Following the granting of planing permission for a visitor centre to be built into the Motte at Clifford’s tower in York over a year ago, Councillor John Hayes MBE has headed up a campaign to save the monument from this fate.
The issue at hand is not the design of the centre, but actually the location as the councillor himself explains…
*The motte being the mound on which Clifford’s Tower sits.
Councillor Hayes and his fellow campaigners believe that English Heritage’s aim to reduce the risk of the steep entrance to the tower whilst providing a more encompassing and accessible visit is not reason enough to interfere with the structure of the historical tower.
After losing a recent legal battle attempting to overturn the decision, the campaign of local citizens lead by the councillor have been ordered to pay a £5000 fee to cover York City’s legal costs over the issue.
Despite this, the group is still hopeful of stopping the construction, and are busy raising funds to continue with the case through a Crowd Justice page online.
There are many centuries of history surrounding York Castle and Clifford’s Tower. The original construction on the site where these structures stand today was a wooden motte and bailey style castle built on the orders of William the Conqueror in 1068.
The tower was also the sight of the infamous Jewish massacre during the anti-semitic riots in 1190 where 150 Jews, the city’s entire community at the time, were killed.
Although the group “Save Clifford’s Tower” (who can be found on social media) has raised much funding and has support from locals, not all are in agreement with their opposition to the proposed visitor centre.
One York resident who visited the tower, Emma, aged 20, said: “I found with my visit that for the price paid, I didn’t get what I wanted out of the visit. I wanted to know more and I think that this [the visitor centre] would definitely help.”
On their website, English Heritage have stated that the the proposed visitor centre and other updates to the tower included in this proposal will “do justice to the monument’s centuries old history”. The link to which can be found below.
- http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/cliffords-tower-york/cliffords-tower-revealed/