Bootham Bar in York’s city walls: Donations as high as £400 given during visits as figures revealed

The amount of money raised through a trial scheme on a York landmark has been revealed, including one donation worth hundreds of pounds.

A total of £8,666 has been given through ‘tap-to-donate’ points installed at Bootham Bar in York’s city walls and online in a pilot scheme since its launch in September last year.

One donation worth £400 was the single-largest made during the first year of the scheme which also allows people to give amounts of their choice online by scanning QR codes.

Liam Dennis, City of York Council’s ancient monuments lead, said the results of the trial proved the concept could work as attention turns to a wider roll out along the walls.

It follows the launch of the trial on Wednesday, September 10 last year following the installation of electronic donation points in the gatehouse of Bootham Bar.

Contactless donation points allowing people to donate £3, £5 and £10 were installed along with QR codes for custom donations and information boards about the conservation of the walls.

The installations cost around £10,000 and were approved for a one-year trial the previous March.

Officials said at the time donations could help cover the roughly £500,000-a-year the council spends on the upkeep of the walls and improve the attraction for visitors.

It was estimated they donation points could raise up to £625,000 if 5 per cent of the 2.5m people estimated to visit the walls every year donated £5 each.

Council figures obtained through a freedom of information request showed the tap-to-donate points at Bootham Bar raised £8,136 while £530 was given online as of Monday, September 28.

July was the most lucrative month for donations, with £1,295 raised, followed by the £1,142 raised in September up to Monday 28 and May when £1,023 was given.

January saw the lowest amount raised in a month with £105 in January, followed by £122 in November and £236 in December.

The single-largest donation of £400 made since the launch of the trial was followed by £100 and £20.

Mr Dennis said the scheme had been well-received so far, with people saying they were happy to contribute to the walls’ upkeep.

He said: “The trial’s done a good job of proving that people are willing to donate to the walls.

“Some of the donations were very kind, any amount of money is gratefully received and it goes directly towards the conservation of the walls and shows how important they are to visitors and the people of York.

“Bootham Bar was the easiest location to start with because it’s under cover and already has plug sockets, we’re now examining other locations but each has its own challenges.

“Identifying new locations is an ongoing process, we’ll need to get approval to install electrical points but we’re hoping to get these up and running over the next six to 12 months.

“It would be exceptionally ambitious to expect the donations to fully cover the maintenance costs but they do allow us to do a little bit extra to improve the experience for visitors such as by installing new interpretation boards.”

Speaking at the launch of the trial last year, the council’s Labour culture spokesperson Coun Pete Kilbane said they wanted the walls to remain free for everyone to enjoy.

But he added looking after them came with a cost including the council employing its own in-house team of stonemasons to maintain them.

York was first fortified with walls in Roman times, though very little of the remaining stonework survives from that period.

Most of the walls which stand today date from the 13th to 14th Century.

They are the longest surviving town walls in England, running for more than two miles (3.4km).