Year: 2019

York Walls Festival 2019 – Map & Event Guide

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.
  • the development of a mobile phone app. This can be downloaded now ahead of the festival: see http://yorkwallsfestival.org/mobile-phone-app for guidance
  • 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. 
  • The Activity Booklet can be downloaded HERE   
  •  and the Explorer Trail  HERE
  • new videos thanks to Sharpstick Productions, which will be shown at Red Tower.
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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.
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In December 2018 the York Archaeological Trust (YAT) led a dig at Fishergate Postern Tower for The City of York Council with the help of Friends of York Walls volunteers. We are now excited to reveal some of the interesting finds that were collected from the community excavation!

The first item, said by archaeologists to be the most significant personal object recovered from the excavation, is a post-medieval comb possibly owned by a former tenant of Fishergate Postern Tower. After analysis in the YAT Conservation Lab, the growth rings visible on the comb prove that it is made of elephant tusk! This find is at least 300 years old, almost complete in its physicality and is a must see.

As well as this, a wide range of pottery pieces were found, each telling their own tale across 2,000 years of York’s history. This included a (get ready for it) post-medieval fine oxidised industrial earthenware wide shallow flanged bowl, or Pancheon to us. These pieces were likely to have been used by The Phoenix Iron Foundry, formerly located on George Street close to Fishergate Postern Tower and therefore serve as a valuable piece of York’s history.

There are plenty more pieces to show you so don’t forget to visit Fishergate Postern Tower on the 10th and 11th August to see what else we’ve found.

If you can’t wait that long to see some of our discoveries, you can visit Sketchfab via your web browser HERE on PC, tablet or phone to see a virtual tour of the 1504 foundations exposed during the dig. Or likewise, if you have access to a smartphone and you can download the Sketchfab app to see the 3D model of Fishergate Postern Tower in augmented reality and VR. Simply search for YAT on the app and away you go!

If you wish to see the full report of the dig for free you can access it HERE from the YAT Library website. We look forward to showing you what we found in real life at the York Walls Festival across both days at Fishergate Postern Tower.

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