The members of the guild under the experienced guidance of Noel Shouksmith rolled out the Creation Story waggon once again. Noel and the guild members have had this particular victorian era waggon in their care for 30 years now. Guild members operated the 'Pop Up' mechanisms as God narrated the story watched on by the angels. Our waggon was one of 9 waggons and 10 plays, the waggon had been loaded up from its secret location the week before before being wheeled in to place for the first of 2 weekends on Sunday 28th June 2026. The play once again directed by Janice Newton Barnes and assisted by members of a local theatre group , The Genesis Gaudy Players including Daniel WIlmot, who played God, and musicians from the the Early Music Centre. The waggons were wheeled into place from 7.00 am and the first performance at 10.30am at the Minster Refectory Gardens on a wonderfully warm and bright summer day with the Minster in the background. Further perfomaces were in Kings Square, St Sampsons Square, finishing in Deans Park. After mid-week performances the final day was the Sunday 5th July 2026, concluding our involvement in this reenactment of this historic medieval tradtion. For more infomration on the plays: www.yorkmysteryplays.co.uk/history-plays-york-festival-trust/

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.

Earlier today the Guild had another fantastic visit, this time around York Handmade Bricks. It was fascinating seeing the whole process from the quarry at the back of the site to the stacks of bricks fired and ready to be delivered. Many thanks to Guy Armitage for the fascinating tour.

Yesterday the Guild had a fantastic tour around the York Guildhall site, it was interesting hearing Rob from Vinci construction describing the problems associated with such a compact site and those being caused by the current flooding, which include the delivery barge being stuck in Naburn.

Below are some photos from last Wednesdays fascinating curtain wall CPD by Senior Architectural Systems.

Last Friday evening was the Guilds 65th Annual dinner with a fantastic after dinner speech by Andrew Chaplin and the awarding of the Guilds medals to Emma Waitzmann, Sam Mayhew and Ryan Wales a fantastic evening was had by all

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.