Fishergate Postern Tower will be open from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 14th & Saturday 21st September as part of the national Heritage Open Days Festival. See more information HERE
The tower will then be open on Saturdays 5th & 26th October + Saturday 2nd November. The tower is open on each date from 10am to 4pm. These dates are part of our 2019 season of Open Days, and as always it will be FREE entry.
Do come along and see us, and have a chat. Explore this unique 500 year old building, now with a NEW display of the 2018 Archaeological Dig + improved lighting.
The York Walls Festival 2019 has been a great success and will spur us on to make it into an annual event. It will return on August 15th & 16th 2020. Congratulations and well done to all those who gave their time and expertise to make the event happen.
Ebor Morris at Fishergate Bar on Sunday 11th August – part of York Walls Festival 2019
The 2019 event legacy has resulted in a number of things which will continue to be available beyond the festival.
At Fishergate Postern Tower we now have an excellent display of the December 2018 Archaeology Dig. This display will continue to be a major new feature of the tower and will be available to view at all future FPT open days. The original of “the comb” will unfortunately not be available, but we hope that suitable replicas of the finds will continue to be exhibited.
The new lighting installed in FPT will continue to provide an enhanced visitor experience, and will form the basis for future plans to improve all aspects of the tower displays and interior features.
The Sharpstick Films recorded for FOYW and the 2019 Festival were shown at The Red Tower. These are now available to watch via the following links:-
“Around the Walls in 14 minutes” is available HERE
“Excerpts from Richard III” filmed inside FPT are available HERE
If you have any good walls related photos taken during the festival please share them with us on our Flickr page HERE and at and via our Twitter and Facebook accounts.
This year’s festival programme is bigger and more varied than in 2018, thanks to the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the dedication of Bill Hill and our two festival assistants Holly Graham and Rebecca Spencer from York St John University. The last six months (longer in the case of York Explore) have seen many people contribute ideas, and highlights include:
a new display case at FPT to show off finds from the YAT dig last winter
a BBQ at Red Tower with the Lord Mayor coming at 3:30pm. Free food for all.
involvement with Found Fiction (story-writing activities), Fox Lane Books (bookstalls), the River Foss Society (boards on Foss Islands Road about the history and nature of the area) and Good Organisation (supporting homeless people in York)
a charity challenge. York Mind fundraiser Brian Mullins is walking the on or near the walls for 24 hours, starting at 11am on the Saturday.
a new York Walls Activity Booklet, with 8 pages of fun-filled activities. The Explorer Trails for stamping are back too.
York Archaeological Trust have been doing some more work to study the ivory comb found at Fishergate Postern Tower during the December 2018 dig.
Here’s another update on post-excavations from FPT. The ivory comb photogrammetry is now live on https://skfb.ly/6LIHY
As you can see, YAT’s top spec DSLR struggled to get the detail between the teeth, but even a laser scanner would struggle there. The detail of the grain of the ivory has come out very nicely, as have the crafts person’s tool marks.
A 3D print copy of the comb is being investigated. Once this has been done, YAT will be able to provide a cost for the object. Estimate around £40 – as the teeth will need to be manually sawn.
