The Cold War Comes to York

On Sunday, Kevin and I decided to spend the morning visiting another English Heritage attraction quite different from the normal castle and crumbling ruin. A short distance outside the city center sits the York Cold War Bunker. Part of a collection of 29 bunkers built in 1961, it was designed to hold a crew of 60 Royal Observer Corps volunteers who, in the event of a nuclear attack on the United Kingdom, would gather data and coordinate with the other posts to determine the bombs location and predicted radiation fallout in order to warn the public. It remained in commission until 1991.

Along with the 29 bunkers were a huge number of “listening posts” dug into the ground throughout the country that would have been manned by a crew of three volunteers, also part of the ROC. The posts would communicate with other posts and with the listening station by telephone and radio. While this all seems a bit dramatic to an American, you have to remember that England was hit hard during World War II, so the threat of a bomb attack was still fresh in many people’s minds.

An example of the sheer devastation during WWII – St. Paul’s Cathedral in London

The Bunker is a guided tour, which was really quite informative as our guide was very knowledgeable and went through how the post actually worked from how they got information that a bomb had been dropped to how they triangulated its position, determined the expected radiation fall out and tracked the actual falling radiation. Luckily, the Bunker never had to be put to full use but full scale drills were completed by the crew 4 times a year for the 30 years it was functioning.

My favorite part – the board where they mapped the radiation fallout on the left and the ever changing predicted fallout on the right. Looks like it came straight out of a movie.

In all, the York Cold War Bunker should be a definite stop on anyone’s tour of York. What started out as a free way to waste the morning before we drove back to Ulverston turned out to be one of our favorite things in York.

York – Where Old Meets New

When getting advice on what to do in York, the most common answer given was to walk the city walls, so Kevin and I decided to do just that. Originally built more than 1900 years ago by the Romans (seriously, what in England wasn’t originally built by them?), a good portion of the walls has been kept and maintained throughout the centuries. In fact, they are considered to be the most intact medieval city walls in the country.

Once surrounding the entire city, the remaining portions are indicated by the bold black lines

While on the way out to the start of our wall walk, I immediately became distracted by crumbling old buildings and taking pictures as Kevin will tell you is a common occurrence with me. Also, a cool fog had rolled in which made for some really good shots.

Distractions out of the way, we finally made it to the start of our York Wall Walk. When people talked about the walls in York, I guess I incorrectly assumed that the walls would be similar to the elusive Hadrian’s Wall that Kevin and I could not find in that there was very little actually left and that you merely walked along side the walls. However, I was mistaken. The walls in York stretch for almost 2 miles when you combine them , and you actually walk up along them, affording a spectacular view of the city.

One of the gates to the city

After we walked about half of the walkway, we stopped to visit a few museums – Clifford Tower, York Castle Museum and Jorvik Viking Center. As one of the benefits of our English Heritage Membership, we got in free at Clifford Tower – the only remaining part of the old York Castle that has a great view of the city skyline.

After Clifford’s Tower it was a short walk across the parking lot to York Castle Museum. The museum sits on the site of the former castle (hence the name) and houses a collection of items that represent York’s cultural history. It was different than the normal museum that focuses on archaeology or a castle, and made a great stop on the tour of York. The museum houses a great collection of furniture from the 1700’s to present day – arranged to depict key rooms in a York family’s home at different periods in time. There’s also an exhibit depicting aspects of York life in Victorian times from birth to death and my personal favorite – an exhibit about how women throughout history cleaned their houses. Definitely worth a visit should you make it to York.

Kevin tries his hand at being an Elizabethan soldier This causes Kevin to be thrown in the stockade

Next up on the tour de museums was the Jorvik Viking Center. Until recently, I didn’t realize how much of England the Vikings once controlled. Perhaps their biggest stronghold in England was York. During the period of 1979-1981, archaeologists uncovered the well preserved remains of a 10th century Viking village. The site was excavated and then turned into a below ground museum where the city of Jorvik has been recreated in 3D based upon the wooden remains of the buildings that were found. In addition, the artifacts recovered, including the World’s Largest piece of fossil poo (seriously) are displayed for visitors.

After we got our fill of museums for the day, we continued on our wall walk and wound up at York Minster. Like most things in this city, the Mister sits on the former site of a Norman Church and Roman fort. The beginnings of the Minster that we see today were built in the 13th century by the man that later built Westminster in London. It has been added to throughout the centuries until it became the building we see today.

Up Next – The Cold War hits York. See you tomorrow if I don’t die from Swine Flu first…

Old York By Night

All of us New Englanders can recognize that like the very label our group of states was given, many of our towns and cities also take their name from English towns. With the exception of a few towns in my area (Bozrah, and the the idiotically pronounced Versailles to name a few), a vast majority of the towns take their names from towns, cities and families in England (colchester, salem, ledyard, montville, and my favorite New London on the Thames). York, England spawned the great city of New York so I was interested to see the town that inspired one of the best known cities in America. Plus every British person I have talked to in my weeks here has told me I have to go there.

We set out Friday afternoon for our 2 hour drive into the county of Yorkshire and arrived at our Bed and Breakfast mid-afternoon after which we ate a quick lunch (goat cheese and emmembert pizza for me – YUM) and wandered around the city taking in the sites. I even managed to find an entire store dedicated to Pandora bracelets and my lovely husband bought me a nice wood bead to add to my bracelet. While Old York was (obviously) nothing like New York, the real difference came in the evening. Often described as the city that never sleeps, New York seems to get more crowded at night. Old York, on the other hand, turns into a ghost town.

Shambles – York’s most famous street due to the buildings that lean towards the center. Kevin tells me that the overhang on the top stories of the building was meant to shelter passing woman from the latrine waste being dumped out of the windows above. Apparently, this old disgusting habit is also the reason why women traditionally walk on the inside when out with a man.

York’s most famous street, Shambles, once packed with people shopping elbow to elbow was virtually deserted. York Minster was quiet and lacking in the throngs of people streaming in an out and around it. All the shops were closed even though it was still light outside. Now this is a normal occurrence in the British Town, but I incorrectly assumed that York, being a large city, would have a bit more of a nightlife. This became increasingly evident when, at 9:30, Kevin and I were eextremely hard-pressed to find a restaurant still serving food. We did manage to find one restaurant called Plunkets – serving Americanized Mexican food and luckily were saved. Plunkets, while not having a very interesting menu, has been in business for over 30 years, and boasts the signature of Keith Richards on the wall in the upstairs bar from a visit he and the Stones made to the joint before it became Plunkets.

Where is everyone?