The solution to last weeks Picture Number 15 –
Bootham Bar is on the site of one of the four main entrances to the Roman fortress. There has been a gateway here for nearly 2000 years. Although much of Bootham Bar was built in the 14th and 19th centuries, it also has some of the oldest surviving stonework, dating to the 11th century. It stands almost on the site of Porta Principalis Dextra – the northwestern gate of Eboracum.
Like the other city gates, Bootham has displayed the heads of traitors in its time: notably Thomas Mowbray in 1405; it easily survived an unsuccessfully attack by Lord Scrope on behalf of the Royal impostor, Lambert Simnell, in 1487; but was heavily damaged by the Earl of Manchester’s troops during the Siege of York (1644). It was restored seven years later and pedestrian archways added in the following century. Fortunately, plans to demolish the bar in 1831 were eventually scrapped.
Bootham Bar was the last of the gates to lose its barbican, demolished in 1835. The Victorian steps leading up to the tower and the wall walk are inappropriately placed against the outer face of the walls !
Picture Number 16 :-
Can you identify this, and where it is ?
The answer will be given here on our FaceBook page.
