Christmas carols in St Helens Square tonight

The Civic Party are inviting residents and visitors to its annual Christmas Carol Service which takes place on Christmas Eve and encourages visitors to be part of the service.

Mansion House Christmas

The event which starts at 7.30pm on Tuesday 24 December is supported by the Salvation Army whose band will be playing a wide array of festive songs in St Helen’s Square with the audience encouraged to form the choir. The service is expected to finish at around 8.30pm.

As this is an outdoor event residents and visitors are encouraged to wear suitable clothing for the cold temperatures.

The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor of York, Cllr Gillies said: “I am very much looking forward to this festive concert event which epitomises Christmas in the way that it brings people together to have fun. What better way to start your festive celebrations than to spend time in St Helens Square with residents and visitors in York? The voices of the public with the music from the Salvation Army will make for a truly magical evening. We are also hoping for a brief visit from Father Christmas to St Helen’s Square, which is sparkling with the lights which add to the festive feel of this occasion”

Traffic restrictions will be in place atSt Helen’s Square, Coney Street and Lendal, which will be closed to traffic from 6.30pm to 9pm as the event takes place.

Winston Churchill train almost ready for display in York

_79819239_funeraltrainofsirwinstonchurchillpassingstaines

A restored locomotive that pulled Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral train and its carriages are being restored for the 50th anniversary of Sir Winston’s funeral on 30 January.

The 34051 Winston Churchill, along with the Southern Railway’s parcel van S2464S, which carried the coffin, transported the former Prime Minister from Waterloo in central London to his final resting place in Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire.

The carriage is being restored in Shildon, County Durham, having been loaned to the National Railway Museum by the Swanage Railway Trust in Dorset.

The train will go on display in the Great Hall of the National Railway Museum in York as part of its Churchill’s Final Journey exhibition.

Mid-Hants Railway chairman Colin Chambers said: “All that remains is some additional varnish applied by our team of painters. It is planned to be on its way to York by mid-January.”

Sir Winston was laid to rest in the parish churchyard of Bladon, close to Blenheim Palace where he was born 89 years earlier.