York City Planning documents online
YouTube videos
The Final Report
Kindle edition of Finding Fulford is now available
The Fulford Tapestry
Visiting Fulford
Map York
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10 reasons why the battle of Fulford should be saved
- Heritage is about those part of our inheritance that have
significance. Heritage is something that you cannot manufacture or replace
which is why
we have some rules to protect and save it.
- Economic costs and benefits can be assigned to our heritage.
The battle site is currently accessible to the public and would be a
valuable addition to the income-earning heritage assets of the city of York.
Yet such
an assessment has been omitted by the planning system adopted for the
site. The site is a valuable economic resource for the
city
- Wildlife uses Germany Beck as a conduit between the river Ouse and
the extensive hinterland including Heslington Common. Direct and
indirect evidence for water voles, field mice, otters and several
species of bat has been observed, notified to the planners; but then
ignored or worse.
- Green belt designation was overturned by the planners, even after
previous reviews specifically excluded the key section that is so
vital to the local ecology (see above).
Is it right that planners
can ignore the rules?
- Public consultation is supposed to be a significant, planning event:
But for
Germany Beck public debate has been minimal. If the public is going to grant
the right to makes such a change, it must be properly consulted.
- Flooding is persistent. The present plant
is not based in
reality. Is it sensible to provide a single access along a road that is
regularly flooded?
- Ecological targets might not be popular - But does it really make
sense to build a 600+ houses that depend on the motor car. Does the public really want
homes for commuters or, with the
expanding university alongside the planned housing, why not build some genuinely affordable properties for those
working at the University?
- Tranquillity cannot be assigned a monetary value but do we really
want a road to be elevated so that it will disturb the adjacent large
cemetery?
- Justice requires that the planning process gives
those opposing should have
similar rights to those proposing but that does not happen in the
planning system.
- Unique-ness can easily be overstated but it is probable that this is
the only battlesite where evidence of post-battle recycling will be
found because Stamford Bridge wiped out the invaders providing a
'Pompey moment' for Fulford. Archaeology still needs to be done that is relevant to techniques which
have been developed to study battlesites before the site is disturbed.
In a sensible world, this would would have been done before any
decision were taken - This was pointed out to all of the planners,
many times!
Put the other way round - Can anybody come up with a sensible reason to
build the access road along Germany Beck? There are better plans for this
landscape that will balance the needs for housing and heritage, in a way
that will benefit the economy and the ecology.
The Physical Evidential Trail
- We believe
we have at least 3 metal working sites identified on the Norse side of the battlefield.
It appears that metal from the battle was being reworked, presumably after the
battle.
Interpretation, Finds, Arrowhead
- Metal working tools. There are some similar items to those we have
found in the city museum in Northampton. See what you think.
Museum, Finds,
X-ray, and now XRF analysis.
- The various floods have tested the evidence to the old course
of Germany Beck that was revealed during soil survey work. The results are
encouraging. We are now confident that we know where the beck flowed in 1066.
All of these details have been published in 'Finding Fulford' and
presented at several conferences. BUT
Find out why not.
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