York at Christmas

I met my family in York just before Christmas, for a posh afternoon tea at The Milner Hotel, which used to be The Royal Station Hotel, a grand place built in 1876 to serve the new railway station just outside the city walls. It was a lovely occasion, a real treat: dainty sandwiches, large scones with cream and jam, some delectable little cakes and copious cups of tea. And good company, of course. 

Before we met I had an hour or so to explore the city, so I took a quick walk round the centre, enjoying the lights and the Christmassy feel. I didn't venture as far as the Christmas market but I was pleasantly surprised that the streets weren't as rammed with crowds as I expected. It was dull grey weather (again) so I'm not pretending my photos are anything more than quick snaps, but they're a record of a happy day.  

You can walk along parts of the city walls, dating back originally to Roman times, though most of what's visible was built in the 13th/14th centuries. York has more miles of intact walls than any other city in England, and the view over the city from their vantage point is fascinating, with the famous Minster (cathedral) prominent on the skyline (above).

The walls are punctuated by four main gatehouses called Bars that controlled entry to the city, were defensive and could be used to extract tolls. You can see Bootham Bar at the end of the street in the picture below. 

Standing as far back as I could and being careful not to get mown down by cars, I just managed to get most of the Minster's west frontage in my photo. 

The old thoroughfare of Stonegate, originally a Roman road, leads down from the Minster environs, its old buildings now home to a multitude of shops and pubs.

Stonegate leads into St Helen's Square, with a big Christmas tree in front of the York Mansion House, built in 1732 as the Lord Mayor's residence. 

I was half-expecting the River Ouse to be in flood, as it often does come over its banks in this part of York (so often that they are used to it and mostly prepared for it). From Lendl Bridge at least, it didn't look too bad. 

More from Goddards

Goddards is the kind of garden where you want to relax in the sunshine with a good book, or waft around in a long dress, with a parasol. There were various little nooks to settle in. 

Narrow, secretive paths led you off on winding tracks through the various areas of the garden. Towards the bottom were several linked ponds although, with the dry weather, they were rather silted up with algae and dust. 

As well as roses in bloom, there were peonies, such blowsy, extravagant flowers. 

Foxgloves thrived in the wilder areas. 

There was spiky sea holly (eryngium), though not as silvery as that at Harlow Carr. 

Even the fallen petals of a climbing rose seemed rather pretty: nature's confetti. 

Rose garden

I do love an old-fashioned rose garden. The roses at Goddards were in peak bloom and very pretty, with the most wonderful, delicate scent. It's a real pity we can't do smell-o-vision on our blogs as it would be delightful to share with you.  

This seems an appropriate post for what would have been my mum's 98th birthday. She loved roses too.

Goddards

Goddards is a National Trust property in York, an Arts and Crafts house built in 1927 for Noel and Kathleen Terry, who owned the Terry's chocolate factory (famed for their yummy chocolate oranges, which have been a staple in my family's Christmas stockings for years). The house is, sadly, not open to the public as it is used as offices for the National Trust. The gardens, designed by George Dillistone, who worked with Lutyens, are open during the summer months. I've been meaning to go for ages, and arranged to meet a friend there recently. It was a warm, bright day, pleasant for strolling and enjoying drinks on the terrace even if not ideal for photographing the gardens, which really needed soft, diffused light. 

As with most Arts and Crafts era gardens, it's arranged in a series of 'rooms' separated by hedges and shrubs. It has a terrace, formal lawns and planting around the house, herbaceous borders, a tennis court, a croquet lawn, a greenhouse and a series of ponds and rockeries, the gardens growing progressively less formal and wilder as you move further away from the house. 

Beyond the orchard, the gardens look over the Knavesmire, York's racecourse.  I include the photo below mainly because it amuses me to remember a time when my daughter was a few weeks old. We were invited to a wedding reception in the racecourse grandstand building. I asked if there was anywhere I could discreetly breastfeed... and was conducted to a hospitality box with an enormous picture window overlooking the racecourse! Thankfully it wasn't a race day so there was no-one peeping in! 

Chapter House gargoyles

York Minster's Chapter House has the most wonderful medieval carvings. The octagonal space dates from the 1280s and was where important meetings were held (including a gathering of the Parliament of King Edward 1). The stonemasons clearly had a lot of fun in their work: the carvings include animals, mythical beasts, angels and all manner of human faces, some beautiful, some grotesque and some downright funny. It's a wonderful touch of humanity amongst all the grandeur of the Minster. 

Cherubic tears

One of the reasons I love exploring our great cathedrals and minsters is that, although they are grand and packed full of significant and often breathtaking architecture, stained glass, plaques and monuments to the great and good, they also have lots of touches of humour and pathos. Wandering around York Minster this time, I started to notice all the weeping cherubs. There must have been a time when these were very trendy to have on monuments. Aww. 

There was also an imposing lady with a cross, a sword and... a pigeon on her head! I'm not at all sure why.

Crypt-ic

I think this was the first time I'd ever descended into the Crypt under York Minster. It is fascinating. There is a window in the floor illuminating what lies even further beneath: the remains of a Roman fortress. The Crypt is the earliest part of the Minster and dates back to Norman times, with curved rib vaulting and carved pillars. 

It contains the tomb of York's patron saint, Saint William. William Fitzherbert was Archbishop of York from 1141 to 1147 and again from 1153 to 1154, dogged by controversy and power struggles. His death may have been by poisoning. See HERE for more about him.

The Crypt also contains the gruesome Doomstone, which has been dated to the 12th century, a remnant from the original Norman Minster. The carvings depict one of the mouths of Hell, crawling with toads and with sinners tumbling down into a cauldron of flames held up by demons. There is someone with two bags of money (greed) and a well-dressed woman (lust). It was meant as a visual warning as to what may happen if people behaved in an un-Godly manner. 

When in York...

When in York, I usually like to visit the Minster (cathedral) and, on a cold day just after Christmas, it was good to spend time inside rather than pounding the chilly streets. I've taken (and shown here) so many photos of it before and it was challenging to find a slightly different angle. The Christmas lights outside provided one way of framing it. 

Looking from the central crossing down the nave towards the west window, it was hard to believe the building was packed with visitors. 

It's always good to look up and appreciate the soaring vaulted ceilings. The one above is a side aisle to the nave. 

The Minster's stained glass is celebrated. Attention is usually focused on the great East and West windows but those along the nave are also worthy of study. 

A small part of the nave is roped off as a chapel dedicated (I think) to the Yorkshire Regiment. I can't say I'd noticed this before so perhaps it is new. It had a painted canopy (below) but I didn't note down the name of the artist. 

York floods

I made a visit to York at the weekend; such a lovely, interesting and historic city. When it rains in the Dales and in the valleys up here, all that water makes its way downstream to join the River Ouse which flows through York. It's a fairly regular occurrence therefore that the city floods, at least along the riverbanks. The businesses along here are used to it and have measures in place that mean they can recover fairly quickly, though it must get tedious. Flood alleviation schemes have been installed, so to some extent the flooding you see now is part of what they have decided is acceptable disruption. It's the first time I've ever visited the city when it has been flooded and could see for myself what they have to contend with. It was clear that the water level had already dropped by a couple of feet - you can see the high watermark on the wall of the pub (above). Normally this area looks like THIS.  Some of the paths I walked along were slippery with mud and had obviously recently been underwater and the river was much wider than it normally is, with the riverside promenades completely submerged. The rest of the city carries on as normal. 

Christmas Day 2023

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas, if you celebrate it. 

'For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. 

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.' 

Isaiah 9: 6-7

This nativity scene is part of the reredos behind the altar in the Lady Chapel at York Minster, directly under the extraordinary Great East Window, the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in England. (See my earlier post HERE). The reredos isn't medieval, because this part of the Minster was destroyed in a fire in the 1830s and was closed for a long time. I think the carved altar screen dates back to the 1920s. It is ornate but pleasing nonetheless, showing the magi on the left and shepherds on the right, worshipping the infant Jesus. 

These depictions of the Christmas story (the reason for the season!) can leave us feeling that it is all rather sweet, lovely and 'far away' but, as the video below shows, it is a very current story. 

Bikes, snickelways and a goddess

 

Wandering around York, I took a few random shots of things that caught my eye. There were several bicycles - one pink, one adorned with tulips. (Dutch cafés are something of a rarity here, I have to say.) 

High up on a corner, there is a statue of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, drama and the arts, with her books and her owl. She's been sitting there since 1801 - who knows why? 

Nobody really seems to know who Mad Alice was either. Some say she was an abused wife who turned on her husband and murdered him, which caused her to go insane. There are, however, no surviving records to corroborate this. The 'ghost tours' that guide tourists around York after dark say that her face can sometimes be seen in a window... but they would, wouldn't they?  Whoever she was, she gave her name to one of the many alleyways and narrow streets that criss-cross the old city, which in York are called snickelways. 

This is currently an empty shop but look up and it has a rather elaborate tiled facade: