St. Anthony’s Hall, on Peaseholme Green, accommodated those of the city guilds which had no hall of their own. The hall, on the upper floor, 81 feet long and 58 feet wide, was divided into a nave (28 feet wide) and aisles, and was 40 feet high. It possesses a fine timber roof with embattled wall plate. The arched principals spring from corbels depicting angels with shields. Two oak tables remain. One carved “This table done at the cost of the sadlers”. The other “This done at the charges of the joyners and carpenters and masons”. In 1705 St. Anthony’s Hall was converted into the Blue Coat School.
On the opposite side of the street, a gabled house, now the Black Swan, was occupied by the family of Bowes, a member of which, William, was twice Lord Mayor of York. His descendant, Sir Martin Bowes, born in the house, became Lord Mayor of London. Sir Martin presented a sword four feet long with a hilt of silver gilt to his native city. The blade is engraved “for a remembrance to the Mayor and Communaltie of this said honorable Citie”. The sheath was originally covered with crimson velvet garnished with stones and pearls.
The various craft guilds took part in the Mysteries and Miracles, which were rudimentary dramas, founded on Bible history or on the stories of the lives of the saints. Each of the fifty-four crafts produced a separate pageant. The plays took place on Corpus Christi Day, which fell the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, and were enacted on movable stages which could be wheeled from place to place. The performances, which were carried on simultaneously in a dozen different stations in the city, enjoyed a great popularity, and this was one of the reasons for building the Guildhall, that a commodious theatre was needed for these productions.
During the sixteenth century plays were performed in the Guildhall by itinerant companies of players, who attached themselves either to the sovereign or to some prominent nobleman. The stately hall is divided into nave and aisles by two rows of octagonal oak pillars which support timber arches carrying a low-pitched roof. The windows are filled with modern painted glass depicting events in the history of York. The room behind, with its panelling concealing staircases, is that in which two hundred thousand pounds were paid to the Scottish army for handing over Charles I to the English Parliament.
The towers and spires of the churches add much to the charm of the city. Though the churches are small, they are full of interesting objects. The earliest work is the tower of St. Mary, Bishophill Junior, which exhibits all the features of pre-Conquest architecture. St. Mary’s, Castlegate, possesses an extremely interesting stone of the eleventh century, recording that, “This Minster was set up by Eferaud and Grim and Æse in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and St. Mary and St. Martin and St. Cuthbert and All Saints and was consecrated in the year——”
The old church of St. Lawrence, with the exception of the tower, has been taken down and a new church erected on an adjoining site. Sir John Vanbrugh, the dramatist and architect of Blenheim and Castle Howard, was married in the old church. The doorway to the nave has been preserved and rebuilt as the tower doorway. This beautiful example of Norman work forms the subject of one of the pictures. The tower is now the only relic of the eight churches which formerly stood within the area of the present parish. During the siege of York in the seventeenth century, this churchyard formed the base of the Parliamentarian attack on Walmgate Bar, three thousand men being engaged. As a consequence, the church was demolished, but subsequently rebuilt. The quaint parish stocks are within the churchyard gates.
The three Norman doorways of York are all curiously enough in the Walmgate district. The nave of St. Denis was taken down in 1798; the aisled choir and a modern tower now form the church. The old Norman doorway to the nave was rebuilt with square pilasters instead of shafts and forms the new entrance. In the north aisle was buried Henry, Earl of Northumberland, who fell at Towton. Percy’s Inn, an old palace of the Earls of Northumberland, stood opposite the church. The finest Norman doorway is that at St. Margaret’s Church. The arch is of four orders, adorned with the signs of the Zodiac. The piers have a double chevron and carved imposts, whilst the shafts have carved caps. The gable is surmounted with a crucifix.
Most of the churches were rebuilt or extended during the fifteenth century. Many are famous for mediaeval painted glass. All Saints, North Street, has some early fourteenth-century glass. Amongst later work is a window illustrating the poem The Prick of Conscience by Richard Rolle of Hampole. It depicts the last fifteen days of the world, and under each panel are two lines of the poem. Another window depicts the “Corporal Acts of Mercy”. At St. John’s are portrayed events in the life of the Baptist, while at St. Michael’s, Spurriergate, the “Nine Choirs of Angels” are represented. In St. Martin’s, Coney Street, the west window, painted in 1447, illustrates the life of St. Martin. The clerestory contains fine figures of the four Doctors of the church, the four Evangelists, and Saints Barbara, Catherine, Wilfrid, and Denis. The east window at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, is dated 1470. The five lights contain figures of St. George, the Baptist, the Holy Trinity which is represented as Our Father in Pity, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Christopher, with subject panels below. In another window is depicted St. Olaf.
Of the monastic churches, the nave of the alien Benedictine Priory of the Holy Trinity in Micklegate is still in use, it having been converted into a parish church. Adjoining the Rectory is a half-timbered house, still bearing the inn sign “Jacob’s Well”; it is now the Parish Room. It was in the year 1472 the residence of two of the chantry priests of the Priory Church. After the Dissolution it was purchased by Isabel Ward, the last prioress of the Benedictine Nunnery of Clementhorpe, who lived in it until her death in 1569.
York from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the eighteenth was famous for its church-bell founding. The later founders were Oldfield, Smith, Seller, and Dalton, and many of their bells hang in the turrets and towers throughout the northern counties. St. Mary, Bishophill Junior, possesses two fourteenth-century bells, one is inscribed in Gothic capitals and bears a stamp with a figure of the Baptist. The other inscription is in bold black letter and bears a beautiful stamp of the Annunciation.