Year: 2022

A number of old royalty and copyright free books are often digitised and made available online, and sometimes for download.  Here are a few interesting ones relevant to York’s Walls and Castles and York’s history =

Thomas Parsons Cooper (1863–1937), a self-educated official of the York United Gas Light Company, became interested in the defences of York through his enthusiasm for heraldry. Two books by T. P. Cooper have been essential sources of information for other work on York’s History.  These are York: the Story of its Walls, Bars and Castles (1904) and The History of the Castle of York (1911).
York: the Story of its Walls, Bars and Castles (1904) has the full and long title of York: the Story of its Walls, Bars and Castles – being a complete history and pictorial record of the defences of the City of York, from the earliest times to the present day (1904)    LINK   is   HERE 
The History of the Castle of York (1911) has the full and long title of The History of the Castle of York – from its foundation to the present day (1911) with an account of the building of Clifford’s Tower.     LINK   is   HERE 
William Hargrove (16 October 1788 – 29 August 1862) was an English newspaper proprietor and historian of York.  In 1818 Hargrove published a History and Description of the ancient City of York; comprising all the most interesting information already published in Drake’s “Eboracum,” with much new matter and illustrations. The digitised copy is quite poor for some pages.
  •  
History and Description of the Ancient City of York – William Hargrove   LINK  is   HERE
  •  
EBORACUM: or The History and Antiquities of The City of York – from its Original to the Present Times (1736) by Drake    LINK   is   HERE
Pubished  17th November 2022   AF
Share

Four interesting water colour prints showing York’s Bars in the 1879 / 1880 period.

They are by Thomas Dudley, a British artist born 1857, died 1935.  FOYW have the originals, bought at Duggleby Stephenson auctioneers in Murton.
 

Higher resolution images =

Bootham Bar York 1880
Monk Bar York 1879
Walmgate Bar York 1879
Micklegate Bar York 1879

LINKS to the images are at =

Bootham Bar York 1880

Monk Bar York 1879

Walmgate Bar York 1879

Micklegate Bar York 1879

We also have an original first edition set of prints from drawings by Edwin Ridsdale-Tate, the York-based architect and artist (1862-1922), including this one of Fishergate Postern Tower:

York from the Bar Walls near Fishergate Postern Tower
These are all part of a collection we are forming of the works of artists who have used the walls and towers of York as their subject matter and inspiration, both artists of the past like these two, and contemporary artists, including ones we are commissioning to do works especially for us.
Published 28th October 2022   AF
Share

York Walls Festival  2022

Please see the dedicated Walls Festival Website HERE

Fishergate Postern Tower – Open Days at Festival Weekend

@  Junction of Piccadilly and Lead Mill Lane   YO1 9AF

OPEN on Saturday 9th April and then 

OPEN on Saturday 30th April + Sunday 1st & Monday 2nd May  @  York Walls Festival 2022

FREE ENTRY   10am to 4pm each day.   No booking required.

 

All Fishergate Postern Tower OPEN DAYS listed HERE

 

Published 6th April 2022  AF

Share

“Fishergate Postern Tower a Virtual Tour” – improved for 2022

You can now “visit” Fishergate Postern Tower on a new and improved Virtual Tour.  You don’t even have to negotiate the narrow spiral staircase, except in a virtual world, to see what is around and inside the tower – on the ground floor and on the three upper floors in detail.     

Please Go To :-

Fishergate Postern Tower – A Virtual Tour

Using the Tour :-

The virtual tour is based on 360 degree photos, taken from 14 places in and around Fishergate Postern Tower. In each place the camera ‘looked’ all around it – so you can now do the same in the virtual tour.

When you first get one of these photos on screen it is fully zoomed out and there is a red blob-pin in the middle.  Use this pin to get a guide’s short comments on screen.  Computer users can change the size of the lettering by using the + or – key with the control key pressed down.  The comments will disappear in 20 seconds, or you can use the cross at the top right of the comments.

Use the black and white arrows on the screen to go to another of the 14 photo places.  There is an arrow pointing to each of the places you could move directly to if you were really at the tower.

The ‘i’ icons on the screen are placed close to something of special interest which a guide might tell you about.  You can use them to get an illustrated information-sheet on screen in its own window. Its first paragraph is a simply written brief comment. The controls for print size etc. are at the top right of these windows. The same ‘thing of special interest’ may be seen on different photos. There are 10 ‘things’ of special interest:  York City Walls, York Castle, Postern gateway, Tudor toilet outlet, Wall-walk drains, Masons’ marks, Tudor-style toilet-wipes & ‘jordan’, Archaeology, Fear of Scots, Roof timbers.

There is a side-screen which you can slide in by using the chevron on the extreme left hand side . This gives you a ‘short cut’ way to get some of the 14 photos on screen. [If there is an overlap of writing on the screen, computer users can remove this by changing the size of the lettering by using + or – with the control key pressed down.] At the bottom of the screen is an icon you can use to remove all blob-pins, ‘i’  icons etc. from the photos.  Another icon there moves you to and from ‘full screen’ viewing of the photos.

The side-screen tells you that Sky Filming created this virtual tour for the Friends of York Walls.  It doesn’t tell you that Jonathan Mallory of Sky Filming did this for free. The Friends are very grateful to him for this gift to those interested in visiting the tower – especially those who are barred from getting there ‘in reality’, or barred from getting up the spiral stairs there by disability or Covid.

The photos were taken in 2020-21.   Simon Mattam wrote the words used in the tour and would welcome feedback via friendsofyorkwalls@gmail.com.

All images,text and layout are the copyright of Sky Filming, The Friends of York Walls, or Simon Mattam.

A “Stand Alone – off-line”  version of this VR tour is available on request – to download and run as an 960Mbyte  .EXE file. 

Some known Tour “complications and corrections” :-

1) Stairs Photos:   Usually, when you move to a new photo place you start with the same view wherever you have moved from – and the red blob-pin is in the middle of your screen – but the photos on the stairs are different.  If you are going down the stairs then your first view is looking down them and the red blob-pin is above what is on screen.

2) Red Blob-pin:   If a red blob-pin fails to work then try leaving the tour and rejoining it.

Updated  27th February 2022  AF

Share