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Today we are open from
First admission
9:30 amLast admission
4:00 pmTicket prices range from £13 to £28.
AdmissionsSee our What's On section for upcoming services and events
What's onVisiting York Minster.
VisitFurther details on how to book an appointment, along with opening times, can be found on our Visiting York Minster Library and Archives webpage.
The thousands of items that make up our collections tell fascinating stories about York Minster’s past and present and a diverse range of other subjects, secular as well as religious. Some are used or can be seen in the Minster, while more wait to be explored at our Library and Archives.
Our collections are divided into the following three areas:
Our object collections may be searched using our objects, archives and manuscripts catalogue.
The objects in our collections are diverse, from the semaphore saints who sit above the Minster’s West Doors to Anthony Babington’s rosary on display in the Undercroft.
Our oldest objects date back to the Roman Fortress that sat on this site almost 2,000 years ago.
You can see some of these objects on display in our Undercroft Museum, an accredited museum. Or learn more about our objects and the stories they tell under Stories.
Our library holds the historic printed collections of the Chapter of York dating back to the 1470s, as well as being a modern reference and lending library.
Our books cover a wide range of subjects including local history, early York printing, Civil War tracts, theology through the ages, church history and architecture. Modern books include theology and the history of the Minster and the city.
You can search our online catalogue via the University of York or via Jisc Library Hub Discover, a website which contains the holdings of the UK’s national research libraries.
To find out about our library’s history, visit 1414: John Neuton and the Re-Foundation of York Minster Library. This resource was the culmination of a project, undertaken in collaboration with the University of York, to mark the 600th anniversary of the present Minster library. The University’s York Art History Collaborations website provides a summary and overview of the resource.
Our archive and manuscript collections range in date from about the year 1000 to the present day.
The manuscript collections complement the library collections and include: the Chapter’s oath book, the 1,000-year-old York Gospels (on display in the Undercroft); beautifully written and illuminated liturgical and private prayer books, produced before the Reformation for use in the Diocese of York; historical repertoire of the Minster’s choir; and James Torre’s invaluable seventeenth-century survey of churches in the Diocese.
The Chapter’s archives, relating to the administration of the Minster and its estates, jurisdictions, and other interests, go back to the twelfth century and even include the building accounts for the cathedral. To them have been added: archives of local organisations and individuals connected with the cathedral, other aspects of religious life, or education; and collections of documents assembled from dispersed archives, which relate to religious and secular life in York, Yorkshire and beyond. The archives mainly comprise records on paper and parchment but also include modern formats such as photographs.
We are working towards making detailed descriptions of all our archives and manuscripts available online. Descriptions of about a third are already available via our catalogue of objects, archives, and manuscripts and The National Archives’ catalogue Discovery (the coverage of these catalogues overlaps, but each contains descriptions the other doesn’t). A catalogue of the Evelyn Collection of early twentieth-century photographs of York, on deposit from the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society, is available via YAYAS’ website. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the above catalogues, please get in touch so we can assist you.
Images of the first of the four books that make up Torre’s survey of the Minster are available on our website York Minster Collections Online BETA.
Enquiries and feedback (including enquiries about ordering and reproducing copies of collection items):
T: +44 (0)1904 557250
E: collections@yorkminster.org
Our privacy notice for users of the collections explains how we handle your personal data.
Our Complaints Policy is available on our main Contact webpage.
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