Tag Archives: York Minster

The Tree and Ornaments

Our tree is an artificial tree that we purchased from Costco this year.

 

This Disney ornament was our first as a couple. It was a wedding shower gift in 1974, the year we were married.

These older ornaments have been around since the 80’s and beyond.

The walnut half with a baby was a Sunday School craft made by one of our kids but I’m unsure which one.

The two Beatrix Potter ornaments and the others are from England except for the birds.

The Stag was from Addy and the Christmas tree was painted by JJ. The handprint is Addy’s.

This one is from Addy, too.

I’ll share the rest of our decor on another day this week.

Our Children’s Christmas Play at church this year was so well done and it was a delight to watch it. I’ll share some photos later this week.

Not For Granted Hodgepodge

Speaking of gratitude, thank you Jo From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. Are you too hard on yourself or not hard enough? Elaborate. 

It really depends on where I failed. If I hurt someone else I’ll be harder on myself. I can really give myself a lot of slack in other areas.

2. What’s the role of gratitude in your life? 

Gratitude plays a central role in my life. Everything I have comes from the goodness of God and the more I’m conscious of that, the more grateful and content I am. God is holy, I am not. Peace with God comes from belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sin. Turning from that sin and believing in Jesus leads to the forgiveness I need and a lot of peace and generosity in my life. I am grateful for Jesus Christ who is my greatest treasure.

3. Where do you get your news these days? How much attention are you giving it currently? 

We’ve gravitated away from watching daily news. We’ll get some news on the internet. We don’t listen to the major networks. We might tune into Newsmax or Fox News when something major happens but not day to day. Generally it seems we get a little news with lots and lots of opinions. We get family news via texts unless it is something major and deserves a phone call. I have a What’s App group that I get daily friendship news from, too. Keeping up with bloggers and what is going on in their lives through their posts is another kind of news gathering I appreciate.

4. Do you like potatoes? Last time you prepared potatoes in some way? Which of the following is your favorite…baked potato, mashed potato, french fried potato, sweet potato, hash brown potatoes, roasted potatoes, or potato salad? 

I like potatoes in all these ways. The last potatoes we had were diced new potatoes in homemade chicken pot pie.

5. Are you a veteran? Are there any veterans in your family? Will you do anything special to honor them on Veteran’s Day/Remembrance Day this year? 

Our son-in-law Andrew is a Veteran and the only one in our little family. Greg’s father served in WWII but he was called up to heaven in 1985. We will give Andrew a shout out and thank him on Veteran’s day but we won’t be seeing him in person until Thanksgiving. Thank you for your service in the Marines, Andrew. We love and appreciate you and are grateful for all you have done for our country. We are sorry for all the aches and pains you continue to endure because of that service.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I’m always impressed with how the United Kingdom honors their veterans and all they do for Remembrance Day. We’ve seen tributes in many if not all of the towns and villages we’ve visited in the United Kingdom.

Speaking of remembering, November 5th marked the one year anniversary of Greg’s stroke. We are so grateful to God that Greg is alive and well and that we could celebrate the anniversary with him on this earth. Grateful for all the days God gives us.

Day Five ~ York Minster

Tuesday the 19th of September was our 5th travel day and this was our only full day in York. Our plan was to buy tickets and tour York Minster and then to attend Evensong at the Minster at 5:30. We decided it would be good to make some reservations for dinner, too.

But first…a hardy breakfast to start our day. The hotel reservations we made at The Judges Lodging included breakfast which was served in the Cellar.

For our nonstop activity breakfast included with our lodging served us well.

This day was a blustery day. We stood in line outside the main entrance to the cathedral just before it opened to buy our tickets. We found out that once purchased that ticket would be good for a year if you wanted to re-visit.

York’s cathedral church is one of the finest medieval buildings in Europe.  The Minster is also known as St Peter’s, its full name being the ‘Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York’.  In the past the church sat within its own walled precinct, known as the Liberty of St Peter.

This statue of Queen Elizabeth is a new addition in a niche at the front of York Minster. The full story and progress of the creation of the statue was on display inside the Cathedral.

King Charles III unveiled a new statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II on November 9th, 2022. It is installed in a niche on York Minster cathedral in York, England. 

The work was planned five years ago and had originally been intended to celebrate the queen’s platinum jubilee. It was finished in August, a month before she died. 

The majestic statue by Richard Bossons, 52, shows the queen in her robes of the Order of the Garter and has been installed above the West Front entrance of the 850-year-old building. It stands seven feet tall and weighs 1.1 tons.

We couldn’t get over the size of her hands.

The Rose Window.

The nave of York Minster is the widest in Europe, and one of the highest, and this impression of height is enhanced by the large expanse of stained glass which allows light into the interior of the structure. The nave was built from 1220, replacing an older structure, and is primarily Early English.

The Quire (Choir) of York Minster is a delight to the eye. The Quire Screen is one of the most intricately carved in all the UK, with depictions of famous churchmen set within niches facing the nave. Before passing through the Screen, look up, where the huge organ is poised above the screen. Recently refurbished, it boasts an astonishing 5,300 individual pipes.

The Quire was where we would enjoy Evensong. We sat in these seats.

The Five Sisters or the ‘The Jewish Window’

I found the following information here and there is a more comprehensive post about this window and other history.

The ‘Five Sisters’ window in the north transept of York Minster was reputedly paid for by a loan from the Jews of York. This five-light window is executed in abstract grisaille work The 13th century window is filled with grisaille glass – from the French for ‘greyness’ – or finely painted clear glass that is set into geometric designs with jewel-like points of coloured glass making the pattern.

It is said the creation of the window was funded in part by York’s Jewish community, notably the wealthy Aaron of York, leading to the windows being called ‘the Jewish window.’

 

At the entrance to the Chapter House…

The ribbed wooden roof is truly a masterpiece of medieval architecture, with colourfully painted panels and a profusion of gilded bosses . Unlike other chapter houses, such as that of Wells Cathedral, there is no central column to support the roof vaulting; the ceiling is “free-standing” if you will, seeming almost to hang in space.

One of the ‘Minster Guides’ told us of a little chapel that we could go into through a door she pointed out to us.

Off the south aisle of the choir in York Minster is an old wooden door.  It leads down steps into the Zouche Chapel, a quiet place reserved for private prayer.  The chapel itself is small and very peaceful. The windows in the chapel contain a number of fragments of stained glass that have been recovered from other parts of the Minster.

I found these details in the chapel interesting. The cathedral was named St. Peters.

Josh and Laura climbed to the roof of the Cathedral and were belted by winds but enjoyed these amazing views of York and the Minster.

We also made it down the stairs to the Crypt.

 

This photo of the Peacemaker is for you, Laura. There is so much to the history in and outside of this amazing cathedral. It would take many visits to take it all in. A good history and description of many of the details can be found here.

We decided to try The Hole in the Wall for lunch and were happy to be able to get a nice table to dine at.

We had some time before Evensong at 5:30 so we bought tickets for the Hop on Hop off bus and enjoyed a tour of York from the top of the bus. We had to move inside when we got some rain.

For Evensong we entered the ‘minster’ at these doors. After Evensong we strolled over to the The Fat Badger for our dinner reservations,

Another full day of sightseeing. The bells of the cathedral were ringing after dinner so Josh and Laura enjoyed an evening walk taking in the beautiful sounds coming from the bell tower. They could even see the bell ringers in the tower. Greg and I opted to go back to our lodgings and put our feet up.

I just found this paragraph about the bell ringing on a post by Rick Steves. How serendipitous for Laura and Josh’s enjoyment on Tuesday evening. Another smile from our God.

If you’re a fan of church bells, you can experience ding-dong ecstasy Sunday morning at about 10:00 and during the Tuesday practice session between 19:00 and 22:00. (7pm-10pm) These performances are especially impressive, as the church holds a full carillon of 35 bells (it’s the only English cathedral to have such a range). How big of a deal are the bells? When the church let go of its bell-ringing staff after some internal disagreements in 2016, it was national news.

This was a long post and trust me it could have been even longer with more photos!

Day Four-Part 3~The Shambles

Continuing on our travel journal we are still on Day Four, our first day in York. Again we packed in a lot on this day. Walking from the section of the city walls that we completed we found ourselves at the Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate that led us through the alleyway to The Shambles.

1-1/2 is a fun address to have.

By the time we got to The Shambles all the shops were closed and that meant fewer people. I’ll share this excerpt from the British Express;

The Shambles is often called Europe’s best-preserved medieval street, although the name is also used to collectively refer to the surrounding maze of narrow, twisting lanes and alleys as well. The street itself is mentioned in the Domesday Book, so we know that it has been in continuous existence for over 900 years.

There is some debate on whether Rowling was inspired by The Shambles for Diagon Alley but stores are taking advantage of the popularity of the series with store fronts and merchandise for Harry Potter fans.

The name “Shambles” comes from the Saxon “Fleshammels”, which means, “the street of the butchers”, for it was here that York’s butchers had their shops. Notice the wide window sills of the houses; the meat for sale was displayed here. Several former butcher shops still have hooks where meat was hung.

We were happy to have seen the Shambles without it being overcrowded as in the photo below that I took from the hop on hop off bus on Tuesday afternoon.

From the Shambles we continued on along streets heading to the Cathedral and wondering where our next meal would be.

We spotted the cathedral off of High Petergate at the end of Minster Gate.

Adding to the history of York is the fact that Constantine the Great was proclaimed Roman Emperor here in 300

We tried a couple places along High Petergate to see if there was room for us for dinner to no avail so we went back to our hotel and regrouped at the House of Trembling Madness where we found a room to occupy and enjoy some food.

We were in the room you can peek into from the upper left window.

Our savory palette was satisfied and we finished off the evening at the Cellar in our hotel for a sweet and a toast to Laura’s grandmother, Wilma.

That was the end of our very full fourth day of travel and first day in York. Tuesday the plan was to tour the inside of York Minster and to attend Evensong there, also.

 

Day Four, Part 2 ~ York’s City Walls

After our lovely tea time at Betty’s on Monday September 18th we walked to Bootham Bar to head up the stairs to the City Walls. York still has most of the walls that surrounded the city 700 years ago. We walked from Bootham just past Monk Bar and descended down onto Peasholme Green to St. Saviours Place to St. Saviours Gate and finally to Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma to go into The Shambles.

Bootham Bar

We only ran into a few other people on the walls and that was nice. We again were thankful that the weather was wonderful for this evening walk.

 

 

 

Approaching Monk Bar…

 

We descended these stairs to get to the street level to get a better view of Monk Bar, below.

Monk Bar is the largest and most ornate of the bars, it dates from the early 14th century. It was a self-contained fortress, with each floor capable of being defended.

We then ascended the walls again and continued on to their end on to the east corner and as far on the walls that we would go on this evening.

This eastern section of the walls had this plaque on the walkway. The place where medieval Jews buried their dead in York has long been called Jewbury. There was a thriving Jewish community here in the 13th century. The history of the treatment of Jews in York is a tragic one. I found this article about some of the tragic treatment of the Jews.

In the Middle Ages, a massacre of the Jewish population took place at Clifford’s Tower, pictured above. Clifford’s Tower is in the Southern section of the city center.

We had our first views of York Minster from the walls and later in this evening we saw it up close.

On Tuesday we did a hop on hop off tour and saw the wall from a different perspective.

 

Walmgate Bar.

 

Micklegate Bar was historically the main entrance to the city for anyone arriving from the south, and particularly, the gate through which visiting Royals would pass.

There is so much history in York and it’s hard to capture it all in one visit. We just touched the surface while we were there.

ABC’s of the Word ~ Quickly

Matthew 28: 5-8 ~ The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you. So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell the disciples.

For more ABC’s of the word with the letter Q visit Pam at Grey like Snuffie…

This photo was taken in York Minster Cathedral, York, England in April of 2004…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!

Love Constrained to Obedience ~ Hymn

Love constrained to Obedience

No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright:
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toll’d the precept to obey,
But toil’d without success.

Then, to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do;
Now, if I feel its power within,
I feel I hate it too.

Then all my servile works were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His ways.

“What shall I do,” was then the word,
“That I may worthier grow?”
“What shall I render to the Lord?”
Is my inquiry now.

To see the law by Christ fulfilled
And hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.

~ William Cowper