York Minster

Visitors and Legacies lift the Minster's Spirits

Published Tuesday 2nd November 2004 by Eleanor Course

York Minster’s accounts for 2003/2004 reveal a great improvement in its financial situation.  The operational budget deficit, which last year stood at £612,000, has been reduced to £220,000. 

 

This is a tremendous achievement, which the Dean and Chapter hope to improve on in the next financial year.  The reduction of the deficit has been significantly aided by greater revenue from visitors through entrance charges, and from generous legacies left by members of the public.

 

This news comes after the recent announcement that, one year after the introduction of charging, York Minster was voted Yorkshire’s best-loved building by members of the public. 

 

The Dean of York, the Very Reverend Keith Jones, said today, “We are delighted by the improvements made to reduce our deficit, and are most grateful for the generosity of those people who have who have left us legacies in their wills.  We obviously still have a great deal of work to do, and we will continue to keep expenditure under control.  The introduction of entrance charges to the Minster has made a real difference, and hopefully we will be able to start to fund projects that we have had to shelve in recent years.

 

“A rather unexpected by-product of these charges has been that people are getting more out of a visit to the Minster.  Visitors are spending more time in the Minster; and are more likely to attend a service, go on a tour, or explore our exhibitions.

 

“People feel that they have invested in the Minster, and so they make much more of their visit, and enjoy it more.  We have found in a recent survey that 96% of our visitors rated their visit to York Minster as good or excellent.”