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Researched by: Herstory.York and Make Space for Girls

Designed by: Emma Feneley

The way historic cities like York protected their heritage was transformed in the mid 1960s by a new law on ‘Conservation Areas’. This was the idea of June Hargreaves, a young York town planner. June became York’s Senior Planning Officer in 1961.

At that time, many councils were sweeping away historic buildings. June however, strongly believed that all buildings in York were important. She said, “a town is a place in which to live and work, and all planning solutions are inadequate if the town is solely to solve its traffic problem”.

June worked for the City Council until 1988 and then as a founder/director of York Archaeological Trust and as a member of York Civic Trust. They said “June Hargreaves was the single most influential voice in England calling for the creation of Conservation Areas. When women were not regarded as equal in the workplace, she personally convinced government ministers to change the law.”

❝This design celebrates the legacy of York Conservationist June Hargreaves, whose voice and work inspired new law to preserve areas of environmental or historic importance. Thanks to June, there are now 35 areas of conservation within central York, to be preserved and enjoyed by all. Worked within the design are the names of these 35 areas, housed within a shape chosen to symbolise and celebrate each based on their history or name origin.

June’s embodiment as a strong, female voice of the 60's and her encouragement for people to look at ‘space’ in a different way, transfer to this sculpture's partnership with the Make Space for Girls initiative at Rowntree Park and York HerStory. The girls’ project aims to encourage the rethinking of parks to encourage older girls to use these spaces and reduce the drop off of park use as they enter teenage years. This colourful, paper collage creation has been made alongside local teenage girls, who have added their own voices and colours of change by collaborating in the design process and painting the papers used in this final piece.

Based on the girls’ ideas, the colours and themes of Women, Nature and Space are woven throughout this design. From the flowing, natural patterns of the 60’s, to the representation of women and suffrage through a purple colour scheme, it aims to encapsulate the ethos of women making change happen in the past, present and future.❞

Friends of Rowntree Park ‘Make Space for Girls’ Project and Herstory.York: The Friends of Rowntree Park’s ‘Make Space for Girls in Rowntree Park’ project has teamed up with Herstory.York to collaborate on a York Trailblazer who was an influential woman.

Make Space for Girls: The project focuses on preventing the drop-off of girls’ use of parks as they enter their teenage years. Parks can be beneficial to mental and physical health and well-being, so creating welcoming parks for teenage girls and women is important. The project focuses on listening to what teenage girls want in their park and doing what can be done to make that happen.

Herstory.York: This community history project aims to make the stories of inspirational York women known and celebrated. The collaboration is focused on June Hargreaves, a York city planner in the 1960s. June considered how ‘space’ was used and got people to rethink previous ideas, linking to the project’s consideration of how design affects girls' and women's use of public spaces. The Make Space for Girls project looks at park and public space use through a gendered lens and explores improvements that can be made to make spaces more inclusive.

June Hargreaves: June's work led to a new law on 'Conservation Areas' in the 1960s. Prior to this, city planners had been focusing on ‘modernisation’, which included demolishing buildings to make way for new things. June saw how some old buildings and areas were key to the character and community of the area. She highlighted the idea that "a town is a place to live and work". The 1967 Civic Amenities Act established the idea of ‘special preservation areas’ and meant buildings couldn’t be knocked down without permission. The contribution to the whole street and character of the area had to be considered.

June was a young woman in a senior position, which wasn’t common in the 1960s when women were not regarded as equal in the workplace, and she worked in an area dominated by men. She personally convinced senior civil servants and government ministers to change the law, encouraging people to look at spaces in a different way.

The ‘Make Space for Girls’ project also looks at spaces in a different way, asking planners, designers, councils, and architects to consider how girls and women use the built environment and how inclusive design can make parks more welcoming to these groups.

For the Trailblazers project, a group of teenage girls and artist Emma Feneley produced a design for the sculpture that represents key themes shared by June Hargreaves and the project, such as space, having a voice, change, thinking differently, women’s rights, and equity.