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York Museums

You would enjoy visiting the major museums in York: Castle Museum, Jorvik Viking Centre, National Railway Museum, and Yorkshire Museum of history.

YORK CASTLE MUSEUM

The Castle Museum is one of the greatest attractions of York, easy to walk to on the south edge of the old town. The Castle Museum contains a remarkable assortment of items with a special focus on the late 19th century, at the dawn of the modern age, when technology went through rapid changes.

It's like walking through a time machine, especially in the street reconstructed to look like 1890, with cobbled paving, gas lights, original shop-fronts and actual merchandise from that period. It is designed much like a Smithsonian Institution exhibit, where you walk through original environments that create an illusion of stepping back a century. Time travels as you stroll along.

The Castle Museum was founded by an enlightened country doctor, John Kirk, who had the foresight to realize that many common items being destroyed and thrown away would someday have great historical value. He began purchasing and acquiring ordinary objects of daily life, sometimes in exchange for his medical services, to put together a large private collection which he donated to the city in 1935 and which forms the foundation of this excellent museum. He also designed the most spectacular exhibit area, the reconstructed street named Kirkgate in his honor. 

You can compare the typical kitchen of 1890 with that of 1950, or examine the evolution of toilets, showers, jewelry, vacuum cleaners, lighting, clothing, washing machines, cameras and thousands of other items, offering something for everybody. Quality of presentation is equal to any of the world's great museums.

The building used to hold a debtors' prison and women's prison so some original jail cells have been preserved to give you a taste of punishment. The buildings date back to the 18th century providing a dramatic example of preservation and reuse and how such a structure can be modernized to turned into a state of the art museum complete with multimedia displays. The jail cells bring back to life some of the prisoners, like Dick Turpin, one of the most notorious highwaymen.

More highlights include: a couple of horse carriages, a hand-pump fire wagon, a Victorian parlor, a Georgian dining room, an apothecary, a tobacconist and a sweet shop where you can purchase some old-fashioned ice cream and other snacks. An extensive collection of WWI weapons and artifacts is also here with reconstructions of sandbag lined trenches used in deadly battles.

You could get through the museum in one hour if you're in a bit of a rush but more likely you could spend two hours enjoying all of the various cases and explanations and some of the video displays to go with it and maybe have a snack or even lunch at their café.

CLIFFORD'S TOWER

Next to the museum, you will see Clifford's Tower, a large earth mound with a stone fort on top. William the Conqueror built the original fort just two years after his famous 1066 victory. It featured a man-made dirt hill with a wooden palisade on top. Clifford's Tower was the headquarters of the military defense of the city in the Middle Ages.

An easy climb up the steps brings you right inside the tower. Described as Mott and Bailey, this was the typical style with a fortress built on top of an earthen mound, to control the natives in those days of Norman invasion.

The castle was built in quatrefoil shape with four rounded corners to repel the attackers. It's the only clover-shaped fortified tower left standing in England. You'll have a view from the top across the rooftops of the old town, with the Minster in the distance.

JORVIK VIKING CENTRE

Located a few blocks north of Clifford's Tower on Coppergate Walk, you will want to visit the Jorvik VikIng Centre, which re-creates life during the important Viking period of York.

It is perhaps the most popular museum in town, with traditional displays of artifacts in glass cases and fascinating animatronic displays, with moving characters in realistic settings, and guides in period clothing, explaining some of the history, such as coin making. These guides are quite knowledgeable in Viking history and are happy to answer any questions you might have.

Comfortable automated cars carry the visitor past complete houses and workshops that still contain furniture, utensils and tools that were left behind a thousand years ago. These Vikings lived here for over a 100 years and left a noticeable impact on the society. It's like a Disney ride, but with history and vivid sights, sounds, and smells that are brought to life.

The private museum is built right on top of the actual Viking settlement and many remains are in their original positions. The homes and artifacts were carefully excavated and restored to give a dramatic look at life in the past. Comfortable automated cars carry the visitor past complete houses and workshops that still contain furniture, utensils and tools that were left behind one millennium ago. It's as entertaining as a Disney ride, with the vivid sights, sounds and smells brought to life, including trips through some houses and rooms of the Viking town. Not a mere fantasy however, this is the only attraction of its kind built upon a real archaeological excavation.

The Vikings were an intriguing people who really have captured the public imagination. Seafaring invaders from Denmark conquered this part of England in 866 and set up their main headquarters in York. They lived here for about 100 years before they were finally defeated and expelled, but left a noticeable impact on the society.

While Vikings have an image as helmeted barbarians who burned and trashed their way through Europe, in reality they were civilized people who helped to improve the economy with improved farming techniques and extensive trade networks that reached all the way to the Mediterranean. When the Vikings first arrived with their advanced weapons and ships, they easily conquered the local population, who were living in the 800-year-old ruins of a once great European city.

In their later years of occupation, many Vikings converted to Christianity, and there was undoubtedly much intermarrying that has left a Scandinavian legacy in the modern population. In that sense, they never left.

The plaza in front of the Jorvik Centre is usually bustling with activity and often has some buskers performing for the crowds that gather here. Singers, jugglers, jesters, pantomimes, street dancers, jazz combos or who knows what might appear.

RAILWAY MUSEUM

Another one of the top attractions in York is England's largest railway museum, located a five-minute walk behind the railway station, either via a staircase from the station platforms or on the road just to the south. The National Railway Museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society.

It is one of the world's largest railway museums, perhaps the best, covering 20 acres and attracting nearly one million annual visitors. It features 103 locomotives and nearly 300 other rail cars among its many free exhibits, in two large halls.

Mallard broke the world speed record for steam locomotives in 1938, a record that has never been beaten. She hauled express passenger trains on the east coast mainline until 1963.

There is a working replica of "the world's first practical steam engine from the year 1830. Stephenson's Rocket" established the basic architecture for the steam locomotive.

It should be no surprise that interest in railroads is advanced here because this region has a long history of pioneering train travel. The first station opened in 1839, just ten years after the British invented the steam locomotive. Rapid expansion of train services required a larger station, which opened in 1877 as the largest train station in Europe, and the original steel and glass structure still functions today.

A major focal point is the panorama of locomotives arranged around the turntable in the Great Hall. The many other items on display include signaling equipment, road vehicles, ship models, posters, drawings and other artwork, tickets, nameplates, staff uniforms, clocks, watches, furniture and equipment from railway companies' hotels, refreshment rooms and offices (including company seals) and a wide range of models.

They display the only Shin-Kansen outside of Japan. The speedy  bullet train would whisk passengers along at speeds of just over 130mph. There are actually 1 million objects and nearly 2 million photographs. Then take a break at the snack bar.

The collection includes "Palaces on Wheels," a collection of Royal Train saloons from Queen Victoria's early trains through to those used by Queen Elizabeth II up to the 1970s,

YORKSHIRE MUSEUM

The Yorkshire Museum, located in the Museum Gardens on the north end of town, takes you from prehistoric times up through the 16th century with an extensive collection of Roman and Viking artifacts. The museum was founded in 1830, making it one of the oldest in the country. It is located on the north end of town, 800 meters from the Railway Museum, and 600 meters north of The Shambles.

The museum displays many Roman objects which have been discovered in York, including a statue of Mithras, an inscribed stone coffin of Julia Fortunata. Amongst other Roman objects are tiled tombs, mosaic floors and a sculptured eagle.

The mosaic pavement depicts the head of Medusa surrounded by emblems of the four seasons, was found near Micklegate Bar, probably a floor in a Roman palace. One of the most ancient of Roman inscriptions in Britain is the inscribed tablet of the time of Trajan, which was found in King's Square. An altar was found under one of the piers in the church of St. Denis.

Medieval objects include molded stones from demolished churches, an effigy in chain armor. These statues formerly adorned the abbey church, each five feet eight inches high, and among others Moses and the Baptist are represented.

A hoard of money came from a Viking 10th century silver-gilt pot, full of coins discovered in 2007. On the walls are three tapestry maps of central England. These are the first specimens of tapestry weaving in this country and were executed in 1579. Along with  archaeology the other permanent collections here cover biology, geology, and astronomy.

HISTORY

The ancient Romans conquered England and established what later became the major cities of the land, including London, Bath, Chester and York, which they founded in AD 71.

Several different emperors lived in York, including one of the greatest of them all, Constantine. He was a young man when his father, emperor Constantius Chlorus died here in 306 A.D.  Constantine, of course, went on to great accomplishments, including the legalization of Christianity and the founding of Constantinople, now Istanbul, the city that was to keep the Roman Empire alive for another thousand years.

Although the Romans ruled for 339 years, there are few visible remains of their occupation. The Multangular Tower still stands 27 feet high in the Museum Gardens, and one column has been restored in front of the Minster. Fragmentary remains of a bathhouse can be viewed in the basement of the Roman Bath pub; and there is a short length of the original Roman wall, about 20 feet long and three feet high, in a parking lot across from Bootham Bar. The original Roman wall and most of their early buildings were made of wood that has not survived, but much of their later stone wall is still buried under the town, including the foundations of their massive fortress that housed nearly 6,000 soldiers, on the site of the Minster.

When the Romans left in 410 A.D., Anglo-Saxon invasions by Germanic tribes began and plunged the region into a dark period that is little understood today. It is believed the abrupt withdrawal of the highly organized Roman system of government left a rather chaotic situation, with no central control for a couple of centuries until the Saxon kings asserted themselves and brought Christianity and new rules to the society. King Edwin's conversion to Christianity in 627 is an especially important landmark in that social history.

In 1066 the British were able to finally defeat the last remnants of Scandinavian occupiers further north, but a few weeks later William of Normandy conquered King Harold's weakened army, and the society changed forever. The medieval period is defined as that time between 1066 and 1485, the dawn of the Renaissance. In those Middle Ages the city was surrounded by wild countryside, with a forest sheltering bandits ready to rob any travelers passing through, so the city offered armed guards to escort visitors leaving town. The city depended on trade and commerce, so it was important to protect the visitors. During this feudal era, when “knights were bold,” competing kingdoms often waged war on each other, but the defensive walls were strengthened and enemies were kept out.

York prospered during the medieval period and became the second largest city in England, with a diversified economy involving 100 different trade unions, or guilds.  Trading and wool production were the foundations of the economy. England had a great farming advantage over the Continent because the fields were quite fertile, and the sheep could thrive since there were no wolves here. Typically, wool was shipped to France and Belgium for processing into fabric, but York was unique for it was the only British community that not only produced raw wool, but also wove it into fabrics. The well-defended town enabled the wool guilds to have a secure place for manufacture and storage, further enhancing the prosperity of York.

The fortunes of York bounced up and down during centuries of royal rule, suffering a massive setback when Henry VIII dissolved the church and seized all property and wealth from the clergy. As the largest church in the land, the Minster had a lot to lose, but eventually the situation improved as the local aristocracy re-asserted control. The 18th century saw another period of magnificent development with York becoming a fashionable alternative to London for the aristocracy, who built many fine Georgian-style townhouses that still survive. Throughout these changes and into the modern industrial era, the old buildings in the heart of town were generally preserved, providing a pleasant historic experience for today's visitors.

All this history and more is on display at the Yorkshire Museum. Later, you can take a breather strolling through the ten acres of gardens, which includes the ruins of medieval St. Mary's Abbey and several other impressive historic buildings, like the Hospitium and St. Mary's Lodge, two "hotels" for pilgrims that date back to the 15th century. 

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