York Minster

Known for being one of the most magnificent medieval structures in Europe, York Minster Cathedral (or St Peters) is situated on land that has been used for religious purposes since as early as 300 A.D.

The first church on the site was a wooden structure, built in 627 to provide a place for Edwin, King of Northumbria, to be baptised.  Edwin had converted to Christianity, and was venerated as a saint after his death at the Battle of Hatfield Chase. 

A more substantial structure was constructed in the 630s.  By 637, the structure was completed by Oswald, the then King of Northumbria.  The church was dedicated to St Peter and, following Oswald's death, he was also venerated as a saint. 

Following this, the church fell into disrepair.  By 676 it was in a dilapidated state, and the English Bishop and Saint, Wilfred, started to repair the church when he was elevated to See of York.  Wilfred added a library and school which, by the eighth century, had become very influential.

Fire destroyed York Minster in 741, after which it was rebuilt with much grandeur, including thirty altars.  The church and its surrounding areas passed through a variety of conquering armies, including Vikings in 866.

A series of Benedictine Monks travelled to Westminster to crown William the Conqueror as king.  William was the first Norman king, having descended from Viking raiders.  On Christmas Day, 1066, the Saxon Archbishop of York, Ealdred, anointed and crowned William.  Following the pillaging and damaging of the Saxon Church, William, realising that his support was a clever political move, appointed Thomas Bayeaux as the first Norman Archbishop in 1070.  

In 1070, the invading Danes destroyed the Cathedral.  York Minster was rebuilt in 1080 in the Norman style, with rendering that had red and white lines.  Although the new structure was also damaged by fire in 1137, it was quickly restored.  In 1154, the choir and crypt were remodelled, and a new chapel was built in the Norman style. 

By the mid-12th century, the Gothic style in cathedrals had become popular.  In 1215, Walter de Gray, an English statesman and prelate, was made Archbishop of York.  He ordered the construction of a Gothic-style structure that would be as good as Canterbury.  In 1220, building on the North and South transepts, areas set across the nave in a cross shape, were built in the early Gothic style.

A large tower was completed with a wooden spire, and building continued on into the 15th century.  The nave was constructed on the Norman foundations in the 1280s.  The chapter house, which was started in the 1260s, was completed in 1296.  The outer roof construction was completed in the 1330s, while the roof vaulting was finished in 1360.

The last Norman structure was demolished in the 1390s.  When the central tower collapsed in 1407, it took until 1420 to rebuild and reinforce the new tower.  Between 1433 and 1472, the Western towers were added to the Cathedral.  York Minster Cathedral was declared complete and consecrated in 1472.

During the English Reformation, York Minster was looted, and its treasures and much of the church lands were confiscated.  When Elizabeth I became Queen, she wanted to remove all traces of Roman Catholicism from the Cathedral.  Altars, windows and tombs were destroyed. 

During the English Civil War, York was besieged by the forces of Oliver Cromwell.  A descendant of Thomas Cromwell, counsel to Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell was a military and political leader.  It was Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, a commander-in-chief and general, who stopped the destruction of York Minster.  Following the easing of religious tension, more restoration work was carried out on the Cathedral.  The entire floor of the ministry was replaced with patterned marble between the years 1730 to 1736.  From 1802, major restorations took place in York Minster.

An arson attack on February 1st, 1829, resulted in huge amounts of damage to the East Arm of the Cathedral.  Jonathan Martin had attended Evensong, and had been agitated by what he said was a buzzing from the organ.  He lit a lamp in the bell tower and set fire to the church's woodwork.  In 1840, an accidental fire left the South aisle, nave and West tower roofless. 

Falling deeper and deeper into debt, the Cathedral suspended services in the 1850s.  Augustus Duncombe, appointed Dean of York in 1858 until his death in 1880, worked hard to restore and return the Cathedral to its former glory. 

The 20th century saw a concerted effort to preserve the Cathedral.  This resolve was inspired by a report done on the structure of York Minster, suggesting it was close to collapsing.  By 1972, the structure had been reinforced and strengthened. 

On July 9th, 1984, a fire caused by a lightning strike destroyed the roof of the South transept.  Fire crews in York and surrounding areas struggled with low water pressure, needing to jet the water high to put the fire out on the enormous roof.  They instead worked hard to save the Rose Window, which was under threat from the fire.  It was badly cracked due to the intense heat around it.  Situated high in the gable of the South transept, the window was produced in the workshop of the Master Glazier, Robert Petty, in 1955.  The red and white roses on the window were in honour of the Union of the Lancaster and Tudor houses when Henry VII married Elizabeth of York.  The window was painstakingly repaired.

Found in early restorations, the remains of a Roman Principia, headquarters of the early Roman Fort, Eboracum, as well as the remains of the Norman Cathedral, were opened to the public in 2013.

York Minster is said to be haunted by a dog called Seamus.  His barking is said to echo through the Cathedral at night.  It is believed that he belonged to a stonemason who worked on the Cathedral.  The other workers didn't like the stonemason or his dog, so they decided to brick the dog into the walls of the Cathedral.  His owner, the stonemason, was unable to find him, and so Seamus died alone in the dark. 

The ghost of an elderly gentleman is seen at services.  He purportedly loved the minster so much he didn't want to leave.  He sits and listens to the sermons.

A ghostly man in medieval clothes is seen at times carving wood, inviting people to look at his handiwork.

In the 1820s, a woman saw the ghost of her brother in York Minster.  He had just died on a faraway shore, and appeared to her as she sat praying in the Cathedral.

When I visited York, I was in awe of the magnificent structure of York Minster.  York is such an historic town, and the Cathedral is a fitting complement to its beautiful architecture.

St Andrew's Cathedral

The construction of St Andrew's Cathedral began in 1158.  The Cathedral took over a century to build, and was the largest Cathedral in Scotland.  St Andrew's Cathedral was constructed on the site of St Regulus (St Rule) Church, which was built to house the relics of St Andrew in 1070, and the even older religious site on the seaward side of the Cathedral, Church of St Mary of the Rock.

Originally created to help accommodate more people than the older Church of St Regulus (St Rule) on the site, St Andrew's Cathedral was consecrated during the reign of Robert I, King of The Scots, on July 5th, 1318, by Bishop Wardlaw. 

The Cathedral served a community of Augustinian Canons.  It was used for over three hundred years by the Augustines.  The west end of the Cathedral was destroyed in a storm and then subsequently repaired in the years between 1272 and 1279.  When intact, the Cathedral comprised of six turrets and a central tower. 

In 1378, the Cathedral was damaged by a fire.  Restoration and further embellishment of the structure were eventually completed in 1440.

In 1559, during the Scottish Reformation, a time when Scotland broke with the Papacy and developed a mostly Calvanist kirk with a strong Presbyterian influence, the Cathedral was ransacked.  The building was stripped of its altars and images.  By 1561, it had been totally abandoned and left to ruin. 

At the end of the 16th century, the central tower collapsed, bringing with it the north wall of the Cathedral.  Large parts of the ruined Cathedral were taken away to be used as building materials at other sites.  Nothing was done to preserve what was left of the Cathedral until 1826.

Nowadays, a visitor to St Andrew's Cathedral can see the west door, sections of the south aisle, the east wall, and a single tower of the west front.  The Cathedral has a huge perimeter wall, and the tower of St Regulus (St Rule) still stands.  A few turrets, gables and sections of the chapter house remain, as does the ancient graveyard.   

St Andrew's Cathedral is supposedly haunted by several different spectres.  A ghostly monk is said to wander around the magnificent tower of St Regulus (St Rules) Church.  He has been known to offer assistance to tourists.  On one occasion, a visitor to the ruins claims to have been asked by the ghostly monk if he required assistance with the stairs of the tower.  The monk is believed to be a former Prior of St Andrew's, Robert de Montrose, who climbed the tower stairs to enjoy the view at night.  He apparently was forced to discipline one of his charges.  This disgruntled monk supposedly followed Montrose up the tower and stabbed him in the back with a dagger.  He then hurled Montrose to the ground.  The murdered Prior has also been seen falling from the tower by tourists in a macabre re-enactment of his death.  

Another famous ghost is the veiled nun.  Legend has it that she was very beautiful and rich, and had turned down many suitors.  When one suitor caught her attentions, she agreed to marry him.  As wedding preparations were being made, the woman changed her mind.  She decided, instead, to enter a nunnery.  When her fiancé heard the news he rushed to St Andrew's.  When he arrived, however, she had already cut off her eyelids, slit both her nostrils, cut off her lips and branded both her cheeks.  Horrified, her fiancé returned home and committed suicide.  The young woman died a few weeks later.  Since this event, people have claimed to see the veiled figure.

A woman in white has been observed wandering the grounds of the Cathedral.  She walks amongst the ancient graves and the tower.  The sightings of this female apparition were recorded as early as the 1800s.  She seemingly has long black hair, and some people have reported seeing her carrying a book in her hand.  In the 1860s, a group of stonemasons working on the Cathedral reportedly broke a wall and saw into a crypt.  Amongst the bodies within the crypt was a well-preserved female with long dark hair, wearing a white dress and white gloves.

I have fond memories of St Andrew's Cathedral.  It was a peaceful place, with ancient graves and a looming tower.  You walk quietly amongst the ruins of gothic gables and crumbling walls, all the while aware that it was once an ancient place of something mystical and profound.

Glastonbury Abbey

Glastonbury Abbey was founded in the early 7th Century by the Britons.  When Somerset was conquered by the Saxons, their Christian King, Ine of Wessex, built a minister - a settlement of clergy - in Glastonbury.  King Ine built a stone church at the base of what now forms the west end of the Nave.

In 960, St Dunstan became the Bishop of Glastonbury.  Dunstan, a famous illuminator, musician, artist and metalworker, originally worked as a scriptorium and silversmith at Glastonbury.  St Dunstan established a Benedictine monastery at Glastonbury. 

Glastonbury became very wealthy; however, the Abbey could not cushion the Saxons from the invasion of the Normans when they invaded England.  The very skilled Norman craftsmen added magnificent buildings to the Abbey.  In 1086, the Domesday Book was commissioned to provide a record of census of life in England.  In this census, Glastonbury was listed as the wealthiest monastery in England. 

A fire in 1184 destroyed many of the ancient treasures and the buildings created by the Normans at the Abbey.  In 1191, monks at Glastonbury Abbey discovered a massive hollowed-out trunk that contained two skeletons.  The skeletons were a large-boned man and a woman with remnants of golden-coloured hair still attached to her skull.  A leaden cross was discovered with the bodies with the inscription, "Hic jacet sepultus inclitus rex Arthurus in insula Avalonia - Here lies interred the famous King Arthur on the Isle of Avalon."

Several stories surround the discovery of the bodies.  It was said that Henry II had encouraged the search for the bodies after hearing a story from an old Welsh bard that suggested that Arthur and Guinevere were buried at the site of the Abbey.  It was also suggested that, in order to rebuild the Abbey after the fire, the monks may have come up with the story of discovering the bodies of Arthur and Guinevere as a way to raise much-needed money for the restoration of the buildings.  It was even said that the monks at Glastonbury had accidentally stumbled across the skeletons when digging a grave for a monk from the Abbey. 

In 1197, Savaric fitzGeldewin, Bishop of Bath and Wells, traded the city of Bath to the King in return for the Monastery of Glastonbury.  He planned to be the Bishop of Bath and an Abbot of Glastonbury.  The monks of Glastonbury Abbey protested and sent an appeal to Rome, which was dismissed.  King Richard sided with the monks after hearing their plight, and allowed them to vote for their own leader.  They chose William Pica, and Savaric responded by excommunicating him.  In 1199, John became the King in place of his brother, Richard.  Savaric saw an opportunity, and forced his way back into the Abbey.  This time, a small party of protesters, including William Pica, travelled to Rome to appeal to the newly-appointed Pope Innocent III.  Initially siding with the monks, Pope Innocent III lifted Pica's excommunication.  However, during this appeal process, Pica and several of his supporters died in Rome.  Some believe it was due to poison, administered by Savaric.  Pope Innocent III then changed his mind and reinstated Savaric.  His plan was to secure more control of the monasteries in his diocese.  However, he died before he could put his plans into action. 

In 1213, services began at the Great Church that had been reconsecrated.  On the 19th of April 1278, King Edward I and Queen Eleanor attended the service of the re-burial of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere at the foot of the High Altar.  By the 14th century, only Westminster Abbey was wealthier than Glastonbury Abbey.  In order to accommodate the large number of pilgrims travelling to the Abbey, the George Hotel and Pilgrims Inn was constructed.

Between 1536 and 1541, the Dissolution of the Monasteries occurred.  Instigated by King Henry VIII, the Dissolution resulted in the disbanding of Catholic monasteries, priories, friaries and convents in England, Wales and Ireland.  At the start of the Dissolution there were 850 monasteries and, by 1541, there were none.  Over 15,000 monks and nuns were displaced, and all the buildings and their assets were seized by the crown. 

Unexpectedly, in September 1539, Richard Layton, Richard Pollard and Thomas Moyle visited Glastonbury Abbey.  They were there, on the orders of Thomas Cromwell, to take all assets and values and seize all property.  When the Abbot, Richard Whiting, resisted, he was taken to Glastonbury Tor where he was hung, drawn and quartered as a traitor.

Following the Dissolution, two of Glastonbury Abbey's manors in Wiltshire were given to John Thynne and, thereafter, they passed to his descendents who would eventually become the Marqueses of Bath.  The ruined Abbey was eventually stripped of its lead and all of its dress stones.  Edward VI granted the site to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset.  Seymour established a colony of Protestant Dutch weavers on the site.

By 1551, the Abbey reverted to the crown and, with the reign of Mary, the weavers were removed from the Abbey.  In 1559, Elizabeth I granted the site to Peter Carew, an English adventurer who had served in the Tudor conquest of Ireland, and it remained in private ownership until the 20th century.  In 1908, the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey were purchased by the Diocesan of Bath and Wells.  The ruins then became the property of the Glastonbury Abbey Trust.  On acquiring the site, the trust commissioned Frederick Bligh Bond to do an archaeological study of the site.  Bligh Bond went on to discover the Edgar Chapel, the North Porch and St Dunstan's Chapel.  When Bligh Bond revealed in his book, "The Gates of Rememberance", that he had discovered the buildings at Glastonbury Abbey under the direction of dead monks, the Trust distanced themselves.  Bligh Bond had conducted the first documented psychic archaeological dig.  He said that the ghosts of monks had guided him through his psychic friend, Captain John Bartlett, and through automatic writing. 

There have been many reports of paranormal activity at Glastonbury Abbey.  Ghostly monks have been seen wandering around the buildings, and even fishing at the River Brue.  The chant of monks has been heard by visitors to the Abbey.  The ghost of a monk, said to have killed himself after his fathering of an illegitimate child was brought to light, purportedly haunts the abbey grounds.  A ghostly monk also wanders the orchard.  He is said to have gone mad after drinking the dregs of poison meant for someone else.  A monk and supposed spy for Henry VIII is also said to haunt the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey.  Many photographs showing a white spectral figure have been taken by tourists in the grounds of the Abbey.  The Holy Thorn tree at Glastonbury Abbey is believed to have grown from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, who may have even had the child, Jesus, with him when he purportedly visited the Abbey.  There has been speculation that Glastonbury Abbey is indeed the location of the fabled Isle of Avalon.  There is also said to be a large knight in dark armour with blazing red eyes that walks amongst the ruins of the Abbey, angry and trying hard to eradicate the memory of King Arthur. 

I was very excited to visit Glastonbury.  I remember that walking amongst the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey felt very peaceful.