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The 2005 York Mystery Plays production of The Crucifixion

THE York Guilds say Mystery Plays will still be performed in York in 2010 - on wagons pulled through the city's streets.

The guilds say their production will take place that summer in line with a traditional four-year cycle, despite separate performances planned for the Minster being postponed.

The Press reported earlier this week how the million-pound-plus spectacular in the cathedral has now been put back to the autumn of 2011.

The Plays were originally set to be staged in the Minster in the summer of 2010, on the tenth anniversary of the Millennium production, but the Dean of York, the Very Reverend Keith Jones, said they could have coincided with major construction work to create a new piazza at the Minster's south entrance and create disabled access into the Undercroft.

At the same time, Yorkshire Forward had turned down a request for funding towards the cost, leaving organisers concerned that they might face a shortfall.

Roger Lee, chairman of the York Guilds, said they had previously held talks with the Minster about how the two productions might complement each other in 2010, and open the Plays up to as wide an audience as possible.

"In keeping with our four- yearly cycle, which began in 1998, we are again planning a large scale, quality, community based production for July of 2010."

The Plays were performed on two consecutive Sunday afternoons in 2006 with the involvement of seven York Guilds - the Merchant Adventurers, Taylors, Butchers, Cordwainers, Builders, Scriveners and Freemen.

David Crouch performs with York drama group, The Lords Of Misrule, in the wagon play The Death And Burial Of Christ, in 1992

The productions were hugely popular, with massive demand for tickets from overseas visitors.

Telling the story of the Bible from Creation to the Last Judgement, they were staged on the backs of wagons in line with a York tradition going back to 1350, with performances held in Dean's Park, College Green, St Sampson's Square and Museum Gardens.

The Plays have had a chequered history in York, stirring up religious passions for 200 years in medieval times until being suppressed by the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

They were revived in 1951 after a break of more than 400 years, and were staged for many years on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens.

12:15am Friday 28th March 2008

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