THE BAR WALLS and Other Features
David Wharton-Street, Easingwold u3a History &
Heritage Group – Feb 2022
There were two Norman Keeps built in York; either side
of the River Ouse.
1. Map of Norman Keeps in York
Though Cliffords Tower remains, the other castle was on Baile Hill; adjacent to the entrance of Skeldergate.
It is uncertain
as to whether the Keep was a wooden stockade or made of stone. Many of the
early stone structures in York were used for subsequent buildings.
If you go in the gates of Museum Gardens and walk
towards the Museum, on the righthand side of the City Walls you will see the Multangular
Tower on the corner.
There seem to be three phases of building, with the
bottom [Roman] wall extending up to the level of the wall on the right. Above
this is an additional thin section [rough stone, and the mediaeval top is in
cut stone.
Turn right down the path before you reach the Museum
and just before to reach the corner of Kings Manor, there is a rising path on
the right and a door through the Walls. This path takes you to the rear of the
Library. [another way of entry is from Exhibition Square and through the iron
gates on the lefthand side of the Library.
At the rear of the Library, there are the remains of
three walls running parallel: the lower wall [by the Library] is the remains of
St.Leonard’s Hospice. The middle wall is the outer wall of St. Mary’s Abbey and
the high wall on the left is the City Wall.
2. Multangular Tower
3. Details
of Multangular Tower
4. The
three Walls behind the Library
5. The
inside of the Multangular Tower
Turning round, one can see the interior of the Multangular Tower; showing the different levels and ages of build. No other tower on the Bar Walls is exposed in this manner.
On of the major problems over the years has been the
maintenance of the Bar Walls. As a historic monument, there is a legal
requirement to maintain the Walls in a fit state. However, maintenance is
costly.
6. Turret to rear of Art Gallery
Photo 6 is an example of the inside of a turret on the Bar Walls. It is located to the rear of the Art Gallery [walk down the righthand side of the Gallery]. As well as showing modern art, one can see where there would have been three floors and the openings for firing weapons.
7. Turret to righthand side of Art Gallery
Photo 7, on another turret by the side of the Art Gallery, shows the shoddy
repairs carried out in the 1960s to bolter the decaying top to the Wall.
English Heritage have declared that this type of
repair to an ancient monument is not acceptable. All repairs must be carried
out using original materials.
The Bar Walls were protected by Act of Parliament, and
other than the four Gates, could not be breached. This presented a problem with
the railways reaching York. The original railway [built by George Hudson] came
from the south and terminated at York. Both the City Council and the railway
promoter wanted a station within the bounds of the Bar Walls. By Act of
Parliament, the Walls were breached in the southwest corner.
8. Entrance of first railway to York; taken from the station car park
Photo 8 is taken from the route of the original
railway. I am standing in the station car park with the bridge of the inner
ring road in front and the view of the breached arch in the Bar walls in the
background.
9. Archway through Bar Walls; constructed for railway access in 1839. Remains of original signal box in foreground.
Photo 9. Shows the arch built in the Bar Walls in 1839
for the railway to gain access to the station. It is of interest that the
original signal box, in brick, is still present.
The former railway station still exists and is located on the left at the top of Station Rise. Until the early 2000s, the platforms were present, but these were demolished when York City Council took over, and extended, the building as its Council Offices.
10. View of former railway station; taken from where the original lines entered the platforms.
11. View of front and east side of former railway station and offices.
The original station is also a historically Listed Building and the City Council have been required to preserve the exterior appearance.
When the first railway came to York, Lendal Bridge did
not exist. Crossing the Ouse at this point was a ‘chain’ ferry. The nearest
bridge was Ouse Bridge at the bottom of Micklegate.
With the increased volume of traffic following the
arrival of the railway, the City Council were keen to build a further bridge.
At the same time this also required a further breach of the Bar Walls so that
there was road access to the new station built outside the City walls. A new
station was required to provide an interchange for the new railway lines to the
North- Newcastle and Edinburgh, and lines to Harrogate and Scarborough. The
street serving the station was called George Hudson Street -constructed in
1874.
12. View
of George Hudson Street breeching the Bar Walls and Lendal Bridge; taken from
Station Rise
13. North Eastern Railway War Memorial 1920
At the top of Station Rise is the War Memorial; built
on the site of the former railway goods shed inside the Bar Walls. The North
Eastern Railway [the most profitable railway in Britain at that time]
commissioned Sir Edward Lutyens to design the Memorial. Lutyens was the most
famous architect in the UK in the late C19th and early C20th, with extensive
work in both Britain and India.
Lutyens was so pleased with the result and the public reaction to his memorial that, when asked to design a National War Memorial in Whitehall, he opted for the obelisk design. Restrictions on width in Whitehall meant that the memorial could not possess the same type of wide base as in York, so he broadened the width of the National Memorial Obelisk. And that is what we have today.
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