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Published: November 12th 2007
“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, ‘This was their finest hour.’” -- Winston Churchill
Today is Remembrance Sunday in the United Kingdom (also observed in the rest of the Commonwealth) and in the U.S. as Veterans Day. All week, everybody in the office has been wearing red poppies to commemorate the end of World War I. In York this weekend, nearly every person we encountered wore their poppies. People laid poppies on the grounds of Yorkminster. The bands played and the soldiers marched. Time stopped for two minutes at 11:00 on Sunday the eleventh day of November.
After several delays (don’t believe anybody who says that England’s trains are usually reliable), we finally arrived in York three hours late on Saturday. We got lost in York’s meandering streets, ate dinner, and shared a £12 pint at the King’s Arms on the River Ouse. We were joined by a two gentlemen from Manchester who had escaped the football match between Manchester United and Manchester City. For nearly an hour, they explained described York’s medieval beauty and reminded us
Poppy Wreathes
Poppy Wreathes laid near Yorkminster in memory of fallen British troopsthat there is nothing like it in the United States. This is true, because York has decided to preserve its two centuries of existence.
Eventually our friends had to return to Manchester (it was also really really cold outside), and we crawled to the next pub, the John Smith. This noisy pub was our second pub on our haunted pub tour. Afterwards, we headed to the Golden Fleece, which according to the Golden Fleece, is York’s most haunted pub. The walls are adorned with newspaper articles about the ghosts that haunt the Golden Fleece. According to the locals, three ghosts hang out at the bar every night. We didn’t see them. Afterwards, we headed to the small, but packed Blue Bell for our final pint.
On Sunday morning, we awoke early to explore York’s wall. The wall, nearly without interruption, completely surrounds York. The Romans began construction on the wall AD 71 in order to defend Roman territory from the Picts. Later, the Normans used York’s walls to defend English territory from the Scots. Today, joggers used the wall for exercise, patriots use the wall to lay poppy wreaths, and tourists like ourselves use the wall to see
York.
Our tour of York’s wall was interrupted by a procession of soldiers a half hour before 11 o’clock. So we decided to climb up Clifford Hill to Clifford Tower, the castle that protected York from assault (although, since William the Conqueror built Clifford’s Tower, York has never been attacked).
After touring the wall, eating lunch, and shopping, we visited Yorkminster at 2:30 (the Remembrance Sunday service for British troops finished at 2:00). Yorkminster is built on the site of a Roman barracks. After the Romans withdrew from Brittany in AD 410, the barracks crumbled due to neglect. The Saxons moved in and used the ruins as a cemetery. After the Norman conquest, William the Conqueror ordered all of Yorkshire burned. The Normans decided to build a great chapel on top of the former Roman barracks. Eventually, the English enlarged the chapel several times, creating the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe.
Yorkminster is rich in stained glass, including one window that is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. After admiring Yorkminster’s art, we toured the crypt to see the remains of Yorkminster’s Roman, Saxon, and Norman histories.
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everett
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I like the view of the old Roman toilet. Beautiful photos! Everett