From 8th-11th June, All Saint North Street will be filled with bright and fragrant floral displays as it hosts a Flower Festival in collaboration with Askham Bryan College’s Floristry department.
The theme for this year’s flowers takes its inspiration from York’s Festival of Ideas: Rediscover, Reimagine, Rebuild. The church invites visitors to discover the beauty and wonder of the unique historic space of York’s Finest Medieval Church, which celebrates the return of its recently restored medieval windows – the finest collection of early 15thcentury parish Church glass in Western Europe.
As part of the programme to restore the church’s medieval painted and stained glass windows, which was funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund amongst others, students have created floral displays to mirror and enhance the themes in the windows.
Floral displays representing the sacraments are set to evoke over a thousand years of worship at All Saints North Street and reflect a global tradition of floral celebrations of the Feast of Corpus Christi, which falls on 8th June, the day that the festival opens.
Ruth Mather, Community Engagement Officer at All Saints North Street Church, said: “We are thrilled to be hosting our flower festival once again this year with the talented floristry students at Askham Bryan College”.
She went on to say, “Visitors will experience stunning floral displays inspired by the rich history and worship of the church and its unique stained glass, and the building will be filled with light, colour and scent, highlighting the beauty of our natural world”.
Bishop Glyn Webster said: “We would like to thank National Lottery players for making the free event possible, as well as the restoration of our iconic medieval stained glass windows.”
The church is open daily for visitors from 10.00 a.m. until 4.00 p.m. with a Thursday Lunchtime Corpus Christi Service at 12.30 p.m. on Thursday, and finishing with Sung Mass at 5.30pm on Sunday evening.
