On Guard 2018

On Guard 2020

The York Mansion House is the earliest purpose built house for a Lord Mayor still in existence and predates the Mansion House in London by at least twenty years. The home was built as a place for the Lord Mayor to entertain visitors to the city and to house York’s wonderful civic collections.

Standing in the heart of our vibrant city, the Mansion House has been home to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of York since 1732 and is still in use today.

St Martin’s is now a haven of calm in the heart of York, but in 1942 it was reduced to a smouldering ruin during a bombing raid on the city. The church stood desolate until restoration work began in 1961.

The clock, first fitted in 1668, and the gilded head of Father Time are replacements for the originals destroyed in the air raid. The jaunty ‘Little Admiral’ however, survived the fire and is still taking a sighting of the sun with his sextant.

• As seen on York – Day Three.

This mid 15th century carving shows the Virgin being taught to read by her mother. It is carved from Derbyshire stone and retains some of its original paint. *

*from a signboard next to the carving

Barley Hall is a medieval town house, once home to the Priors of Nostell and a Lord Mayor of York.

Until the 1980s the building was hidden under the relatively modern facade, only when it was going to be destroyed was the amazing medieval structure discovered and its rich history uncovered.

The oldest parts of Barley Hall date from about 1360, when the Hall was built as the York townhouse of Nostell Priory, a monastery near Wakefield in West Yorkshire. A new wing was added to the building in about 1430. Soon after, the Hall became the home of a leading York citizen, William Snawsell, Goldsmith, Alderman and Lord Mayor of York.

The house was bought by York Archaeological Trust in January 1987. Later that year, a full archaeological investigation of the interior was carried out through one metre of deposits to the 14th century levels, revealing the remains of the floor of the Great Hall. Further investigations in 1990 to 1991 looked at the courtyard and found the remains of the exterior stairway to the Great Chamber on the first floor. Work to restore the Hall to its former glory began in 1990 and it re-opened to the public in 1993.

The medieval building has been lovingly restored to its original splendour with stunning high ceilings, beautiful exposed timber frames, and possibly the only horn window in England. It has been decorated to replicate what it would have looked like as the Snawsell home around 1483 and boasts a magnificent Great Hall. Visitors to Barley Hall can make themselves at home and sit on the chairs and handle the objects and experience what it would have been like to live in Medieval England.

Tudor feasts were as much about presentation as taste. “Peacock Royal” or “Royale” would have been served at the King’s table with the feet and beak gilded in gold. Firsty the skin and feathers would have been carefully removed before the rest of the bird was stuffed with herbs and spices and slowly roasted. The skin and feathers would then have been placed back on the cooked meat. At the time they would not have know that this caused contamination. The bird was then presented to the King with great ceremony looking as if alive.*

Swans were considered regal ans so only eaten on special occasions. Their beaks would have been gilded with gold leaf and sometimes small crowns were placed on their heads. *

Subtleties were made of marchpane (powdered almonds, sugar and rose water) and would have been carved into fantastic creations indicating the wealth and status of the giver of the feast.*

*Information note at Barley Hall

On 5th November 1605 a York man, Guy Fawkes, was discovered about to ignite 36 barrels of gunpowder underneath the Houses of Parliament. His aim was to spark a Catholic revolution.

Fawkes was born in York in 1570, probably at a house in Stonegate. He was baptised in St Michael le Belfry church on April 13. His father Edward, a church lawyer and a prominent Protestant in the city, died when Guy was only eight years old.

His mother remarried, to a Catholic, and they moved to the village of Scotton, near Knaresborough. Fawkes’ schooling continued in York, at St Peter’s. His schoolmates included brothers John and Christopher Wright, who were later destined to join the gunpowder plot. Christopher, or ‘Kit’, was the same age as Guy Fawkes.

In the 1570’s and 80’s York was a centre of the Catholic resistance. About the time that Fawkes himself converted he would have been aware of a particularly brutal example of the religion’s suppression. In 1586 Margaret Clitherow was publicly executed for protecting Priests in her home.

As an adult Fawkes inherited property in York, at Gillygate and Clifton. But on his 21st birthday he sold his estate and enlisted in the Catholic Spanish army. He spent his next ten years fighting for Spain, becoming commander of a unit of soldiers and an expert in explosives. In Madrid Fawkes met up again with Kit Wright and they joined a group of conspirators, who together plotted to murder King James and replace him with a Catholic monarch.

The plan was audacious and brutal. The plotters hired a cellar under Parliament and smuggled in the barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes stood guard. It was his role to light the fuse, then head to Flanders to raise forces who would join in the Catholic uprising in England.

After his arrest Guy was tortured. His school-fellows, John and Kit Wright, died in November 1605 when they were caught with other conspirators at Holbeche House in Staffordshire.

Then, in January 1606, Guy Fawkes himself was put to death in Westminster by hanging, drawing and quartering. His remains were sent to the four corners of the Kingdom as a warning to other plotters.