Places to Visit
 With so much to see it’s hard to know where to start - but here are some good starting points.
Touring around a Region
Yorkshire’s civil administration is divided into metropolitan and county council areas but when planning a visit it is more practical to split the historic county into touring regions.
You can tour around a region recalling the story of how it was 100 years ago and how it has changed today More>>
Looking for specific places
The National Trust, English Heritage and the Treasure Houses of England are national groups that cover some of the best that Yorkshire has to offer. More>>
Many other castles, houses, museums, villages and industrial sites in Yorkshire have great heritage appeal. Some of our favourites are ... More>>
Historic Religious Houses of Yorkshire
At the dissolution during the 1530’s the Abbeys of Yorkshire were taken by the state and all but one suffered a systematic destruction. Only Selby survived by becoming the parish church. Today the remains of abbeys can be found at -
Beauchief, Sheffield
Bolton
Saint Mary, Byland
Coverham
Saint Agatha, Easby
Fountains
Saint Mary, Jervaulx
Saint Mary, Kirkstall
Meaux
Rievaulx
Roche
Saint Mary & Saint Germain, Selby
Saint Peter, Whitby
Saint Mary, York
Also Yorkshire had many other religious houses at the dissolution - organised as a Priory, Preceptory, Friary or Hospital - even though most have few visible signs.
Yorkshire Churches
There are many historic churches that have survived and remain in use today; a few of the popular ones are ....
Industrial Heritage
The growth of the town and cities of Yorkshire during the 18th and 19th centuries was largely fuelled by industrial developments. Today many of these industries have been overtaken by changes in technology or the industrialisation of other countries. This has left a wide range of former industrial sites that have either been redeveloped or preserved as reminders of the past.
Some sites, such as Saltaire Village and Mill, have taken on a degree of importance that was not imagined when they were built. And in 2001 UNESCO inscribed Saltaire as a World Heritage Site - only the second in Yorkshire after the combined site of Fountains Abbey, St Mary's Church and Studley Royal Park.
Check out the Yorkshire Tourist Board’s Official Website for many more.
Heritage Open Days
Each year the Civic Trust co-ordinates the opening of a wide range of heritage sites; many of which are not normally open to the public. In 2011 these Open Days were from 8 to 11 September. Details are published on the Heritage Open Days web site by mid-July each year.
Where Are They Now?
Now for the bit not covered by most tourism sites - the things that went wrong, closed down or never made it.
The Earth Centre was intended as a centre for sustainable development built on reclaimed colliery land at Conisbrough west of Doncaster. A pilot phase opened in 1994 but it was redeveloped as a Millennium project that reopened in 2001. However it only lasted until 2004 - consuming many millions of taxpayers funds in the process. Now used for mock battles and occasional TV dramas.
Transperience was a passenger transport museum at Low Moor south of Bradford. It was opened with much publicity in July 1995 by the West Yorkshire Transport Museum Trust. By 1998 it was in receivership with debts of £1m on top of the £11.5 million development costs. Now private industrial units.
National Centre for Popular Music was a museum in Sheffield that opened on March 1999 but only lasted until June 2000 (surely some sort of record?). It was a £15 million scheme mainly paid for by the National Lottery. In 2003 Sheffield Hallam University bought it for less than £2 and it is now their students’ union building.
Looking back, the 1990’s were clearly a period when there was “more money than sense” - as they say around here. Looking forward let us hope that changes in demographics, disposable incomes and increasing costs of travel do not contribute to a new round of failures and closures.
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