there are three major museums in York
that you would probably enjoy visiting
the castle Museum Yorkshire Museum of
History and National Railway Museum the
castle museum is one of the greatest
attractions of York easy to walk to on
the south edge of the old town on your
way into the museum you'll see
Clifford's Tower out front a large birth
mound with a stone court on top the
original fort was built by William the
Conqueror just two years after his
famous victory in 1066 the Castle Museum
contains a remarkable assert men of
items with the special focus on the late
19th century at the dawn of the modern
age when technology went through rapid
changes it's like walking through a time
machine especially in the street
reconstructed to look like 1890 with
cobbled paving gaslights original shop
fronts and actual merchandise from that
period it's designed much like
Smithsonian Institution exhibit where
you walk through original environments
that create this illusion of actually
being there time travels as you stroll
along the museum was founded by an
enlightened country doctor John Kirk who
had the foresight to realize that many
common items being destroyed and thrown
away back at the beginning of the 20th
century would someday have great
historical value
he began purchasing and acquiring
ordinary objects of daily life sometimes
in exchange for his medical services and
put together a large private collection
which he donated to the city of York in
1935 and which forms the foundation of
this excellent museum he also designed
the most spectacular exhibit area the
reconstructed Street that's named
perfect game in his honor there is a
large assortment of clothing showing the
evolution of fashion throughout the late
19th and 20th centuries note how they
include accessories and informative
posters in the display you can compare
the typical kitchen of 1890 with that of
1954 examine the evolution of toilets
showers jewelry vacuum cleaners lighting
washing machines hammers and thousands
of other items offering something for
everybody
quality of presentation is equal to any
of the world's great museums the
buildings used to hold a debtors prison
and women's prison so some original jail
cells have been preserved to give you a
taste of punishment the building's date
back to the 18th century providing a
dramatic example of preservation and
reuse and how such a structure can be
modernized to turn into a
state-of-the-art Museum complete with
multimedia displays in the jail cell
bringing back to life some of the old
prisoners like it perpend more
highlights include old fabrics and
clocks and jewelry you've got decanters
little toy dolls in a schoolroom with
old wooden benches and a variety of
chopped windows some of the shops you
can walk inside and in a few of them you
can actually purchase things in a very
old car an extensive collection of World
War 1 weapons and artifacts is also here
with reconstructions of sandbag line
trenches used in deadly battles get away
from the cramped claustrophobia of the
trenches and step out into the old
prison yard and in the back there's the
old mill and a nice lawn give you some
fresh air then come back for another
look at the main feature of the old
Street Kirk gate you could get through
the museum in one hour if you're in a
bit of a rush but more likely you could
spend two hours enjoying all of the
various cases and explanations
some of the video displays to go with it
and maybe have a snack or even lunch at
their cafe some folks are so used to the
rain they'd rather sit outside it pays
off to have a big umbrella when you're
visiting York in the month of May we're
moving along to the next museum this
time to see some much earlier history
we're heading to the Yorkshire museum
which is set among ruins in a lovely
garden area some days the surrounding
museum gardens have special events like
this owl demonstration that was being
put on by an animal protection
organization they showed off the
precision flying abilities of barn owls
and other varieties all of it done to
raise awareness of protection of birds
and the natural environment including
this close flyby over a row of people on
the grass this old stone structure is
the largest of the ancient Roman ruins
still standing in new york called the
multi angular tower it was part of the
original roman wall the yorkshire museum
takes you from prehistoric times up
through the 16th century with a large
collection of Roman and Viking artifacts
especially the museum was founded in
1830 making it one of the oldest in the
country the museum displays a number of
Roman objects which have been discovered
in York including a statue of Mithras
and inscribed stone coffin and amongst
other Roman objects are tiled tombs and
a very impressive mosaic floor the
colorful mosaic pavement depicts the
head of Medusa surrounded by emblems of
the Four Seasons it was found near
mikkel gate bar and was probably a floor
in a Roman Palace made of thousands of
little bits of naturally colored stone
medieval objects include molded stones
from demolished churches an effigy and
chain armor and a very well preserved
helmet that dates back to about the Year
900 it's the most splendid surviving
example of its type in Europe these
statues formerly adorn the
Abbey Church and each one is five feet
eight inches high Moses and John the
Baptist are represented the money came
from a Viking 10th century silver gilt
pot that was full of coins and
discovered in the year 2007 a lovely
tapestry of a unicorn weaved about 1579
one of the earliest in England other
tapestries on display shows some maps of
central England very ancient stone tools
dating back as far as 800,000 years ago
found in the South of England among the
country's earliest artefacts along with
archaeology the other permanent
collections here cover biology geology
and astronomy
it's a lovely Museum and small enough
that you can see most of it in one hour
and admission is free you should
certainly put it on your list of things
to do in York another one of the top
attractions in York is England's largest
Railway Museum located adjacent to the
train station the museum is a
five-minute walk from the railway
station either via a staircase from the
station platforms or on the road just to
the south the National Railway Museum
tells the story of rail transport in
Britain and its impact on society it's
one of the world's largest railway
museums perhaps the best and it covers
20 acres attracting nearly 1 million
annual visitors featuring a hundred and
three locomotives and nearly 300 other
rail cars the exhibits are showcased in
two very large but separate halls so be
sure to find them both maillard broke
the world speed record for steam
locomotives in 1938 a record that has
never been beaten a major focal point is
this panorama of locomotives arranged
around the turntable in the Great Hall
this is a working replica of the world's
first practical steam engine from the
Year 1830 Stephenson's rocket
established the basic architecture for
the steam locomotive which was adopted
by nearly all steam trains for the next
150 years the
many many other items on display include
signaling equipment road vehicles ship
models posters drawings and other
artwork tickets nameplate staff uniforms
clocks watches furniture and equipment
from railway companies and a wide range
of models there's actually 1 million
objects and 2 million photographs in the
entire archives of the collection of
course not everything's on display but
they rotate it and keep it interesting
this is the only Shinkansen outside of
Japan the speedy bullet train would
whisk passengers along at a speed of
just over a hundred and thirty miles an
hour when it opened in 1964 it was a
radical reimagining of the passenger
railway it was the forerunner of
high-speed trains everywhere which for
example in Japan are reaching speeds up
to 200 miles an hour if you're hungry or
just want to relax with a dream there is
a decent snack bar with plenty of seats
available the display includes palaces
on wheels a collection of royal train
salons from Queen Victoria's early
trains through to those used by queen
elizabeth ii up to the 1970s it should
be no surprise that interest in
railroads is advanced here because this
region has a long history of pioneering
train travel the first station opened in
1839 just 10 years after the British
invented the steam locomotive rapid
expansion of train services required a
larger station which opened in 1877 as
the largest train station in Europe and
the original steel and glass structure
still functions today brains still
provide a great way to get to York we'll
be presenting more movies about York
covering the Minster Cathedral we'll
have a walking tour with a local guide
as well as places to eat stay tuned to
our YouTube channel we upload new travel
movie every week so if you want to be
informed please subscribe you can also
find the movies on our website nicely
organized by place that's tour videos
calm
take a look at our website where we have
more than a thousand free travel movies
tour videos comm we're also featuring a
lot of movies from Asia we've got France
Italy Germany England Paris London Rome
New York Phoenix San Francisco we've got
Brazil Peru and these movies are all
free and easily available at tour videos
dot-com