Back to the UK after 50 years

OZDUCK · 2026-10-31T20:54:36+1100

We spent 6 days in and around York so I will break it up into manageable bites.

The city walls - "The city or ‘bar’ walls of York are the most complete example of medieval city walls still standing in England today"

The York City Walls: History of York

York city walls - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The first walls were erected in AD 71 by the Romans. Most of the current walls date from the 13th - 14th C. Roughly 3.4 km is walkable today. Not quite the same as the walls of Carcassonne but still a pleasant walk. We did the walk over two days as it is 'broken' up by the loss of certain parts of the fortifications. On our first day there we had absolutely lovely weather and on our last drizzly, gloomy weather.

The walkway is often pretty narrow. I gather it was wider when in military use.

Our apartment building

The railway station

Lookin inwards. The housing comes right up to the inner ramparts

The city uses a interesting very stable machine to mow the steep banks

OZDUCK · 2026-10-31T21:06:35+1100

Continuing on

It really was a lovely day to walk along the wall

There was plenty of signage

OZDUCK · 2026-10-31T21:18:54+1100

The final part

At first I thought that this was the remains of some type of kiln. But it was in fact an icehouse built around 1800.

A remnant of the Roman Walls

For some context - "one of only ten Jewish cemeteries in medieval England and the only to be extensively excavated"

Jewbury Cemetery: History of York

It now lies beneath this Sainbury's car park

Merchant Taylors' Hall - "a medieval guildhall located on Aldwark in York, England. Constructed primarily in the late 14th century, it has served continuously as the headquarters of the Company of Merchant Taylors of the City of York for over 600 years."

OZDUCK · 2026-11-01T15:13:44+1100

On our first morning in York we went to the National Railway Museum. A truly fabulous place for anyone with any interest in railway history or even industrial progress. The next few posts will contain LOTS of photos and some videos on this subject so feel free to ignore them if you so desire.

Home | National Railway Museum

Immerse yourself in the home of iconic locomotives and an unrivalled collection of engineering brilliance at the National Railway Museum.

www.railwaymuseum.org.uk

National Railway Museum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Normally the entrance would only have been a few hundred metres from where we were staying. But they are doing a lot of redevelopment so we had to walk in a big 'circle' to get there. A closer entrance has been opened in the last few days.

The entrance used to be between the Station Hall and Great Hall. Our apartment building was basically next to the arrow to the city centre.