The heritage man

EVER since he returned to York 28 years ago, Darrell Buttery has kept a diary. It now fills dozens of A4 volumes, and runs to a million words or more. But we will not get to read it until after its author's death. This suggests Mr Buttery has filled the pages with defamatory assessments of everyone he meets, like a Yorkshire Alan Clark.

Not so, he insists. Occasionally he has dipped his pen in vitriol, and you suspect the lawyers who cross-examined him at the Coppergate Riverside inquiry would shudder to read his opinion of them (more of that later).

But mostly the pages are filled with observations about his true love: the city of York.

"I don't know whether anyone has actually decided to do a diary of place before," says Mr Buttery. "You tend to associate a diary very much with the person who writes it."

Many of the words in his journal are not his at all. He has taken down verbatim everything from the "phenomenal" sermons of Canon Edward Norman at York Minster, to the quips of fellow lunch guests.

Otherwise transient conversations have been captured for posterity. It will be a remarkable social document for future historians: Mr Buttery's gift to York.

"I felt I wanted to contribute something to the great wealth of material about the city," he says.

This desire to "give something back to York" can also be seen in his multiple roles. Mr Buttery is soon to become governor of the Merchant Adventurers, he is chairman of the York Georgian Society, and he's one of the Terry Trustees.

To this list he recently added the chairmanship of York Civic Trust, the body set up in 1946 to conserve the city's rich architectural and cultural heritage.

He succeeded John Shannon, who had dominated the trust for nearly four decades. Mr Buttery is fulsome in his praise for Mr Shannon's energy and vision, saying he all but single-handedly saved Gillygate, among many other achievements.

But today's chairman is his own man, and he is keen that the trust "is brought more in line with current thinking". Mr Buttery has already introduced the trust's first programme of activities, starting later this month with a talk about the work of the trust.

One of his main ambitions is to expand the trust, encouraging both lifelong residents and city newcomers to join. A year's membership costs £7.

"We have got to find a formula to get people interested. How terrifying if we can't."

He also plans to launch Young Civic Trust in the autumn, initially for teenagers of sixth form age. It would be the first such body in the country, and Mr Buttery, 60, knows he is taking a gamble.

"I am as keen as mustard we should bring young people in. We should have been doing that for years.

"This is going to be both very interesting and very nail-biting. But I am prepared to have a go. If I fall flat on my face so be it."

York Civic Trust's most recent high-profile campaign has raged against the "architectural vandalism" of Coppergate Riverside. But this combative stance is unusual, insists Mr Buttery. The trust was set up with the aim of working with the city council, and the partnership is one that usually works.

"That's what makes the present stand-off over Coppergate all the more surprising," he said. "The civic trust felt this time it had to stand up and say the council had got it wrong."

His experience at the Coppergate public inquiry is one he does not wish to repeat. "One of the most deeply offensive things that ever happened to me in my whole life was the council's QC who saw his job was to rubbish the civic trust."

Not surprisingly, it made him question the whole planning process. He already had his doubts.

When elected as Conservative councillor for Nether Poppleton on Harrogate Borough Council in the Seventies, he was immediately put on the planning committee. Then, he had no relevant experience or expertise.

The same thing is still happening, he said. "Decisions are made about this city by people who are, quite frankly, ignorant about this city and its traditions.

"It really hurts me when bad decisions are made in York which, I'm pretty sure, have harmed it.

"There are too many people making decisions who don't have a feeling for York; the people who decided there would be a cycle track on Knavesmire across the hallowed site of the Tyburn."

To try to improve things, the civic trust is getting on board earlier in the planning process. It aims to be at the forefront of the creation of York Central, the huge tract of land behind the railway station up for development. And, as we reported yesterday, the trust has called for a new report to set out a long-term vision for York.

Mr Buttery speaks with great passion about protecting and shaping York. It is a passion born in an idyllic early childhood, when he would wander around the city, making notes and sketches of churches and other historic buildings.

His father Thomas ran the ABC cinema in York, his mother Ruby, who rechristened herself Robbie, was a teacher. They lived in Fulford. But the family was forced to move when his father lost money in an investment deal that went wrong.

It was quite a wrench for young Darrell, and he vowed then to return to York. After reading English at Durham University, he almost fell into teaching by mistake, but found he loved it. His route back to York came with a job at Nunthorpe Grammar, a "splendid school" which he says was "smashed" by the decision to turn it comprehensive.

After 11 years teaching at Queen Mary's School in Thirsk, Mr Buttery retired last year, only to return, part-time, as a teacher at Pocklington School. It has been a revelation. "I have never been in another school anywhere in this country which I love as much as that," he says.

In 1980 he moved into a large Victorian villa overlooking the racecourse. It is filled with his antiques, paintings, books and York ephemera, and resembles a private museum. Except, that is, for the slightly shabby kitchen, which he shares with some students based elsewhere in the building. Mr Buttery is unmarried, and has always enjoyed communal living, he says.

Another of his endearing eccentricities is keeping his clocks and watch an hour ahead. This habit sent a commuter on Leeds station into panic the other day. "I like summer time so much I don't bother to change it," he explains.

In the magnificent setting of his spacious front room, Mr Buttery plans campaigns and writes his diary. "It annoys me when people treat York as just another city," he muses. "York is so different, and we should be very proud of that difference."

If you wish to join the York Civic Trust, telephone (01904) 655543 for an application form or look on the website www.yorkcivictrust.co.uk. The same telephone number applies if you wish to invite Mr Buttery to talk to your organisation.

Updated: 10:28 Wednesday, March 06, 2002