Crane stands as an important symbol (From York Press)

Crane stands as an important symbol

9:40am Tuesday 11th December 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

LAST week you included an item on the proposed demolition of one of the cranes which survive on Queen’s Staith (The Pess, December 4).

Mark Stead’s report was accompanied by a photograph of Queen’s Staith in 1970, when the staith still had its historic role as part of the port of York. It will be a great pity if this crane is allowed to be demolished since it would represent yet further loss by attrition of an old part of the city’s economic history.

Much of our railway history has gone now with the clearance of the York Central site; the sale of the Bonding Warehouse, original site of the city crane from where the medieval port of York was administered, and its subsequent descent into semi-dereliction, is a sad state of affairs.

Now we are faced with the loss of another piece of industrial history, explicitly identified as part of the character of the Queen’s Staith and Skeldergate area in the Conservation Appraisal of the City Centre carried out in 2011.

It is recorded here that “the appearance of Queen’s Staith and Skeldergate has changed little from the time the staith was in active use; Queen’s Staith is cobbled and retains two picturesque old gantries”.

The loss of one of these gantries would be detrimental to the character of that part of the conservation area.

Alison Sinclair, Norfolk Street, York.