Fishergate Postern Tower will remain closed until such time as it is possible to comply with the Government Guidelines regarding the safety of our visitors, our volunteers, and members of the general public.
York’s City Walls are managed by the City of York Council who will make their own announcements.
“Like all groups organising events this summer, we are faced with the realism that ordinary life will be on hold for many months. Only yesterday the Bar Walls themselves were closed to help reduce the spread of Covid-19. Given it is nearly five months until the festival though, on August 15 & 16, there is also a hint of optimism that the worst may be over by then. Even as a small festival, the uncertainty over whether government restrictions will be in place makes planning difficult.
We will therefore keep the situation under review, but certain events due to take place outdoors like an archery event at Baile Hill and a theatre piece between Red Tower and Fishergate Postern Tower will be cancelled. Talks may be postponed or delivered as online videos. Indeed, the festival committee will see what activities we can take forwards online (at www.yorkwallsfestival.org and via Social Media), and look at developing resources to share our wonderful heritage more widely.
During the planning so far for this year’s festival, the committee have agreed on our vision and noted the audiences we are looking to attract. This will be posted on Twitter (@WallsYork) shortly.
As we scale back our 2020 plans, at least we can confirm our dates for 2021: Aug 14 & 15 next year. Updates regarding festival plans will be shared online. Finally, may the festival committee wish everyone well for the months ahead. Times will be hard, but everyday life will eventually resume, and we look forward to enjoying the City Walls with you when it does.
You can still visit the interior of Fishergate Postern Tower in a safe and virtual way using our new FPT VR Tour available HERE
The FOYW AFM will be postponed to a later date, and our “committee meetings” will be conducted electronically.
The City Walls are controlled and managed by the City of York Council (CYC) who have announced “The City Walls will be closed until further notice to ensure we are supporting the government’s social distancing messages.”
You can now “visit” Fishergate Postern Tower and look around the interior thanks to a new Virtual Reality Tour. You don’t even have to negotiate the narrow spiral staircase, except in a VR world, to see what is inside the tower – on the ground floor and on the three upper floors in detail. Please Go To :-
Fishergate Postern Tower – A Virtual Tour
Open the above link and carefully navigate around each of the 360 degree views. Move from one location to another using the “Sun Hotspots”. Hover over a hotspot and the “Title” by that hot spot tells you where you are going to move to.
With thanks to Jonathan Malory at Sky Filming for providing the images and files to FOYW.
TIP – for a full screen display on a PC or a laptop use the f11 function key.
The 400 year old roof and tiles at Fishergate Postern Tower are in need of some maintenance and TLC. In preparation and planning for any roof repairs which may be necessary a detailed aerial survey of the roof has just been commissioned and completed.
On Thursday 23rd January Sky Filming, York were on site using a drone and a camera on a pole to capture detailed high resolution images and videos of the state of the roof.
A short aerial video is available HERE
The following images are a few pictures taken with the drone camera. (NOTE – they are low resolution for the web site)
A 3-D model has also been produced from the images recorded and can be seen at https://skfb.ly/6QtzR
The 3-D model is also available as a PDF file but is slower to operate. It can be seen HERE
