Charlene set off to get her training run in this morning, so I decided to circumnavigate the York city walls. There are 2 miles of surviving masonry, more than any other town in England. The wall has surrounded the city for 700 years. The tops of the walls were repaired and partly rebuilt about 150 years ago so the public could safely walk on them. There are four main "bars" (fortified gateways), 2 smaller gateways, and 1 small postern gate defended by a tower. The walls are built of limestone and set on high earthern banks or ramparts. The older roman walls are mainly hidden in these earth works.
This is a map of the walls around the old city. You can see the River Ouse flows right through the middle. There were towers on each side of the river and a chain ran between them to keep people from navigating the river if needed.
The small tower across the river is Lendal tower. It was a pump house for the city water supply for 200 years starting in 1631.
My favorite view of the Abbey. There were some beautiful private residences and gardens along this part of the walk.
In some parts of the walk there were trees right up against the wall (obviously not a good a idea when trying to defend the city, but these had grown since the time when the walls needed to be defended).
At one point the audio guide told me to look over the walls for a shiny leafed plant called Alexanders that likely dated back to Roman times and was introduced in England at that time. I couldn't find a plant that I thought matched the description, but I looked it up out of curiosity. Its known as smyrnium olustrum and grows along the Mediteranean coast, but is now naturalized in many parts of England. It's stems could be eaten like asperagus among other uses.
This is Monk's Bar (gate) and is about 700 years old. The top level was probably added during the reign of Richard III. It had a spiked portcullis to seal the entrance. It was last used in 1953 for the Queen's coronation celebration and took two weeks to get it up again because a chain broke.
Some of the Roman ruins of the original fortifications
An entire Roman fort existed here at one time. The current city walls run along the north side of this fortification.
The section of York's defenses consisted of a marshy lake instead of walls. There is now a small nature reserve for water fowl. It was once called King's fishpool because William the Conquerer ordered the river to be dammed to create a moat around the castle and there were strict laws about who could fish in the lake. The dam was eventually converted to a lock when canal barge traffic increased. In the 1830's people feared the smells from the waters were causing disease (miasma causing cholera) and the city paid people to fill it in. It is now much smaller than it was. (There was no smell, just a lot of algae). I did see some ducks.
This is Red Tower. It was built around 1500. Every other wall tower is built of limestone quarried about 10 miles away but the city was short of funds and decided to use red clay bricks (the soil in the city is clay and many of the buildings are made of clay bricks). Ships were not coming as far up river and were docking at Hull instead. Leeds has less powerful guilds and business left for that city instead of facing the strong guilds that controlled competition. The city wanted to add a new tower, but couldn't afford to pay the mason's guild, so they paid the tiler's to build it instead. This led to high tensions and one tiler being murdered by a mason. The Victorians built up the land around it, so it looks shorter than it once was when it sat on the Kings pond edge.
This is about half way round from my starting point near York Minster. You can just see the bell towers and central tower in the distance.
Fishergate Bar - Cart entrance. It once had a tower, but was badly damaged in an attack in 1489 and was left bricked up for 340 years. Some of the stones were reddish. The audio guide noted that magnesian limestone can redden from extreme heat, so this is likely from when the gate was burned in 1489.
The mason's mark is on this stone. The three lines like a W or a downward arrow. These are about 600 years old. I wondered about why these were not vandalized, probably because someone would have to know what they were looking at.
One of the turns in the wall, looking both directions.
Clifford's Tower. This is a man made hill that dates to 1068 and William the Conquerer. He put 500 soldiers in it to keep York conquered. 150 Jews living in the city died by suicide in the 12th century when a mob threatened to torture and kill them. The front part of the tower where the entrance is was an addition built in 1640.
Return across the River Ouse. The bridge in the distance was the first one that I crossed when starting the walk. The river was tidal until 1757 when the Naburn lock was built (one of the earliest efforts at canal engineering). The sea and the port of Hull are 50 miles downstream! As ships got bigger, they did not make it this far up river.
Tower at Baile Hill.
Image showing Cliffords tower (top right) and Baile Hill (middle left) with the river Ouse running between them.
Micklegate Bar was the principal gate to the city and the main road south. Traditionally monarchs were greeted at this gate with a presentation of the city sword. Traitors heads were displayed here as well (in the arched niches on the sides).
Yorkminster wasn't visible from much of the wall, but I got about 3 photos from different angles as I circled fully around.
Side view of Micklesgate Bar
