02nd February 2026
Our next talk is on Friday 20 March at 7.45pm in Clements Hall.
Please note our doors will be open at 7.30 pm.
York Mystery Plays: the 75th anniversary of their revival
A talk by Margaret Scott
Scene from the 1951 Mysteries in York
In 1951 Britain celebrated the Festival of Britain, 100 years after the famous Victorian one. Not many people know that York was selected as one of the cities also to have its own Festival. That was when the York Mystery Plays were revived for performance, having famously continued every few years since.
Hans Hess from Skeldergate in Bishophill, Director of the York Art Gallery, was Assistant Director of the York Festival in 1951, working with Keith Thomson. Find out about what happened in York in 1951 from Margaret Scott, the archivist of the modern Mystery Plays (held at the National Centre for Early Music).
Many of the performers in the 1909 Pageant in Museum Gardens came from our own area of York, from South Bank, Bishopthorpe Road, Bishophill and Micklegate for example. You can find their names and addresses in listings here.
The Plays will be performed again on wagons this year – the traditional way – on 28 June and 5 July in central York.
In 2026 we're offering two types of membership:
-
Full Membership at £10 pa (with free entry to all talks)
-
Online Membership at £5 pa (with links provided to recordings of our talks). This is useful for members who live elsewhere, or who are housebound
