Nearly Two Centuries of History

After meetings and work at the University Wednesday, John and I went on a late afternoon guided walking tour of old York. (Though the weather was nice when we started, by the end two hours later it was cold, windy and rainy....lesson: always be prepared for bad weather.) Our guide was a retired gentleman who moved to York because he loves the city. A local tribe (the Brigantines) had been living in the area when York first became a "city" around AD 71 when the Romans moved in and built both a fort and a "colonium" (colony) for merchants and civilians. We toured the part of town where the old Roman walls are still visible - the darker stones below ground level are the Roman wall - the orange tile line was decoration.  (Turns out the walls we have been walking around the city are medieval walls built on top of the Roman walls.)

In 625 a Roman priest arrived and built the first wooden church on the site, setting the stage for York to become a major center of learning, attracting students from all over Europe.  (This is one of the theories about why the church and later cathedral here is called a "minster" - an important place of learning.)  The Vikings arrived in 866 and ruled the area for the next 100 years turning the city into a major trading port.  (York is situated on two Rivers, the Ouse and the Foss.  The Ouse is a tidal river connecting it to the North Sea.) We also have the Vikings to thank for some of the confusing terminology used in York, such as streets being called gates. (In York-speak, a street is called a gate; a gate is a bar; and a bar is a pub...)

The Normans rebuilt the city - including a new minster - after a series of invasions, rebellions and skirmishes pretty much destroyed the place. The present minster was built mainly between 1220 and 1480. We'll save a tour of the minster and more information about it for a later date, today we just walked around the outside.

We also toured the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, built in the 1200s and destroyed by Henry VIII in his dissolution of the church, and the Abbot's House and Hospitium dating from the 14th century which are still intact. The museum gardens around these buildings were lovely.

The ruins of St Mary's Abbey (above), the Abbot's House, Hospitium and Gatehall, below (which provided the Abbey access to the river through the walls that surrounded the Abbey)

We ended our tour walking through some of the old streets of York, past the oldest house (built in 1316)

The Treasurer's House, below (with its Dutch gables)

And the place where York's 200-year-old chocolate industry was born, below...

and the Shambles (where butcher's would sell their goods)

By the end we were cold and hungry so stopped for dinner at a restaurant that rents out a historic building our tour guide recommended we see, The Grand Assembly Rooms.  It is a huge marble-columned hall from the 18th century (1732) - a rather grand setting for a good, but standard Italian restaurant meal.