York - Minster

York was already an important centre in Roman times, when it was known under the name of Eboracum. The Vikings, who took over the area later from the Angels , in turn adapted the name to Norse Jórvík.

After the Anglian settlement York was first capital of Deira and later Northumbria, and by the early 7th century, York was an important royal centre for the Northumbrian kings. Following the Norman Conquest York was substantially damaged in response to regional revolt. Two castles were erected in the city on either side of the River Ouse. In time York became an important urban centre as the administrative centre of the county of Yorkshire, as the seat of an archbishop, and at times in the later 13th and 14th centuries as an alternative seat of royal government. It was an important trading centre.

York prospered during much of the later medieval era; the later years of the 14th and the earlier years of the 15th centuries were characterised by particular prosperity. During the English Civil War, the city was regarded as a Royalist stronghold and was besieged and eventually captured by Parliamentary forces under Lord Fairfax in 1644. After the war, York retained its pre-eminence in the North, and, by 1660, was the third-largest city in England after London and Norwich.

A bishop of York was summoned to the Council of Arles in 314, indicating the presence of a Christian community in York at this time. The present church had at least three predecessors. The first church, mentioned by Beda was a wooden structure built in 627 to provide a place to baptise Edwin, King of Northumbria.

In 741 the existing cathedral was damaged or destroyed, possibly in a fire. The cathedral then passed through the hands of numerous invaders, along with the rest of the city, and its history is unclear until the 10th century. There were a number of Benedictine archbishops, who travelled to Westminster to crown William the Conqueror in 1066. In 1069, a revolt in support of Edgar Ætheling sparked a brutal crackdown. William the Conquerors troops devastated the town and the minster. Later that year, Danish invaders supporting the Ætheling, attacked the town, starting a fire and burning the cathedral to the ground. The first Norman archbishop, Thomas of Bayeux, who arrived in 1070, apparently organised repairs, but in 1075 another Danish force sailed up the river and sacked the minster. Construction of the Norman cathedral began in 1080 and was completed in 1100. Built in the Norman style, the new cathedral was 360 feet (111 m) long.
When Walter de Grey was appointed archbishop in 1215, he ordered the construction of a Gothic structure to rival Canterbury. Construction began in 1220. The north and south transepts were the first new structures, completed in the 1250s. Both were built in the early Gothic style, but had noticeably different wall heights. A massive central tower with a wooden spire was also completed. Construction continued into the 15th century.

The chapter house was started in the 1260s and was completed before 1296. The wide nave was built on Norman foundations from the 1280s. The external roof was completed in the 1330s, but the vaulting was not completed until 1360. Construction then moved on to the east wing and chapels. The Norman chancel was demolished in the 1390s. In 1407 the central tower collapsed. The pillars were then reinforced and a new tower was built in 1420. The western towers were added between 1433 and 1472. In 1472 the cathedral was declared finished and consecrated.

The English Reformation led to the looting of much of the cathedral's treasures. Under Elizabeth I there was a concerted effort to remove all traces of Roman Catholicism from the cathedral; there was much destruction of tombs, windows and altars. In the English Civil War the city was besieged and fell to the forces of Cromwell in 1644, but it was prevented any further damage to the cathedral.

On 9 July 1984 a blaze caused severe destruction to the south transept. Believed to have been started by a lightning strike, the roof burnt for three hours before it was made to collapse by the fire brigade to stop it spreading to other parts of the minster. It took over £2.25 million to repair the damage, and a rededication ceremony was held in October 1988.

Parts of the cathedral are a museum.
Margaret Mellis (1914 - 2009) / Vence Landscape / ca 1950