York Mystery Plays

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Links

If you are looking for internal links, on this page is a list of all pages of this site, to help you navigate.

The external links below may be of interest to users of this site. Please note that the links in the headings take you to the sites of other organisations, for which we can take no responsibility.

York Civic Trust

Promoting heritage, shaping tomorrow.  (The blue plaque at the foot of this page is by York Civic Trust.) This page in the Archive shows many of York's historic streets.

Guilds of York

The Guilds of York have presented the York Mystery Plays on wagons in the streets of the city in several four-yearly cycles, most recently in September 2018 and in June 2022. 

City of York Council

The City Archive (held in York Explore, Library Square) has some Mystery Play material, such as this painting by historian Eileen White. It featured in the York 800 exhibition described in this page.  EW wrote a general history of the Mystery Plays, published by YAYAS, one of the books held in the NCEM archive.Creation painted by Eileen White

York Theatre Royal

The Theatre was the venue for the Mystery Plays in 1992 and 1996. In 2012 YTR produced the Plays in Museum Gardens.

Heritage Lottery Fund

The original funder of this website, with Millennium money.

York Minster

Interior below right. Setting of the Millennium production and the 2016 production.  Dean's Park is a regular location for the wagon plays and in 2021 A Resurrection for York.

York Minster drawn in 1999

The York Waits

Performers of early music in York since 1977. Here pictured outside York Minster.

York Waits at Minster

The National Centre for Early Music

Home of the Mystery Play Archive, of Early Music Festivals and of all sorts of music.  Information on St Margaret's church here.

York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust

A membership group of enthusiasts and actors which supports productions of the Plays. They have produced in December 2019 A Nativity for York; in July 2021 A Resurrection for York; in December 2022 a different Nativity; in June 2023 a Baptism; and in June 2024 a Creation.

The Taborers' Society, one of the bands accompanying Mystery Play wagons in June 2022.

Acoustic Research site supported by the British Academy

Visit York   The site for York tourism. If you want some images of the city, search 'York streets' in the archive

Yorkshire Museum

Opened in 1830 by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, which until 1961 owned Museum Gardens and St Mary's Abbey and therefore enabled the 1909 pageant and the 1951 Plays revival.  The Museum is now run by York Museums Trust, partners in the 2012 Museum Gardens production.

York Archaeology 

York Archaeology (YAT) runs Jorvik Viking Centre, Barley Hall, DIG, Micklegate Bar Museum and Monk Bar Museum. Friends of YAT have free entry to all five attractions. Among the charity's publications is Nicola Rogers' 2012 Medieval Craft and Mystery, about the Guilds of York and their medieval performances of the Plays. It is at the foot of this Archive page on books.

York Settlement Community Players

1963 Wagon Play programme

Set up in 1919, this still-thriving York acting group gave Judi Dench her first taste of Mystery Play performance.

Yorkshire Film Archive

The Film Archive has many films about York, and about the Mystery Plays and other drama.  For instance, a 60 minute film made by Patrick Olsen about the 1973 Mystery Plays: Film ID 2041.

Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society   

Founded in 1842 to explore civic and ecclesiastical history.  Their 2017 York Historian has a major article about York Mystery Plays.

York Guides plaque

Association of Voluntary Guides to York

This group of expert guides began leading free tours in York the same year as the modern Mystery Plays were revived.  If you join a walk, ask your guide about the Plays!

On this page you will find a list of all our webpages, to help you navigate.