Friday Update Number Nineteen

Posted on 13 August 2020

With 3 weeks to go until we re-open to the public, we’ve been ironing out the necessary changes to our usual procedures as well as catching up on our retroconversion work and putting out a new video on the history of mental health in York.

As you will already know from our website and social media the Borthwick will be re-opening to the public on the 14th September, albeit with a few changes to our usual operations. For safety reasons we will be limiting spaces to pre-booked researchers only and you will be able to book a place via phone or email. More details of when to book and changes to our usual services will be announced in the coming weeks.

In the meantime we’ve added six new methodist catalogues to Borthcat, taking our total number of new archival descriptions since March to 14,707! These include Heworth Methodist Chapel, built in 1890 on the site of an earlier Wesleyan chapel dating back to 1826. The chapel owed its existence and growth to two prominent York families. Initial funding for the building was largely provided by Hannah Crampton Leak in memory of her husband William, whose drapery business on Coney Street became known as Leak and Thorp’s after he went into partnership with his nephew Henry Bell Thorp. If you have ever visited York Castle Museum you will have seen a replica of the Leak and Thorp store in the replica Victorian street of Kirkgate. The completed chapel, which could seat 220 people, soon boasted a popular Sunday School established by the York solicitor and published author William Camidge who wrote a history of Methodism and a biography of the celebrated York painter William Etty.

Another new addition, Lidgett Grove Methodist Chapel in Acomb, similarly owes his beginnings to the gift of a prominent local methodist, this time the Liberal MP and one time Lord Mayor of York Sir Robert Newbald Kay. Although the chapel is a somewhat late addition, being completed in 1937, it does boast a unique feature among York chapels. It is said that the pulpit in the chapel is that used by John Wesley himself, the founder of Methodism, when he preached at the Anglican church of York, St Mary, Castlegate! Other new additions are Layerthorpe Methodist Chapel, also known as the Duke of York Street Mission, the United Methodist Free Church Chapel at Monk Bar, and Monkgate Methodist Chapel.

Finally you may have seen our Keeper of Archives and Special Collections, Gary Brannan, in a new video exploring the key role the city of York has played in the history of mental health care and wellness over the past 250 years. The archives of York’s hospitals are a central and well-used part of the Borthwick’s collections and we are proud to showcase their important role in our national history in this short video.