Museum Gardens
Riverside botanic gardens around medieval abbey ruins, once the open-air stage for mystery plays.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Museum Gardens in York stands you before the broken north wall of St Mary's Abbey and turns to June nineteen fifty-one, when the city revived its medieval Mystery Plays among the ruins. You'll hear about the producer E. Martin Browne, a cast of local amateurs in fourteenth-century costume, and the professional actor whose name never made the programme. Among the schoolgirls cast that summer was one who would become famous. Best heard on the lawn facing the tall row of empty window arches.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
St Mary's Abbey
Ruined Benedictine abbey church amid riverside gardens, once among England's wealthiest monasteries.
Fountains Abbey
Vast roofless Cistercian ruins beside a stream, founded by rebel monks who fled a wealthy abbey.
Yorkshire Museum
Archaeology museum of Roman, Viking and medieval treasures set in ruined abbey gardens.
York Theatre Royal
Royal patent playhouse on an old hospital site, home to a stage company since Georgian times.
Dean's Park
Leafy lawn beside a Gothic cathedral, with a twelfth-century palace arcade and Minster views.
York's Chocolate Story
Interactive chocolate museum tracing a city's confectionery dynasties, with tastings and hands-on making.