Yesterday I took advantage of the current spell of high pressure weather to take a bus trip to York on the X46 service, amazingly it’s a half hourly service and a double decker so good views of the southern Yorkshire Wolds on the way. However it’s a long journey as the bus diverts through Beverley, Market Weighton and Pocklington to drop off and pick up passengers. Also with a bus pass it doesn’t cost a penny! When going to a place like York I find that it’s best to have a single objective otherwise you waste time wandering about the old, mostly shopping, streets. Having ‘done’ Museum Gardens and the site of St. Mary’s Abbey earlier in the year and Rowntree Park and the River Ouse promenade last year my plan this time was to walk the medieval town walls full circuit starting at Bootham Bar near to the King’s Manor, the Yorkshire Museum and Museum Gardens.
The ‘Bars’ are stone-built archways under which the medieval town could be entered/left if the gates/portcullis were not down, the town walls linked one ‘Bar’ with the next. The town walls seen today date mostly from the mid 13th century and were built on top of a massive pre-existing rampart which probably dates from after the Norman Conquest of the late 11th century when William 1st had a motte and bailey castle built of which the motte remains and now called Clifford’s Tower. This castle site stands just above the confluence of the River Foss and the Rive Ouse thus commanding access to the town from the River Ouse (this River and the River Trent form the head of the Humber Estuary further south-east). Near this point the River Ouse is crossed by the Skeldersgate road bridge initially built in the early 19th century. On the other side of the River Ouse is another mound which was the motte for another Norman castle and now called Baille Hill.
At a couple of points the medieval town walls coincide with parts of the Roman legionary fortress walls, these predating the medieval walls by over a millennia. A well recorded section of the Roman Wall is sited just south of the Yorkshire Museum where the Multangular tower, the Anglian Tower and their connecting wall survive. Unlike the Medieval walls the Roman walls were all on the east bank of the River Ouse.
The walkway accessing the top of the medieval walls is relatively modern but their must always have been some forms of access as the castellation allowed archers to fire on assailants.
Starting at Bootham Bar the walkway climbs up to the Robin Hood Tower which is a bulge in the wall rather than a ‘bar’, this running parallel to and above the street Gillygate. As in so many historic towns the word ‘gate’ in a street name denotes an early Viking origin and not to be confused with ‘bars’ which were gates.
To be continued.