We' re going to show you some of York England's historic sites on a walking tour with our
local guide, provided by Yorkwalks.
I'm the guide.
I'm going to take you around some of the important parts of York.
Can't do everything in the time that's there, but I'll try and give you an idea also of
what it's like to live here.
Living in a historic city has certain challenges to it.
You will have noticed already the city streets are pedestrianized.
In the 1980s tourism took over the big-time.
So you are effectively now our biggest income earner in the city.
And what we do with this, but we start to change the city to what you say we think you
might like.
So the streets are pedestrianized they are made beautifully clean, but with it the shops
start to change.
When we get into the city center look closely at the shops, and ask yourself, are these
for residents, or are these for visitors, because as a resident of York when I need
to do a big shop I have to go elsewhere.
I am like the residents of Paris, Florence, Venice, the other main tourist cities in Europe,
and I have to do my shopping somewhere else, because there is nowhere in the city center
that is of particular use for me.
So let us set off now, we're going to walk along this way.
What were looking at are ruins of about 1300, 1400, in the Gothic style.
In 1535 we experience in this country what's called the Reformation, and the break with
the Catholic Church.
The monastery is left abandoned and it's turned into ruin and people steal the stone.
Only in the 19th century in Europe do you get what we call the Romantic Movement where
people start to fall in love again with things medieval.
And this then becomes romantic ruin in the past
How we interpret looking at old buildings in itself is a very interesting feature.
You can't take the one simple view.
Then we continue walking from the Museum Garden around the corner to the Kings Manor with
our guide.
This building here is a real confection.
It's called the Kings Manor, but it began life as the residence of that abbot who looked
after the Abbey.
With the Reformation there came a protest.
The Reformation was not liked in this area, as much economically as religiously.
The breakup of the church caused real economic problems.
And this protest movement forced Henry VIII to come here himself.
And he came here for 11 days and for the next hundred just this building became something
like a royal palace.
Well this building is called the Kings Manor, so it's 16th-century extended by King Henry
VIII.
He set it up for governing the northern counties of England and as something of a royal palace.
Now when Queen Elizabeth the First died in 1603 her successor was James VI of Scotland,
and that meant he had to travel from Edinburgh to London, which took them over eight days
then – two hours by train from York to Edinburgh now – and he stayed here, being a royal
palace.
His son, Charles I came here several times, and it's his coat of arms up on top of the
door.
It's now part of the University of York, but that doesn't mean to say you are excluded.
You can come in here, say if you're walking around York tomorrow and you want some change,
come in here.
The refectory is also open to the public.
Now the hours are strictly 9:30 to 3:30.
But if you want something to eat again in a slightly unusual position, come in here,
and it's part of the University.
It's very nice and it's not nearly as commercially precious as the places in town to eat.
Now that side as I mentioned was all Henry VIII side.
With the growth of the Royal Palace this courtyard was closed up with all this building here.
The staterooms over there.
This was a long gallery that stretched from one end to the other on the first floor and
that was a royal palace.
King Charles I believes in the divine right of kings.
He is only answerable to God.
Eventually these arguments about religion, taxation and who controls the state, and it's
as if society fell apart.
You have people start arguing in the 1640s all property should be held in common.
You have people in the 1640s arguing that every man should have the vote.
Then we walk a few blocks into the city center.
There is only one business in this street still functioning from the day when I first
came to work here in 1980.
You may noticed a lot of the streets in New York and with the word "gate."
Stonegate up there, Swinegate.
It's nothing whatsoever to do with a barrier, a gate that clicks to backwards and forward.
The best way of describing it is from an old Anglo-Scandinavian word, "gata" as in the
word gait, g-a-i-t, how you move in a passageway.
So it's not to do with a barrier gate, it's a passageway gait.
This little street is called Grape Lane.
Grape Lane is a euphemism.
It's use, it's got nothing to do with fruit.
There use to be an "o" instead of an "a".
That are other places to see.
There is Cliffords Tower.
It's a Norman castle on an artificial mound, so the hill it's built on is artificial man-made,
and there's a medieval castle tower on the top of it.
Holy Trinity Goodramgate really is a little gem.
Do try and get to see it if you can.
And then we'll go to The Shambles.
We'll take you there and to many more parts of this historic city of York in our series
of movies about this special place that was filmed during our tour of the British Isles.
As we leave you with some more accordion street music by Ben Crossway why don't you subscribe
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