[2020]
York
10:00 Taxi
Hilton York, check in
14:00 York Minster
… Shortly after Janet got up at ca.8am, I also got out of bed. Shaved, then packed my
rucksack… I was on hand to help strap up the case and to take it downstairs. The day was sunny but very windy. It was Graham Buston who arrived at 10 o’clock in the grey minibus-type van. We went along the noisy-surfaced A180, then turned right along the A15 and over the Humber Bridge. I expected that we’d then proceed westwards and north-westwards, but we didn’t; we went eastwards to the far side of Hull, before turning northwards along the A1033. It was there, still within the city, that Graham’s traffic-avoiding plan went awry: we found ourselves in slow-moving traffic queues. Then we turned left and went along the A1079, which took us through Bishop Burton — a location I’d heard of through the
Jobcentre because of the agricultural college that’s there, and the gate of which we passed.…
It wasn’t very long after 12 o’clock when we arrived (“12.15pm,” according to
Janet’s journal), despite the delay. We checked in and paid up. Janet asked whether the room had a walk-in shower; it hadn’t, it had a shower over the bathtub; so the receptionist offered us alternative “accessible” accommodation, with the bathroom being a “wet-room”. She told us several things at some considerable length that I couldn’t hear because of her foreign accent, the muffling effect of her face-mask, and the voice of the customer to my right. I hoped that
Janet was getting more of it than I was. Not much more, it turned out! We agreed things such as breakfast and dinner times: breakfast at 8am tomorrow, 9am other days; dinner at
6.30pm.… We got into our first-floor room ca.12.30pm. The corner where the safe was, was almost impossibly dark to see the numbers on the safe’s keypad; a light over the bathroom door wasn’t working. Anyway, with the help of a little flashlight of
Janet’s, I got our “valuables” locked away.
We left, ca.1pm, in search of some lunch. I suggested that we look for somewhere near the Minster, rather than have lunch nearby then have to find our way there, uncertain of how long it would take us. So leaving the hotel and turning right, we turned right again into Clifford Street, turned right along Coppergate and its continuation, Pavement, left along the Shambles…, and continued ahead through King’s Square into Low Petergate. We couldn’t have got any closer to the Minster for lunch: we went
Bennett’s Café and Bistro on the corner of High Petergate and the Minster Yard, which
Janet remembered seeing on our previous visit. We waited at the door, and were seen and shown almost straight away to a free table within. I had a sausage ciabatta sandwich with brown sauce, and two cups of black coffee; and
Janet, not seeing anything suitable on the menu, asked for and got slices of granary bread and a plain mixed salad, and two
Diet Coke.
Janet could hardly keep on her feet at 2pm in the gale-force wind blowing while we queued for entry to the Minster. Fortunately it only started raining just before we got in.
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:12:24
York Minster: altar at the west end of the nave
Cf. Sunday 22 September
2019, 12:59:56, when the altar was at the east end of the nave
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:13:42
York Minster: west end of the ceiling of the nave
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:14:18
York Minster: nave, looking east, with pulpit (left), cathedra (centre) and lectern (right)
This time I identified the “canopied feature between the south aisle and nave”
(Sunday 22 September
2019, 12:52:40) as “The Chapel of St. Cuthbert”.
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:18:56
York Minster: “The Chapel of St. Cuthbert”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:16:16
York Minster: Chapel of St. Cuthbert
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:17:46
York Minster: Chapel of St. Cuthbert, canopy ceiling
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:17:46 (rotated)
York Minster: Chapel of St. Cuthbert, canopy ceiling
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:20:42
York Minster: north arcade and clerestory
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:21:34
York Minster: south aisle, looking east
Many years ago, we were amused by a stained-glass window which claimed for itself that it had been “indifferently restored”; and since then, we’d been unable to find it again. We thought it had been in Lincoln Cathedral, but despite having the notion that it was near the south-west corner we had been unable to find it. No wonder:
Janet discovered that it was here!
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:24:34
York Minster: one of the windows of the south aisle, near the Chapel of St. Cuthbert
- THIS WINDOW c1310 WAS INDIFFERENTLY RESTORED 1789
& BROUGHT BACK AS FAR AS POSSIBLE TO ITS FIRST STATE *1950*
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:26:12
I had a closer look at the pulpit than I did last time
(Sunday 22 September
2019, 12:57:22). The text on five sides of the hexagonal canopy has “We preach” (“Predicamus”) twice: at both the beginning and the end of the sentence! The spelling of
“Jesus” (Latin, accusative, “Iesum”) on the front side was strange: “IHESVM”; and I wondered whether it was meant to resemble the trigram “IHS” (the first three letters of “ΙΗΣΥΣ”).
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:29:32
York Minster: pulpit
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:29:58
York Minster: pulpit:
PREDICAMVS CHRISTVM IHESVM CRVCIFIXVM PREDICAMVS
WE PREACH CHRIST JESUS CRUCIFIED WE PREACH
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:30:12
York Minster: pulpit:
PREDICAMVS CHRISTVM IHESVM CRVCIFIXVM PREDICAMVS
WE PREACH CHRIST JESUS CRUCIFIED WE PREACH
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:30:32
York Minster: pulpit:
PREDICAMVS CHRISTVM IHESVM CRVCIFIXVM PREDICAMVS
WE PREACH CHRIST JESUS CRUCIFIED WE PREACH
On our previous visit, entry to the Chapter House would have cost extra, so we didn’t go in; but this time it was open and accessible. Maybe that’s why I didn’t spot the Astronomical Clock memorial to fallen airmen in the north transept then, just before the entrance to the Chapter House.
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:33:10
York Minster: Astronomical Clock memorial to fallen airmen of World War II in the north transept
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:33:18
York Minster: Astronomical Clock memorial to fallen airmen of World War II in the north transept
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:33:34
York Minster: entrance of the passage to the Chapter House
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:34:52
York Minster: heading north along the passage to the Chapter House
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:35:48
York Minster: continuation of the passage eastwards to the Chapter House
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:36:44
York Minster: Chapter House
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:37:20
York Minster: Chapter House
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:37:20 (detail)
York Minster: Chapter House
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:38:22
York Minster: Chapter House
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:38:32
York Minster: Chapter House
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:40:22
York Minster: “Model of the Chapter House Roof”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:41:04
York Minster: model of the Chapter House roof
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:42:44
York Minster: northern choir aisle
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:43:38
York Minster: about to enter “The Quire”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:44:48
York Minster: in “The Quire”, looking west
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:45:02
York Minster: in “The Quire”, looking west
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:45:42
York Minster: in “The Quire”, looking east
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:45:52
York Minster: in “The Quire”, looking east
In the crypt, there was no access this time to the
westward extension containing the sarcophagus of St. William and the remains of the old Norman pillars
(cf. Sunday 22 September
2019, 13:47:42 et seq. and 15:00:22 et seq.)
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:46:48
York Minster: “The Crypt”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:47:16
York Minster: the crypt
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:48:04
York Minster: the crypt
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:50:10
York Minster: the crypt: “The Font”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:49:20
York Minster: the crypt: the font
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:53:22
York Minster: the crypt: cover of the font
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:53:30
York Minster: the crypt: cover of the font
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:50:58
York Minster: the crypt
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:52:52
York Minster: the crypt: “The Doomstone”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:51:36
York Minster: the crypt: “The Doomstone”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:51:50
York Minster: the crypt: “The Doomstone”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:55:52
York Minster: chapel in the north-east corner, with, atop the gate, the crossed keys of St. Peter the church’s dedicatee
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:56:16
York Minster: “The Great East Window”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:56:52
York Minster: “The Great East Window”
Last year’s photo was better (next two images)
Sunday 22 September
2019, 13:54:04
York Minster: “The Great East Window”
Sunday 22 September
2019, 13:54:04 (edited)
York Minster: “The Great East Window”
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:57:28
York Minster: east end
Friday 21 August 2020, 14:59:10
York Minster: chapel in the south-east corner
Friday 21 August 2020, 15:16:20
York Minster: “Old Testament Panels in the Great East Window of York Minster”
Friday 21 August 2020, 15:24:24
York Minster: south transept
We’d been hoping to visit the Roman remains in the undercroft, but the entrance in the south transept was barred. Similarly, I’d have been unable to go up the central tower from there if I’d wanted to.
There was a “one-way” system in operation, but Janet wanted to show me a picture she’d noticed, showing the history of the Minster; so we asked one of the attendants, who lowered a rope barrier for us to go back to the nave. The first thing that I noticed there, though, was a canopied seat. (Last year
(Sunday 22 September
2019, 12:59:56) the altar, which today was at the west end, had been there.) It reminded me of the canopy in Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg, where the Tsar would stand
(Wednesday 12 September
2012, 14:13:04);—
— so I figured that it was as important an artefact as that, perhaps even the “cathedra” that made York Minster a
“cathedral”.[i]
- [i] While writing this up on 26 August 2020, an internet search proved me to be correct.
Friday 21 August 2020, 15:28:26
York Minster: the bishop’s seat (cathedra) — “[Non vos me elegistis,] sed ego elegi
vos…” (John 15:16).
Friday 21 August 2020, 15:29:50
“York Minster AD 627–to-day”
Friday 21 August 2020, 15:30:50
Friday 21 August 2020, 15:30:58
Friday 21 August 2020, 15:31:08
The exit led us through the Minster gift shop. Janet bought a couple of items for
her friend Janice, including a coaster with her name on it; and we bought a fairly large teddy bear, whom I decided to name
“Yorick”. Jasper the bad golly straight away told Eborius, whom we bought as a souvenir last year, that we’d bought the new one because we thought Eborius was “rubbish” and that this one was “gooder”. (The first thing that Yorick did when he got home was to become best pals with Eborius.)
Wednesday 26 August 2020, 14:52:30
Yorick from the York Minster shop, back at home with Eborius, also previously from the York Minster shop
I saw two versions of the Bible, but at nearly £60 for both of them, I didn’t buy them.
 
We’d had in mind to walk around on the walls, but it was still too windy for that; so we went to
Ye Olde Starre Inne for a drink. We had to wait at the door for a table to be found.
Friday 21 August 2020, 16:09:32
Refreshments at “Ye Olde Starre Inne”
I had my “fall-back” premium lager (i.e. when “probably the best lager in the world”
San Miguel isn’t available), namely Stella Artois. Then I heard a customer say to another, “Old Peculier is back on”; and looking very carefully, I spotted the pump dispensing it, mostly hidden behind one of the posts sticking up out of the bar. After that we made our way back to the hotel (“5.30pm”, according to
Janet’s journal). While Janet unpacked the case, I got connected to the free hotel Wi-Fi (17:58).
The slip of paper provided with the key-card wallet said that a log-in screen would appear automatically; but it didn’t — not on either computer. Reportedly, I was connected, but when I tried to call up a page it “could not be found”. The only way around this, seemingly, was to attempt to call up
Blogger; doing that did produce the log-on page (17:59).…
At 6.30pm we went down for dinner. I chose red pepper and tomato soup with a little pesto and balsamic drizzled into it, and two pieces of tomato focaccia, followed by a pepperoni pizza, and I had a large glass of indifferently flavoured Merlot. (I quite liked the soup, and had it the remaining evenings. The pizza was a bit too filling, for I’m unable to leave food uneaten except at direst fullness).
Janet was able to get them to tweak the menu items so she could have plain salad without dressing, grilled chicken breast with no added oil, and plain boiled basmati rice; and to follow, a fresh fruit salad. She had two
Diet Coke, and at the end I had a black americano coffee.
Back in the room, the shower controls presented Janet with no problem. I transferred 55 photos from the camera’s
SD card to the WD Elements HDD (20:37–20:39). Opened them one by one in
Windows Photo Viewer, and rotated 19 that needed it (20:40–20:44).…
Looked up the name “Yorick” (21:57). I thought it sound a bit like “York”, but the only context it appears is in the Shakespeare play
Hamlet. We were both in bed a little before 10.30pm. There was some noisy riff-raff staying at this hotel, who from time to time till well after this time came along the corridor talking to each other most inconsiderately in unrestrained, loud voices. Some of these had equally loud or louder children with them.
At 1.20am, I was woken up by loud female voices in animated conversation with laughter and screams. I thought at first they were in the next room behind us, but then got the impression that they were outside the hotel, perhaps in the building opposite, across a narrow alley.
[Saturday 22 August 2020]
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