A Walk Around York - Part 2

 

A detail of the Boer War Memorial

Returning to the 31 Castlegate restaurant, after a walk around York to photograph some of the historic architecture in Micklegate and Guildhall wards, for the British Listed Buildings website, I enjoyed a lunch of sea bass before setting off again to further explore the city. 

 

31 Castlegate

Heading along Castlegate, I stopped to photograph several brick built listed buildings before I arrived at the Grade I Listed St. Mary’s church – built in the usual dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation - which became redundant in 1958 and is now in the ownership of the York Museums Trust and currently home to the Van Gogh – Immersive Experience. 

 

The church of St. Mary Castlegate

Although the exterior essential dates to the C15, the nave dates back to the C11, with C12 and C14 arcades but, with there being limited space around it to take some good photographs, I just took a few record photos of the fabric and two grotesques and continued along Castlegate. 

 

Grotesques at St. Mary's church

Reaching Low Ousegate, I took a single record photograph of the former St. Michael’s church, dating back to the C12 but altered extensively since, which the Historic England describes as being built with Magnesian Limestone and tooled gritstone. I could see the latter from my photograph, but did not cross the road to explore further and carried on with my walk. 

 

St. Michael's church

Crossing Ouse Bridge, I walked down Micklegate, where the former Church of St. John the Evangelist, now a cocktail bar, is sited on the corner with North Street. Historic England again describes it as being built with Magnesian Limestone, which is seen on the south elevation and the north-easterly sections, along with gritstone. 

 

The Church of St. John the Evangelist

I didn’t look at any of the churches that I saw on the day very closely, to assess the condition and potential age or the provenance of the gritstone but, if this was originally chosen for the mediaeval buildings, it is quite likely that transport of the stone was along the River Aire from  Leeds to the River Ouse and then shipped upstream to York. 

 

An 'honest repair'

 

The plain dolomitic limestone ashlar on the south elevation appears to be in very poor condition, with highly developed cavernous weathering. Several blocks have been replaced and in other places, ‘honest repairs’ have been undertaken as advocated by SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) with thin slips of sandstone being used for repairs. 

 

All Saints church on North Street

I continued down North Street to All Saints church, which my York Visitor Information Centre guide states is probably the finest of York’s mediaeval churches and Historic England describes as “C12 nave; part of north and south arcades early C13; east end rebuilt and chancel chapels added in early C14; aisles widened incorporating chancel chapels in early C15; nave and aisles extended westwards and tower with spire added in later C15”. 

 

All Saints church on North Street

 

This was the only church that I had planned to specifically visit on my day out but, very soon after arriving, I unexpectedly experienced severe stomach cramps – perhaps due to something that I had eaten at 31 Castlegate - and having only managed to take less than half a dozen quick photos of its interior, I had to abandon my exploration and set off to find the nearest public conveniences as quickly as possible. 

 

Views of the interior of All Saints church on North Street

 

Before I left, however, I did try to find a guide that would enable to me to try and gather some information about the parts of the church that I was unable to see for myself; however, none of them were printed in English but, looking on the bright side, I picked up the Spanish and Italian versions, which would theoretically enable me to continue with my efforts to learn both of these languages – as well as teaching English as a foreign language. 

 

Church guides in Spanish and Italian

 

Ending up at the Yorkshire Museum, where I explained that I would make a donation to their ‘charity box’ - in lieu of the usual £8 entrance charge – and once relieved, I subsequently proceeded to take a decent photograph of its front elevation, which from afar I could see is built in Carboniferous sandstone and not Permian dolomitic limestone. 

 

The Yorkshire Museum

 

Continuing my walk, I headed towards the King’s Manor, where I was pleasantly surprised to see that the edgings to the gardens here have been built with large sections of moulded masonry, which have been presumably salvaged from the ruined St. Mary’s Abbey. 

 

Moulded sections of masonry used as edging

 

I then made my way to the Boer War memorial (1915) by G.F. Bodley, which is elaborately decorated with statues, crocketted pinnacles, trefoil arches, floriated panels and grotesques which, judging by its light honey coloured patina, is probably made of a Jurassic oolitic limestone and not Permian dolomitic limestone. 

 

The Boer War Memorial

 

Without even looking at York Minster, I headed down High Petergate, where there are several listed buildings that I wanted to photograph. I passed the Grade I Listed C16 Church of St. Michael le Belfrey, with its C19 west front and belfry, but it didn't look like that it was open and I carried on along the road to Low Petergate. 

 

The Church St. Michael le Belfrey

After taking more photographs of the listed buildings around King’s Square and down Church Street, I came to St. Sampson’s church, another dolomitic limestone structure that has a C15 tower, but was largely rebuilt in 1848. It became redundant in 1969 and is now used as the St. Sampson’s centre for the over 60s, but I did not investigate further. 

 

St. Sampson's church

Making my way along Pavement, I stopped to take a single photograph of All Saints church, which has had a church building on the site going back to at least the C10. With several listed buildings still to photograph, on the route back to St. George’s Field car park, I made a mental note to visit this church, along with several others in York, during my next visit to the city. 

 

All Saints church on Pavement

 

A Walk Around York - Part 1

 

A detail of the tower at St. Mary Bishophill Junior

During my day out to York with the Treeton Local History Group, once we had arrived at Clifford’s Tower, I left the other members to look around at their leisure. I quickly realised that there wasn’t actually much to see inside this castle keep and that I preferred Conisbrough Castle, which I have visited several times over the years, and continued with my day out.

 

A map of York

 

Having visited York several times over the years, despite its great history and wealth of historic buildings, I consider it to be an extremely overpriced tourist trap – particularly York Minster – and whenever I am asked to recommend places to visit in northern England, I always advise them to visit the city of Lincoln instead. 

 

Mediaeval churches in York

 

Since my last visit, I had explored over 100 mediaeval churches in South Yorkshire and the surrounding counties, so I had obtained a guide to York’s numerous mediaeval churches from the York Visitor Information Centre; however, having researched their location and opening times, I decided to continue with my project to provide photographs for the British Listed Buildings website, entailing a good walk around parts of the city that I had not visited before.

 

A selection of Listed Buildings in York to photograph

 

Having previously prepared al list of over 90 listed buildings, I set off from Clifford’s Tower to explore a part of York to the south of Bridge Street in the Micklegate and Guildhall wards on the west and east side of the River Ouse respectively. 

 

The city wall at Tower Place

 

The vast majority of York’s historic buildings are brick built and I wasn’t expecting to find that much of interest to this Language of Stone Blog but, within a couple of minutes, I had come across a late C13 section of the city wall on Tower Place, which is built in dolomitic limestone from the Permian Cadeby Formation that was quarried in Tadcaster. 

 

A cruciform arrow slit

 

After photographing a cruciform arrow slit and a section where a bronze plaque records the levels of flooding on the River Ouse, to which the low lying city is particularly susceptible, I crossed Tower Gardens and made my way to Skeldergate Bridge.

 

A record of flood heights

The bridge was built in 1881 and subsequently strengthened and rebuilt in 1939 but, ascending the steps from Tower Gardens, I only stopped to take a quick look at the tollhouse, which is built in very coarse pebbly gritstone. 

 

The tollhouse

I only took a couple of general record photographs of this structure and a plaque attached to it, which records that the bridge was declared toll free on 1st April 1914, but the gritstone looks very much like the pebbly variety of the Rough Rock, which is used for Kirkstall Abbey and many later Victorian buildings in Leeds. By the time that the bridge was built, the York and North Midland Railway had already established a link between the two cities and it is therefore very likely that quarries from Leeds supplied the stone. 

 

A view of the plaque and surrounding pebbly gritstone

 

Continuing up Bishopgate Street to photograph the brick built Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, I retraced my steps past a section of the city wall that I had walked along, on my last trip to York with the Heart Of England summer school.

 

A view of the city wall

I didn’t investigate further and carried on to the postern on the city wall at the corner of Skeldergate and Cromwell Road; however, I have since discovered that this is next to Baile Hill – another Norman motte and bailey castle that commanded the river crossing here. 

 

The postern at the corner of Skeldergate and Cromwell Road

Walking up to Bishophill Senior, the dolomitic limestone churchyard gatepiers and boundary wall (c1868) are the only remains of the mediaeval Church of St. Mary Bishop Senior, which was built on Roman remains and demolished in the 1960s.

 

Gatepiers at the site of the Church of St. Mary Bishop Senior

 

The Church of St. Mary Bishop Junior is the oldest in York, with the lower part of the tower dating to the C10 and containing fragments of Roman masonry in the fabric, but it was not open at the time of my visit and I just took a few general record photographs. 

 

The Church of St. Mary Bishop Junior

The lower stage of the tower, which I could only view from a distance, is surprisingly built with alternating bands of an often reddish sandstone - described in the Historic England listing as gritstone - and thinly bedded limestone, which in several places is laid in a herringbone pattern, with sporadic fragments of Roman tiles.

 

Masonry to the lower C10 section of the tower

 

I would have liked to have had a good look at the various stones used in the external fabric but, having to get to 31 Castlegate for lunch, I made my way down to Queen’s Snaith Road to photograph Ouse Bridge (1820), which looks from a distance like it is probably built with a sandstone from the Millstone Grit Group. 

 

Ouse Bridge

 

Crossing the bridge, I descended down the steps and headed along the waterside to King’s Snaith and on to South Esplanade, to photograph the Grade II Listed buttressed retaining wall, which was formerly the boundary wall to the precinct of the former Franciscan Friary.

 

The retaining wall on South Esplanade

 

Clifford's Tower in York

 

Clifford's Tower

Following my trip to Staveley and Brimington in North-East Derbyshire, where I photographed some of their historic architecture and the Church of St. John the Baptist for the British Listed Buildings website and regimental crests on various Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones, my next day out was to the city of York. 

 

The English Heritage Guidebook

 

The occasion was the last meeting of the Treeton Local History Group which, 25 years since its formation and with nobody in the increasingly elderly membership willing to take on the roles of Secretary and Treasurer, had decided to wind down with a visit to Clifford’s Tower - followed by a lunchtime meal at 31 Castlegate. 

 

The motte at Clifford's Tower

 

As a member of English Heritage, when living in London, I travelled far and wide to visit a wide variety of historic properties and, having visited York several times since living in northern England – as a general tourist and as a field trip leader of several groups of Spanish summer school students, when teaching English as a foreign language – I must say that I had never been tempted to visit this ruined quatrefoil keep and I raised my hand to suggest that we visit the walled city of Chester instead, which I had visited once before over 35 years ago

 

The stairway to Clifford's Tower

Earlier in 2022, however, it was explained that a major programme of conservation work had been completed, including the provision of walkways that opened up parts of the structure that had not been accessible for hundreds of years, which was enough to convince me. 

 

The approach

Slowly ascending the steps with the rest of the group members, I stopped a couple of times to take general photographs of the keep - built from 1245 to 1272 during the reign of Henry III - and as a geologist, with specialist skills in identifying and matching building stone, I saw nothing to suggest that Clifford’s Tower was built with any other stone than Permian dolomitic limestone. 

 

A detail of the forebuilding

I was therefore very interested to see that its front elevation, largely rebuilt in the 1640’s, is composed of a pinkish coloured stone that I had not encountered before and which the English Heritage guidebook describes as mauve sandstone. Set into the front elevation are two heraldic shields carved in dolomitic limestone panels, the upper one being of Charles I and the lower one that of Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Northumberland. 

 

The distribution of building stone quarries around York

The Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group, on which York is located, yields no building stone and the city walls, York Minster and its many mediaeval churches are built with dolomitic limestone that has been brought in from quarries on the Cadeby Formation in the area around Tadcaster. 

 

A detail of the forebuilding

There was no opportunity to examine the stone closely or obtain a sample but, looking at my photographs, stylolites are clearly visible, which seem to coincide with very thin beds of differentially weathered red marl and the limestone has an open cellular texture, which I have seen in the Cadeby Formation, particularly in the upper Sprotbrough Member. 

 

A detail of the walling to the forebuilding

In contrast, the cream to yellow coloured limestone used for the original building is quite typical of the Cadeby Formation that I have seen along the Magnesian Limestone escarpment, from Derbyshire to West Yorkshire and in the stone built mediaeval buildings in York. 

 

The new walkway and roof

Once inside the keep, I was immediately very impressed by the staircase, walkways and open roof, which makes extensive use of glulam and, once I had a quick walk around the ground floor, I went to investigate the newly accessible first floor. 

 

A general view of the masonry to the interior

Considerable expanses of the internal masonry, which is a mixture of ashlar and rubble walling, are notably reddened and is the result of oxidation of the small quantity of iron minerals within the limestone. This is usually seen around fireplaces or in isolated areas, where there has been a small fire adjacent to the stonework, but the very extensive colouration is probably associated with a very large fire after the explosion that destroyed the interior in 1684. 

 

A view of the masonry from the walkway

Having since referred to the guidebook, which doesn’t fit into a coat pocket like the old black and white A5 sized English Heritage booklets, it seems that it was originally possible to access the chapel via a spiral staircase, but I used the new stairway instead.

 

The entrance to the chapel

The chapel, which was full of Spanish students at the time, has arcades of four pointed moulded arches remaining on two adjacent walls, with the arches being enriched with dogtooth moulding and nailhead capitals. 

 

Views inside the chapel

Making my way further up to the viewing platform, I spent a few minutes surveying the surrounding landscape and identifying a few of the very many brick built buildings that I wanted to photograph for the British Listed Buildings website over the course of the day.

A view of York Minster