The Intrepid Traveller leaving York - 7 September 2008
It’s sometimes hard to fill half a day because you have your bags to contend with, but once again, the hotel was so kind to us and carried them all down to the dining room for us and locked them behind the bar (and carried them all up again at 4.30 and rang for a taxi for us!)
We’d recommend this B&B highly. It’s called Blossoms York, 28 Clifton, York, YO30 6AE and its web site is www.blossomsyork.co.uk. It’s only 10 minutes’ walk from the Minster.
York has so much to offer and we hardly knew where to start, even though it was our third day there. Fortunately the decision was taken away from us when we reached Bootham Bar and were approached by someone offering us a discounted city ride on an open topped bus like this one, which takes you all round the city walls.
We’d become so inured to drizzly, cold weather that we hadn’t thought of that – and suddenly realized that the sun was shining!!
The city has four Bars, as I’ve mentioned several times. Bootham Bar is the defensive bastion for the north road. On the road south is Micklegate Bar, traditionally the Monarch’s entrance, where traitors’ heads were displayed. Monk Bar has kept a portcullis in working order while Walmgate Bar is the only town gate in England to have preserved its barbican, a tunnel-like approach, forcing attackers to bunch together.
The bus took off from Exhibition Square, in front of the Art Gallery.
York’s Art Gallery’s permanent collection is displayed along themes including people, places and landscapes. Each themed area also features a guest contemporary work.
And beside the King’s Manor, where Suzi was busy taking photos of the Art Gallery before the bus left without her!
A house was built on this site in about 1270 as a Residence for the Abbot of St Mary’s Abbey but was substantially rebuilt in the late 15th century. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 it became, until 1641, the Headquarters of the Council of the North and the Residents of its Presidents who added to the buildings. Henry VIII, Charles I and James I all stayed here at one time or another. Since 1963, it has been occupied by the University of York.
From here we set off with a rather disjointed commentary along roads that skirted the city walls. It isn’t possible to remember everything we were told but some things stuck in our minds.
Like Clifford’s Tower, the chief surviving fragment of the mediaeval York Castle, constructed by the Normans to keep the marauding Danes of the 11th century at bay.
A church made interesting by the tiny door you can see towards the right. It was believed that when a child was baptized, the devil inside the child was banished and had to have an exit from the church. This door was believed to be the exit!
Heaps of views of the city walls from outside the city
And an interesting ice house like this one.
This early 19th century Ice House is in the ramparts outside the wall. Ice Houses were used to store ice collected during the winter for domestic use in the summer and, like this one, were generally in the form of a deep brick lined pit with a dome roof above ground, surmounted by soil and having an enclosed access passage.
Of particular interest to us both was Monk Bar (taken from the top of the bus before we walked back to look at the interior in more detail).
Monk Bar, the tallest and most spectacular of York’s four Bars dates from 1300. It’s open to the public and its attractions include the mediaeval portcullis, probably the finest example of a mediaeval portcullis in the country. Astonishingly the ancient mechanism still works and visitors are invited to operate the windlass themselves.
Monk Bar also contains the Richard III museum. The upper storey of the Bar was constructed by Richard III himself in 1484. Perhaps the most controversial figure to emerge from the Wars of the Roses era, Richard III was King of England for just 26 months from 1483-85. Condemned both by history and by Shakespeare as an evil, hunch-backed monster, Richard is said to have been guilty of numerous brutal murders. In the museum, he is sensationally ‘put on trial’ for the crime for which history condemns him, the murders of his nephews, the so-called ‘Princes in the Tower’, and visitors and invited to vote on his guilt or innocence.
But did he do it? And was he so evil? Despite his reputation, Richard was extremely popular in York.
It remains something of a controversy. He was finally defeated and slain at Bosworth Battlefield in Leicestershire by the invading forces of Henry Tudor (Henry VII) in 1485.
Although Henry Tudor only had a slender claim to the throne, he declared himself King by right of conquest. It was necessary for him to blacken the name of his predecessor. Thus, the Tudor historians, anxious to paint their new King as the nation’s saviour, wrote their history to the glorification of Henry VII. However, as early as the 17th century it was suggested that Richard III may have been the unfortunate victim of Tudor propaganda.
We passed the imposing Railway Station
and were sorry that we didn’t have time to visit the National Railway Museum, the largest railway museum in the world, which is home to the most famous steam locomotive, the Flying Scotsman! It was almost as if we’d come full circle and it was particularly interesting to be reminded where the original locomotive is today.
One thing that was of amusing interest to us was the number of houses which had bricked-up windows like this one here. This had been done to avoid paying excessive rates and led to the term, ‘daylight robbery’.
We continued to see some really weird street signs
And were aware again and again of just how much the Minster dominates the City from every angle
Before we left York and made our way to the station to catch our train, we had one final lunch at our favourite pub
And then we found out how lucky we were. Arriving at the station in the nick of time, the loudspeaker announcements told us that our train had been delayed by flooding further north – where we’d just been in fact! How glad we were that we’d come south when we did. In the event we were only about half an hour late into London and Kate met us with some very exciting news! She and Bret had just bought a house!!