Holy Trinity Church (Goodramgate), York

I had every intention of writing last week, but lost 10 pounds in two days on the lower intestinal flu diet.  Needless to say, I was a bit incapacitated.  (Unfortunately the weight came back after I was able to drink enough fluid.)

Back to York...

There are a great many churches within Medieval York, which surprised me at first.  I didn't think there were enough people that lived there at the time to support that many, but then Janilee reminded me that it was a county seat and a major international trade center.  There may not have been that large (comparatively) of a permanent population, but the numbers coming in and out of the city made up the difference.

The Holy Trinity Church (Goodramgate) is kinda hard to find.  The entrance is a small iron gate with a triangular clapboard sign that is put out during business hours.  The yard and church are behind tall walls that don't look any different than all the other back sides of other buildings in the area.  I think we passed it three times before I noticed the sign board.  Oh, and you have to specify the Goodramgate part to differentiate it from the other Holy Trinity churches in town.

When you get through the gate you see this:

To the left of the tower and just above the tree you see the spires of the Yorkminster, just to give you an idea of how close it is to other churches.  Also you can see the walls on the left.  A gardener was pulling ivy off the walls when we got there, and chatted with us briefly.  Mostly he complained about the ivy, but invited us to enjoy ourselves, and that they closed in an hour and a half.

 The church was built in the 1100's, but was fitted with box pews in the 15th century.  It is one of the few places in England that still has the original pews.  Apparently they were put in for families to sit at while listening to the long sermons of Protestant ministers.  Lunch would be brought, and depending on the exact congregation, activities for the children may also have been included.

So many people were buried in this church that the main floor is now a couple of feet higher than the original floor.  This shot was taken from a side apse.

The church is also known for its medieval stained glass windows that somehow survived World War II fairly intact, though some small repairs had to be done.  I got such a kick out of this repair, I had to take a close up of it for my husband.  Plus it's cute.

The windows (obviously):

  The repair:

I don't know why they decided little yellow cartoon airplanes, but there you are.

My computer is being weird - either that or my internet connection is - so I'm going to close this entry.  Next week, I'll post some other random York pictures, and try to tell you a bit about my actual work.  Most days I don't really go rambling over the local countryside, but sit and read and think about the PhD stuff.  My husband reminded me today that was
original intention of the blog, so I probably ought to mention it from time to time.