York Postern Tower exhibition explores city’s Irish heritage

Recently I made the journey to York to meet Bill Hill, the chair of The Friends of York Walls, along with Sarah Shields who is a historian of Irish history in York. I was given a tour and guided to associated places around the city by Mr Hill, who said it had taken the Friends over a year to put it all together.

Bill Hill, of The Friends of York Walls, by the Postern Tower (Image: Dylan Connell)

The annals of York’s connection with Ireland has not had the prominence of other cities and towns of Britain; it has largely been unknown – some would say secret.

York is well known for its Roman legacy, architecture and archaeology. One of the main features of this are the city walls. York’s walls at just over two miles (3.4 kilometres); they are also the longest town walls in the UK.

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Built in Roman times, they’ve been added to and rebuilt over time and now have parts from across the centuries.

Fishergate Postern Tower in York. (Image: Dylan Connell)

The Friends of York Walls was formed in early 2011 by a group of five of York’s residents who felt that “The Walls” needed more support and promotion. The Friends now number over 600. Walls have eyes that have seen over the centuries what history has been made.

It is these walls that gave rise to the research into the story of York’s Irish population.

The exhibition at Fishergate Postern Tower in York. (Image: Dylan Connell)

Sarah Shields, the historian of York’s Irish history, said some of the first people came in the 1830s when workers came from Ireland to help with the harvest within the agricultural areas around York. Known as the July reapers, they came to Liverpool and would walk to York gathering the harvest and go back home to Ireland afterwards.

When the potato famine began in the 1840s, the Quakers in York, the Tuke family, were already inter-married to an Irish family.

Samuel Tuke, who lived in Walmgate in York, visited Ireland and was appalled by what he saw. Samuel then sent his son James to do further investigations and it was then through the Quakers that the first famine population started coming to York.

Familiar in York as seasonal agricultural workers, Irish migrants came to the city in larger numbers to escape the Great Famine of the 1840s. They lived in squalid, unsanitary closes and yards, mainly in the Walmgate area, just off the city centre towards the walls.

A winding staircase inside the Postern Tower, Fishergate, York. (Image: Dylan Connell)

The national census of 1841 shows that, out of York’s 28,842 inhabitants, 430 had been born in Ireland and a further 351 people were either children of the Irish born or married to them. The majority of them lived in the poorer, south-eastern quarter of the city, between the Foss and Ouse rivers.

A number of migrant Irish workers used to come every year to work on the corn harvest on the Wolds’ farms east of York.

The following census shows the increase in numbers of ‘Irish born’ recorded in York in 1851. Their numbers had increased from 781 in 1841 to 2,618 in 1851 making them 7.2 per cent of the city’s population. Their numbers rose to 3,248 in 1861 and 3,380 in 1871, partly because of the reputation of the York Quakers for attempting to bring relief and to influence the British Government.

In 1847, the York authorities noted that about 45 destitute Irish were arriving every day, many of them suffering from fevers, smallpox or measles.

The Irish population settled in housing in areas alongside the walls of York in what is known as Walmgate. The research put together by the Friends of York Walls is now the subject of the exhibition that will run for the whole of 2026.

The exhibition gives details of the names of the Irish and what counties in Ireland they came from, their age on arrival and occupation.

For £20, you can sponsor a stone in your name or for someone else; you choose a stone on an external wall of the tower, then a certificate and book entries link that stone uniquely to the name you give.

The exhibition is being held in the ancient Fishergate Postern Tower (c 1505), which is on the city walls. Entry is free on the open days. For further inforamtion, contact friendsofyorkwalls@yorkwalls.org.uk

Fishergate Postern Tower Open Days in September and October include:

Saturday, August 29

Saturday, September 12 & 19 = Heritage Open Days

Saturday, September 26 = York Unlocked

Sunday, September 27 = York Unlocked

Saturday, October 31 = Halloween Saturday

Plus other possible dates – check the website for details. Free entry. Open 10am to 4pm.