Rievaulx Abbey

The last destination to be ticked off The List during our trip to North Yorkshire last September is Rievaulx Abbey.

I know I have already visited Rievaulx Abbey as a child, and it did seem a little familiar. Maybe it was memories of climbing over the maze of ruins and running round all the hiding places that came back to me.

Out of the three Abbeys we visited, this seems to have the most remaining, and the largest site. There was also a visitor centre detailing working lives of the monks of the abbey. This is also maintained by English Heritage (so the corporate membership we have really did pay off on this trip!) Rievaulx is a tiny village near Helmsley in North Yorkshire. Going down the tiny roads, which no doubt are treacherous in bad weather, led us to the first glimpses of the church within the abbey complex. The abbey dates back to 1130 and contains some of the oldest surviving buildings of the Cistercian movement (English Heritage). I understand from the information available that the abbey was a major architectural influence on the monastic church.

We could have easily spent a whole day around Rievaulx Abbey. We took a picnic and spent a good few hours there wandering through the archways, round the walls and along the paths. A good place to explore.

Kirkham Priory

Our trip to North Yorkshire allowed us to visit two other places on The List. The first was Kirkham Priory.

As previously detailed, the house teams at my primary school were named after local abbeys, and Kirkham was my team.

Kirkham Priory is the most familiar to me of the three on The List to visit, with it being on the banks of the River Derwent between Malton and York, and it comes into clear view from the train as it passes through. Having said that, again, it is one of those places that I don't actually recall visiting. I know I must have been there at some point, but if I did, I was probably at an age where I wasn't really paying much attention.

Kirkham Priory is maintained by English Heritage and I was interested to learn that the site was used in the time of Winston Churchill as a testing ground for D-Day operations. Who knew? Clearly not me!
Of the ruins themselves, the most striking and famous is the gatehouse with its intricate carvings. I didn't actually get a decent photo of this though! As the photos show on the English Heritage website, much of the remains are almost like a floor plan, but the size of the priory is still obvious.

The site is open and peaceful, even the passing trains do not interrupt the tranquility. If you are in the area, do visit for a lovely break away from the bustle of York.

Clifford's Tower

Clifford's Tower. Not a great picture. I refer you to English Heritage to provide excellent photos and comprehensive information about this unique historical site!

This is one of two things ticked off The List on our recent trip to York. For years I've been aware of the tower on the hill in the city centre of York. I've parked near it many times, used it as a point of reference, and at school learnt that this is an excellent example of a motte and bailey. But until last month, I had never been inside.
With the recent discovery of our English Heritage membership, it seemed impolite not to pay a visit while we were walking the Bar Walls.

Admittedly we only paid a fleeting visit. We climbed the hill (steeper than we thought), and then climbed up once again inside. There is a walkway around the top of the tower allowing fabulous views across the city.

Once again, this was a little more scary than I'd hoped. I don't seem to get on too well with heights anymore it seems. So my walk around the top was rather quick while holding on to all the railings available. I only managed a few photos too as I really did want to get back down.

Phew. Back at the bottom.

I won't re-write the information from the guidebook or the English Heritage website, but I was interested to learn that it was the site of the mass suicide and massacre of York’s Jewish community in 1190 and the tower as we see it today was not the original structure on the site. I somehow thought that Clifford's Tower had always been there. Shows what I know! One thing I do know is that it was smaller than I remember and imagined it to be. Then again, I was smaller when I was at school, but it did kind of have an inverted tardis feel (geek!) It always seems to look massive from the car park!

This is another case of acting like a tourist in your own town. Clifford's Tower is a landmark in York, but until now, one that I knew very little about.

York Bar Walls

A few weeks ago we went to stay with my Mum over in North Yorkshire.

We took the opportunity while it was available to have a day out in York ticking a couple of things off The List which, we would not be able to do with a small child. To be fair, we probably could, but stress levels would be so high it would be untrue!

We arrived in York via the Park and Ride and took a quick walk to the Museum Gardens. This was to be the beginning of our walk round the walls. There is no actual start point of the walls since they circle the city. The "City Walls Trail" follows the path of the walls, with much of the trail being on the walls themselves.
The Friends of York Walls website provides lots of information on the trail, history, events and detail about each section of the walls.
I won't start re-writing all the information we found on the trip, or the detailed info on the above website, but I have to say I was rather impressed (geek!) that there were QR codes on each information point!

The route did take around 2 hours as all the information suggests, but we did take a stop-off at Clifford's Tower. Some of the walls were a bit scary. For me anyway. And just showed that I would not have been able to cope with steering a 3-year-old round there too. Some of the walls were a little too high from the ground to have no barriers, and too narrow when people were coming the other way! Even typing about it now makes me feel a bit uneasy.
The route was marked out with little brass circles, which was very handy for the areas where there were no walls, particularly between Monk Bar and Walmgate Bar.

Along the walls there are several points which offer views of the Minster, and I seem to remember hearing that there are planning laws within the city that prevents high rise developments from overshadowing the spectacle that is the Minster - don't quote me on that - I may have dreamed it, but it seems that you can see the Minster from all over York.
We passed over/around/through the four main bars, or gatehouses. I learned  that there is another that I hadn't really known about before: Fishergate bar. And I also found out what a barbican actually is, and it is not a concert or snooker venue!

Bootham Bar

Monk Bar

Walmgate Bar

Micklegate Bar

Fishergate Bar

At the time we visited there was work happening at Walmgate Bar. After reading local news items about this, we found out that the rear extension was being raised to carry out essential work to prevent risk of collapse. The pictures shown in the York Press were rather worrying, but good to see that such a landmark is in the capable hands of experts.

I went to school in York, so York is familiar to me, but even then there were a couple of areas where the walls were which I was not familiar with. This just strengthens the whole idea behind a few of the things on The List. How often is it that we take the time to notice the history and points of interest in our own locality? I was lucky to go to school in somewhere like York which has all the history right in front of your eyes, but how many times do we walk past something like a brass circle on the floor, or a blue plaque telling us the historical importance of a building somewhere in our neighbourhood or near our workplace?  Perhaps we actually do take the time to notice and take part in local cultural or celebratory events, but we should really take more time to act like a tourist in our own towns, and to see the history and importance of places we take for granted.

Byland Abbey

This weekend allowed me to tick off another from The List of things to do before I am 40, but it is also linked to two other items on there.

Byland Abbey is a few miles away from the town of Helmsley in North Yorkshire, near the village of Wass. Despite growing up in the area, I had never visited Byland Abbey until this weekend. I had driven (and been driven) past it, but had little idea of what was there apart from the ruins of the church and it's impressive rose window. The Abbey, along with others in North Yorkshire, is under the care of English Heritage so we took the opportunity to try out the corporate membership and get in for free.

The whole site at Byland Abbey is impressive and very well preserved. There are still parts of the tiled floor of the church intact. However, since much of North Yorkshire still had snow this weekend, the tiles were covered to protect them from further frost damage. There was so much more to see than just the entrance to the church which can be seen from the roadside. According to the guide book, the earliest parts of the abbey date from 1155 with additions in the 13th, 14th and 15th century. Far more detail regarding the dates and sections of the buildings is included in the guide book - I won't copy it all out here! The Abbey is thought to be one of the greatest monasteries in England (English Heritage) and its design has influenced other churches in the region. From the guidebook I have learned that the rose window at York Minster was inspired by the design at Byland Abbey.

The reason why a visit to Byland Abbey was on The List is because Byland was the name of one of the house teams at my primary school. The other house teams at St Mary's RC School in Malton were Rievaulx and Kirkham. Rievaulx is another notable Abbey in the area, and Kirkham Priory is also local to Malton. I am pretty sure that as a child I visited Rievaulx and Kirkham, but I really don't have any recollection of either, so I have made it my mission to visit all 3.

The concept of house teams seems to be a little "Harry Potter" to some, but life at primary school wouldn't have been the same without it. Yes, like Slytherin and Gryffindor etc, each team had its own colours, and we did get points awarded for good work or performance. But it also meant that on sports day and other events, you were no longer just cheering on your best friend, but other children who were wearing your team colour. On sports day there were team events organised in the house teams that included children from reception to Year 6 (as it is now - 4th year if you ask me!) so everyone was involved. The school was really small when I was there - around 60 pupils, so everyone knew everyone else, and everyone knew which team you were in. I was in Kirkham, and both my brothers were in the other teams. I am delighted to find out that St Mary's has now expanded but is still quite small, and still retains the teams of Kirkham, Byland and Rievaulx. I wonder how many team members visit the abbeys and priory that their teams are named after - perhaps more to the point, how many would remember being there, and actually appreciate them for what they are. Perhaps all St Mary's children should visit like I am doing, before they're 40.