A GROUP of green fingered volunteers have found a new way to bring the history of York back to life with a gardening project intended to honour a forgotten church.

Emily Hansen, 36, is a trustee and part of a group of volunteers for Edible York who maintain the Barbican beds - notably, a corner of it that hopes to honour the history of the area.

The historic garden was set up in Autumn of 2022 in a corner of the Barbican beds and seeks to honour St Andrew’s Priory, a church that was situated just down Fishergate and served the community by growing a variety of edible plants.

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As a historian, Emily found herself interested in the history of growing plants in the area saying: “We thought it was just so cool that we had historic gardens so close to this area, so we thought we’d recreate it as a little homage.”

Looking back through time, she attempted to recreate a garden as close as possible to the items eaten in a medieval diet such as sage, lavender, gooseberries, parsley, leeks, and onions - those which would have been grown there by monks and clergymen at the time.



 

Some of the signs in the medieval garden (Image: Newsquest)

She also attempted to grow purple and yellow carrots – the original colour before they were selectively bred to become orange in the 16th century.

Emily continued: “It’s hard to know for sure what was eaten as it was primarily the poor who ate from it and they aren't as well covered in the history books. A lot of the herbs however would have come over with the Romans.

“I love the idea, especially in a place like York, and taking the streets back to their roots is really nice. York used to have orchards and nurseries – there’s such a history of food production here that I’d like to just know more about.”



One of the neighbouring beds, also part of Edible York (Image: Newsquest)

The Edible York project as a whole seeks to make locally grown food more accessible to the people, encouraging those who pass by the beds to make the most of the produce on offer and use them in their own cooking.

The beds are maintained by a group of volunteers who meet each Saturday morning to keep the garden tidy; they are one of three owned by Edible York with the other two being at Scarcroft Road and Peasholme Green. Those who wish to come along and volunteer their time are welcomed.