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| Earliest records show the site in the Middle Ages as a leper hospital
and it took its name from the ancient church that stood nearby, which was
destroyed after the battle of Marston Moor in 1644. During the 19th Century
vast amounts of clay were dug out and used in the on-site brick works to
make bricks from which many of the local houses were made. This left large
pits which in the 1950s the City Council then used as a landfill site for
the City’s rubbish. Tipping ceased in 1974 and the site was fenced off and
left so that nature could begin its healing work. In 1988 the Council considered
building an industrial estate on the site, a group of concerned local citizens
formed a protest group to oppose the loss of a valuable green space already
rich in wildlife and The Friends
of St Nicholas Fields was born. In 1994 work on the park began, members
of the ‘friends’ and many others have planted thousands of trees, created
a Butterfly Walk and built an adventure playground and a mini Stonehenge.
In May 2000 the York Environment Centre was opened and St Nicholas Fields were declared a
Local Nature Reserve in
February 2004. |