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Researcher creates city map from diary of 18th Century York woman

Posted on 27 July 2023

A researcher has created a map for a walking tour of York based on the diaries of a woman who lived in the city during the Napoleonic Wars.

Jane Ewbank's house today on Castlegate, York

Jane Ewbank

The diary, published in June this year, nearly 30 years after it was ‘accidentally’ discovered, details the life of Jane Ewbank, born in 1778, the daughter of George Ewbank, a well-known druggist and banker in York, who lived and had his shop on Castlegate in the City Centre.  She died at the young age of 46 in 1824.

Published in digital form, the diary consists of around 34,000 words recorded between 1803 and 1805 and includes details of her life in York and her travels in the Lake District and North Yorkshire. It stands as a unique illustration of what life was like in York for a woman during the 1800s.

Walking tour

The family-friendly map of Jane’s York, created by PhD student Rachel Feldberg at the University of York’s Department of History in partnership with the York Georgian Society, will lead visitors to the York Georgian Festival on a walking tour (Sunday, August 6th) of the City to track down some of the shops Jane and her niece, Elizabeth, dropping in on the site of the all-night ball, uncovering clues to the buildings Jane's family owned and discover easy ways to identify York’s Georgian houses.

Rachel Feldberg, said: “It's so exciting to be able to bring history to life in a way that's fun for children and gets them inspired. I wanted to make sure parents can be involved too, so it's a family-friendly activity, it is a self-guided walk and it will continue to be available for residents and visitors to York.

“I loved treasure hunts when I was at primary school, this is like a treasure hunt across Georgian York, but based on two real people, Jane Ewbank and her ten-year-old niece Elizabeth, and their real lives 220 years ago.”

Georgian York

Jane Ewbank’s diary was ‘accidentally’ discovered by Dr Jane Rendall, a former member of the Department of History at the University of York, in the National Library of Scotland in the 1990s.

Dr Rendall, said: “I'm so pleased that this outstanding walk for families will give children a chance to access events in Jane Ewbank’s diary, and understand how she and her ten-year-old niece Elizabeth walked and enjoyed the streets of Georgian York.”

The map was created as a Knowledge Exchange Project, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) through the White Rose College of Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH) as part of Rachel Feldberg's WRoCAH fellowship.

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