York Mystery Plays

[Skip navigation]

Search the NCEM archive

Search the archive for


Show a full index A-Z

Item details


Scrapbooks : Scrapbooks about Mystery Plays and Festivals

Item type: Scrapbooks
Archive reference: YMP/E
Date/year: 1951 to date
Description: The NCEM has a modest collection of scrapbooks about the York Festivals and Mystery Plays.  The category is YMP/E.  Eileen Skaife has been especially generous in donating her collection, and the archivist was able to borrow and scan scrapbooks from 1976 and 1992.  During 2018 the Archive aquired (and stored as YMP/E/25) a large heavy scrapbook compiled by Rosemary and Arthur Pickering From 1951 to 1984, and donated in 1992 by them to the Friends of York Festival.  It includes many cuttings, some of them unique, photos and adminstrative material about the creation of the Friends.  Rosemary Pickering was at one time the chairman. There are also some programmes.  The 1963 material is especially rare and therefore important.  Filed as YMP/E/24 is a red softback scrapbook priced 55 pence with pasted cuttings about York Festival, the Friends of the Festival, finances, Mystery Plays and programmes.  This was compiled by Ursula Groom between 1977 and 1993 and kindly donated by her family in August 2018.Thomson-family

1992 angel in Stonegate


This angel is on a wagon in Stonegate in 1992, photographed by a donor who worked in one of the shops nearby.  Five Plays from the Passion were performed on wagons on two days in Stonegate and Petergate, although the main production was in York Theatre Royal.



< Go back