Day 40 Abbey's, Minster's and Wall's!

Saturday 28/04/2018 Toll Bridge Studio 12 Barlby Road Selby

Slow start as we finished our washing hung it where ever we could.....
Had a chat to Selma on messenger... then set off on foot for a look around Selby..Got to their Abbey was about to go in when a stream of what we worked out was Scots with flags came out of the front door of the huge Abbey! There must have been at least 30 of them..... all practicing for something we aren’t sure what it was to be....

Selby Abbey, is one of the relatively few surviving abbey churches of the medieval period, and, although not a cathedral, is one of the biggest. It was founded by Benedict of Auxerre in 1069 and subsequently built by the de Lacy family. On 31 May 1256, the Abbey was bestowed with the grant of a Mitre by Pope Alexander IV and from this date was a "Mitred Abbey". This privilege fell in abeyance a number of times, but on 11 April 1308, Archbishop William Greenfield confirmed the grant, and Selby remained a "Mitred Abbey" until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Archbishop Walter Giffard visited the monastery in 1275 by commission, and several monks and the Abbot were charged with a list of faults including loose living, (many complaints referred to misconduct with married women). In 1279 Archbishop William de Wickwane made a visitation, and found fault with the Abbot as he did not observe the rule of St Benedict, was not singing mass, preaching or teaching, and seldom attending chapter. Things had not improved much in 1306 when Archbishop William Greenfield visited and similar visitations in later years resulted in similar findings.....The community rebuilt the choir in the early fourteenth century, but in 1340, a fire destroyed the Chapter House, Dormitory, Treasury and part of the church. The damage was repaired and the decorated windows in the south aisle of the Nave were installed. In 1380-1 there was the abbot and twenty-five monks. In 1393 Pope Boniface IX granted an indulgence to pilgrims who contributed to the conservation of the chapel of the Holy Cross in the Abbey. The fifteenth century saw more alterations to the Abbey. The perpendicular windows in the North Transept and at the west end of the nave were added and the Sedilia in the Sanctuary was added. One of the final additions was the Lathom Chapel, dedicated to St Catherine, east of the North Transept, in 1465. In the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 the Abbey was valued at £719 2s. 6¼d (equivalent to £402,863 in 2016). The abbey surrendered on 6 December 1539. The community comprised the Abbot, and 23 monks The abbot was pensioned off on £100 a year (equivalent to £61,605 in 2016) the prior got £8 and the others between £6 6s. 8d. and £5 each. The Abbey caught on fire in 1906.....The organ builders from John Compton had been working until 11.00 pm on Friday 19 October, and shortly after midnight on Saturday the organist Frederick William Sykes spotted flames coming from the organ chamber. The organ builders had been installing a new kinetic gas engine to provide power to the new organ. Initial reports that the new organ equipment was to blame for the fire were later proved inaccurate. The fire destroyed the roof of the choir and the belfry and peal of eight bells was also destroyed. All of the interior fittings were also destroyed but thanks to the actions of the local fire brigade, the fourteenth-century stained glass in the East window was saved. A secondary fire broke out in the nave roof on the Sunday, but this was quickly extinguished. The abbey was rebuilt under the supervision of John Oldrid Scott at a cost of around £50,000 (equivalent to £4,783,000 in 2016) and reopened in 1909. The restoration of the south transept was completed in 1912, funded by William Liversedge. So as you can see this still working and functioning Abbey has had quite a history and a journey to where it still is today..l

We headed down the street investigating all knocks and crannies of the town...eventually having a cuppa at Little Miss Mays tea shop... then back to take some pics at the Abbey and you wouldn’t guess it but now there is Bridegroom and his off Sider’s waiting to go in.......Darn I thought, but John found a way in the side door, the inside was absolutely massive, and the actual wedding was being held in the front section.... there was still over 3/4 of the church/Abbey vacant... anyway took all my pics tried to wait for the bride to come but she was too long, so off we went home... had lunch then drove to York...

John decided we would park where we did yesterday when I had to go to the dentist.... once parked and the steep price paid,.... (at least we knew how much this time)... we set off on foot to discover York better than our last visit...

Our first task was the City Wall... and wow what a Wall it is... so interesting walking around peering into peoples yards and seeing some amazing gardens... this must be the better end of York from the look at these gardens....York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England. They are known variously as York City Walls, the Bar Walls and the Roman walls (though this last is a misnomer as very little of the extant stonework is of Roman origin, and the course of the wall has been substantially altered since Roman times).

Once we had done section of the wall down we climbed to look around the other areas.... back to have a good look at the Shambles.......'The Shambles' is sometimes used as a general term for the maze of twisting, narrow lanes which make York so charming. At its heart is the lane actually called the Shambles, arguably the best preserved medieval street in the world. It was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of William the Conqueror in 1086. The Shambles (officially known as just Shambles is an old street in York, England, with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. It was once known as The Great Flesh Shambles, probably from the Anglo-Saxon Fleshammels (literally 'flesh-shelves'), the word for the shelves that butchers used to display their meat. As recently as 1872 twenty-five butchers' shops were located along the street, but now none remain...Among the buildings of the Shambles is a shrine to Saint Margaret Clitherow, who was married to a butcher who owned and lived in a shop there at No. 10 Shambles. Her home is now a cufflinks shop, Cuffs & Co, and features the priest hole fireplace that ultimately led to her death. Although the butchers have now vanished, a number of the shops on the street still have meat-hooks hanging outside and, below them, shelves on which meat would have been displayed. The shops currently include a mixture of eateries and souvenir sellers, but there is also a bookshop and a bakery. Five snickelways lead off the Shambles. There are streets named "The Shambles" in other UK towns (e.g., Bradford on Avon, Chesterfield, Guildford in Surrey, Swansea, Chippenham, Manchester, Sevenoaks, Whitby, Worcester, Armagh), and in Ireland (there is a Fishamble Street in Dublin).

There were markets not big but able to see there wares... and buskers my goodness heals of them around, some good, some no so good.... still worth a look... we bought some donuts and a cuppa and Kelly wandering... The donuts were just awful only the baby sized ones but filled with oil, not light but quite heavy in flavour... from here we wandered along the river... some of these very old buildings are unreal, so out if plum... crooked and uneven... one deck people were sitting on honestly it looked Iike it was about to fall into the river at any minute... we could see the city tour boats going up and down the river and a big fancy cruiser that looked totally out of place here but was about to head out from its moorings....

People were everywhere , very different then yesterday... hardly a soul about but it was raining and it wasn’t the weekend... when we were in the wall we spotted a group of people all on bikes, wondering why they were dressed up... but it was a wedding... The Bride was in the front bike, like a rickshaw type thing and the groom was peddling here and I am guessing their child... then the rest of the wedding party which was not a lot peddling behind on their refinery ...... it did look different, that’s for sure.. I kept thinking this is the type of thing Tim would do... out of the box stuff...

Anyway we walked around a bit longer checking out the sights, the off we set to finish at the York Minster
The York Minster!
York's cathedral church is one of the finest medieval buildings in Europe. The Minster is also known as St Peter's, its full name being the 'Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York'. In the past the church sat within its own walled precinct, known as the Liberty of St Peter. The site of the magnificent medieval building has always been an important one for the city. The remains of the Basilica, the ceremonial centre of the Roman fortress, have been found beneath the Minster building. The first Christian church on the site has been dated to 627 and the first Archbishop of York was recognised by the Pope in 732. A stone Saxon church survived Viking invasion in 866 but was ransacked by William the Conqueror's forces in 1069. William appointed his own Archbishop, Thomas, who by the end of the century had built a great Norman cathedral on the site. The present Gothic-style church was designed to be the greatest cathedral in the kingdom. It was built over 250 years, between 1220 and 1472. As the natural centre of the Church in the North, the Minster has often played an important role in great national affairs - not least during the turbulent years of the Reformation and the Civil War.

Our plan was to go in and see it fro inside, but when we saw the price to go in I decided no.... I have a thing about church’s and this is a church that’s practicing today, having to pay to see it... I know that’s odd but it is how I feel... I usually will pay to go to ruins....but to a Church that has a information sheet out front saying it’s open to any denomination but then wants to charge... I feel is not right... so we walked around it, soaking up the sights and there were plenty from it’s grounds and surrounds... one section we did find fascinating was where they were doing restoration, each stone was numbered. We realised that every stone in this massive and it is massive must be numbered for when any restoration has to occur... Fascinating......

Our day has come to an end I was really quite crook, I have had a terrible headache since yesterday... I reckon the guy we had lunch at his pizza and pasta shop is making g rocket fuel wine... it tasted like it and I have had a terrible headache since... taking heaps of drugs to put it at bay... but by the time we had finished the Minister I wanted to vomit... so back to the car sadly as our time had run out and I was really unwell... We had a pizza to cook tonight in the oven in the Studio Unit... yeah I can cook.... I took heaps of meds to get the headache under control, prepared dinner... then trying to sort pics the headache rared it’s ugly heard agin so sleep was all i could do... another good day of great sights and no rain, just a server cold wind that cut to the bone... but we survived... Bed was good...Read more