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Brian Hartley was born in 1929, and attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1950, where he studied for the Natural Sciences Tripos. He then went on to gain a distinction in the Diploma in Prehistoric Archaeology. He retired from the University of Leeds in 1995, and passed away on 26th April 2005.

The Grand Opera House is located in Cumberland Street, York and was originally built in 1868 as a corn exchange and warehouse. It was converted into a theatre at the instruction of owner William Peackock in 1902. The Peacock family continued to own the theatre up until 1945, and staged a variety of different productions, including Music Hall, Pantomime, Variety, Opera, Plays and some of the early silent films.

In 1903 the theatre was renamed the Grand Opera House and Empire, apparently so that smoking would still be allowed in the auditorium (it was not allowed in serious theatres of the time).

The theatre closed in 1956 due to the entertainment tax and the rise of television. It was later purchased in 1958 by a Mr Shepherd, and renamed the S S Empire. Following refurbishment, the space was used for roller skating, dancing, bingo and wrestling. In 1987 the theatre was purchased again and returned to a live theatre.

The theatre was purchased by the Ambassador Theatre Group in November 2009.

Thomas Bowman Whytehead was born on 17 April 1840. He was educated at St Peter's School, York, before joining Gray's solicitors in the city, where his father had worked before him. Whytehead did not, however, enjoy the work, and later joined shipping firm Messrs Green and Co in London, with whom he served his apprenticeship. He was subsequently employed by the British India Company, before settling in New Zealand, where he became a journalist with the New Zealand Herald.

In 1870 Whytehead married a daughter of the late Thomas Drought of Plunketstown House, Castledermot, Ireland, in New Zealand, and returned to Britain shortly afterwards. He took up journalism again in York, and spent time as editor of the Yorkshire Gazette until 1886, when he was appointed registrar and chapter clerk to the Dean and Chapter of York.

Whytehead was also a justice of the peace for the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, and a prominent freemason. He died on 5 September 1907 in Acomb. He left behind his wife, four sons and a four daughters, his fifth son having been killed in the Boer War. .
See Also - Allen; Oswald (1767-?)

The York Open Planning Forum is a community body set up to provide a forum in which planning issues of public concern may be discussed. Their aim is to encourage a better understanding of planning matters as they affect the built and the natural environment of the York local authority area.

It is a forum for discussion, information exchange and consideration of planning matters. Planning Panels and Parish Council Planning Committees are one of the special concerns of the Forum.

The Forum also runs Local List, a citizens-provided list of buildings and structures which have historical or memorable interest in York even though they have not achieved Grade I or II Listed status.

Members of the York Open Planning Forum receive newsletters. Forum meetings are open to anyone interested and speakers include Council officers.

Iris Lemare was born in London on 27 September 1902, the daughter of organist Edwin Lemare. Iris went to Bedales and then Geneva to dstudy at the Dalcroze / Eurythmics School. She went on to story the organ under George Thalben-Ball at the Royal College of Music in London, where she won the Dove Prize. She also entered the conducting class of Malcolm Sargent.

In 1931, Lemare started concerts with Elisabeth Lutyens and violinist Anne Macnaghten. She conducted several of Benjamin Britten's early works, including the premiere of his Sinfonietta opus I and later his choral 'A Boy was Born'. She also premiered several works by Alan Rawsthorne, Christian Darnton, Elizabeth Maconchy amongst others. Overall the concerts premiered over 40 new works, many of them by women.

In 1937, Lemare became the first woman to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and during her career she also conducted the Oxford Chamber Orchestra and the Carlyle Singers. She loved opera and conducted Handel's Xerxes amongst other works in the late 1930s at Pollards, a house in Essex belonging to the Howard family.

During the Second World War she founded the Lemare Orchestra. She featured many new or little-known works and her soloists included Joan Hammond, Benno Moiseivitch, Geza Anda, Peter Donohoe and many others. In the 1970s she worked in opera and presented works by Menotti, Maconchy and Britten, and the premiere of John McCabe's The Play of Mother Courage.

Following her 81st birthday she was invited by the BBC Singers to conduct a 50th anniversary performance of Britten's 'A Boy was Born'.

Aside from her working life, Lemare was a keen walker, bird-watcher, swimmer and skier. She died on 23 April 1997 at Askham Bryan near York.

The Castle Area Campaign Group was founded in around 2001, as a protest group against City of York Council's proposed Coppergate II development. Had the development gone ahead, it would have been the biggest single development ever undertaken in York, with a footprint 1½ times that of York Minster. The proposal was to convert the car park area close to Clifford's Tower, and a large part of Piccadilly, into residential housing and shop units.

In around 2006 the plans were shelved by City of York Council.

York Wireless Relay Services Ltd was a company formed in the early 1930s to provide wireless telegram services to they city. They operated on the basis of a licence from the General Post Office, and were still in existence in around 1945.

The Friends of West Bank Park was formed to help preserve, manage and develop West Bank Park for the benefit of the local community. The group is organised to undertake practical work and public events in cooperation with City of York Council.The group are consulted by the council on developments and changes within the park.

The Fairfax Society was formed in 1993 as an organisation promoting the genealogy of the Fairfax family and its various branches. The Society is gradually created family trees for over fifty separate pedigrees both for the UK and overseas, from which a data base of names and dates of birth, marriage and death was produced.

They also created detailed records of each individual in the family and places associated with them, and collected portraits, prints and photographs, as well as the details of memorial inscriptions.

The Society published two journals each year to keep members up-to-date with various research projects in addition to articles of general interest, and annual general meetings were held each September at a venue associated with the Fairfaxes.

In late 2016 the Fairfax Society took the decision to disband, due to a lack of new members, and their archival records were transferred to Explore York Archives.

Acomb Bowling Club was established in the early twentieth century. Despite enduring popularity for decades, by 2018 it had only 11 active members and its Front Street bowling green site was sold to City of York Council for use for housing, subject to a £20 000 donation towards bowling club facilities at York RI Bowling Club.

The York Guild of Building was established in 1954 under the guidance of Sir Peter Shepherd and a number of other leading citizens connected with the construction industry, as well as professional organisations within the city, to represent and provide a forum for all the skills which are required in the construction and maintenance of buildings. This representation inspired the Guild logo.
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The builders of medieval York included masons, glaziers, plumbers, plasterers and tilers and the largest of the entire group who worked in wood, variously described as carpenters, sawyers, joiners and carvers. Of these only four crafts became organised into Guilds: the Carpenters, the Masons, the Tile Thatchers and the Plasterers. However these Guilds came to an end in York in the early nineteenth century.

The Guild operates with a Court of Assistants under the leadership of the Master for the year, assisted by Senior and Junior Wardens. Five members of the Court are elected annually by the membership. In addition several organisations connected with the construction industry nominate representatives, together with York College. Membership is open to any person involved in any aspect of building and associated activities. The day to day running of the Guild is in the care of the Honorary Clerk.

The Guild is committed to the advancement of design, management, science and craft in building and the better understanding of the problems and achievements of those engaged in building.
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To support the objectives of the Guild a very full programme of lectures, talks and visits, complimented by a range of social activities is produced by the court each year.