We were to take a walking tour in York yesterday afternoon but as we were driving into York we were driving through driving rain so our tour director chose to defer the York walk to this morning. As it turned out, it was raining lightly again this morning but not enough to interfere with a walk to the cathedral in York.
This is “The Shambles” in York. It is the the street where the butchers would have had their the shops in medieval times. If you look at the signs, meat can still be bought here today. This is interesting because the street is not only narrow but as the houses get taller they also get closer together.
Today when the price of oil goes up it affects the economy. In medieval times when the price of barley and other grains went up it affected the economy. There was a Barley Hall in York, one of the venues that established the price of barley in the 16 and 17th centuries.
The Cathedral at York is having some renovation work done. It is going slowly because there aren’t as many master stone masons around as there were 500 years ago.
The last stop today and on the Scenic England tour was at Cambridge. One of the iconic images of the college 100 years ago or so is of a student poling his girl in a punt down the Cam River. It was good to see that not much has changed except the clothing and that the girl now assists in maneuvering the punt…
Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment