John Speed's MapA1-The Great North Road
Geoffrey of Monmouth attributed the founding of York to Caeur Ebranc, a King of Britain, living about 1000B.C. Agricola and other Romans turned up in A.D.79. The Emperor Severus died here in 210, as did Emperor Constantius Chlorus, Constantine the Great's father, in 306.
John Speed's Map
The Great North Road had two routes into York, from Tadcaster, along what is now the A64 and from Selby along the A19. From Tadcaster, the road curves first south of the Roman line and then north of it, crossing it at the appropriately named hamlet of Street Houses, the word 'Street', often being associated with Roman roads. The Great North Road's route leaves the A64, which now forms the southern and eastern ring road round York, by Copmanthorpe, to join the Roman road as it enters York from the south-west. Tadcaster Road skirts past the Knavesmire, home to horse racing (and dinghy racing in the floods of November 2000) and then climbs the Mount, passing grand 18th and 19th century houses, becomes Blossom Street, tree-lined with Georgian terraces, before passing through the city wall at Micklegate Bar and curving down to the Ouse Bridge as Micklegate.
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Tadcaster Road is marked by milestones of stone with cast-iron front plates. This one is by Knavesmire close to a small mounting block, curiously preserved in the verge. A small paved area with a stone inscribed with the word Tyburn marks the site of countless hangings from the days before Britain became a civilized country and stopped executing its citizens. At least the ancient iron railings survived the depredations of war. |
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Of the mansions on the Mount, the Elmbank Hotel is a comparatively little-known masterpiece of interior design. Built about 1870 it was redecorated by George Walton, who, after working with Mackintosh in Glasgow, moved for a while to York. With an Arts & Crafts background he introduced Art Nouveau to the city. There is a magnificent oak staircase, murals, tapestries, fabulous stained glass, fireplaces, doors, wall-papers and more. A listed building, it has been wonderfully restored and maintained. This place is a must for anyone in the least bit appreciative of the history of interior design. The bar is open for non-residents so do drop in, if only for a coffee and a nose around. |
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Viking influence can still be detected in the street names of York, where the suffix ‘gate’ as in Stonegate or Goodramgate derives from the Old Norse ‘gata’ meaning road or way.
In Roman times a road within the Roman Legionary fortress called the Via Praetoria more or less followed the course of present Stonegate and crossed the River Ouse by means of a bridge, near to where the Guildhall stands today. Stonegate is a Viking street name and it is quite possible that the Roman paved street survived into Viking times.
The Roman river crossing was probably at the end of Stonegate, about where the Guildhall stands. There was a substantial Roman civilian settlement on the west bank too. The medieval bridge was downstream from this site. There may have been an earlier Viking wooden bridge but a six-arched stone bridge existed in the 12th century. A city rental of 1376 refers to 36 shops and 5 tenements on the Ouse bridge including at least one house "overhanging the river". In the 16th century the bridge collapsed. It was rebuilt leaving a couple of small arches, with their surviving houses, including a chapel with the city clock atop, and one new large arch described by Defoe as: “…near 70 foot in diamater; it is, without exception, the greatest in England, some say it’s as large as the Rialto at Venice, though I think not.” The whole lot was replaced in the 19th century. A New Ouse Bridge, built alongside the old, was started in 1810, and the work was completed in March, 1820. The old bridge, after having existed for six centuries, was then removed, “…and gave place to this handsome modern erection.” Until 1863, when Lendle Bridge was built, the Ouse Bridge was the only crossing. Skeldergate Bridge followed in 1882 and, further downstream, the fabulous stainless steel 'Millennium' footbridge was added in 2001.
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Old Ouse Bridge and new. This may be a city centre but I spent half an hour watching three kingfishers skimming back and forth across the river and under the bridge early one morning. |
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Bootham Bar, the northern gateway, is on or very near to the site of one of the entrances into the Roman city of Eboracum. Parts of the structure can be dated to the 11th century though it is possible that Roman material was used in the construction.
| Micklegate Bar, as the entrance into the city from the south, was the most important of the city gates. The present structure is three storeys high. The original gate was built in the early 12th century, the archway still showing Norman influence. In the 14th century it was heightened to accommodate a portcullis, and a barbican was added (removed in the 19th century). "Mickle" means "much" and Micklegate might today be interpreted as High Street, Micklegate being the major route through the section of the city on the west side of the Ouse. However, the gate does not quite lie on the route of the Roman road that had headed out of the city for both south-westwards for Tadcaster and north-westwards for Aldborough. The Roman road probably ran a few yards to the north of Micklegate. |
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The Swan, Coney Street
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Coney Street |
After crossing the Ouse Bridge the stage coaches on the Great North Road turned sharp left into Spurriergate, along Coney Street and into Helen's Square. Then via Blake Street and Leonard's Place the traffic could reach Bootham, the road out of the city, without having to squeeze through the narrow Norman arch of Bootham Bar.
Coney Street is not quite what it used to be and the rot set in a long time ago. Here is Harper's lament written in 1901, describing the loss of the chief posting inn, the George. "A flaunting pile of business premises now usurps the site of the extremely picturesque old house which rejoiced in a sixteenth-century frontage, heavily gabled and enriched with quaint designs in plaster, and a yawning archway, supported on either side by curious figures whose lower anatomy ended in scrolls, after the manner of the Renaissance. The 'George' for many years enjoyed an unexampled prosperity, and the adjoining houses, of early Georgian date, with projecting colonnade, were annexed to it. When it went, to make way for new buildings, York lost its most picturesque inn." |
We know that the original Roman fort was about 475 metres long and 400 metres wide, and butted up to the northern bank of the River Ouse. The layout followed the grid-pattern common to other Roman forts. The most important public building was the military headquarters, the Principia. From here led the two major streets, the Via Praetoria and Via Principalis, which correspond roughly to the streets known today as Stonegate and Petergate. The Via Praetoria extended down to the river, spanned by a wooden bridge; the road continued to the south, leaving the city at a point close to Micklegate Bar.
After AD 410, when the Roman army and administration abandoned Britain to defend beleaguered Rome, the city of Eboracum appears to have become largely abandoned. Excavations suggest depopulation due to increased flooding in the city and the Ouse bridge may has been swept away around AD 450. There was, however, still occupation in some areas of old Roman York and it seems likely that Caer-Ebrauc, as it apparently became known by the Romano-British Celts, remained as a prestigious Royal centre.
Using the old Roman fortress of Eboracum as part of Jorvik's defences, the Vikings constructed new streets lined by regular building plots for timber houses between AD 900 and 935. There was a new bridge over the River Ouse
York's Coaching Inns
The entry of "professions and trades" for York in Baines's Directory of 1823 lists no fewer than 195 Hotels, Inns and Taverns but only a few of these were coaching Inns that relied on traffic on the Great North Road.
The Black Swan, Coney Street, brick building of late 17th century, did the bulk of the stage-coach business from 1698 to 1842.
York Tavern, St. Helen's Square, dealt with the mails. It became the Harker's Hotel (pre 1901) but this moved near the racecourse in 1928, changed its name to The Chase and is now called the Marriott Hotel.
The George, Coney Street, once the most famous coaching inn, was demolished (pre-1889) to make way for a drapery business. It stood opposite the Black Swan. Harper: "...that extremely picturesque old house which rejoiced in a sixteenth-century frontage, heavily gabled and enriched with quaint designs in plaster, and a yawning archway, supported on either side by curious figures whose lower anatomy ended in scrolls, after the manner of the Renaissance."
Etteridge's Hotel, Lendel. The exclusive resort of the nobility and county gentry, demolished pre-1901.
The White Horse, Coppergate
The White Swan, Skeldergate
The Elephant and Castle, Skeldergate
The Commercial Coffee House, corner of Nessgate, became the Coach and Horses (pre-1889)
The Robin Hood, Castlegate
Pack Horse, Micklegate
The Old Sand Hill, Colliergate, demolished (pre-1889) to make way for Volunteer Drill Hall
Golden Lion, near Monk Bar demolished (pre-1889)
Coincidentally, the medieval church of St Martin-le Grand, in Coney Street, bears the same name as that at London's start of the Great North Road. The church was extensively rebuilt in the 1960s after war damage in 1942.
St Peter's Well, York Minster
In the eastern crypt of the Minster is sited a font, under which was a well, which is by tradition the place where King Edwin was baptised on Easter Eve, 627. He was accompanied by his wife, a Christian princess from Kent named Ethelburga. 'In the vestry of York Minster there is a well of sweet spring water called St Peter's Well ye saint of ye Church, so it is called St Peter's Cathedral' Celia Fiennes, Diary in Old Yorkshire.
Zouche Chapel Well, York Minster
'Its water is drawn up by bucket. For centuries this well supplied water for curing many ills, its properties being attributed in part to the lime it absorbed from the limestone walls. Three 17th Century Bellarmines (water bottles) found nearby in 1881 had probably been used to carry some of the precious water to nearby folk in the town.' G.B. Wood, Some North Country Wells. 'Bellarmines' are late sixteenth to early eighteenth century salt-glazed stoneware jugs having a mask representing Cardinal Bellarmine stamped on the neck. They are exceedingly common on sites of this period and were not specifically used for carrying water.
Horse racing in York had been held at Rawcliffe Ings since at least 1709 but was transferred to it's current home, the Knavesmire in 1731.
Alternative Bed & Breakfast in York
©Biff Vernon 2001, 2002, 2005
