15 September 2016 - Willow House Caravan Park, York

The Guildhall

Still the good weather continued, although mist lay low over the city and our route in until quite late in the morning. Today we were intent on visiting the rest of the attractions included in our Jorvik passport however en route to the Barley Hall, we swung by the Guildhall which had been given a good rap in our guide books.  This 15^th century building was devastated by fire during an air-raid in 1942, but has since been restored. The colourful and grotesque carvings in the timber roof and ceiling are quite wonderful. We wandered in, finding ourselves at an exhibition catering for those accepting middle age and beyond, and became caught up with a chirpy funeral director offering a fascinating array of funeral options and burial styles. We were invited to an afternoon tea chat on Saturday however I suspect we will be otherwise engaged. 

An angelic invitation

In fact invitations to tea were forthcoming yet again, the second occasion as we walked along Stonegate, one of the many quaint streets chocked full of charming architecture housing equally charming boutiques; this one from angelic looking crusading missionary,

Barley Hall is tucked away in the middle of a block surrounded in these wonderful buildings. We now understood that the Jorvik Experience was not entirely one about the Vikings, but one about the city named by the Vikings, and this Hall is a restored medieval home. The oldest parts of the building date from about 1360 when it was built as the York townhouse of Nostell Priory, the monastery near Wakefield in West Yorkshire.  A new wing was added to the building in 1430, and soon after it became the home of a leading York citizen, William Snawsell, Goldsmith, Alderman and Lord Mayor.

The house was bought by York Archaeological Trust in 1987, whereupon a full investigation of the interior was carried out through one metre of deposits to 14^th century levels, revealing the remains of the floor of the Great Hall. Fired with success, further investigations revealed much more, so work was begun in 1990 to restore it to its former glory and it was opened to the public in 1993. 

Barley Hall

The lower floor is decorated as Mayor Snawsell might have demanded, but the upper floors have more to do with a visit from Henry VIII in 1541 whilst on his “progress” and a full history of him and his entourage. Adding to this fascinating exhibition are costumes used in the filming of “Wolf Hall’, based on the book by Hilary Martell which I have very recently read and so enjoyed. 

It was after midday by the time we emerged from this most excellent little museum, so we made our way to the Minster yard and sat in the sunshine to eat our lunch as we had on our first day in this city. From here we walked on through the city to Monk Bar, or Monkgate Bar, another of the city’s medieval gateways. Built in the early 14^th century, it was designed to be effective in defence and is the strongest of these gateways. It has four storeys, the fourth floor added in 15^th century, which made it the tallest of York’s Bars. Since being used for its original purpose, it has been used as a temporary prison and a police house. Today it houses the Richard III Experience visitor attraction, managed by the Jorvik Group.

This Richard is the so-called hunchback bad king who was dug up in the car park at Leicester just recently. He was born in 1452 and was slain in the Battle of Bosworth by Henry VII and his lot, as investigated a couple of days at the Micklegate exhibition. Even after reading through all of Richard’s interesting history, I asked my husband why he was considered such a bad bastard, and was told that it was because he had had his two nephews, would-be kings, killed in the Tower of London whilst they were still children. Well certainly infanticide, or even teenagicide, is not to be commended, but apart from that he seemed no better or worse than all the other English kings that came and gone through those middle centuries.

Monk Bar

This exhibition was also very good although I have to admit to being somewhat confused with all the Edwards and Richards who popped up through that era, as no doubt British school children are when they have to learn the full ordered list of past monarchs, if they do any more.

Descending the dark narrow staircase from the gatehouse, not at all fatty friendly, we crossed the street and climbed up to the top of the city wall and walked south east until we had no option but to descend to street level. From here, close to the River Fosse, we re-entered the narrow streets of the city to reach yet another relocated exhibition, this titled “Dig” which is mainly hands-on dabbling in archaeology, with exhibits and explanations of digs about the city, especially the five year excavation of Hungate, covering the centuries from Roman times through to the early 20^th century, from Roman burials to Victorian-Age slum buildings. This too was fascinating and held our attention for about an hour, however we left before venturing into the hands-on department which is mainly geared for children, or more specifically, school trips.

St Wilfred's

By now the day had warmed up, the skies beautifully clear and the streets were very busy with tourists; York is a very touristy place! We retreated to the local McDonald’s, here not as hideously packed out as other cities we have visited of late. We sat over our sundaes and mulled over our day, agreeing that the streets of York were very classy without being yuppy. We agreed that it would be a delightful place to spend shopping for fashion if one had space in the wardrobe or a yen for surplus clothes.

As we neared the bus stop, we detoured to the Roman Catholic Church, St Wilfrid’s, which sits in the shadow of the Minster. It is quite new relatively speaking or at least by York standards, completed in 1864 and was considered to be one of the most perfectly finished Catholic Churches in England. I thought it quite fine, especially the lovely stained glass windows up the sides, so much blue glass used and so very beautiful, however Chris was not as impressed although he did share my appreciation of the stained glass. 

We piled onto the bus at about 4pm with dozens of tourists, dozens of locals and dozens of noisy school girls. Fortunately we managed to find seats but there were far too many standing and we were glad when we all burst out of the bus doors at the Park & Ride. Back at camp we found the last few sites had filled up which means there will be more pressure on the facilities, however I am sure we will all manage.