Welcome to England’s largest festival of history and culture!
Every September thousands of volunteers across England organise events to celebrate our fantastic history and culture. It’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE to explore.
Heritage Open Days 2024: 6-15 September See HOD website HERE
Fishergare Postern Tower will be open for the 2024 Heritage Open Days on Saturday 7th and Saturday 14th September from 10am to 4pm
Location = Fishergate Postern Tower, Piccadilly, York, North Yorkshire, YO1 9AF FREE admission and no need to book.
More details on the HOD page HERE
See inside this watch-tower on York’s City Walls. Rarely open to the public, our volunteers are on hand to show off the spiral staircase, Tudor toilet and timber roof. Find out about the history of the Walls and look out for any approaching invaders!
The Tower was built around 1505 where the City Walls ended on the banks of a swollen river Foss, with York Castle on the opposite bank. The narrow, 500 year old stairs twist to the right as you go up, making it difficult for a right-handed attacker to use a sword (or any weapon) as effectively as a defender facing him from above. The stairs take you up to the first floor room, which has a small twisted corridor off it leading to the garderobe, for human waste to drop straight into the river. The Foss had been made very broad by the building of a dam in the time of William the Conqueror, which raised the level of the river so it flooded the land between the Tower and the Castle, where the modern road called Piccadilly is.
You can see the modern lie of the land if you continue up the spiral staircase to the top floor (look out for masons’ marks on your way) and look through the windows, which were the open embrasures of battlements for the first few years of the Tower’s life. The roof beams may be older than the Tower itself: the roof was added in the late 1500s, using second hand timbers that carry obvious signs of their earlier uses.
Timings & Tours
- Saturday 07 September: 1000-1600
- Saturday 14 September: 1000-1600
