Heritage Open Days in Selby

Selby Civic Society is the organiser of Selby’s Heritage Open Days supported by Selby High Street Heritage Action Zone and Selby Abbey.

Selby Civic Society was founded in 1969, the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Selby to present the Maundy Money at Selby Abbey. The Society celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2019.

Its objectives are to encourage high standards of architecture and town planning in Selby and its environs, and to stimulate public interest in, and care for, the beauty, history and character of the town and its surroundings.

We try to make Selby and its surroundings a better place to live in, work in and visit.

A brief history of Selby

Selby has changed tremendously over the past 1000 years but its core attributes are still its markets, Abbey, history and its people.

It is believed that Selby originated as a settlement called Seletun. In 1069 the monk Benedict from Auxerre in France persuaded William the Conqueror to give him permission to found an Abbey at Selby. His successor Hugh, planned and constructed the great church and the associated domestic buildings. The Abbey Church is complete and larger in size than many English cathedrals and has an excellent Norman Nave and decorated chancel. 

By the eighteenth century Selby had become the major outlet to the sea for the area and upwards of 360,000 tonnes of shipping used the river between Selby and the sea each year. Selby once was home to a thriving shipbuilding industry, sadly no longer here. In the last part of the nineteenth century Selby became a significant railway centre with its own goods yard and engine shed.  These are now gone, but in its heyday Selby was the centre of a communications network which made the town attractive to industry mainly concerned with the processing of agricultural produce.

Selby still retains much of its heritage including a Monday market. Although the economic fortunes of the town were more recently linked to coal mining and power generation as well as modern manufacturing, Selby has the indefinable atmosphere of a market town. 

Heritage Open Days is England’s largest festival of history and culture, bringing together over 2,000 local people and organisations, and thousands of volunteers. Every year in September, places across the country throw open their doors to celebrate their heritage, community and history. It’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – and it’s all FREE.

Selby High Street Heritage Action Zone is a project part-funded by Historic England to increase vibrancy in the town centre through community engagement and building regeneration projects.

We are working with Historic England to develop and deliver schemes that will transform and restore disused and dilapidated buildings into new homes, shops, workplaces, and community spaces, restoring local historic character and improving the public realm.