Bar walls – Bootham Bar to Monk BarPhotographed in spring 2004 |
This stretch of walls, enclosing the trees and gardens of the Minster precincts, changes in atmosphere through the spring, as the trees come into leaf. The photo on the right shows how open the walls are in March. By late spring the trees on the left fill with leaves and the walls are a different place. Normally, in the streets, tree branches are high above you, but here, as you're on the walls, the branches come to meet you. |
"In the gardens of the canons' houses the stiff, gummy chestnut buds cluster between you and the Minster" – A G Dickens, 1952 |
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Chestnut tree, March 2004 |
Chestnut tree, April 2004 |
Chestnut tree, May 2004 |
Above and below – sections of the walls, near Bootham Bar. |
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The images above can be compared to views from January 2004, in York Walks /1: Bootham Bar to Monk Bar and also summer views in York Walks /3: Bootham Bar to Monk Bar |
This isn't a beautiful photo, and it shows what appears to be just a section of shops on Lord Mayor's Walk, taken from the bar walls. But behind the tree and lamp-post in the middle of the photo Groves Lane is just visible, on the opposite side of the road. Groves Lane begins here as a narrow alleyway between buildings, and it continues for some distance, through the Groves. Groves Lane follows the old Roman route out of the city, so it's an ancient thoroughfare. It's hard to keep this in mind as you skirt the car park, but it's true, according to people who know such things. |
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So this means that where I was standing to take the photo above there used to be a Roman gateway – the Porta Decumana – in the north-east wall of the fortress of Eboracum. |
Late spring on the walls |
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Spring growth changes the view on this stretch of wall, as it surrounds the trees and gardens of the Minster precincts. Two months on from the photos above, which were taken in early spring, these photos (right, and below) show how the leaves have filled all the spaces where bare branches were in March. These photos were taken on the evening of 18 May 2004, when the green of the new growth was at its most brilliant. |
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