York Articles
Tower hopes to cash in on spare change
Tower hopes to cash in on spare change |
| Written by yorkguides.co.uk | |
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Julie Hemmings (Yorkshire Post)
WHERE there's muck, there's brass, the saying goes. And custodians at Clifford's Tower knew there was treasure buried in heaps of the stuff at the York landmark so they called in a team of experts to salvage it. Yesterday abseilers from Leeds Climbing Wall were lowered into the well at the tower – the last surviving part of York Castle – to collect coins thrown in by visitors. The well has been dry for hundreds of years but it had not been cleared of the cash - and any rubbish dropped down - for more than a decade. Staff were able to see metal glinting at the bottom of the well but needed specialist help to reach it. The job took some time as the coins were lying up to 8in deep in places and caked thick with mud. Before it can be counted the next job will be to clean and separate the cash, as some of the metals have corroded and coins have stuck together. Matt Birch, of Leeds Climbing Wall, said it was quite a challenge to retrieve so much small change. The 42ft-deep well is little more than 3ft in diameter and large ferns grow out of the walls on the way down to the bottom. "The access grill itself is quite small and it is quite dank and very narrow down in the bottom of the well," said Mr Birch. "It will be interesting to see how much cash has been thrown down over the years." The money collected will go towards the cost of repairs at Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, another English Heritage-owned property. Rievaulx was affected by the flash floods which struck parts of North Yorkshire on June 19, which left parts of the site under 3ft of water after the River Rye burst its banks. The ruins only fully re-opened 10 days ago after a three-month clean-up, which has cost up to £150,000. |
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