York Minster, Yorkshire, UK

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After checking into our B&B The Alcuin Lodge, just a five minute walk from the York city walls; we took a walk through 1900 years of history on York's city walls.

Built in Roman times, these three and one half miles of Roman fortifications let you see York from a different and very beautiful perspective. They've been added to and rebuilt over time and now have parts from across the centuries.

York has a very long and intricate history. I will not get into much of it here, but it is the cathedral city of the Archbishop of York. The Romans occupied the area in AD 71 and built a fortress and wall, traces of which remain.

In the 7th century Paulinus became the first Archbishop of York, and Edwin, King of Northumbria, built a church where the present day Minster stands. The Danes conquered York in the ninth century and retained it as their Northumbrian capital. York derived its name from the Danish Yorvick.

York suffered severely in William I’s conquest of Northern England. Part of the city was destroyed and two defensive castles, now sites of Clifford’s Tower and the Castle Museum Complex where built to subdue the rebellious north.

York’s Minster built between the 13th and the 15th century is the largest cathedral in Northern Europe.

At the great tower of York Castle (Clifford's Tower) on the night of Friday 16 March 1190, some 150 jews & jewesses of York having sought protection in the Royal Castle from a mob incited by Richard Malebisse and others chose to die at each other's hands rather than renounce their faith.

Clifford's Tower still bears the name of the medieval aristocratic traitor Roger de Clifford, who was hanged there in 1322.

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