Events to mark Hull Minster's 600th anniversary

Hull Minster is holding a series of events to mark its 600th anniversary.

The city centre church will hold a Passion Play at Easter as well as a May Day event featuring a choir and dancing around a maypole.

The vicar of Hull Minster, the Reverend Canon Dr Dominic Black, said as one of the oldest buildings in the city it was "a really important sign of the continuity of the history of the place".

"I often say to people you're literally walking on Hull's history because of all the people buried there as they are going round the building," he said.

Canon Black added the previous layout of the building made it difficult to access for the number of people visiting.

"Since 2017, around the City of Culture when it was created as a minster, the place has just opened up really, quite literally.

"Trinity Square was created and the nave was cleared and now thousands of people come and visit every week, which is tremendous.

"We are much more engaged with the life of the city again."

The land on which the minster stands has been a place of worship for centuries.

The foundations were laid in 1285 when King Edward I bought the land from the monks of Meaux and employed royal stonemasons to build it.

According to the minster it took 140 years to complete because the Black Death wiped out 60% of the population of Hull.

Since 2015 the building has undergone a £7.5m improvement scheme with a recent survey finding "no major issues with the fabric of the building," Canon Black said.

"It's gone from being on the Heritage at Risk register to now being in a good state," he added.

The man behind the year-long celebration is Heritage Project Manager James Cameron, who said the idea was to "outreach to people".

"We really want to focus on the people of Hull," he said.

"We want to make a big fanfare and get people involved and generate that civic pride reminiscent of when Hull was City of Culture in 2017."

Mr Cameron said the minster was also updating its information boards and hoped to introduce an audio guide.

"Six hundred years here at the church has really reflected Hull in a lot of ways," he said.

"Hull's most difficult moments the church has been here for and Hull's best moments it's been here for."

Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.