Front cover of the official guide: City and County of the City of York (1961). Illustration by Kenneth Steel.

I’ve recently been perusing an interesting guide to York, bought as part of a small pile of publications from the Barbican Bookshop, in its closing down sale, some years back. As previously mentioned, I found the ‘local interest’ shelves pretty much cleared, but a few little treasures were found. (See ‘related posts’, below, for several of them.)

I’ve wanted to mention this particular guidebook, and feature a few scans of its pages, for some time.

Much of it is the familiar tourist-focused information on the Minster and other famous buildings. But alongside that are many pages illustrating York as it was for people living in the city, the places where residents worked and shopped.

My particular copy was once the property of Moorlands Hotel in Whitby, the stamp in the front suggests. I wonder how and when it ended up tucked away in a corner of a secondhand bookshop in York.

The booklet was published ‘by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of York’.

Title page of the 1961 York guide

For me, looking at this title page of the booklet, the inclusion of the ‘Citizens’ — and the fact that the word is capitalised — really stands out. Do we use the word ‘citizens’ as often now? Probably not, and perhaps not with this amount of civic pride.

The guide, in its introductory ‘Welcome to York’ page, ends with:

‘This book is not intended for the delectation of visitors only, but also for the men, women and children who dwell within the boundaries of our City.  The citizens of York are proud of their City, and York is proud of its citizens.  No matter where they may roam, those who have lived within the sound of the Minster bells, and have trodden its old streets, never forget the City of their birth or adoption, and for them this book may perhaps bring back happy memories.’

It’s perhaps even more likely to provoke memories now it’s 57 years old, and it certainly gives an insight into the city as it was at the start of the 1960s.

After many pages of the kind of information you’d expect to find in a guide for visitors — the history of the city, and its well-known historic buildings — the subject of page 69 is the University of York, not built at that point, but clearly seen as an exciting and important thing for the city, after government approval in 1960.

‘The university will be built at Heslington, less than a mile from the city walls, on a site of nearly 200 acres which includes Heslington Hall and its grounds.’

This is followed by a page on the city’s library and information service, and several pages on the history and uses of the Ouse, then brief information on the strays (mainly the Knavesmire), and the city’s parks and open spaces. There’s then, rather surprisingly, a ‘French Section’, which is actually just the one page. My French is quite poor but this part stood out:

From the French section of the 1961 guide to York

Ah yes, the wagons de chemin de fer, the chocolat and the instruments optiques. It sounds even more impressive in French.

The reason this is in the French summary section is because this official guide, in 1961, devoted a whole four pages to ‘Commerce and Industry’ (pages 88-91). Featuring, as you might expect, Rowntree and Co Ltd, followed by Joseph Terry and Sons Ltd. But then a reminder that the city’s workforce in the factories didn’t just make chocolate, with a page on the York Carriage and Wagon Works (aka the carriageworks), followed by a page on Cooke, Troughton and Simms Ltd. (Cooke’s factory was at the Haxby Road site where the new mental health facility is to be built.)

The advertisements towards the back of the guide remind us too of other places where many York citizens worked, back then.

Examples of Adams Hydraulics ironwork can of course be seen all over York, if you’re paying attention to ground level ironwork (and perhaps in particular, as a 21st century citizen, if you’ve had concerns about silted-up street drains).

Adams Hydraulics, advert from the 1961 guide

Big buildings advertised by Shepherd’s, including one for the University of Leeds which seems to be still in use (see Google Street View), though it seems less likely that the ‘Boiler House for 52 acre factory’ will have survived. (A quick Google suggests that the building was apparently still standing in 2010.)

Shepherd, advert from the 1961 guide

And then Shepherd Homes, building family housing out in the expanding suburbs:

Shepherd Homes, advert from the 1961 guide

From where the citizens of York might have worked and lived, to where they shopped:

Hunter and Smallpage, Goodramgate, advert from the 1961 guide

Hunter and Smallpage’s advert inside the back cover of the guidebook highlights that the shop had ‘6 floor showrooms’ and its own private car park, which must have been where Café Luca is now.

I remember the name Hunter and Smallpage, but don’t remember a store called Harts. But Harts also advertised in the 1961 guide, with a map showing the locations of various landmarks, including their shop:

1961 York guide: advert for Harts store

Interesting that the map includes mention of the telephone exchange, which of course at that time would have been a fairly new building, and was clearly seen as a landmark worthy of mention. And in the bottom corner of this page, the last page of the guide, mention of the printer of this official guide to York, in 1961. Printed locally, of course, at Ben Johnson’s, as so many things were, back then.

When I first thought about including this 1961 guide I thought it would be a case of just scanning some of the pages and adding them without too much comment, perhaps no comment at all. But it always ends up being more complicated than that, and several hours on from when I started this ‘quick page’ I find I’ve still not finished, as looking carefully always prompts more questions, and usually more Googling. So I just have to mention the cover illustrations of this lovely guidebook, and the fact that when scanning it I paid more attention to the signature, Kenneth Steel, apparently. The back cover illustration is particularly pleasing.

1961 York guide, back cover. Illustration by Kenneth Steel.

Footnote

… Gentle nostalgia, sometimes … getting to grips with important current things sometimes … hundreds of pages of all kinds of things here on this citizen’s record of York and its changes. And all without annoying adverts or pop-ups nagging you to join my mailing list (though you can do that on this link if you’d like to), and all proper ‘authentic’, independent, and apparently unique. Looking after this online resource I’ve built up over the years also involves paying website hosting fees every month. If you’d like to say thanks for this online resource, virtual coffees are always appreciated. I continue to add to these pages what I can, when I can. Thanks for your interest and support,
Lisa

The post York in 1961 appeared first on York Stories.

Terry’s factory buildings, April 2010. Photo: Lisa @YorkStories

A guest contribution from architectural historian Alison Sinclair, on the Listed Building Consent application for the Terry’s factory clock tower — a plan to convert it into residential accommodation

A little over eighteen months ago, the York Environment Forum held an open meeting on behalf of the Leeds University research project ‘Living with History’, with the object of finding out what local people thought about the future use of Terry’s Clock tower, as an alternative to its conversion to residential use as was being proposed. Our Open Forum came up with a number of alternative suggestions for the Grade II Listed Building which were incorporated into a report which was sent to anyone who left a contact address, as well as to the City Council and to the developers.

As has recently been publicised in The Press, an application has now been submitted to the City Council for the subdivision of the Tower and the attached boiler house and pump house to form 22 apartments:

16/01647/LBC | Refurbishment and sub-division of former Clock Tower and Boiler House to form 22no. apartments with associated car parking, landscape works and access from Bishopthorpe Road | The Clock Tower Bishopthorpe Road York

It is proposed to achieve this by the insertion of additional floors into the tower itself, and by extending the two attached buildings upwards by adding extra floors. Provision of adequate light to the new flats in the Tower will require the enlargement of some of the existing windows, as well as the renewal of their glazing. Doing all this will change the character and appearance of the buildings by enlarging them and levelling and raising their stepped profile.

Terry’s clock tower, July 2007. Photo: Lisa @YorkStories

There is in fact some discrepancy in the number of flats proposed as contained in two of the supporting documents to the Planning Application, in which the number of flats proposed in one is 21, and in the other, 22.

Clearly, no account seems to have been taken of the suggestions for future uses in the Tower which were put forward by our Open Forum. The following is the list of suggestions:

• There should be public access to the tower which should include public space
• There should be a public access to a view point and viewing gallery at the top of the tower
• There should be an art centre, exhibition space and /or museum
• A museum could tell the story of chocolate-making and /or the history of horse racing
• A restaurant
• The tower should provide a link with local business
• Sports facilities – including scuba diving in the water tank (!)
• Part of a Terry’s / Goddards / chocolate tourist trail linked to the City centre using mini-buses and the river

No information is included in the application about how the famous Terry’s clock will be restored. This has been identified by The Antiquarian Horological Society as of national importance, being one of only two of its kind in the UK still working when the factory closed. It was also identified in the Development Brief for the site as “the most visually recognisable feature …” as well as one of the “landmarks and symbols for York” on the factory site.

It is of course a long time since the clock worked, and it is somehow apposite that the function and purpose of the Tower is being denied while the symbol of that purpose is being disregarded.

Terry’s factory clock tower, 19 Aug 2012. Photo: Kopex, flickr.com

One of the justifications for creating flats in the buildings put forward with the application is that the proposals for the conversion of the Clock Tower/ Boiler House building will provide much needed new housing for York. This is obviously a fact, but the question has to be asked about who is likely to buy a Clock Tower flat, which is likely to be small, possibly in a gated building, and hardly suitable for family living. Nor will any of them be ‘affordable’ housing as the developers have indicated they are not required to provide any ‘affordable’ housing on the Terry’s site. So these 21 or 22 flats are not likely to make much of an impact on the City’s acute housing needs.

The application is available for comment on the City of York Council website https://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/:

16/01647/LBC 

It is hoped that a Community Forum will be held specifically to consider this application which has altered from any of the schemes for the Clock Tower previously publicised. This is a little questionable however, as the developers have claimed that they do not need an additional community event in the light of previous consultations. Much of the evidence of ‘community involvement’ submitted with this application relates to earlier events which did not include consideration of this specific scheme.

It is nevertheless hoped that the Council will require another consultation to be held. They have been asked to arrange this in conjunction with the developers but so far with no response.

It is of course the holiday period now when many people are distracted by other things. But anyone who has concerns about the future of the clock tower is urged to go online and register their concerns; and to keep a watch for notification of a public meeting at some future date yet to be decided, at which this scheme will be thoroughly aired to the local community.

— Alison Sinclair

Alison Sinclair worked for English Heritage for ten years. Her last contract before retirement was the revision of the Statutory List of Buildings of Architectural and Historic interest for York, during which she was responsible for the designation of Terry’s Clock Tower as a Listed Building.  She has been a member of the York Conservation Areas Advisory Panel since 1990, and was the founder and first Chair of the York Open Planning Forum.

More information

The Twentieth Century Society featured the clock tower as Building of the month in April 2016

The Terry’s factory buildings have featured on York Stories several times over the years. See ‘related pages’, below.

Lisa @YorkStories is having a summer break from writing but will return to more regular updates to this website as soon as possible. (If you’d like notification of this and other updates, join the mailing list.)

The post Time to comment: Terry’s clock tower appeared first on York Stories.

I’ve mentioned www.britainfromabove.org.uk previously on these pages, but since then another batch of photos of the Terry’s factory has been added.

The photos included here link to the original images on Britain from Above. If you want to see them clearly, in detail, as larger versions you can zoom in on, you have to register. It’s free and quick, and the larger originals are really worth seeing.

1926: under construction

I assume it’s just a happy accident that the aircraft happened to be passing this way at the time the factory was actually under construction. It passed by more than once that year, though I hadn’t realised until today.

This photo shows the factory under construction, on 30 June 1926, with scaffolding visible around the base of the clock tower building. (As I said, you’ll need to register to be able to see the detail properly.)

This photo is from 19 October 1926, with scaffolding gone, but it still looks very much ‘under construction’.

1932

And now, fully operational, six years later in 1932. A view of the factory from the other side, the racecourse side, with the Ouse in the background.

A search on the site found 14 photos of the factory buildings, and I thought it might be useful to collect them together in a group: www.britainfromabove.org.uk/groups/terrys-york. In doing this I’ve been designated ‘Group Leader’, a title which makes me feel I should organise some group games and activities or something. I won’t be doing that. But please do join this group and add any local info you have.

The images, being aerial views, also of course show the surrounding area, other buildings in the vicinity.

I’m also ‘Group Leader’ of a collection of images assembled last year, titled ‘York and Yorkshire‘ (but actually only York I think, last time I looked) which includes images of the city centre. And also the (now demolished) sugarbeet factory, when it also was new. Important parts of our heritage, our industrial heritage, in images captured and preserved and free to view.

So pleased that things like this are now being made available online.

Elsewhere on this site

Terry’s captured on film (the moving kind) during a royal visit in 1937.

The post Terry’s from above, 1926 and 1932 appeared first on York Stories.

But first, here’s a (silent) film of the Terry’s factory. Well, actually it’s a film of a royal visit, in 1937, but I spent all my time looking past the royal party at the workers in their uniforms, and the massive building they streamed out of and stood by. The scale of the thing. Because it’s familiar we perhaps don’t appreciate, walking past it on the street or seeing photos, just how vast a place it was, how many people it employed in its heyday. This is clearly represented in several places in the film in particular, at 2 mins 50, for example, and at 3 mins 45, so many faces at the windows, and at 5 mins.

Followed by a rather less interesting sequence of presentations to the royal visitors. But then enlivened again as the royal party leave and the formal bit relaxes behind them and the women nearest the camera lose their line and momentarily huddle and talk in spontaneous excitement, a lovely moment at around 9:59, then the men in bowler hats look relaxed and normal and immediately smoke, while perhaps saying ‘That went rather well I thought’ to one another.

While they’re all relaxed it’s all kicking off at the Mansion House, with police holding back the enthusiastic flag-waving crowds, illustrated in the last couple of minutes. Marvellous stuff.

That this was filmed is nice. That it was preserved for so many decades is even better. That it’s available to view for free online is splendid. With added ‘Context’ and the opportunity to comment.

And on to Rowntree’s, the following decade, just after the war. Women workers running en masse from the factory entrance. Filmed from closer to the natural level, more personal and small-scale and rather more Rowntree-like, fittingly. They all look very fit, and they’re heading for their sports day, which is the main subject of this film. But again, I was looking behind them, to the buildings they knew and worked in, some of which remain, most of which are gone now.

The first minute or so scans across the factory buildings, from Haxby Road, with that impressive Wigginton Road building since lost, in the background (pictured here in this still from the film). Then women begin running from the factory gates. They seem very athletic these Rowntree’s workers. (Not like over at Terry’s, where they’re all smoking fags ;) )

From 1 mins 45 we’re at the sports day, losing the lovely voice and natural style of the original voiceover, and going into a more staged commentary style, amusing now. With poetic moments almost. Worth a watch/listen. It’s charming, and of its time.

‘And let the best man win. In this, he can’t, because it’s the girls’ hurdle race and they’re off -’

The inevitable rain – ‘Never mind – our clothes will dry and our skins are waterproof!’

Just fantastic.

. . . . .

Stills from the films used with permission.

Elsewhere on this site

All posts tagged ‘Terry’s’

All posts tagged ‘Rowntree’

The post Memorable times, Terry’s and Rowntree’s appeared first on York Stories.

The Rowntree factory clock on Wigginton Road, fitted with a solar panel since its earlier appearance on these pages. Attention was drawn to these clocks after they were manually adjusted to just after 8 o’clock to celebrate the history of a particular line of confectionery once manufactured here.

After a brief spell during which the clock mechanisms disappeared, they’re now all back in place, all running on solar power, and are keeping time like they used to when they were properly useful, next to the factory gates.

There are two similar clocks near the Haxby Road ‘main entrance’, also now with solar panels on top.

And they’re still keeping time, weeks/months after being adapted to use solar power.

There’s no need, these days, for factory clocks and no real need for public clocks of any kind. No real need for any timepiece in the traditional form, for most of us, carrying a mobile phone. But we value things not just because we need them personally, to go about our daily lives, but because of a symbolic value beyond the immediate usefulness.

So Nestlé have invested in the future usefulness/symbolism of these old factory clocks, and they’re skilfully updated for the 21st century. Respect due to them and those who did the work involved. (Feel free to comment below if you were involved in this work.)

These clocks are quite humble, homely things. You have to look upwards to read them, but they don’t appear on the horizon and they’re not visible unless you’re in the street near them.

Whereas our other chocolate factory clock is a landmark. Terry’s of York – photo by Trev Pack, on flickr.com. Trev’s photo, taken from inside one of the factory buildings, captures two significant aspects in one photo – the clock tower, and the increasing dereliction of these old Terry’s factory buildings.

Photo by Kopex, on flickr.com. Taken from inside the tower, showing the damage to one of the clock faces from inside.

The Terry’s clock tower is often called ‘iconic’ – a landmark in its part of York. Being iconic/a landmark perhaps also means being the target for more bricks being thrown at the clock faces, and at the rest of the building. Whatever the cause, accidental or deliberate, it has certainly sustained some damage since the factory closed.

(Photo: Kopex) In recent months the sale and imminent development of the Terry’s site was announced. This isn’t the first time, and nothing has changed in real terms as yet as far as I’m aware. When work starts, it will begin with the building of new homes on the empty parts of the large factory site. When refurbishment of the factory building and its clock tower will begin — well, time will tell.

It will be a while before the Terry’s clock keeps time again. When it does, perhaps it too will be fitted with a solar panel, to harness natural power to turn the hands. For now it bides its time, a relic of York’s industrial past, a reminder that the times it was designed to mark are long gone.

See also

All three clocks at Rowntree’s were pictured in an earlier page: Time after time

Elsewhere on the web

50th anniversary of After Eight mints celebrated at Nestlé

More photos on flickr.com of the Terry’s factory buildings by Kopex and Trev Pack

And a recommended read: Vandals breach security at former Terry’s chocolate factory (York Press).
The Terry’s photos above were taken by people documenting this building and its history in their own way, with a camera. That this involved trespassing is not my concern. I’m glad to see the place recorded and the images freely shared. Otherwise most of us would never see inside these buildings. Whereas breaking into a building to damage its fabric and spray graffiti on its walls is vandalism. Two different things, as the comments under the linked Press story make clear. I particularly liked the comment by VladSchmidt at 11.08am.

The post Changing times: factory clocks appeared first on York Stories.

What remains of the old Rowntree’s factory faces Haxby Road, but is best viewed from the cycle track to the south-east.
From down here, where the trains used to run, the view doesn’t look much different. Confidence and something approaching grandeur in that huge corner building, the Almond Block extension, so prominent on the skyline. I’d always seen it as a welcome landmark on the way home. Not so when heading back home one afternoon in July 2011, seeing it draped with a massive For Sale sign.

It seemed rather crass, and indeed pointless. People looking to buy huge old empty factory buildings don’t tend to rely on happening to notice one when driving about. It’s not as if passing commuters will think ‘Oh, the old factory’s for sale, I think I’ll make enquiries. Just what I was looking for.’

I think we’d all accepted by this point that Nestlé couldn’t hang on to a load of older factory buildings and that investment in the more modern facilities was more important, if it safeguarded jobs. But we didn’t need the big proclamation hanging off this place we’re so fond of.

Meanwhile, over at the other side of town, Terry’s. Despite the demolitions of peripheral buildings, reported on back in March, here more of the factory has been preserved, in the sense that we’ve kept the buildings. Nestlé removed more buildings but at least kept a large workforce and a presence in the city, rather than abandoning it altogether and clearing off elsewhere with our ‘chocolate heritage’, as Kraft did with the ‘Terry’s Chocolate Orange’.

This famous factory stands rather marooned, its clock faces looking battered, windows broken, handsome interior woodwork sprayed with pointless graffiti.

It has been marketed as The Chocolate Works, and at one time the perimeter had many large ads with particularly irritating ‘aspirational’ images. Man in a nice suit, in an expensive looking leather chair, under the caption ‘It’s time’. Presumably a nod to the Terry’s clock, referencing the history of the place in a way that didn’t happen, not surprisingly, when developers were marketing the old gasworks site.

It will be interesting to see what happens to The Cocoa Works and The Chocolate Works. It seems most likely both will be empty for a long time, decaying slowly, with their decay hastened by lead thieves stealing bits of roof.

Not everyone who trespasses goes in to steal. Some go just to take photos. Want to see how they’re looking inside? See the links below. Though former workers may find the images of vandalism rather depressing.

I’m heading on to Haxby Road to admire what’s left of the Rowntree factory and its associated buildings.

Elsewhere on the web

Terry’s factory, including photos of the interior, and more, very recent (Dec 2012). See also a 2007 report, which includes photos of some of the murals of Terry’s products probably since obscured by graffiti. The place is clearly being vandalised on a fairly regular basis. Also explored on a regular basis by people with cameras. In fact it appears that almost everyone but me has been in there.

Rowntree’s: surveying the interiors, before demolition

Rowntree’s, interiors, August 2012

The post Chocolate Works, Cocoa Works appeared first on York Stories.