The guild visited the relatively newly completed York Minster Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills and Estate Management hosted by Director of Works & Precinct, Alex McCallion.  The Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills and Estate Management at York Minster is a £9.3 million facility dedicated to preserving traditional building crafts and supporting the long-term conservation of historic buildings. It combines apprenticeship training in skills such as stonemasonry, stone carving and joinery with advanced technologies including 3D scanning, CAD design and CNC stone cutting. The Centre addresses a national shortage of heritage craft skills, supports research and innovation, and promotes sustainable building practices. It serves as a national and international hub for training, conservation expertise and heritage excellence. 
We were all truly inspired by this success story which sees a bright future for the heritage crafts required to preserve the Minster for future generations.

On the site by the entrance to York Station.

John Sisk kindly hosted a 3rd visit to the York Central site on Thursday 26th March 2026. The site has transformed hugely over the 3 visits. 
​We started at the front of the station and were given an overview of the project including some of the issues that have had to be dealt with.
These included having to be extremely sensitive when working in the demolition of Queen street bridge because of the potential damage to the city walls
Problems in re-routing services in various locations along with the need to be build a new electrical substation, which is built, but they are awaiting Network Rails go ahead to switch from the old to new location. Because it is responsible for all the electrical supply to the station!
We then went down the new link road across the York central development to see the current state of play regards the new road bridge, which will be lifted in sections from late April into early May.
We then returned to the site offices, where we had lunch before being given presentations on the environmental issues experienced on the A59 Kex Gill scheme, followed by a briefing on how the new bridge will  be installed. Including videos of the footbridge installation, which gave a good lead to the much larger task involving the road bridge.

The York Guild of Building held a number of successful events in 2024. These included visits to the new York College Construction Centre extension,  the brand new York Centre of Excellence at York Minster, a fascinating visit to the York Central, Donald Sisk site;
​ a visit to York Design Award winning entry the Georgian House on Walmgate, as well as a visit to the renovations at The Treasurers House at the end of the Year.  More details are on the Events page.

After the AGM the Junior and Senior Wardens (Peter Silk & John McCurley) presented a future direction for the Guild focusing around attracting a younger and more diverse membership along with utilising modern technology to simplify the management of the Guild. If there are any members who wish to assist in this or would like to suggest talks or visits for the coming year please get in touch using the below contact form.

This evening marked another great year of the York Guild of Building’s Craftsmanship awards with winners form a variety of skilled trades including stained glass, Joinery and Decorating to name a few.
 A huge congratulations to all the winners.

The Craftsmanship Merit Award
David McBurnie & David Milner of Norton Joinery

Mark Punton & Rob Jones of J.Punton & Sons

Craftsmanship Team Award
Nick Jefferson, Ben Anderson, James Nicholson & Dave Davies of Jeffersons Decorators Ltd

Team Merit Award
Carl Deeley, Michael Maher & Luke Craven of Yorbuild Ltd

Craftsmanship Award
​Aurelie Haugeard & Keith Barley of Barley studios

Brickwork Merit Award
​Nick Eglen of CPD Ltd

Brickwork Award
​James Barron of Yorbuild Ltd

Masters Award
​Keith Barley, Dan Thomas, Anne-Catherine Perreau, Alison Gilchrist & Helen Whittaker of Barley Studios Ltd

Below are a few photos from after the awards ceremony