Race to find fans’ ashes as flats built on stadium
12 caskets found at York City
THE ashes of 12 York City football fans have been dug up from under the pitch at the club’s old ground before flats are built over the site.
Archaeologists and volunteers, including relatives of the fans, have been hunting for 15 caskets buried at the Bootham Crescent ground, which was the club’s home for 89 years.
Paul Wood, 49, was delighted when his father John’s ashes were found on the final day of the dig, on October 26.
Paul, who had helped in the dig the previous day, said: “I’d gone back to work and the guy in charge rang me and said, ‘I think we’ve found him’.
“I could have collapsed, it was such a shock. It was really towards the end of the day as well, so it was kind of the last throw of the dice. It was just total chance that within the last 45 minutes they found him.”
John, who died in 1998, aged 52, had been a season ticket holder and his casket was near to where he always sat in the Popular Stand. But most of the caskets were buried behind the goal line at the Longhurst end. Archaeologist Jason Wood and volunteers have been peeling back the turf and topsoil looking for the caskets. Nine were found in June and three more in recent weeks. Jason said: “We know from what the families told us that most of the fans wanted their ashes interred in the goal at the Longhurst end.”
The club’s stadium development director Ian McAndrew said the fans interred at the old ground were “part of the York City family”. With permission of the families, the ashes would be re-interred in a “legacy area” in Bootham Crescent when the housing is complete.
The ground was sold last year and York City moved to the LNER Community Stadium in February.