IN the early years of the last century, York's heritage was imperilled by progress. Landmarks across the city were under threat from roads, trams and an over-zealous council. Then along came a doughty and persistent conservationist who fought to save the city's history: just what the doctor ordered.

Dr William Arthur Evelyn was not from York. Born in Wales and educated at Charterhouse and Cambridge, he was working in London until January 19, 1891.

On that day he caught the train to York to become a partner in a Museum Street general practice. It was to be an unforgettable journey for the 30-year-old, and a crucial one for the city.

According to Hugh Murray, in his biography Dr Evelyn's York, he left London shrouded in "a pea soup fog, characteristic of the capital city with its myriads of sulphureous and coal-burning fires.

"At two o'clock that afternoon he walked out of York Station and stood facing the city walls which were covered with eight inches of snow.

"In the dim half light of a winter's afternoon, the walls in their mantle of white looked magnificent and created a great impression on the young man.

"He was to say later 'I fell in love with York then and have been increasingly in love with it ever since'."

Dr Evelyn set about studying the city's history. With evangelical zeal he was soon encouraging others to learn more about their home, while campaigning to preserve the ancient buildings that give York its unique character.

For many years, Dr Evelyn was the secretary of the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society (YAYAS). In this role, he spearheaded the battle to save the fabric of York, wherever it was threatened.

"Like William Etty before him, who had returned to York in the early 1800s to appeal to the city fathers not to pull down the medieval city walls but to repair and rebuild them for future generations, Evelyn was also a dedicated conservator of the York's rich history," said Peter Stanhope, of the Gild of Freemen of the City of York.

As well as saving many buildings, Dr Evelyn left another legacy: a vast collection of pictures and prints of old York. Some of these will be used to illustrate a Gild of Freemen talk on his life and work by Syd Heppel this Thursday.

Mr Heppel has been a York guide for more than 50 years, and, on behalf of YAYAS is the keeper of the Evelyn slide collection.

His enthusiasm for York history matches that of Dr Evelyn's. The doctor's passion for the subject can be gleaned from a lecture he delivered in 1910, and reprised a year later.

Entitled Nineteenth Century Fingerprints Of Vandalism In York, it was intended to shake citizens out of their apathy.

"Curious to note," he told his audience, "how apparently much more interest is taken in the preservation of what little has been handed down to posterity of old York by those who have for various reasons come to reside in the dear old city from afar than is evinced with a very few notable exceptions by those who have lived all their lives in the city."

Familiarity had bred contempt among residents: "the sight of those ancient monuments of long past days have grown stale to them, the history of York if they have seriously tried to read it has bored them".

He went on to list the acts of vandalism that had been perpetrated in the 19th century: the removal of the barbicans and the sally-port of the Castle, the destruction of the Norman cloisters under the theatre and the demolition of buildings such as the George Inn in Coney Street and St Crux Church in Pavement.

It was thanks to Dr Evelyn and YAYAS that such destruction was slowed, if not entirely stopped.

His campaigns ensured the city moats were not turned into gardens, and that great holes were never torn in the walls to make way for cars and trams.

The need to accommodate tramways was the reason for another hugely contentious scheme. In 1911, the York Corporation agreed to widen Goodramgate to make way for the electric tramway.

YAYAS was shocked to see that the proposal included the demolition of the oldest houses in York, on Lady Row. Dr Evelyn was quick to put pen to paper.

"The removal of the shops at the corner of Goodramgate and Petergate would quite spoil the picturesque view down Petergate which is so universally admired by artists and antiquarians alike," he wrote. The scheme was later dropped.

Another of Dr Evelyn's pet hates was the proliferation of advertising posters. No controls existed, and as a result adverts and theatre bills were plastered on every available space - hoardings, end walls of buildings, fences.

The doctor wrote regularly to complain. "It is somewhat ironic," writes Mr Murray, "to find that his lectures given in order to raise funds for St Stephen's Orphanage were prominently advertised in the very way he found so objectionable - by posters on hoardings and gable ends."

Dr Evelyn never stopped campaigning. In 1931, four years before he died, he fought to save five ancient churches in York. The population was moving away from the slums in York city centre into the suburbs, and the central churches were losing their congregations.

So the Archbishop of York, Dr William Temple, appointed a commission to look at the problem.

It recommended that five churches should be pulled down, to the fury of YAYAS. Those earmarked for demolition were Holy Trinity, Kings Square, St Michael's, Spurriergate, St Saviour's, St Saviourgate, St John's, Micklegate and St Mary, Bishophill Senior.

The YAYAS sought legal advice on how to save them adndplanned a public protest. It was never needed.

"The Archbishop must have decided that the implementation of this part of his commission's proposals as well as being unpopular, would have been too costly to achieve," wrote Mr Murray.

Over time, both the Holy Trinity and St Mary decayed to a point where they could not be saved. But the remaining three have survived.

They stand as a testament to Dr WA Evelyn's love of his adopted city. In one of his countless protest letters, he once wrote: "The widening of the many narrow streets of York can only be done at enormous cost and with the inevitable result that York would soon become like any ordinary town."

That York is still extraordinary is thanks to the good doctor and others like him.

Updated: 10:20 Monday, March 18, 2002