Kirkstall Abbey: Call for new tourism signs to show Yorkshire ruins aren't a working church
Tourism signs to promote one of Yorkshire’s most famous monuments have been met with consternation as they are set to show a church spire which has never existed.
Kirkstall Abbey, destroyed under Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, remains one of the most complete abbey ruins in the country.
But with new brown roadside signs coming under community campaigns, there is some confusion as they appear to show a working church.
There is no symbol, it emerges, to distinguish between the most ravaged of Medieval ruins and a traditional British church which is open and still offering daily services.
The only option is of a white church with a steep spire atop its tower walls.
Elizabeth Nash is honorary secretary of the Friends of the Leeds City Museums (FLCM), a voluntary group which is working to support the setting and its beloved Abbey House museum.
She has written to Leeds Central and Headingley MP Alex Sobel calling for Government Ministers to recognise the challenge and - ideally - to create a set symbol specifically for abbey ruins.
"People who don't know Kirkstall Abbey would think it's an operating church with services," she said.
"That's the only sign available to us.
"The ideal would be a symbol that doesn't necessarily show a spire - and part of the symbol should show that it's ruins."
Founded 1152, Kirkstall Abbey was once home to hundreds of monks with the glorious remains now a familiar landmark of the city's streetscene.
Its remains have been painted by the likes of J.M.W.Turner, while its old gatehouse now forms the heart of the Abbey House museum.
It was this treasured museum setting, threatened with closure by Leeds City Council last year and saved under a community campaign, that has prompted the new road signs.
FLCM, stepping in to better promote the abbey and museum in a bid to raise visitor numbers, offered after a public meeting to pay for the official brown signs.
Leeds Highways Department has agreed to set some up at a number of junctions, writing to national leaders to seek clarity over whether there is a better symbol it can use.
Churches up and down the country will face the same problem, added Mrs Nash, with a classic example being the 600-year-old church at Castle Bolton.
It too has a tower - but the signs suggest the symbol of a spire.
"Very few churches had a spire in Medieval times, unless they were a cathedral or a minster," explained Ms Nash.
"It became a fashion in Victorian times.
"Certainly, Kirkstall Abbey never has had a spire.
"The symbol could confuse the public from outside of Leeds into believing that this is a working church holding services."