AN APPEAL is being made for people to share their memories of a York area as part of plans to celebrate its heritage.

Former employees at the Backhouse Nurseries, in Acomb, are being urged to help build an archive for a heritage centre and café as part of the The West Bank Park Heritage Project.

Jane Cullen, the founder and chairwoman of the project, said it came about after City of York Council announced that budget cuts would leave parks unlocked.

She said: “It was a controversial decision and when she went on to ask for ideas of how we as a community could help maintain our beautiful park, I had the idea of building a campaign about the rich history of West Bank Park.

“I took the opportunity to ask her whether there was any chance of the community taking ownership of the house in West Bank Park, to turn into a heritage and learning centre enabling the community to feel more ownership of the park.”

Jane said she was delighted to be told it might be possible, and work was now under way to make the idea a reality.

The site was founded by James Backhouse – a Quaker missionary who lived in West Bank House, and travelled to Australia, where he visited penal colonies to ensure convicts were being treated humanely.

Backhouse was a talented botanist who collected and studied plants, and sent specimens back to his nursery in York as well as Kew Garden,s where his collections are still kept.

The heritage project now wants to start an archiving process featuring stories of the nurseries, which were once known as the Kew Gardens of the North.

Jane said: “Many local residents would have been employed by the Backhouse Nurseries. We want to build an archive of what the men and women did here. We also want to know what it was like living near to the nurseries.

“Do you remember the rockery? Do you remember West Bank House? Did you remember Charlie the swoose who lived on the ornamental lake? While we are working towards the bigger plan for the heritage centre and café in the park where all of this information will hopefully be housed, we need to start building our archive right now.”

If you or anyone you know has a memory about the nursery, email westbankhouse@gmail.com