowdon was unanimously elected to the chair for that meeting which formulated a constitution and a set of rules. These were presented to a large meeting held at Birstall on 30th October 1875, as a result of which the Yorkshire Association came into being.

In recognition of the leading part played by Snowdon, he was elected President and remained in this position until his death in 1885.

The Society continues to this day, and is now one of the largest ringing associations in the United Kingdom.

York Hospital Radio is a volunteer run radio station serving the staff and patients at York Hospital. It's exact foundation date is currently unknown, however it was certainly in operation by 1975. It is a registered charity and relies solely on donations for it's operation.

The exact foundation date of the York Old Priory Choir is currently unknown, however it was certainly in operation by 1906. The choir was a choral society, performing concerts for the local York public. Whilst the choir was originally mixed-gender, by the 1980s the number of men attending had begun to tail off, and the decision was taken to turn it into a female-only choir. From this point on it was referred to as the York Priory Ladies Choir.

At the end of the Second World War, Chief ARP Warden AIf Hudson, a boot and shoe repairer of 99 Poppleton Road, conceived the idea of a permanent memorial to the area's war casualties. Not just a plaque or a monument, but a living testament to the fortitude of local residents. He called a public meeting at Poppleton Road school, which resolved to build a Community Hall for social and recreational activity.

Building materials were short, with priority being given to repairing damaged houses. But with some perseverance, AIf and his helpers secured the rental of a plot of land just off Poppleton Road, overlooking the railway. A former barrack hut was purchased from RAF Everingham, a village bomber base west of York, dismantled on site and transported flat pack style to Poppleton Road.

Volunteers, many of them carriageworks employees gave their varied skills to rebuild the hut, and fit it out. Permission was obtained to demolish the old air raid shelter on Poppleton Road. All its bricks were hand cleaned and reused to form the footings of the Hall, which was finally opened on Sunday November 24th 1946. At centre stage was a mahogany plaque, which bore in gold leaf, the names of the deceased in whose memory the Hall had been founded. A Committee of residents continued to manage the Hall, as they still do today.

By the mid 1980s, it was evident that the old wooden building, by then expanded, was at the end of its life. A six year fund-raising campaign followed, with all the Hall users contributing in various ways to collect over £40,000 towards the estimated £125,000 cost. The balance was secured with grants from Local Authorities, businesses and grant-making trusts. Charitable status was obtained, plus Planning Consent for the new building. The freehold of the still-rented site was bought on very favourable terms. The Committee rented temporary premises at nearby Poppleton Road school for eighteen months, and in that time, the old Hall was demolished, and the new building began to take shape.

The New Hall opening ceremony was held in April 1990, as a re-enactment of the original 1946 proceedings. Committee President Roy Hudson, nephew of the Hall's late founder AIf Hudson, played the central role. The then Lord Mayor of York, ClIr. Jack Archer and his wife Ena, the Lady Mayoress were in attendance. Jack was appropriately the Hall Committee's Vice President and a retired Carriageworks employee.

The Memorial Plaque was beautifully restored by courtesy of York Civic Trust whose Chairman, Dr. John Shannon, unveiled it as part of the proceedings.The new Hall was occupied from the following month, and continues to provide a home for the regular meetings of a variety of local groups. It also hosts one-off private bookings for meetings, parties and similar events. The Hall today is equipped with AV facilities, wifi and broadband.

In 2007, former Luftwaffe crew member 86 year old Willi Schludecker came to York on the latest of a series of reparation visits. He had been part of the bomber raid on York. Together with his UK hosts, Willi visited the Hall. He was given a copy of the Hall's history book, published in 1990, and gave a donation to the Hall in return.

York Photographic Society (YPS), which was formed in 1887. It is the oldest camera club in York and was one of the very first camera clubs and photographic societies in Britain. After an enforced hiatus, the Society reformed in 1932.

The club is a friendly group with a growing membership covering all ages, abilities and photographic genres. It meets on Wednesday evenings at the Poppleton Centre on the outskirts of York with our season running from September to May.

William Patefield was a draper and haberdasher in York. His dates of birth and death are currently known, however he was working in York in the late 1780s and 1790s.

The York Philatelic Society was founded in 1948, as an organisation for individuals interested in collecting or studying postage stamps, postal history, items of philatelic interest, historical philatelic items, postcards and labels used through the post.

The Society meets on the second Tuesday of each calendar month, and is associated with The Yorkshire Philatelic Association (YPA) and the Association of British Philatelic Societies (ABPS).

Persimmon was founded by Duncan Davidson in 1972. After leaving George Wimpey, Davidson had formed Ryedale Homes in 1965, selling it to Comben Homes in 1972 for £600,000. Davidson restarted development again in the Yorkshire area; Persimmon began to expand regionally with the formation of an Anglian division in 1976 followed by operations in the Midlands and the south-west. In 1984, Persimmon bought Tony Fawcett's Sketchmead company; Fawcett had been a director of Ryedale and he became deputy managing director at Persimmon. The enlarged company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1985, by which time the Company was building around 1,000 houses a year.

Steady regional expansion took volumes up to 2,000 by 1988 with a target of 4,000 following the housing recession. Tony Fawcett had died in 1990 and in 1993 John White was appointed as chief executive with Davidson remaining as an executive chairman. In 1995, Persimmon made the first of a series of major acquisitions. Ideal Homes, once the largest housebuilder in the country and then part of Trafalgar House was bought for £176m giving the Group a much stronger presence in the south-east. This was followed by the purchase of the Scottish housing business of John Laing plc and Tilbury Douglas Homes.

In 2001, Persimmon acquired Beazer Homes UK, for £612m, taking output to over 12,000 a year. The deal came about after Beazer and Bryant announced a 'merger of equals' to create a new house builder called Domus. However, Taylor Woodrow stepped in with a £556 million bid for Bryant, and Persimmon bought Beazer, a company named after its founder Brian Beazer, and originally started in Bath. The acquisition of Beazer brought with it Charles Church, a business founded by Charles and Susanna Church in 1965.

In January 2006 Persimmon acquired Westbury, another listed UK house builder, for a total consideration of £643 million.

Fettes was a pawnbroker, operating from premises in Lady Peckitt's Yard, York. His exact dates of operation are not currently known, however he was certainly working in the late 1770s.

York Ornithological Club was established in 1965 by people who attended an adult education class. It's original aim was for those members to continue with what they had learned. Over the years the club has developed, and how has at least 70 members.

The club publishes an annual list of bird records, runs trips for members and has a regular series of meetings and talks.

In 1835 the status of freemen in York as the sole electorate, master craftsmen, traders and officials was ended as part of municipal reform. In 1953 a Gild of freemen was setup to "enhance the good reputation of the City of York" and "maintain and develop the rights and privileges of the Admitted Citizens and Freemen of York".
See also Strays Committee.

Osbaldwick Parish Council was officially created at some point after the Local Government Act of 1894 formed Parish Councils. The new Parish Councils assumed responsibility for local civic and social welfare which was previously managed through ecclesiastical parishes. Osbaldwick became part of the York Unitary Authority in 1996.

The Mount School's heritage dates back to 1785, when prominent Quakers, Esther and William Tuke wished to provide an education for the daughters of Quakers. William's determination and Esther's selflessness made them the founding parents of York Friends' Girls' School. They were, as we remain today, passionate about providing an education for girls. The Mount has come a long way since the Tuke's vision in 1785. Our history and heritage shaped the education and provision we offer today.

The York Friends' Girls' School opened in 1785. Fees were 14 guineas a year for 'instruction, board and washing.' In 1812, due to economic difficulties caused by the Napoleonic War the School closed. In 1830, Samuel Tuke, grandson of William and Esther, along with William Alexander, Thomas Blackhouse and Joseph Rowntree (the founding father of the Rowntree dynasty in York) turned their attentions to reopening the School.

In 1831, at Castlegate House under the superintendent of Hannah Brady the school reopened. Subjects studied included Arithmetic, Latin and English Grammar. In 1836, funding became available to train young women to teach. Girls who trained at the School left equipped with the ability to earn a living and become independent women. In 1856, led by Rachel Tregelles, the school moved to a large purpose built house with vast gardens, in an area known as The Mount. Thus, The Mount School was created and remains on the same site today. In 1866, Lydia Rous became Superintendent, she was passionate about girls' education, wanting women to be able to receive the same education as men.

In 1878, Mount girls began to sit examinations that made them eligible for University. Susannah Wells became the first Mount girl to gain a place at university. She later returned as the first woman graduate on The Mount staff. In 1879, Superintendent Susan Scott aimed to modernise the school. Music and games were introduced to the curriculum. In 1876, tennis was first played at the school and in 1879 the first choir was started. Today music, performance and sports are such a staple of the School's curriculum and activities it is hard to imagine a time without them.

In 1890, Lucy Harrison became Superintendent. She raised the academic profile of the school, one that is still revered today. Teaching improved as only qualified university graduates were appointed to teach. In science girls began to undertake their own experiments. The Debating Society was founded and the question of women's rights was never far from the agenda. Lucy Harrison even introduced her lifelong hobby of woodwork to The Mount. In a time of needlecraft, woodwork was deemed an unusual lesson for young women. With women's rights, still a much-discussed topic at the School and in modern-day culture, it is evident Lucy Harrison was ahead of her times.

In 1902, Winifred Sturge took charge of the School for the next 24 years. The school premises continued to expand with the building of a new wing and the opening of the library in 1903. In the early 1900s The Mount girls played their part in helping to supply the needs of the less privileged young people. They went out to teach games in local schools and taught in Quaker Sunday schools. This sense of thoughtfulness remains a trait of the pupils today, who regularly raise money and volunteer for charities.

On 4 August 1914 Britain went to war. Quaker families were divided about whether it was right to be a conscientious objector or not. In 1914, Mount girls helped prepare accommodation for Belgian refugees and knitted socks and scarves for soldiers. In 1916, once the Zeppelin raids began the school was regularly thrown into darkness during blackouts – a cause of excitement and terror. The post-war years saw a steady increase in numbers at The Mount and a growth of non-Quakers attending the school. In 1931, the school marked its centenary, opening a new assembly hall. The role of professional women had been changed dramatically by the war and growing numbers of Mount girls would regularly train for careers in medicine and social work, professions many Mount girls continue to aspire to today.

When war broke again, it was decided to evacuate the school to a large house at Cober Hill near Scarborough. The girls arrived on 28 September 1939 and enjoyed two terms at Cober Hill. The war inevitably had an impact on the school, the girls were not sheltered from the daily news of fighting and many wanted to help. They knitted blankets and made toys for refugees and older girls volunteered as Land Girls. In spite of the war the school continued to look ahead and in 1942 in order to improve science lessons for girls a new laboratory was created.

In the post war decade, national events were celebrated and in 1952 Mount girls took part in the York Festival, a tradition that still stands today. In 1954, the science block was built aiming to address the national shortage of female scientists. This philosophy remains today with a thriving STEM programme. The 1950s and the changing world allowed the School to take on a global outlook. Girls from Europe, America, Africa and Asia joined the school. Mount Girls travelled to Grenoble and Geneva to participate in meetings of the United Nations youth events. Today students from many different countries attend the School and school trips regularly take place across the globe.

At The Mount School, political awareness was nothing new, but in the 1960s and 1970s new ways of participation were becoming available. The Mount School branch of Amnesty International was founded by Hilary Wainwright. Careers teaching became of great importance for girls. The Mount provided more structured advice and Old Scholars were invited to speak at careers evenings. Medicine, law and dentistry, were all popular and for the first time a girl from The Mount took up an apprenticeship in engineering. Careers advice remains a prominent department providing regular guidance and running careers fairs.

The school continued to develop over the years. In 1965, the swimming pool was opened alongside a new gymnasium. The old gymnasium was transformed into the art wing. The Music wing was also constructed to facilitate the teaching of music and the staging of concerts. As technology advanced, computers were introduced in 1981. In 1983 computer studies appeared on the curriculum. In 1988, a new science area was built significantly enlarging the provision for science and mathematics. At the same time a new art and design area was opened, and design and technology appeared on the curriculum. Art, design, photography, pottery, resistant materials and computer-aided design and technology all had purpose built facilities.

In 1991, The Mount Junior School opened – then named Tregelles School. With all the facilities of The Mount at its disposal Tregelles provided a fantastic setting for Independent Junior school. Modern languages were introduced to the curriculum and Senior School staff assisted with music, sport and languages. The School soon grew and in 1994 demand led to a nursery class opening. In 1995, the School expanded adding four new classrooms. The Junior School continues to thrive today welcoming girls aged 2-11 from York and beyond.

During the 1990s pupils were encouraged to achieve and achieve they did! The School produced winners of many national competitions including: The Liverpool University Mathematics Challenge, Leeds Latin Reading Competition, The German Jugendbruck Competition and The Wordsworth Trust's poetry competition. All these achievements in such a variety of fields were a testimony to the pride and faith that teaching staff had in their pupils.

Expansion of the school continued into the new millennium. The sports hall was opened in 2001 and in 2007, the College Study Centre opened. The expansion to the school was more than just physical and the curriculum and activities available to the pupils continues to grow. In 2011, the Global Thinking curriculum was devised by Nobel Peace Laureates and the international PeaceJam Foundation was introduced at College. Advances in technology were at the forefront of The Mount education and iPads have become a staple in the classroom for Junior and Senior School pupils.