Monday 3 May 2010

York Minster

As we were walking back from dinner on Tuesday, bell ringing practice was in full swing at York Minster- if you looked up to the belfry you could just see the ropes in action. A magical sound - I've had problems trying to post the movie clip I made but you can get an idea from the videos on this site. We could still hear it when we got back to our hotel (athough the birds were doing their best to compete!)
I was thinking as we walked round the Minster how your perspective changes over the years. Having visited as a child, what struck me then was the scale , now it is the details that attract.
Restoration is currently taking place on the Great East Window and they had some examples on display to illustrate the conservation process, from showing how crude it had been in the past to the current painstaking process where they carefully match the colours, sign and date each piece and crosshatch them so in the future they can be distinguished from the original. I was particularly taken with the medieval depiction of lions (probably not having seen that many, their features are rather human)
Even the lion faced fire-breathing horses from Revelation seem rather benign.
The Apocalypse was certainly heavily featured. Both of us were rather taken by the 'Doomstone', a limestone sculpture in the Undercroft, especially the devils and demons stoking the cauldron of hell.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Such fantastic photos - and wonderful (for me) to be back in York via your blog, for my husband and our daughter both went to school there - not at the same time of course, and I always loved it when we visited. Thanks for bringing me such memories.

Lee said...

I've been there! We toured the Undercroft, and I liked the intersecting cellars best of all.

carorose said...

I was sent to London by my company here in Australia, to work for 6 months, back in the late 60's and on a whim I visited York. It just blew me away. Now every time I get to visit the other side of the world I make a point of visiting York and attending a service at the Minster and having tea at Miss Betty's tea shop. But, I didn't know there was a quilt museum. That one goes on the list for next time.