York – fraggle ~ rocking a camera across the Universe

York 2015 remastered ~ The Treasurer’s House

March 19, 2023March 17, 2023Posted in Adventures, architecture, art, Fuji, fujiXT1, History, photography, stately homes & estatesTagged 2015, adventure, fraggle, Fuji XT-1, photography, The Treasurers House, UK, York35 Comments

The History Bit ( not too long but still worth a ☕️ & 🍪)

This time we’re all about Frank Green and The Treasurers House. York Minster, the whopping great Cathedral that I’ve yet to remaster the post on, first had a treasurer in 1091. Thats 932 yrs ago! Not surprisingly the original building is gone apart from an external wall from the 12th century. In 1547 The Reformation put paid (pun intended 🙂 ) to the job of treasurer and the house was given to The Archbishops of York. Thomas Young who was Archbishop between 1561 and 1568, and his descendants are responsible for the structure of Treasurer’s House as it is today. In the early 17th century the Young family added the symmetrical front and almost entirely rebuilt the house. The Treasurer’s House played host to royalty when Sir George Young entertained King James 1st in 1617. The house then passed through a number of private owners.

Frank Green was a wealthy collector, and owned Treasurer’s House between 1897 and 1930. He demolished the additions made to the building in the 19th century and restored the house to what he thought was its original shape. He turned Treasurer’s House into a stage for his collection, designing rooms of different periods to display his antique furniture. It was at this time that Treasurer’s House received a second royal visit, in June 1900. Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited as Prince and Princess of Wales along with their daughter Victoria. It was in their honour that the King’s Room, Queen’s Room and Princess Victoria’s Room were so named.

Frank Green was a very precise man, in both his own appearance and the way he ran his home. He was a bit of a ‘dandy’, neatly dressed and often seen wearing a floppy silk bow tie. He had studs fixed to the floor in the rooms of Treasurer’s House so the house maids knew exactly where furniture should stand. Frank was also careful about the state of his house; signs can be seen at Treasurer’s House with careful instructions to the staff. He left curt little notices dotted about the house – notices which are still there to this day. “All workmen are requested to wear slippers when working in this House. By order Frank Green,” says one.A former kitchen maid told how Frank would inspect the kitchen, turning out any drawers he thought were untidy. Frank Green retired to Somerset in 1930 and gave Treasurer’s House to the National Trust, complete with his vast collection. It was the first historic house acquired by the Trust with its contents complete.

Frank decorated the rooms to match the collected artworks that he had obtained on his work travels, but this hall was done in faux medieval style.

artwork in the hall,

This next room was all done out to match the painting of a lady in a blue dress. I think it was my favourite room, loved all the ornate furniture and oriental vases.

This marble topped table had intricately carved wooden legs, but they looked like metal.

we went upstairs through another hallway

more artwork on the way upstairs

Frank decorated for the King’s visit, and this is the bed Edward VII slept in, hope they changed the sheets.

Finally, this is something I read on wiki, made me smile 🙂

“In 1953 local 17-year-old apprentice plumber Harry Martindale, was repairing pipe work in the cellar, the National Trust having decided to remove the coal-fired central heating installed by Green. After about four hours of work at the top of his ladder Martindale became aware of a musical sound, resembling a series of repeated single trumpet-like notes. The sound grew in intensity until, just below his ladder, Martindale reported that said he saw a soldier wearing a plumed helmet emerge from the wall, followed by a cart horse and about nine or ten pairs of Roman Soldiers. He fell, terrified, from his ladder and stumbled into a corner to hide. The soldiers appeared to be armed legionaries, visible only from the knees up, in a marching formation, but were “scruffy”. They were distinctive in three ways: they carried round shields on their left arms, they carried some kind of daggers in scabbards on their right side and they wore green tunics. When they descended to the level of the Roman Road, on which Martindale had stood his ladders, he was able to see that they wore open sandals with leather straps to the knees.

The experience was so frightening for Martindale that he suffered a nervous breakdown for several months and never returned to his job as a plumber. Many years later excavations in the city revealed that the descriptions of the soldiers dress given by Martindale, at first dismissed as anomalous, in fact matched those of local reserve soldiers who took over the Roman Garrison when the regular soldiers began returning to Rome in the fifth century. During the course of his long life Martindale recounted his experience many times, but never changed any of the details and always refused any payment”.

That’s it for this week but

for wherever next!
📷 😊

York 2015 remastered ~ part 3 ~going medieval & beyond

March 5, 2023March 4, 2023Posted in Adventures, architecture, Fuji, fujiXT1, History, Late Middle Ages, medieval, photography, Uncategorized, urbanTagged adventure, architecture, fraggle, Fuji XT-1, history, Middle Ages, photography, UK, York46 Comments

Part 1 HERE Part 2 HERE

It is amazing wandering around York and seeing all the medieval old shops and churches. It’s quite staggering they remain standing, some of their walls are so wonky, I guess there’s an invisible army of restoration people who manage the upkeep of them.

St. Sampsons Centre for the over 60’s. St. Sampson’s is an ancient church in the heart of York City Centre. It’s not know exactly when it was built, records show that it was in use in 1154 A.D. It is built on the South-east wall of the Roman defences of Eboracum (the Roman name for York).
The Church has been rebuilt many times over it’s 850 year history. The North and South Isles were rebuilt in 1400 and 1445 respectively. The tower was first rebuilt in 1485 but was damaged by gunshot in the civil war in 1644. By 1844 the church building was so dilapidated that the church was forced to close. Only half the tower was intact! The church was most recently rebuilt in 1848 and later the upper stage of the tower was added in 1907. York Civic Trust was able to arrange for its conversion in to an Old People’s Centre in the 1960’s. Over 60’s = old people. Sigh.

Gert & Henry’s. The older part of the building was constructed in the 14th-century, at the end of Jubbergate, where it met Newgate and Little Shambles. This part is of two bays, timber framed, a jettied upper floor, and brick infill on the ground floor. In the early-17th century, another timber-framed building was constructed next to it, in two parts: a two bay, two storied section with an original attic and cellar, and a smaller three storey section. Over time, the two have become interconnected and are now a single property. Sadly it is the only remaining 14thC building in that area as the rest were demolished in the 1950’s along with the whole street of Little Shambles in order to make Shambles Market. Now of course the demolition of the historic buildings that originally stood in the place of the market is seen as insensitive, since a great deal of historic fabric was destroyed.

The Little Shambles Tearoom and coffee house. Can’t find anything about this one.

Herbert House. In the mid-16th century, the Company of Merchant Adventurers of York owned a house on Marketshire, a street which was becoming known as Pavement. They let out the house to Christopher Herbert, a merchant who later became Lord Mayor of York. He purchased the property in 1557, and later passed it on to his son, Thomas. In 1606, Thomas’ grandson was born in the house. He later became Sir Thomas Herbert, 1st Baronet, and the house is now named after him. The house has been through a lot of alteration and renovations. When we were there it was operated by Jones the Bootmaker but since 2019, it has been occupied by York Gin. You can see the buildings either side of it are more modern, and straight and true, not sure how it’s not collapsing in on itself.

Externally of 1893 when the black-and-white front was added but early 1700’s origins inside. This one you might think is a sad reflection on our times, but our ancestors gambled just as much as people do today. There were many different sorts of dice games. Among the favorites were raffle, where the winner had to throw all three dice alike or the highest pair, and hazard, which seems to have been aptly named because it had the worst reputation. It was most often played in taverns, and it attracted cheaters, who if caught could be led to the pillory and made to wear their false dice around their necks. And in my searches have also found out medieval recipes cover a wide range of possible pastry uses, from wide, flat open tarts to the great raised meat and fruit pies with a pastry lid. “Flat tarts and flans may well have been meant for complete consumption, cut in slices in very much the modern fashion,the more substantial pies, on the other hand, often have a fairly liquid filling, and it is perfectly possible that the pies were designed to have the lid lifted so that diners could spoon out the stew-like innards. In addition, elaborate subtleties such as Chastletes require free-standing pastry as castle walls, to which use a tender pastry will not really be appropriate”. So all in all I think Betfred and Greggs are strangely appropriate.

30 and 32 Goodramgate lies on the corner of Goodramgate and College Street. The part facing College Street was constructed in the early-14th century, while the part facing Goodramgate was constructed in the 1380s or 1390s as part of a terrace of houses, replacing a large stone house which belonged to John le Romeyn. The structure also includes a gatehouse which is believed to represent an entrance to the Mediaeval Minster Close, but which was completely rebuilt about 1600. The main parts of the building were altered in the 18th- and 19th-centuries, when much of the timber was replaced with brickwork. By 1752, part of the building was in use as the Angel Inn. The Goodramgate façade is of 2 stories and 4 bays, and includes a double-storey gatehouse built in the 18th-century. The ground floor of the entire building is currently in use as shops and cafes, with part occupied by the National Trust. It was listed at grade II* in 1954.

The gates of York are known as ‘bars’ this is Monk Bar, it is the largest and most ornate of the bars, it dates from the early 14th century. It was a self-contained fortress, with each floor capable of being defended. On the front of the bar is an arch supporting a gallery, including ‘murder-holes’ through which missiles and boiling water could be rained down upon attackers. A formidable structure even now.

Not sure what this building was, but we were just awestruck by the skill of the guy who made the window frames for this place.

St William’s College was built in 1465 for York Minster’s Chantry Priests, a community of around 24, known as fellows, who received advance payments for praying for the souls of their deceased benefactors. The fellows’ behaviour, which often included drunkenness, had previously brought embarrassment for the Archbishop of York and he deemed they should have their own residence. Over the centuries the building changed ownership and usage many times; it became home to the Royal Printing Press during the Civil War, a private house – having several changes and rebuilds, windows were added to the street frontage in the 1800s and finally the beautiful medieval building contained nothing more than slum dwellings resulting in its disrepair. In the late 19^th century Francis Green, owner of the nearby Treasurer’s House,(which you’re going to get a whole blog post on) rescued St William’s from ruin, buying it and subsequently selling it back to the City Council at no personal profit thereby allowing the council to restore it to its former glory around 1902. It then came under the care of the Dean and Chapter of York Minster.

And finally, here is Phil looking at the menu in this 17th century inn, which Phil had been to before and rated really good, so we were planning on dining here, but the place has changed hands, and the menu didn’t impress Phil, so I never got to dine in a medieval building. Next time though 🙂 The building was a pub by 1772, when it was known as the Blue Pigg. It later became known as the Blue Boar, and has been the Royal Oak since 1819. From 1894, it was owned by the local John J. Hunt Brewery, while in the mid-20th century, it was acquired by Camerons Brewery.

and that’s a wrap for this week, but

for wherever next!

📷 😊

York 2015 ~ remastered ~ part 2 ~ not just medieval

February 26, 2023February 25, 2023Posted in architecture, photography, UncategorizedTagged architecture, fraggle, photography, York49 Comments

Part 1 HERE

Although I love York’s Olde Worlde streets it’s worth noting some of the more modern, but still architecturally delightful, buildings in York. One of the first buildings we saw was The York Art Museum. Created for second Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition of 1879 within the grounds of the medieval St Mary’s Abbey known as Bearparks Garden and designed by York architect Edward Taylor. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go in, but is definitely on the list for a return visit.

I liked the water feature in front of it

Another striking building belongs to Barclays Bank! The bank was built in 1901 to a design by Edmund Kirby (though subsequently altered) and is now Grade II Listed. The decorative brick work is amazing, click on it to see it bigger, it’s worth it. 🙂

Betty’s Tea rooms looked cool, and I like the little history about it-

In 1936 the founder of Bettys, Frederick Beaumont travelled on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary. He was so enthralled by the splendour of the ship that he commissioned the Queen Mary’s designers and craftsmen to turn a dilapidated furniture store into his most sophisticated branch yet – an elegant café in the land-locked location of St Helen’s Square. Today, as you sit in Bettys, surrounded by huge curved windows, elegant wood panelling and ornate mirrors, you can almost imagine yourself aboard a luxury liner.

The art deco elegance of the Queen Mary is particularly evident in the first floor Belmont Room which was inspired by one of the cruise liner’s state rooms. A few years after Betty’s opened its doors in York war broke out, and Betty’s – in particular the basement ‘Betty’s Bar’ – became a favourite haunt of thousands of airmen stationed around York. ‘Betty’s Mirror’, on which many of them engraved their signatures with a diamond pen, remains on display today as a fitting tribute to their bravery. Would have loved to go in but there was a long long queue to get in. And I don’t do queues. That’s all the people in the bottom of the picture!

We had a walk down to the river and see the central bridge, which is called The Ouse Bridge (over the River Ouse surprisingly 😉 ) There has been a crossing of sorts here since the founding of the city by the Romans. By the medieval period, the bridge was very crowded with buildings. A flood in 1564 caused the central span to collapse; along with the bridge, 12 buildings were also destroyed. The replacement bridge was built 2 years later, with 5 spans, including one large central span, which was one of the longest in Europe at the time. The current bridge was built in 1821, and was a lot flatter in profile than it’s predecessor. And probably boring in comparison.

St. Wilfrid’s is a Roman Catholic church located in the centre of York, in the shadows of York Minster. A Church dedicated to St.Wilfrid has stood in York since medieval times. Catholics call it the “Mother Church of the city of York.” It is in Gothic Revival style. The Arch over the main door has the most detailed Victorian carving in the city. The present Church was completed in 1864 and it was considered to be one of the most perfectly finished Catholic Churches in England, rich in sculptures, paintings and stained glass.

A sneaky History Bit 🙂
Considered one of the greatest and most controversial English Saints, Wilfrid (634-709) directly influenced the move away from Celtic to the more orderly Roman church practices and is best known for championing and winning the case for the Roman, as opposed to the Celtic method of calculating the date of Easter at the famous Synod of Whitby in 664.
He became Bishop of York with a See covering the whole of Northumbria, built magnificent stone churches at Ripon and Hexham. He acquired vast landholdings and established monasteries in Northumbria, Mercia, Sussex and the Isle of Wight and converted Sussex, the last vestige of paganism, to Christianity.
He was the confidant of kings and queens but made many powerful enemies and was twice banished from Northumbria. He made three journeys on foot and horseback through Europe to Rome and was not afraid to seek papal jurisdiction over both crown and church where he felt badly treated. His life was threatened many times being shipwrecked and nearly killed by natives off the coast of Sussex, they’re a feisty lot down there, imprisoned in Northumbria by the king and twice nearly murdered whilst travelling abroad. He was a bit of a lad, they should make a movie!

Not all the shops and cafe’s etc are medieval, we had our lunch in the square..

Phil knows how to show a girl a good time 🙄

We had a better dinner though. Ish.

can’t really recommend either, but as my hubby says, ‘it filled a hole’. 🙂
Back to medieval times next time so

📷 😊

The York Report 1 -streets of York. ~ remastered

February 12, 2023February 10, 2023Posted in Anglo~Saxon, History, Late Middle Ages, medieval, photography, uncategorisedTagged adventure, England, fraggle, Fuji XT1, history, medieval building, photography, York48 Comments

Back in 2015, Phil and I went off to York for a weekend away. I did a few posts on it but only Francis has seen them, so as I still haven’t got any new stuff sorted out, this will keep your Sunday History lesson going! 😊

The History Bit

York is ancient! Mesolithic items have shown up in digs around the area, that’s 7/8000 yrs BC to you and me, then the British tribes of the Brigantes & the Parisii before the Pesky Romans took it over after the conquest of Britain (Spaghetti Bolognese is still to this present day English people’s favourite meal to cook 😉 ) It was the Romans who really put it on the map. During the conquest the Brigantes became a Roman client state, but, when their leadership changed becoming more hostile to Rome, Roman General Cerialis led the 9th Legion north of the Humber River.

York was founded in 71 AD when Cerialis and the Ninth Legion constructed a military fortress on flat ground above the River Ouse near its junction with the River Foss. The fortress was later rebuilt in stone, covered an area of 50 acres, and was inhabited by 6,000 soldiers. I bet it was smelly! The earliest known mention of the Fort by name (Eboracum) is from a wooden tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda along Hadrians Wall dated to c. 95–104 AD, where it is called Eburaci. Much of the Roman fortress lies under the foundations of York Minster, and excavations in the Minster’s undercroft have revealed some of the original walls, which you’ll see a bit of later.

Well all good things come to an end and the Romans buggered off in 410, not much is known about what happened for a while but definitely factions of Britons kept the place going. Then in early 5th century, the Angles came, and they were German. They founded several of the kingdoms of Anglo Saxon England, and their name is the root of the name England. The name comes from the district of Angeln an area located on the Baltic shore of what is now Schleswig Holstein the most northern state of Germany. However we didn’t really take to Brackwurst like we did Spaghetti Bolognese.

By the early 7th century, York was an important royal centre for the Northumbrian kings, for it was here that Paulinius of York (later St Paulinus) came to set up his wooden church, the precursor of York Minster, and it was here that King Edwin of Northumbria was baptised in 627. The first Minster is believed to have been built in 627, though give or take a couple of years by the sound of it.

So by the 8th century everything’s cushty, York was an active commercial centre with established trading links to other areas of England, Northern France, the Low Countries and the Rhineland.

Then wouldn’t you know it, the Pesky Vikings decide they want a piece of us!! In 867 a large army of Danish Pesky Vikings, called the “Great Heathen Army”, captured York. They had a bit of a fight, the Vikings won and put a puppet ruler in charge of York, then the Army toddled off and went on the rampage for 10 years, came back, and their leader Halfdan took it over.

In 1066 the Pesky French took their turn, and the Norman conquest happened. Now, as we know, there were many years of fighting and rebellion but the upshot was, the Normans eventually controlled England, 8000 of them settled here, and the Anglo Saxons skedaddled off to Scotland, Ireland & Scandinavia.

So that was that, and now we’re in Medieval times. York prospered in the later medieval years and is now a popular tourist attraction, with the Shambles, a street of timber framed shops originally occupied by butchers being top on the tourist list. Some retain the outdoor shelves and the hooks on which meat was displayed. They have overhanging upper floors and are now largely souvenir shops. Twenty medieval parish churches survive in whole or in part, though only eight of these are regularly used for worship. The medieval city walls, with their entrance gates, known as bars, encompassed virtually the entire city and survive to this day.

There you go, 9000 odd years of history in a couple of paragraphs, doncha wish your teacher was hot like me?

on to the pictures,

Hamlet of Marygate. Probably not of Shakespeare

Will post some more York stuff when I have another gap, til then

📷 😊

The York report 9 ~ York Minster Interior

June 20, 2015June 20, 2015Posted in Church, Fuji, gothic, History, medieval, photography, uncategorisedTagged Doomstone, fraggle, Fuji XT1, stained glass, stained glass windows, York, York Minster13 Comments

Finally got to the last post on York, and this time inside York Minster.

York as a whole, and particularly the minster, have a long tradition of creating beautiful stained glass. Some of the stained glass in York Minster dates back to the 12th century. The Minster’s records show that much of the glass (white or coloured) came from Germany. Because of the extended time periods during which the glass was installed, different types of glazing and painting techniques which evolved over hundreds of years are visible in the different windows. Approximately two million individual pieces of glass make up the cathedral’s 128 stained glass windows. Much of the glass was removed before and pieced back together after the 1st and 2nd world wars,and the windows are constantly being cleaned and conserved to keep their beauty intact, which was happening to the magnificent East Window, so we didn’t get to see that a.

TH-31 — The West Window constructed 1338

The choir screen has a statue of every King of England

We went into the undercroft, the vaulted cellar below ground level. It has archaeological remains covering all of York’s history, from the Roman fort to the Norman foundations. There’s an exhibit of artifacts on display in the undercroft normally, including a luscious Norman-era 12th century relief of sinners being tortured by demons in Hell’s cauldron known as the Doomstone.

Lots of tombs and shrines in the walls of the Minster

There are 2 interesting clocks in the Minster, a medieval mechanical clock where 2 armed figures strike the 1/4 hours

and an astronomical clock, installed in the North Transept in 1955. It was first conceived in 1944 and designed by R d’E Atkinson. The clock is a memorial to the airmen operating from bases in Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland who were killed in action during WW2. It’s quite a complicated clock to get your head around as Atkinson based the design on the appearance of the sun and stars from the viewpoint of a pilot flying over York, and if you are interested how it works HERE is the link. As it happens damage to the clock’s mechanism was sustained during the fire of 9 July 1984; after 10 years’ reparation work, vergers ceased winding it owing to inaccuracies of time-keeping. 😦

The Chapter House, where the day to day business of the Minster was run, was begun in about 1260 and is a superb example of the Gothic Decorated style which was then all the rage.

The entrance to the Chapter House is along a fairly low passage, which gives no hint of what is to come. You pass through a twin arched door…

…where a wonderfully carved Madonna and child stand, and enter into a circular space ringed with low stalls.

Then when you go inside, the stained glass windows are beautiful, and led your eyes up to this gorgeous ribbed vault ceiling.

Hard to believe it’s made out of wood, but it is. A masterpiece of medieval architecture. I tried a panorama with the iPhone, which didn’t work too well, you can see the roof lines are all jittery, but it gives you an idea..

around the chapter house, stalls details.

Finally, whilst doing the tour underneath the Minster to see the Roman Fort ruins that still are visible (The Minster was built ovee part of the Fort ruins) we came across this wonderful Viking Horn.

One of the few surviving artefacts from the beginning of the eleventh century, the Horn of Ulf is a large elephant tusk which was carved in Salerno in Italy. The figures on it are believed to have been carved by Islamic carvers.

It belonged to a Viking nobleman, or thane, called Ulf or Ulphus. Ulf owned large estates around York and throughout Yorkshire. The Horn acted as a land deed and was given to the Minster when the land transferred in to the ownership of the Dean and Chapter of York.

It was lost during the Civil War but came back to York Minster, having had the silver mounts added during its disappearance.

So that ends the York Reports, hope you’ve enjoyed the journey, next time, Mount Grace Priory 🙂

laters gaters

😉

websites I used for researching history during the reports:-

York Press ~Horn of Ulf

History of York

Britain Express

Wiki

The York Report 7~York Minster exterior

June 16, 2015June 18, 2015Posted in Church, Fuji, gothic, hipstamatic, History, photographyTagged architecture, fraggle, Fuji XT1, York, York Minster13 Comments

York Minster, the 2nd largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe. And what a beauty, I could spend many happy hours in this stunning place. But first a potted history 🙂

Starting out as a wooden building in 627 AD (1388 yrs ago!!) in the 630’s it was rebuilt in stone then fell into disrepair by 670. A chap called St.Wilfred took over and repaired and renewed it. Then in 741 it was burnt down, and consequently rebuilt with even more impressive stonework. The church and the entire area then passed through the hands of numerous invaders, and its history is obscure until the 10th century. The church was damaged in 1069 during William the Conqueror’s harrying of the north, but the first Norman archbishop,Thomas of Bayeux, arriving in 1070, organised repairs. The Danes destroyed the church in 1075, but it was again rebuilt from 1080 in the Norman style. Basically, up until 1230 it was up and down like a lady of the night’s undergarments, but the present building was begun in about 1230 and completed in 1472. There is constant restoration work going on, and at the time of our visit, the Great East Window is in the process of renovation at an estimated cost of £23 million, so we couldn’t see that unfortunately as it is quite spectacular by all accounts.

I took a lot of shots so this will be a 3 part post, and in this first one I’m concentrating on the exterior.

Firstly, there’s no way my little fuji could take in the whole building, so I tried to do a panorama which kind of worked, but isn’t all that great.

I tried pulling it about in PS but couldn’t quite get the bottom part right, so Phil’s head is a bit stretched. But I had a go and learned a bit about warping and the like so not a waste of time. This was an evening shot and the light was lovely on the sandstone.

This is the door you go through to get in and it’s the west end of the building.

This is the view of the minster from The Treasurers House which you can see in the previous post if you click on the link. The chapter house has the pointy roof, and that long set of windows on the left is The Five Sisters window.

while I was photographing the tower a chap asked me if I was trying to photograph the peregrine falcons, I didn’t know what he was on about at first, but apparently a breeding pair of the birds are nesting in the top window there. Didn’t see them though.

The grounds of the Minster have a seating area done in the same kind of stone, and with decorative motifs in keeping with the carvings on the Minster.

and also there is a really lovely war memorial

I also took some hipstamatic shots on the iphone

Visitors entrance hipstamatic — side door hipstamatic

The thing I loved best about the building were the gargoyles, so many different ones, you can’t make out many here, but that’s for my next post.

laters gaters

😉

The York Report 5 ~ the quirky bits

June 11, 2015Posted in Fuji, people, photography, UncategorizedTagged fraggle, Fuji XT1, York11 Comments

York is more than just great architecture of course. It’s also full of interesting people and shops, and this post pays homage to them.

Phil was pleased to find a model shop next to Monk Bar. Model Shops are being killed off bit by bit by the internet (the way the world is going), so we went and had a look around, but they didn’t do tanks, so a bit disappointing and we didn’t stay long.

The Teddy Bear shop was full of special bears, and had a tea room upstairs, though we didn’t partake. I liked the giant chocolate coloured Teddy chained outside the shop. I think he was chained to stop people stealing him and also I guess to keep him upright, though he looked like a prisoner to me! You can see their full collection HERE, they do mail order 🙂 and a Facebook page HERE.

Quite a few shops have tea rooms upstairs it seems. The antique shop has some lovely old things inside, and they too do mail order HERE. Not cheap though!

Above is one of the ‘tat’ shops, although it was quality tat.

This is Phil trying to make sense of all the different flavours of chocolate, we didn’t take the tour as we had so much more to see, but here’s a little snippet.

This chap was filming the chocolate bars, which I thought strange, but I suppose I’m just as strange for taking a shot of him! Double Bizarre 😀

Some shops had figures on the wall which were to denote which type of shop it was..

Minerva was above a book shop and the inscription reads..

‘The figure above is that of Minerva the goddess of wisdom and of drama by John Wolstenholme 1801. Which is why she’s sitting on books with an owl next to her. The chap below is (supposedly) an American Indian and

once advertised the location of the tobacconist’s shop –the boy’s kilt and headwear represent tobacco leaves. (Really??)

So what you are looking for here is the red devil on the upper right. The Red Devil is the traditional sign for a printer’s shop. Stonegate was once the centre of York’s burgeoning printing industry. I wanted to get a closer shot, but the guy in the blue jacket on a step ladder was getting an even closer one. He was wandering around with his girlfriend (red coat) and a pair of step ladders, which she held onto while he got the shot. It made me laugh anyway, I mean, a step ladder??? Also in this you can just make out in the middle, a completely purple man. He was mounted on a static bike and was a real person, but charging for photo’s so I got the long shot for free. If you click on the shot you can see it all properly.

I like window shopping…and shooting

The Pink headed ladies of York (in disguise)

We also came across some fab buskers, this lady was really good, she had a sign up saying “no photo’s or video’s please”, but I took them before I saw the sign, and also if you’re in a public place looking like that for heavens sakes, what do you expect? She had a great voice and sang 40’s stuff.

I liked the honesty of this guy’s notice, hope he makes enough for a romantic get away 🙂

This next chap was really fab with a crystal ball, the photo doesn’t show how dexterous he was of course, but I found a very short video of him on you tube, well worth the watching.

The chap above was using a pedal powered kind of lathe and rubbery strips of plastic and would carve out a name in bubble writing, I guess for kids bedroom doors, or lockers or whatever you’d stick a name plate on.

Also we came across a Houdini kind of chap chained to a ladder, he’d drawn a big crowd and was quite funny, but we moved on before the end of the show, so not sure what the trick was!

Last, and least, a fellow tog, but you may not be able to make him out easily 😉

And that’s the end of the ‘Out and About’ sections in York, I still have York Minster to show you, and also The Treasurers house, so a long way to go yet.

laters gaters

😉

The York Report 4~ a miscellany

June 9, 2015July 11, 2015Posted in Church, Fuji, History, medieval, photography, uncategorisedTagged All Saints Church, Clifford Tower, fraggle, Fuji XT1, Holy Trinity Church, St Michael Le Belfrey church, York6 Comments

I have a few odds and sods to post that don’t fit into one category, so here they are,

Firstly I forgot to take a shot of the outside of our hotel, but did think the light fixture in our room was very funky.

Also we had mood lighting in the bathroom lol, they were blue LED’s and looked very pretty.

You can see part of the old city wall here, and this is the exact place Princess Margaret, who was Henry VIII sister, entered York on her progress up to Scotland, after she was married by proxy to James IV in 1503.

Booth Bar was the main gate we entered the city through on the short walk from our hotel, and stone men look down upon you. There are 4 bars of York, I already showed Micklegate Bar in my previous post here.

on our first day we stopped for a coffee and sausage roll and sat down in a little square between two buildings, there were gravestones fastened to the wall, this one struck me for the date, and the Latin.

All Saints, such a beautiful church, it dates from the 14th century, but there has been a church on this site for even longer. The earliest mention was in the Domesday Book (1086), and an Anglo-Saxon grave cover, dating from the 10th century, is the earliest evidence for a burial ground. One tradition even claims that All Saints was built in 685 AD for St Cuthbert.

The elegant lantern on top of the tower is visible from many parts of the city. It was built around 1400. Throughout the mediaeval period, the light was kept burning at night to guide travellers into the city through the wolf-infested Forest of Galtres to the north.

The beautiful glass of the huge 14th century west window depicts the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. The pulpit, with its sounding board to reflect and amplify the preacher’s voice, dates from 1634.

HW-29 — All Saints, The Pavement Church.

Clifford Tower has a long and bloody history, the original mound of Clifford’s Tower, with a timber structure at the top, was constructed by William the Conqueror in 1068 as a statement of his power over the region. This building stood for just over a century before being burnt down in one of York’s bloodiest and tragic moments, when, in 1190, 150 Jews were massacred on the site.

Between 1190 and 1194, it was repaired at great expense, and the mound was raised to its present height. The second timber structure was destroyed (this time by a gale) in 1245, and then when we were at war with the Scots, Henry III ordered the tower to be rebuilt and strengthened, this time in stone. After being decimated by fire, wind, and even water (the castle sunk into the moat causing the walls to crack in the 1350s) the next challenge came from a very unlikely source – the castle’s jailer, Robert Redhead. In 1596 he began demolishing the tower and selling the stone as building material ‘for his own profit’. He was only stopped after prolonged protests by the city council. It later became a garden ornament (albeit a large one) until it was incorporated into the extensions of York’s prison in 1825. Over the centuries the tower has regularly been threatened by demolition or neglect and yet still it stands, a proud, if somewhat decayed, monument to York’s turbulent and bloody past. Why Clifford’s Tower? The name may well be a reference to the fact that Roger de Clifford was hanged at the tower in 1322 for opposing Edward II, or to the Clifford family’s claim that they were the hereditary constables of the tower.

Another building that I can’t remember what it was!

These unassuming, plastered timber-framed cottages with pantiled roofs date from 1316 when a deed was granted for their construction in the Holy Trinity Church grounds. They are the oldest row of houses in York and one of the earliest examples in England of the medieval ‘jettied’ houses, whose upper story protrudes – or ‘jetties’ – outwards above the lower part. Built within the ancient churchyard with a separate house for the Chantry Priests the rental income, a considerable sum of money, funded the church’s maintenance and contributed to the Chantry endowment costs on a regular basis.

Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, stands in a small, secluded, leafy churchyard, with the Minster towering behind. To visit, you pass through an 18th-century archway tacked on to buildings that served as artisans’ workshops in the 14th century. The building dates chiefly from the 15th century, but has features from its foundation in the 12th century right up to the 19th century.

The east window especially has marvellous stained glass that was donated in the early 1470s by the Reverend John Walker, rector of the church.

St Michael-le-Belfrey is the only church in York to have been built in the 16th century and is the largest pre-Reformation parish church in the city. Guy Fawkes the infamous Gunpowder Plot conspirator, lived in nearby Petergate and was baptized in this church. An enlarged page from the church register recording his baptism is displayed inside the church. There was a service just finished when we went in with loads of people having coffee, so I didn’t get any good photo’s as it was a bit embarrassing!

Well that’s enough for this post, still loads more to come though so stay tuned 🙂

laters gaters

😉

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