After the success of Avebury the previous year Phil B announced plans for another Trench Fell Inn Fieldtrip. So it was that 25 people descended on York on a beautiful autumnal morning for a day of high octane touring.
We all met up in Bailey's Coffee Shop and the staff must have been thankful when half their tables suddenly became free at 11am. After crossing the road, Phil B (the misguided fool who had put himself forward as tour-guide for the day) gathered all around to explain the basic premise of the tour. First stop would be the Museum Gardens....

				*	St. Leonard's Hospital, which sits just to the right of the entrance to the Museum Gardens was founded soon after the Norman Conquest and was once the largest such establishment in the north of England. The buildings have suffered considerably over the centuries and today there is only a vaulted undercroft with a ruinous chapel above to be seen.
			St. Mary's Hospitium, in the Museum Gardens, was the guest hall for pilgrims and other visitors to St. Mary's Abbey. The stone built ground floor dates from 1310, while the timber-framing above was added a hundred years later. The building has been heavily restored and a new roof was erected in 1930. It was also used by Time Team when they came to York.
					The great Abbey of St. Mary in York was founded by King William Rufus in 1088 and, for four hundred and fifty years, it was the wealthiest and most powerful abbey in the North of England. Its monks, who transferred here from the old monastic centre of Lastingham, lived and worked under the Benedictine rule.
			Religious arguments and desire for reform led to the Prior and a number of monks leaving to found the famous Cistercian Fountains Abbey in 1132. However, St. Mary's continued to thrive until it finally succumbed to the might of the crown in 1539.
				*	The so called Multangular Tower in the Museum Gardens is the best remaining section of the Roman walls of old York and was a polygonal bastion added to the western corner around AD 300. The small stone blocks making up the lower section, along with the red tile course known as Saxa Quadrata, are typically Roman. Originally there would have been three floors on the inside and a roof on top.
			The 'Anglian' Tower at York is one of only two non-ecclesiastical Anglo-Saxon structures remaining in the country. Its date, however, is not without controversy, it could be late Roman or Dark Age British.	*

Upon leaving the Museum Gardens the next destination was the section of the walls between Bootham Bar and Monk Bar......

				$	Bootham Bar stands on the site of one of the four gateways into the Roman legionary fortress. There has been a gateway on this site for the last 1900 years and contains some of the earliest medieval stonework on the walls. The earliest parts of the present gatehouse date from the eleventh century whilst most of the building that you can see today dates from the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries.
			Monk Bar consists of a four-storey gatehouse. It is the most elaborate and ornate of the surviving gates. The Bar dates from the early fourteenth century. The elaborate design of the gatehouse meant that it could function as a self-contained fortress with each floor capable of being defended. Monk Bar still has its portcullis and winding mechanism.

Coming off the Walls there was a brief tour of a few prominent buildings and landmarks in York. Then it was decided to head to the Roman Bath Inn for lunch. Upon arrival tt was found to be pretty full so a viewing of the Baths was about all most of the Group got here. Food was found elsewhere.

				*	Originally home to the treasurers of York Minster and built over a Roman road, the Treasurer's House is not all that it seems. Nestled behind the Minster, its size, splendour and contents are a constant surprise to visitors . The house was carefully restored and presented with 16th- and 20th-century decoration by wealthy local Victorian industrialist Frank Green.
			The Mansion House, in St. Helen's Square, has been the official residence of the Mayor of York since it was first built in 1725. This colourful Georgian town-house has an evocative and striking facade of pilasters surmounted by the city's arms and stands next to the site of the old Roman Praetorian Gateway.	*
					The York Guildhall was the heart of the medieval city. This magnificent mid-15th century building was where the trade guilds of York met to regulate the work of the city merchants. It was here that Cromwell paid the Scots £200,000 for helping him in the Civil War, that Margaret Clitherow was tried for harboring Catholic priests in 1586 and sentenced to death by crushing and also here that Richard II was entertained in a lavish banquet in 1483.
			Beneath the, now appropriately named Roman Baths Inn, in St. Sampson's Square, were discovered the remains of the Roman military bath house. After a hard day defending the city, the Roman soldiers would have met here to relax and socialise as well cleanse themselves in the complex's hot steam rooms and cool plunge pools.

Reassembling after lunch, Phil B led the Group towards the afternoon destination of the Merchant Adventurer's Hall. On the way a few more interesting things were pointed out including St.Sampson's Church, Kings Square and the Shambles.

					This most idyllic of York streets stands in the city's main shopping area, away from the Minster to the north. A narrow, pedestrianized shopping street stretching from Pavement to Newgate, it is crowded with tiny shops that sell all manner of gifts and souvenirs from the ancient city it epitomises. Its timber-framed medieval overhangs seem to almost touch as they cut the light from the sky above.
			Merchant Adventurer's Hall

After leaving the MAH, Phil then led his charges through Coppergate to the final destination of his York Tour - York Castle. The tour ended at the base of Clifford's Tower.

On top of the mound today are the remains of Clifford’s Tower which was built when York Castle was rebuilt in stone by Henry III. Clifford’s Tower, the bailey walls, towers, gates, bridges, two halls, a chapel, a kitchen and a prison were all built at this time. It stands just over 33ft high and the walls are 9.5ft thick. .

If anybody would like to follow in our footsteps on this particular tour then a map and a full transcript can be found here


More pictures of this trip from other Forum Friends

Sue Hurd's Photo's		Sniffy's Photo's		Tilthammer's Photo's		melter's Photo's		humus' Photo's

People Pics

					l to r: fish (back), Chris M, Sue Hurd, Rob, Lyn, melter, lil' melter and mrs melter, kevmar and sniffy at St Leonards.
			l to r: kevmar, humus, lil' melter, Mrs Tilthammer, fish, melter (behind fish), Chris M, redwulf (behind chris) and sniffy with back of young deano front centre in the grounds of St. Mary's Abbey.
				*	l to r: mrs. melter, Janet H, Tilthammer, Sir Mark, Chris M, sniffy, Redwulf, Phil B, young deano and one of Sir Mark's princesses on the wall.
			l to r: mrs. melter, Mrs Tilthammer, Tabby, melter, kevmar, lil' melter, Ooban, Sue Hurd and fish outside the Roman Bath Inn.
			l to r: mrs. melter (again!!??), lil' melter, melter, two princesses, Sir Mark, Chris M, sniffy, fish (behind sniffy), kevmar, Redwulf, Tabby, Janet H and Justin await Phil B's next snippet of info with excitement.

humus		kevmar		humus and melter

AND FINALLY.....

Never in my life have I seen a gent's restroom as lavishly decorated as the ones in the Merchant Adventurer's Hall.
I just had to take a photo.....