Sabbatical Blog: 9/13 York, UK

9/13 York
Today, we made a short 1 ½ hour road trip to the town of York. Part tourist trap, part city, and part history. York is very old. It still has the remains of the Roman wall that used to protect the city. The oldest church in the town of York is York Minster. It is a large church that is reflective of its age.

We were told to go to Betty’s for lunch/tea, but at the time we were hungry, and couldn’t remember the name of the place. So we ate at Reed’s teahouse in front of York Minster. The food was good. I had a Ham and Cheese Omelette, where Traci’s was sans the Ham. The coffee, however, was horrible. Good thing they have at least 2 Starbucks in York.

Kylie trying on her shades before we leave for York.


Traci outside the wall of York.


York Minster Cathedral. I had this question, Why is the Minster a Minster?
Minster Churches are basically churches that were established in the Anglo Saxon period as missionary teaching churches. York Minster is also the Church of the Archbishop of York. He is the most senior bishop in the North of England. It is where he has his seat, called a Cathedra, which makes York Minster a Cathedral as well.

Not all Minsters are Cathedrals, and not all Cathedrals are Minsters, but York Minster is both. The present Minster is the largest Gothic Cathedral in northern Europe and was built over a period of 250 years

When was the Minster built?
The first Minster was built for the Baptism of an Anglo Saxon king called Edwin in 627 AD. It was small and built of wood and named after St Peter. This church slowly grew and developed into a quite large stone church. This church was badly damaged when York was captured by the Normans in 1069.

Between 1080 and 1100 a new stone Minster was built, this was the direct ancestor of the Minster that we have today. In the year 1220 Archbishop Walter Gray started to rebuild the Norman church by making the South Transept much larger the north side was enlarged at about the same time. In 1295 work began on the Nave, which took 70 years to complete. The East end was started in about 1360 and was completed by around 1407 when the central tower collapsed. From 1407 to 1433 a new central tower was built. The Minster as we know it today was finally finished in the year 1472. It had taken about 250 years to build!


Here we are at the Tea House/Cafe in front of the Minster.


Here are some more remnants of the wall.