York

We led a student day-trip to York on Saturday, 22 October. The students have been here long enough to be fairly independent, so we arranged for a walking tour of the old, walled city as an orientation, and then cut them loose to explore the museums. We met at the end of the day for Choral Evensong at the huge Yorkminster Cathedral.

Recently restored west "heart" window in Yorkminster

According to the files, some groups in the past have not really liked York very much. In recent years, directors have been simply stopping by briefly on their way to destinations farther north. Some former students have suggested skipping York altogether.

The negative attitude mystifies us, because Mary and I have always been quite taken by York's charming blend of histories, from Roman to modern. It's one of the few places one can see a Medieval street just as it was 700 years ago, with all of the buildings (not just churches) intact. Even large segments of the old, Medieval city wall are still standing.

The "Shambles" Medieval street in central York

Our group seemed, overall, to be pretty enthralled with York, and some were already making plans to come back for a weekend on their own, because they wished for more time. Groups differ, I guess.

We spent this, our third trip to York since our arrival in June, exploring some of the out of the way parish churches (some no longer in actual use for congregations), as well as renewing our acquaintance with the Minster.

Norman stone carvings in the crypt at Yorkminster

We joined a tour of the Minster with a good guide and learned a few things, then went down into the crypt, which has been greatly expanded since we were here ten years ago. The ruins of a Roman basilica beneath the foundations of the 7th century Anglo-Saxon church and the 11th century Norman church were discovered during some repair work in the 1970s. Much of that dig is now open to the public.