4 minute read
A guide to York's history
1,000 Years of History. One City.
GEORGIE REID EXPLORES THE CITY OF YORK, INVESTIGATING THE SIGHTS AND STORIES OF THE GATEWAY TO THE NORTH.
Advertisement
Modern day York is a quirky amalgamation of the epoques which helped to shape it. Its architecture is a weird and wonderful patchwork of 13th century pubs alongside 17th century townhouses. Old cobbled streets are built over the original roman roads of Eboracum. Stories of ghosts, viking raids, holy monks and princesses journeying north to marry all blend into every day life in the sleepy city. This rich history has led to it being one of the most popular tourist destinations in the north of England.
Much of York’s energy is poured into its somewhat hectic nightlife. With pub for every day of the year within its 2.5 mile-long city walls, it’s not difficult to see why it is a city renowned for its drinking experience. Ted Weston worked as a bartender at one of the city’s oldest pubs, the Red Lion. Situated on Merchantgate, it still sports traditional 16th-century English architecture, using the black and white technique known as wattle-and-daub, which is a common theme throughout the city. Thick, dark timber beams inside and out, with two grand fire places each with its own tiny priest-hole. Weston claimed these were to harbour fugitives, mostly catholic priests during Elizabethan times, but is famously rumoured to have also housed highwayman Dick Turpin, who had been friends with the pub’s landlord. Weston shared his experience of operating within York’s most famous industry. “It’s full of surprises,” he said. “Every so often you’d find yourself talking to a customer who could talk for hours about things you never even knew about the building you’d been working in for a year.” “You do spend a lot of time disputing ghost stories in a building this age though,” he added with a chuckle.
Haunted or not, York’s pubs are definitely the best place to start when exploring the city. Whether you like a traditional pint at the Blue Bell or a classy cocktail and the Botanist, there is something for everyone.
Little remains of St Mary’s Abbey; it stands almost sadly on the banks of the River Ouse, only one of its great walls remaining. The ruins compellingly link two of England’s most famous eras of history. Built in 1088, it was a symbol of Norman might at a time when William the Conqueror, growing old and reaching the end of a fantastical reign, was attempting to solidify the crown’s power in the North to make way for his heirs. According to York Museum’s Trust, the abbey operated as “one of the wealthiest and most powerful monasteries” in the country until Henry VIII had it dissolved in 1539 after his dramatic split from Catholicism. In essence, it was both built and destroyed by kings asserting their dominance at times of political upheaval. The abbey’s remains are still a wonderful visit if you have a strong imagination. The foundations of its wonderful stone pillars and walls are still visible, giving visitors almost a blueprint of how the building used to look.
Museum Gardens, where St Mary’s once stood, is a site rich in history. It houses the Multangular Tower, some fine remains of the original Roman fortress of Eboracum, and several original roman coffins, all made of stone. Nearby is the Hospitium, a wattle-anddaub building which was built with St Mary’s, to house guests who were not members of the clergy (as these people would not have been allowed to stay in the main Abbey). The Yorkshire Museum, the large building in the middle of the gardens with the Greek-style pillars, was built in 1830, and was one of the first purpose-built museums in the country. Today it offers exhibitions on palaeontology and archaeology, with a dinosaur exhibition being opened by broadcaster David Attenborough in 2018.
While Museum Gardens is perhaps one of York’s largest attractions, the city also hosts smaller, lesser known curiosities; its cats. “If you wander around the town you might notice little black cat statues dotted around on top of the buildings,” Isabella Griffin told The Yorkie. A recent History graduate from the University of York, Griffin chose undoubtedly the best city in the country to do a history degree in. Adorning the walls, window ledges, and roofs with small models of cats has apparently been a tradition in York since before the 1800s, some even believe since medieval times. The statues that can be seen today were commissioned in the 1980s to embrace the city’s feline tradition, and although they are nowhere near as ancient as the haunting priest holes in the central pubs, they’re still very special to the citizens of York. They have their own trail for tourists to spot them, and local shop York Glass offer small Murano figures the shapes of cats as good luck charms.
“Cats have always played quite a role in York’s history with regards to superstition,” Griffin added. “[The statues] have taken on more meaning over time, and are believed by some to ward off evil spirits.”
Would it be fair to write about the history of York without considering one of the world’s most famous streets? No, it isn’t Diagon Alley, although it was the inspiration for the quirky magical street for Harry Potter’s set designers. Butchers have always had a presence in The Shambles (derived from the Anglo-Saxon word fleshammels [literally “flesh shelves”]). Today, you can still see the meat hooks and wide windowsills where meat would have been displayed. Harry Potter fans seem to be gradually claiming the street, with three merchandise shops and the Potions Cauldron, who sell speciality magical drinks in the style of an ancient apothecary. Interestingly, the building which now houses the Potions Cauldron was the home of the Shambles’ most beloved saint, Margaret Clitherow, whose shrine is just just across the way. Clitherow was executed aged 30 and pregnant with her fourth child, after a long history of arrests for refusing to attend church. Her final offence was harbouring Catholic priests. Clitherow is just one stain on York’s wonderful but bloody history. Those first Roman settlers are linked to the modern day pub-goer through this brilliant past.
