Today’s photo shows a point in Museum Gardens, York at the west end of the standing ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey church.
Firstly an apology. The Multangular Tower mentioned yesterday was not built as pat of the perimeter wall of St Mary’s Benedictine Abbey but is in fact the largest standing remnant of the Roman fortress at York which encompassed part of what later became the Abbey precinct, all of what became the Minster and its immediate environment and part of the medieval town walls. The area behind the Municipal Library is a place to see the inside of the Multangular Tower and other sections of mortared infill walls of various eras.
Passing from Exhibition Square through Bootham Bar (a gateway in the medieval town walls) I (s.p.b.) walked down Precentor’s Court to get a fine view of the west end of the Minster from a quiet backstreet. On to the Dean’s Park on the north side of the Minster and overlooked by the town wall top public footpath. Again a fine green space well managed. On past the Treasurer’s House to College Green with its terrace of jettied buildings, another well managed semi-green area overarched by the great east window of the Minster.
I am promised a book about the history of the Museum Gardens (s.p.b.) and its horticultural highs and lows over the years.