Rubbish tip turned nature sanctuary
St Nicks is an extraordinary natural world blossoming in an ordinary city suburb. Built on the site of a waste dump, it is also testament to the transforming power of an idea.
Before urbanisation the area was centred around St Nicholas Church. During the 1644 Siege of York, its tall tower was used first as a lookout by the Royalists and then, after it fell to the Parliamentarians, as a firing point for their musketeer snipers. St Nicholas Fields comprised meadowland used by commoners to graze their cattle and horses. In the mid-19th century, the same land was used for clay extraction to make bricks for local houses. When this work ended in the 1950s, the land was full of pits, and the city council used it as a tip and landfill site. By 1974, it was a rat-infested wasteland and was closed down.
Info
Address Rawdon Avenue, York YO10 3ST, +44 (0)1904 411821, www.stnicks.org.uk, info@stnicks.org.uk | Public Transport Car park on-site. Closest bus stops: on Melrosegate and Lawrence Street | Hours Mon–Fri 10am–4pm and during events| Tip Nearby is Hull Road Park, a good spot for ball games and picnics.
Then the miracle happened. York Natural Environment Trust started campaigning to turn St Nicholas Fields into a local nature reserve. That meant making the refuse safe by covering it with 50,000 cubic metres of clay. The Friends of St Nicholas Fields and other volunteers planted several thousand trees and shrubs, sowed wildflower meadows, constructed new pathways, and cleared tons of rubbish – and in 2004 it was designated a local nature reserve. Today it is also a thriving eco-community. Based around the St Nicks Environment Centre, a hub powered by solar and wind energy, the reserve puts on a packed programme of events. These include “urban buzz training,” to help create more pollinator sites across the city, and workshops on everything from printing to needle felting.
Take part in one of these offerings, or just go along for a walk. You’re bound to see some of the abundant wildlife which thrives at St Nicks. It is home to mallards and moorhens, swallows and swifts, goldfinches, greenfinches, and great crested woodpeckers, among many other bird species. You might even see a water vole.
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