CAN I add to the tributes to the historian Hugh Murray whose death was recorded in The Press of June 15?

The recent interest in the site of the Rowntree grocery shop on Pavement (today Pizza Hut) can be attributed in part to Mr Murray, with whom I spent an afternoon at his house poring over his maps and photographs to establish for certain that this building was indeed the building we had suspected it to be, and attempting to identify all the surrounding buildings in Lady Peckitt’s Yard that were also in Rowntree ownership at various given times.

I was touched by his generosity in sharing his wealth of knowledge with me, a complete stranger to him, and for giving me free access to some previously unknown images and materials. York’s local history will be the less for his loss.

Bridget Morris, Director, The Rowntree Society, Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York.

 

• I WAS deeply saddened to read of the recent death of Hugh Murray, the legendary York local historian and author.

It seems like only yesterday that I was speaking with Hugh on the telephone to ask him about a copy of his book Dr Evelyn’s York, which I had just acquired at a local bookseller and which he had published in 1983. The book, long out of print, gives a wonderful insight into York as it used to be and as observed by Hugh’s hero, Dr A Evelyn, the York preservationist.

Hugh was a veritable encyclopaedia of historical knowledge and facts on York and was always available and helpful to those in search of information.

Just recently, he helped me to trace and rediscover a lost Boer War memorial which used to be attached to a cottage in Fulford before its mysterious removal in the 1990s.

Hugh has been very supportive, over the years, of my ambition to write a book on the life and works of Edwin Risdsale Tate, the York Victorian artist and architect. My only sadness now is that I have been unable to publish it in Hugh’s lifetime.

I am very proud to have known Hugh Murray and to have had access to his wisdom, from time to time, as a friend. I am sure that his widow, Jill, will be surrounded by the love and goodwill of all the hundreds of people who knew Hugh and held him in high respect.

Peter Stanhope, Cyprus Grove, Haxby, York.