Barnsley, England, Sunday August 10th

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Today started slowly, with telephone negotiations going on regarding where we might go, with the original idea of a beach outing being tossed out because of the weather. Eventually it was settled that Graeme and Madge said that they would take us to York.

York is a walled city with many buildings dating to the medieval period. Home to Angles and Saxons, the site of a Roman settlement, it was a Viking stronghold and then a Norman town. Later it was assaulted by the Lancastrians in the wars of the Roses – so much history that we have a vague knowledge of was played out in and around this city.

Clifford’s Tower, part of the original castle, stood high on a motte, which is a man-made hill to provide fortifications with more protection and greater ability to see an enemy approaching. It is a round tower, which originally had a wooden roof and would have been surrounded by the moat that also encircled the castle complex. Now it sits alone, proclaiming its ancient origins by its skewed walls.

We bypassed the tower on our way to the Castle Museum, intending to return if we had time. This museum was absolutely fascinating, being a social history museum that was founded by Dr John L Kirk. He was a medical doctor who worked in the Northern Yorkshire area, visiting villages, farms and cottages in the early twentieth century. He could see that there were rapid changes in how people lived and started to collect redundant everyday objects. He offered his massive collection to the City of York in the 1930s and they gave him part of the castle buildings in which to set up a museum. Dr Kirk’s idea was to display his items in settings closely resembling the original, so there are rooms which are set up as interiors of different classes of people, from different places and from different eras. On top of that he created a whole village called ‘Kirkgate’ inside the museum, with streets and shops for visitors to wander through. Everything in Kirkgate is real and the natural lighting comes from skylights. This amazing vision, his ability to sell his ideas to others and his generosity resulted in the museum opening in 1938. It has been added to since then, so we knew that it would be a challenge to see everything.

The detail in the interiors was amazing, with different dogs sitting by different hearths, ornaments, food, leisure activities and furniture perfect for each era, social status and occupations of the supposed residents. The Moorland cottage of the 1850s featured a rabbit hanging from the rafters, no-fuss furnishings passed down through the family and a witch ball hanging at the window to ward off evil spirits. In contrast, the Georgian drawing room of 1780 features fashionable furniture of the times, a carpet (a luxury becoming more common in prosperous families), fine china and painted wooden panelling.

We learnt lots of interesting facts, including that alcohol was commonly given to babies to make them sleep, with it being an ingredient of gripe water up until 1992. Puzzles helped to teach geography and were invented by a map maker, |John Spilsbury in 1760s. Other puzzles became popular in the 1870s after the invention of the mechanical saw and were called ‘jigsaws’. The Reverend Moule invented and patented a dry earth closet toilet in 1860, which was designed to be more economical than installing pipes and sewers but was a major problem in towns where there were no gardens to collect dry earth from or places to dig holes to dispose of the dry earth flush and its additional contents. It was not suitable for the country either, since finding or creating dry earth was a problem in a land where it rains even in summer. Oh dear, back to the drawing board.

We rushed on to Kirkgate, where we could hear quite a commotion – a thief was being pursued by the police and was ultimately caught and immediately brought before a magistrate – a high octane performance by the actors who ‘reside and work’ in the village, and who bring everything to life. We went shopping for some delicious chocolate mice in an old lolly shop, observed a maid flirting with a shop boy and, after a little while, saw the terrible recidivist thief arrested again and once more thrown into gaol to await trial. Women bustled past with baskets of purchases on their arms. It would have been great to have come early and stayed late to see the changing faces in the street – presumably some children would have been filing in or out of the school, clerks would have been on hand for us to deposit our savings into the bank or we could have pawned our jewellery if we ran out of cash. It would be so much fun to work there, since the brief is not only to perform a rehearsed segment but also to interact in character while educating the visitors about past times.

We moved from Kirkgate into the display about the 1960s – common territory for us and full of reminders that acted like a ‘blast from the past’. We had been in the company of some young parents and their very noisy and wildly undisciplined children and they surpassed themselves racing around and screaming, as if the era of free love and alternative lifestyles had prompted an even wilder reaction than Kirkgate. The ultimate was when one of the young daughters leapt up on the spotless and lovingly displayed white motorbike and started to push down on the kick start and attack the throttle. The attendant, a little older than us and pushed well past endurance, pointed at the child and asked loudly, ‘Who owns that?’ One of the fathers dragged the child off, gave her a cuff and asked her what she had gone and done that for and couldn’t she read the sign. It was a bit tough on the young child to pass the responsibility for the lawlessness which these parents had allowed and, on occasions, considered as cute during the visit.

We didn’t really have time to do the rest of the museum justice, with quick looks at the fashions and the prison section, including Dick Turpin’s cell. There were no regulations regarding prison life until the 19th century. Gaolers were not paid and made their livelihood by selling services, favours and goods to the prisoners. We were finally chased from the displays by the attendants who were clearing the building, having had a very interesting visit and wishing we had more time.

This feeling persisted as we walked through the city to the Minster, which was closed by now. A quick dip into the parish church of St Michael-le-Belfrey next door, having been invited in by friendly parishioners, revealed a church full of chatting people, tea urns and plates of scones and slice, a small orchestra tuning up – in fact the business of a modern parish appealing to the sense of community and involvement that some see as essential to attracting and holding congregations these days. The atmosphere was very warm and welcoming.

We loved the quaint street called The Shambles; originally a street of butchers where the wood in the buildings has both rotted, dried and compressed, but remains intact, distorting the buildings.

At last we stopped for a meal and a sit down, at a pub that specialises in English pies. Every area seems to have food specialities and, combined with the different use for the same words, ordering from a menu in English is not always straightforward. On the way home we reflected on the need to spend more time in York, and with a week or so to go in Barnsley, we hoped that it would be possible to visit again.