We are working closely with City of York Council’s Highways Maintenance to ensure that their repaving of the pavements in three historic streets in the city-centre respect, and where possible, enhance heritage.
The three streets are Stonegate, Colliergate and Church Street. Sadly the impact of delivery vans, in particular, have damaged the paving and historic features such as coal-shoot covers and basement / light well areas.
Uncovered paving light well on Colliergate 
Paving light well on Church Street
CYC’s work has revealed the poor structural condition of two light wells on Colliergate that need to be replaced for public safety. The light wells are not especially historic themselves, dating from the early to mid-twentieth century, but have high evidential value to show that the buildings on these streets, many of which are Listed and date back to the Georgian era and earlier, have basements, which historically, at least, served important functions and give clues to their former uses. The loss of the light wells, which usually include ventilator plates alongside glass lights, would risk the historic fabric of the basements and complicate any decision to use these spaces in the future.
As a Trust we value this heritage, so are offering property owners a grant to help fund suitable, near like-for-like bespoke replacements of the two light wells on Colliergate.
The replacement paving lights were installed on the morning of 15th February.
Here is the moment one was lifted into place:
Newly installed paving light 
Paving light two
We will continue to update you as repaving works take place on Church St and Stonegate in the coming years.