2017 Brimmer and May England Winterim Trip: Land of the Yew Trees... and chocolate

When the Romans invaded Britannia, they took their time in spreading their influence throughout the island. They weren’t quite sure what they were getting out of this new province and didn’t yet want to exhaust too many resources developing the harsh British lands. The expansion into Britannia started in AD 43 in the south and slowly moved north. It wasn’t until the early AD 70’s that the Ninth Legion established a massive fort on the Ouze river. The Romans named it Eboracum (roughly translates… we think…the word has Celtic roots translated into Latin... to the “land of the yew trees”), and the fort quickly became one of the largest Roman cities outside of Italy. Today Eboracum is known as York, and today’s tour of the modern city exemplifies the value of programs like Winterim. Students had the opportunity to walk through almost 2000 years of history and culture, experiencing learning that no classroom lessons could match.

We started the day by meeting our Blue Badge guide, David; he is a reformed history teacher who is an expert on Yorkshire (Blue Badge guides have to undertake a brutal eighteen-month training that culminates with a 500-question written test), and his knowledge and professionalism were evident from his first interactions with the students. David led us into York Minster, one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in Europe, rivaled only by churches in Milan, Seville, and Cologne. It was built over a span of 250 years in the Middle Ages and is particularly well-known for its striking stained glass windows. The cathedral is located on the center of the original Roman settlement, and in classic European fashion, medieval architects and builders simply started their construction over the previous smaller Roman and Norman churches and buildings at the site. David explained that perhaps only 5% of the Roman settlement has been revealed to the modern world, but the cathedral gave us the opportunity to experience most of that percentage.

The most exciting part of theYork Minster tour was our visit to the undercroft (or crypt) of the church. It was here that students literally and metaphorically descended through centuries of history. As they walked down the steps into the crypt (the York Minster Trust has crafted a wonderful museum to guide visitors), students interacted with exhibits that showed them first the pilings and columns of the original Norman church and then the Roman foundation upon which all of the subsequent churches were built. In one of the exhibits, students insisted that their current dean (your humble blogger) don the costume of the cathedral dean… I could do without the costume but sitting in the dean’s “throne” was pretty neat, and perhaps in the new building, we could arrange a throne in my office…

After a thorough exploration of York Minster, David led us on an entertaining and informative walking tour of the city in which students could feel first-hand what life might have felt like in a medieval town, thanks especially to one street in particular: the York Shambles. The Shambles is probably most notable today for being the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books, but its actual history is even more fascinating. Plumbing wasn’t really a "thing" in medieval cities; if one needed to attend to personal waste management, one would use a chamber pot. However, the sticking (or perhaps “stinking”) point of a chamber pot would be how to deal with a vessel that has been filled, so to speak. Well, Occam’s Razor would indicate that you just dump it out, and that is exactly what the denizens of medieval cities would do. This obviously got a little messy, especially if one were to walk directly under one of those windows, so overhangs were built over the street. The pots were then emptied in the middle of street, and the tops of the buildings leaned into one another, creating that iconic look of crooked buildings that seem allergic to right angles. In addition to the obvious mess that the chamber pots presented, the York Shambles was the street where the butchers would ply their wares. The word “shambles” originally referred to the counters on which the butchers placed their best cuts of meat, but the word has evolved to refer to the utter mess that would gradually build up in the middle of the street (human waste intermingled with the various pieces of offal from the butchered animals). So the next time you refer to your darling young ones’ rooms as “shambles”, you have a clear reference point. Thankfully, the York Shambles cants slightly downhill toward the river, so a healthy rainfall could help with the odor in the city (and residents of medieval towns wondered why they had so many outbreaks of the plague... public health was also not yet a "thing").

Around noon, we bid goodbye to David as he dropped us off in front of a great attraction showing another great bit of York history: The York Chocolate Story. At the turn of the century, York’s economy was dominated by two industries: the railways (the National Railway Museum is located in York… alas, we did not have time to visit it) and more impressively and uniquely, the manufacture of sweet treats, particularly chocolates. Some of our most beloved chocolate confections can trace their origins to the work of such candy pioneers as Craven, Rowntree, and Terry (KitKat, Rolo, et al.) The York Chocolate Story is a guided tour through the history of those chocolatiers and their influence on York’s growth through the Industrial Revolution. Along the tour, the students learned the tropical origins of cacao and its gradual spread through Europe as a luxury item… and there were samples of chocolate in all of its forms throughout the tour… including a recreation of the original elixir the Aztecs consumed as a health drink (it was pretty brutal to get down… I’m not going to lie). At the end of the tour, the students got to create their own sweet treats and sample fresh, handmade chocolates.

For the last couple of hours of the day, the students had the opportunity to walk around and experience York on their own. Many of them chose to revisit some of the locations that David pointed out on the morning’s tour, and more than a couple of them frequented the numerous chocolate boutiques that pepper the landscape of the city. In all, it was one of the most wonderful days I can recall in almost two decades of leading Winterim trips, and I know the students will bring back many memories and probably as much chocolate.

Tomorrow we head south to Oxford and a tour of the New College. I look forward to sharing our adventures in the world of British academia. Thanks again for reading my ramblings! CHECK OUT THE PICTURES BELOW.

David starts explaining the construction of York Minster

The Great East Window

A view of the nave looking east towards the choir screen

A rather dashing dean in official dean-wear.

A pensive dean in the official dean's seat

An imprint of a dog's foot in an original Roman paving tile.

Ms. Frank and Jerry examine the original Roman foundations of the building

A view of the York Shambles. Note the channel down the middle (where the gross stuff would be). The raised sidewalks would be prime strolling real estate.

David pointing out the hanging hooks where the butchers would hang their wares. The shelf behind David is an example of the "shambles" or counters where the butchers would also display their products.