Full steam ahead in the Railway Museum, York, England, UK

weekly update 022 - York and the National Railway Museum

June 5, 2017

Welcome to the National Railway Museum, one of the highlights of the visit to York, and some will say the main reason to come to the city. I would argue that it is a great reason to keep coming back.

Great Northern Railway no. 50 at the National Railway Museum, York, England, UK

The National Railway Museum (NRM) is a museum in York forming part of the British Science Museum Group of National Museums and telling the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It has won many awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant railway vehicles, as well as a collection of other artefacts and both written and pictorial records.
The NRM displays a collection of over 100 locomotives and nearly 300 other items of rolling stock, virtually all of which either ran on the railways of Great Britain or were built there. Also on the 20 acres site are many hundreds of thousands of other items and records of social, technical, artistic and historical interest, exhibited mostly in three large halls of a former motive power depot next to the East Coast Main Line, near York railway station. It is the largest museum of its type in Britain, attracting 727,000 visitors during the 2014/15 financial year.

LMS Princess Coronation Class 6229 Duchess of Hamilton, National Railway Museum, York, England, UK

The NRM was established on its present site, the former York North locomotive depot, in 1975, when it took over the former British Railways collection located in Clapham and the York Railway Museum located off Queen Street, immediately to the south east of the railway station since then, the collection has continued to grow.
The museum is a short walk from the railway station in York, either on the road or via a staircase from the rear of the platforms. A "roadtrain" runs from the city centre (near York Minster) to the museum on Leeman Road during half term, holidays and summer. York Park and Ride also serve the museum from the car park entrance, on Line 2 (Rawcliffe Bar-York). Admission to the museum has been free since 2001.

Gladstone decorated for Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria at the National Railway Museum, York, England, UK

Copper, Steel & Iron at the Railway Museum, York, England, UK

There are approximately 280 rail vehicles in the National Collection, with around 100 being at York at any one time and the remainder divided between Locomotion at Shildon and other museums and heritage railways. The earliest are wagonway vehicles of about 1815. The permanent display 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, among them some of the first rail vehicles to be set aside for preservation.
Other key exhibits normally to be seen at York include the 1846 Furness Railway No. 3 "Coppernob" locomotive, and the more modern express passenger steam locomotives London and North Eastern Railway Class A3 No. 4472 Flying Scotsman, its streamlined sister Class A4 No. 4468 Mallard and London, Midland and Scottish Railway Princess Coronation Class No. 6229 Duchess of Hamilton.
The museum has imported several major vehicles for display: the Chinese Class KF7 4–8–4 locomotive donated in 1981 was built in Britain and the Wagons-Lits sleeping car donated in 1980 had been used on the Paris-London Night Ferry service. Rail vehicles on display are exchanged from time to time with other organisations, and examples of new-build stock from the current industry sometimes visit the museum for short periods.

Golden hours at the Yorkshire Herald bars and restaurants, York, England, UK

After spending the whole morning at the NRM, we head back to town and stroll around looking for lunch and do a bit of shopping before catching the train back home.

Street lamps on Marygate, York, England, UK

There are still lots of buildings standing that attest to the heritage of the city, keep looking up when walking around and you are bound to find many interesting details like the wooden carvings

On Marygate, the street that runs on one of the sides of the Museum Gardens, the street lamps catch my eye. Rising from the rusted iron railing, the elegant curved shape and rusty color make a great contrast against the green foliage of the trees of the garden. Aligning two, that are closer together also help make a stronger image that helps tell the story of our walks over the long weekend on such an historic city.

Detail of medieval building ornaments 2, York, England, UK

Since I couldn't make up my mind as to which photo to use to end this post, I'm leaving you with two. On the left I have two swans that were swimming along the river while the sun was setting. On the right is a long exposure typical of urban environments with light-trails from the bus that crossed the Lendal bridge, and the water reflections on the river.
Pick you favourite and let me know?
I'll be in Iceland when this gets posted, hopefully I will share some daillies from the trip while I'm there. But next week we start focusing on Copenhagen, Denmark, which at this time is my second favorite city in the world.
Until next week,
Keep wandering this rock of ours.

White Swans under The Yorkshire Herald, York, England, UK

Lightails on Lendal Bridge, York, England, UK

York Minster and the hidden gardens of the City Walls, York, England, UK

weekly update 021 - Inside the Walls of York

May 30, 2017

Welcome back to the City of York, the historic heart of Yorkshire in the North of England. This week we are focusing on the walk around part of the city walls and the Yorkshire Museum Gardens.

Preparing for a banquet inside York's City Wall, York, England, UK

Inside the secret garden from the York City Wall, York, England, UK

If you're in York, and are rewarded with nice weather, head for the City Walls. You'll get great views of the city inside and beyond the walls, from a great vantage point. And best of all, at the time of writing, completely free. So head down to High Petergate street, and climb a few stairs up to the walls. This will not really be an option if you have limited mobility, as the steps are steep and the passage quite narrow.
Once up on the wall you are rewarded with a view of the rooftops of the buildings around the wall and the city beyond, as I showed last week. But even better are the views inside the wall perimeter to the the great York Minster, and all the historical buildings and gardens that still exist within the protective wall.
You can see the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, more commonly known as the York Minster, in the background of the first two images here. As it tends to happen on our latest travels, the main church of the city we are visiting is in the middle of a major renovation, which means we will need to go back to shoot it, and go inside and also climb the main tower to get even wider views of the city. The York Minster, is the cathedral of York, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England. The title "minster" is attributed to churches established in the Anglo-Saxon period as missionary teaching churches, and serves now as an honorific title.
Apart from the Cathedral there are some very well kept and pretty gardens, some are part of event venues and restaurants, while most are for private houses. Inside one of those I found this statue of a small girl that imediatelly made me think of Alice in Wonderland. If someone knows if that is really the case, please let me know!

All Saints Church tower, York, England, UK

After coming down to the walls, and having a great lunch on one of the many pubs and restaurants you can find in the centre of York, we strolled down to the end of Parliament St. and got to the All Saints Pavement Church, on the Parish of All Saints Pavement with Saint Crux and Saint Michael Spurriergate. Now that is a mouth full. I just loved the church tower architecture, which has a lot of empty spaces within the arches and it's octogonal shape. Having blue skies, scattered with white fluffy clouds, I went for a very steep angle to maximise the contrast with the stone colour and also to isolate it from the rest of the modern buildings that surround it.

Mrs. Thornil last will to the Holy Trinity Parish, York, England, UK

Detail of medieval building ornaments, York, England, UK

York being a city full of history, actually founded by the Romans in 71 AD, then called Eboracum, and having it's great expansion in the Middle Ages, there are multiple examples of this medieval heritage scattered across town. I chose a couple to highlight this here. Above is a detail of a building on Coney St, which today is mostly dominated by shops, that shows some carved heads on the buildings wooden frame facade. On the left is a wooden framed tablet with the last will of Mrs. Thornil, in which she donates money to the Holy Trinity Parish in Goodramgate to the education of poor girls. This can be found inside the Holy Trinity Church, in the center of town.

Yorkshire Museum and the Museum Gardens, York, England, UK

William Smith's 1815 Geological Map - Yorkshire Section, York, England, UK

In the heart of the York Museum Gardens you will find the Georgian building of the Yorkshire Museum, opened in 1830 and one of the first purpose-built museums in the UK. Reopened in 2010 following a nine-month £2million refurbishment project the Museum houses five galleries showcasing some of Britain’s finest archaeological treasures and many rare animals, birds and fossils, in exciting displays. The gardens also houses The Hospitium, a 14th century two-storey building that you can hire as the setting for your ceremonies, and overlooked by the striking ruins of St. Mary's Abbey pictured on the last post.

While strolling through the gardens I found a very interesting geological map of the Yorkshire area made out of colored pebbles. This a copy of a segment of the famous 1815 Geological Map of 'England and Wales with part of Scotland' by William Smith. The full original title of the document is : A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the Varieties of Soil according to the variations in the Substrata, illustrated by the most Descriptive Names by W Smith. This was the first geological map that covered such a wide area, and is only six years older than the first geological map ever produced.

The Hospitium on the Museum Gardens, York, England, UK

So I'll leave you this week with another sunset image from the shores of the River Ouse, great place to finish the day when in York and have nice weather. Next week I'll finish the set about York, with a trip to the National Railway Museum.
This week we are getting into a plane heading to Iceland, for a short scouting trip. Hopefully we will be publishing some daily posts with a summary of the day.
Until then,
Keep wandering this rock of ours...

Sunset by the shores of the River Ouse, York, England, UK

Sunset over the Lendal Bridge, York, England, UK

weekly update 020 - Welcome to York

May 24, 2017

Welcome to the historic walled city of York, located at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. This, and the next two posts, are dedicated to this city in the North of England and all photos we’re taken during our weekend trip back in 2016.

As with most of the historic cities and villages in the UK you can find your way easily around the town’s points of interest using these signposts. I’ve become very fond of them, so will be featuring them on most posts dedicated to British towns and villages. Perhaps the most well known, and least useful, is the one situated in Land’s End.

York Art Gallery is a finalist for Museum of the Year 2016, York, England, UK

Reopened in 2015, after major redevelopment, the York Art Gallery was established in 1822 and houses a collection of paintings from 14th-century to contemporary, prints, watercolours, drawings, and ceramics. In 2016 the gallery was in the final select for the Museum of the Year award, a title that ended up going to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Modern art installation on the gardens of the York Art Gallery, York, England, UK

The back of the gallery connects to the Yorkshire Museum Gardens and the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey. At the time of our visit, this strange art installation adorned the grounds, giving a surreal view of the traditional buildings of the streets surrounding the gallery. If the weather is nice, this a great walk to do, since most people tend to head straight to the Museum.

St. Mary's Abbey ruins, York, England, UK

St. Mary's Abbey ruins is most likely the second most visited attraction in the city of York. Once the richest abbey in the north of England, it lies in what are now the Yorkshire Museum Gardens, to the west of York Minster.
The original church on the site was founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olaf II of Norway. The abbey church was refounded in 1088 when the King, William Rufus, visited York in January or February of that year and gave the monks additional lands. In 1137 the abbey was badly damaged by a great fire.[5] The surviving ruins date from a rebuilding programme begun in 1271 and finished by 1294.

The University of York King's Manor, York, England, UK

All that remains today are the north and west walls, plus a few other remnants: the half-timbered Pilgrims' Hospitium, the West Gate and the 14th-century timber-framed Abbot's House (now called the King's Manor).
From 1667 to 1688, it was the residence of the Governor of York. After 1688, the building was hired out to private tenants until the nineteenth century, when it was taken over and expanded by the Yorkshire School for the Blind. On the departure of the Blind School in 1958, the Manor was acquired by York City Council, who leased it to the University in 1963. The University later moved to the Heslington Campus, but still maintains King's Manor for its Department of Archaeology (including the Archaeology Data Service), Centre for Medieval Studies, and Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies

York rooftops from the City Walls, York, England, UK

Walking the streets of York, England, UK

Leaving the Museum gardens through to Marygate road, the walk back to the York Minster and the City Walls, you are rewarded with a quiet road full of english character. If you do go up to the city walls, keep an eye out for the great views over the city's rooftops.

Ring for Peace at the Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, England, UK

One of the less known little churches worth a visit it the Holy Trinity Church in Goodramgate. Next week I'll publish an image from the interior, but for now would like to draw your attention to the bell that hangs at its door with the invitation 'Ring for Peace'. The Defence Of the Realm Act forbade the ringing of some church bells during war time – this project asks people to ring a bell for peace to commemorate the 100th anniversary of WW1. With permission of The York Bell Fund, three remaining bells from the old church of Holy Trinity or Christchurch (The Butchers’ Church), King's Square have been located across the City.

Speeding under the Lendal Bridge, York, England, UK

I'll end this long post with another image of the Lendal Bridge, where we finished our first day in York. The day started under heavy clouds, but ended with great sunshine, which took me to the river's edge with my trusty travel tripod to do some long exposures. Hope you liked the introduction to the city of York, next week there will be more.
Until then,
Keep wandering...