Secular Buildings: Miscellaneous

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 3, South west. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1972.

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'Secular Buildings: Miscellaneous', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 3, South west, (London, 1972) pp. 48-68. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/york/vol3/pp48-68 [accessed 25 April 2024]

SECULAR

(20) Ouse Bridge (Plates 142, 143), crossing the River Ouse from Bridge Street to Low Ousegate, is an early 19th-century structure of brown limestone. It was probably at this crossing that a timber bridge collapsed under the weight of the multitude that welcomed St. William in 1154, precipitating 200 people into the river (W. H. Dixon and J. Raine, Fasti Eboracenses (1863), 225–6). A stone bridge must have been built in the second half of the 12th century as on it there was built a chapel of which there are 12th-century remains in the Yorkshire Museum. The chapel on Ouse Bridge is mentioned in 1223 (York Memorandum Book, SS, cxxv, 68) and by 1228 it had been rededicated to St. William (CPR, 1225–32, 175) who had been canonised in the previous year. Archbishop Walter de Gray appealed for money to repair the bridge in 1233 (Archbishop Gray's Register, SS, lvi, 60–1) and further sums of money for repairs are documented in 1307, 1407 and 1493 (YCA, G.I; CCR, 1405–9, 214; TE iv, 39).

St. William's Chapel stood on the N. side of the bridge, at the Bridge Street end; W. of it was the City Council Chamber, to which there was access from the chapel, and associated gaols known as the 'kidcotes'. Houses and shops, for which several 15th-century leases survive, were built on the bridge, as well as a stone cross (YCA, Memo. Book B/Y, f. 39v.) and an almshouse or Maison Dieu for women (York Memorandum Book, SS, cxxv, 291–2; Raine, 207–25). In the winter of 1564–5 two arches of the bridge and twelve of the houses upon it were destroyed by floods. Leonard Craven, carpenter, undertook in 1565 to complete a 'gytty' or caisson to allow masons to put down new foundations (YCR, vi, 100). Martin Bowes, Lord Mayor of London, sent Thomas Harper, who had worked on London Bridge, to advise the Corporation (YCR, vi, 103) and a single arch spanning 81 ft. was designed to replace the two spans destroyed. Christopher Walmesley was appointed mason for the rebuilding. John Todd, carpenter, made the centring (YCR, vi, 113, 121) and Walmesley was assisted by 'Walmesley Junior' and Whithead (ibid., 120), masons; squared stone was delivered by William Oldred, mason (ibid., 113). Further stone was taken from Foss Bridge Chapel, Holy Trinity Priory, St. George's Chapel by Castle Mills and the 'Bichedoughter Tower' of the walls by the Old Baile, and was requested from the Archbishop either from St. Mary's Abbey or the former Archbishop's Palace (YCR, vi, 73, 114, 115). The main work was probably completed in 1566, but further repairs were executed by Walmesley until 1572 (YCR, vi, 120, 139; vii, 8, 49).

In 1745 it was agreed 'to pull down the little houses on the top of Ouse Bridge'; houses were being removed until 1793 (YCA, M.17), and balustrades were erected. In 1795 a committee reported on the state of the bridge, recommending that it should be rebuilt, if possible in iron, and that it should be 35 ft. wide within the parapets (YCA, M.17). A competition for widening the bridge, utilising the existing arches, was held in 1809 and the results announced in the York Courant of 25 September. The first premium of £100 was awarded to Peter Atkinson (II), architect and City Steward, the second of £60 to John Rawsthorne, and the third of £40 to Charles Watson. Subscription lists were drawn up, and an Act of Parliament passed to authorise the work. Thomas Harrison (1744–1829) of Chester, in a 'Report on the Present State of Ouse Bridge' in the York Courant (5 March 1810), recommended the complete rebuilding of the bridge, as the existing structure was in such a state of disrepair. Atkinson produced new designs, with three spans instead of five (Plates 143, 144), and on 10 December 1810, the first stone was laid. Debts of £30,000 were soon incurred, and the scheme was suspended. On 7 June 1815 a second Act, for an enlarged and amended scheme, became law, and provided that the County should help with the cost. Atkinson remained architect, David Russell was Clerk of Works, and the contract was let to Messrs. (Abraham) Craven. The bridge was built in two halves, longitudinally, to permit the retention of the old bridge until free passage was obtainable across the new. The centre arch was to have a span of 75 ft., and the two side arches, spans of 64 ft. each. The first half of the bridge was opened on 1 January 1818, and the second half completed in summer 1820; tolls were abolished on 18 June 1829 (VCH, York, 515–18).

The bridge (Plate 142) is in three spans of segmental arches with heavily rusticated masonry. The rustication is continued on the under side of the arches and a straight joint shows the junction of the two builds. On either side of the river on the S. side are stairways to the tow-paths; a small building has been removed from the S.E. angle of the bridge. The fabric has been much patched, and the lamp standards are modern. A contemporary newspaper cutting records the inscription on a brass plate deposited in a cavity of the new bridge:

The FIRST STONE of This BRIDGE was laid December 10th in the Year MDCCCX And in the Reign of GEORGE the THIRD by The Rt. Hon. GEO. PEACOCK Lord Mayor. PETER ATKINSON Architect.

St. William's Chapel (Plate 145) was demolished in 1810 but some of its masonry survives in the Yorkshire Museum, and the clock from it is now in Scunthorpe Museum. A chapel was standing in 1223 and was rebuilt, incorporating parts of the earlier structure, after 1228 when letters of protection were granted for David, collecting money for the Ouse Bridge and the Chapel of St. William of York (CPR, 1225–32, 175). The chapel was built above a cellar, which in 1376 was leased to John de Shirburn (York Memorandum Book, SS, cxx, 5). The cellar had one round or segmental-headed window flanked by two rectangular windows in its E. wall (Halfpenny, Plate 22). A watercolour of 1776 (Gott Collection, Wakefield Museum, iii. 12) and a view by Cave (Plate 23) show a small door fronting the street to E. of the main door to the chapel, though this is not shown on the plan of c. 1800 (Evelyn Photographic Collection, No. 51). It may have led to a staircase to the lower level. In 1547 it was agreed to take down the steeple and all the lead from the chapel, and re-roof it with stone. All the fittings were to be sold, with the exception of the clock and bells (YCR, v, 39) but the Marian reaction led to refurnishing. In 1554 repairs to the glass windows and altars were ordered, and payments made to Edmond Walkyngton and (William?) Fornes, glaziers, and John Wedderell, locksmith, for mending the broken glass windows in the chapel; to Thomas Yaits, tiler, for repairs to the walls about the windows; and to (Richard) Graves and (Thomas) Grethede, carvers, for eight new pillars to the 'parclose' (YCR, v, 100; Raine, 216). In 1578, Queen Elizabeth's arms were set above the chapel door to show that the building was being used as a law court (YCR, vii, 175). Alterations were ordered in 1585 to chambers in the chapel used for the detention of prisoners (YCR, viii, 99–100). The chapel was demolished in 1810 during the rebuilding of the bridge but drawings were made during its demolition (Cave, Plates 23–7; original drawings in York City Art Galley, Evelyn Collection, PD 1325–8).

Monumental fragments survive in the Yorkshire Museum:

(i) Two voussoirs (No. 482). A chain moulding with two rows of small pellets around each link, with three-leafed plants in triangular panels. This formed part of the middle of three orders of a round-headed porch to the chapel, known from 1749 'Drawings of Saxon Churches' in the Society of Antiquaries, F14 and F17, Halfpenny, Plate 23, and Cave, Plate 25.

(ii) Two voussoirs (No. 504). Similar to 482.

(iii) Four voussoirs (Nos. 430, 431, 432, and 433).

(iv) Remains of a round-headed arcade (No. 434, sixteen stones forming two and a half arches), and a moulded string-course (Nos. 435–8) (Plate 145). The arches are decorated with chevron ornament on the face and soffit. No. 435 is the returned end of the string. The source was in the W. wall of the chapel, to right of the pointed-arch doorway which gave access to the Common Hall (Cave, Plates 26 and 27).

(v) A carved stone, apparently a reworked voussoir (Plate 141). It exhibits both diagonal tooling and claw tooling, and so was probably part of a 12th-century arch reused in the 13th-century rebuilding. The carving, in low relief, does not seem to relate to its earlier use as a voussoir, and is incomplete. The upper register represents the Annunciation and the lower the Flight into Egypt. The latter includes a building with piercings possibly representing tracery, in which case the carving is unlikely to be earlier than the 13th century; this is borne out by the claw tooling on the stone. Identification rests on a detailed sketch with full notes made in 1825 by the Rev. J. Skinner (BM, Add. MS. 33684, ff. 30v., 33).

Clock (now in Scunthorpe Museum) (Plate 146). A clock at the chapel on Ouse Bridge is mentioned between entries of 1390 and 1399 (York Memorandum Book, SS, cxx, 223). This is presumably the same as the clock of the Corporation on Ouse Bridge of 1428 (op. cit., p. 183). The earliest specific mention of a clock with a dial is in 1666 (YCA, Chamberlains' Accounts 26, f. 17). This is the surviving clock, made in 1658 by William Edwards of London (YCA, House Book B. 37, f. 111v.; Chamberlains' Accounts 1658, f. 17). The clock tower appears in many views. The clock was altered 'unto a long pendulum' in 1703 (House Book B. 40, f. 156v.). It was taken down in 1809 (House Book B. 47, f. 356) and sold for 25 guineas to the parish of St. Michael Spurriergate. The bell was sold to George Thomas Richardson, brazier, for a shilling per pound (op. cit., f. 353). The clock was acquired from Barrow-on-Humber church by Scunthorpe Museum and Art Gallery in c. 1954. The bell mechanism does not form part of the 1658 clock. On the clock is a metal plate (Plate 146) inscribed:—

Robert Horner 1658 Maior Aldermen
Sir Thomas Dickinson
Henry Tomson
John Geldart

Gulielmus Edwardus Cambriae Britaniae me fecit

(21) Holgate Bridge (58795133) crosses Holgate Beck, on Holgate Road. The N. side is probably part of a bridge built in 1824 (Sheahan and Whellan, 1, 663); the S. side is modern. The N. side (c. 1824), pierced by a round arch of ashlar with a projecting keystone, has moulded architraves and a heavy ashlar parapet. The remainder of the elevation, and the soffit of the arch, is of brick. At the W. end of the N. parapet is a piece of magnesian limestone, reused, inscribed 'H. M.' probably for Henry Masterman, Lord of the Manor of Acomb and Holgate (d. 1769).

(22) Scarborough Bridge (59615205) is a combined rail and pedestrian bridge of two spans across the River Ouse to W. of Lendal Bridge. It was built in 1845 for the York to Scarborough railway line (Blythe and Moore's Stranger's Guide (1846), 56); a contemporary description occurs in an account of the opening (Yorks. Gazette, 12 July 1845). It was reconstructed in 1874, when all the original ironwork was replaced by new girders and the foot-way was moved from the centre to the E. side of the bridge. The earlier arrangement is on record (OS 1852). The main alterations can be deduced by comparison with an early photograph (NMR, CC61/12) and a watercolour in York Railway Museum (No. 60).

The two spans are carried on a central pier, battered on all four sides, and abutments, all of gritstone ashlar. Both abutments were pierced by barrel-vaulted archways, with moulded architrave, key-block, and a string running across the piers at impost level. The S. archway is now blocked, and appears as a round-headed recess. The curved retaining wall to the embankment has been cut back, and is now free-standing in front of the pedestrian way. A square-headed opening to the S. of the S. pier, roofed with flat slabs, dates from 1874. The N. archway is intact, although the passage floor has been raised. Straight joints in the N. wall of the passage indicate the blocked entrances to the two flights of steps, which rose to a common landing, from which a single flight returned to the pedestrian way along the centre of the bridge. The pier and abutments have moulded parapets above a bold cornice. This upper portion of masonry has been heightened by the insertion of an additional string and a deep flat band of masonry above the level of the keystones. The original ironwork has been replaced but the seatings for the main struts, four to each side of a span, remain.

(23) Knavesmire Racecourse Grandstand, built in 1755–6 and originally of two storeys, was removed from its original site before 1925 (Benson, iii, fig. 21), and the lower storey only has been rebuilt in the Paddock. The first recorded race at York was in 1530 (VCH, York, 159). In 1708–9 regular racing began on land provided by Sir William Robinson at Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings. In 1730 the Wardens of Micklegate Stray were ordered to chain the Knavesmire, and the following spring the Pasture Masters were told to spend £100 on levelling, spreading and rolling the ground. The first meeting there was in summer 1731 (YCA, B.42, f. 136). The prime mover in the project for the grandstand on the Knavesmire was the Marquess of Rockingham (1730–82), and there is a survey of York racecourse in his estate papers (R. B. Wragg, 'The Stand House on the Knavesmire', York Georgian Soc. Report, 1965–6, 4). On 7 December 1753 an application to erect a stand was made to the City, a lease of the ground was granted, and in 1754 subscriptions were requested by advertisement. Designs were submitted by Sir Thomas Robinson, James Paine and John Carr. Carr's design was chosen, and work began on the site in 1755. The architect's fees were £160 10s., and the Clerk of Works, Thomas Terry, received £20 for 2 years' supervision. John Carr provided 20 tons of Elland slate for £10, and most of the stone came from Hooton Roberts near Rotherham, a quarry owned by Rockingham, who himself paid £10 to Joseph Wood for clearing the quarry head, and probably gave a large amount of the stone. Richard Raisin was the carpenter and the plasterer was Richard Ward. The Grandstand cost £1,896 and in addition the Marquess of Rockingham paid £415 out of his own pocket, to cover outstanding tradesmen's bills, to George Thompson, who had administered the finances.

The front elevation forms an arcade of nine bays: the central and end bays are faced with rusticated stonework and project slightly to form three pavilions, the central one surmounted by a pediment; the intermediate bays are of brick with stone bases and imposts. A stone cornice runs the length of the building, above which is a balustrade interrupted by solid stonework over the piers and over the pediment. The rusticated stone arches are repeated in the end elevations. The whole of the brickwork is modern.

An engraving, dated 12 August 1755, by Fourdrinier, and a perspective of 1759 by Carr's assistant William Lindley, show above the surviving ground floor a symmetrical lofty first floor of seven bays. Round-headed windows with small panes set in round-headed recesses, of a design used also in Castlegate House, flank a central Venetian window. At the top is a bold balustrade like that below, and in the centre over the Venetian window is a large rectangular block of masonry decorated with swags and festoons beneath a rococo cartouche. Its condition in 1818 has been described (Hargrove, iii, 515):—'The Ground Floor of the stand comprises several convenient rooms and offices for a resident, and for the entertainment of company, who may be accommodated with any kind of refreshment. On the Second Floor is a very commodious and handsome room, with a balustrade projection in front, more than 200 feet in length and supported by a rustic arcade 15 feet high, and commanding a fine view of the whole course. The top or roof of the building is leaded and constructed peculiarly for the accommodation of spectators.'

(24) Middleton's Hospital, Skeldergate, was founded by Mrs. Ann Middleton, widow of Peter Middleton (Sheriff in 1618), in 1659 (Drake, 266). This building, which stood on ground leased from the Vicars Choral (York Minster Library, Vicars Choral Plans), was taken down, and the present hospital built by the Corporation of York (as Trustees for the Charity) in 1827–9 (Allen, 1, 331; YCA, M.17/A, 8 June 1827) on the freehold portion of the site, further back. The architect was Peter Atkinson, the builder Mr. Dalton and the joiner Henry Hansom.

The building has two storeys built of stock brick in Flemish bond with stone dressings to the front. (Plate 151; Fig. 44). It is in seven bays of which the central three break forward under a pediment. At the eaves is a moulded gutter carried on modillions which are continued across the pediment. The central entrance has a stone architrave and a cornice supported by brackets; above is a round-headed niche with moulded architrave and stone blocks flanking the base, carved with honeysuckle issuing from volutes in bas-relief. Within the niche is a painted stone figure of the foundress in mid 17th-century Puritan costume, probably from the earlier almshouse. To each side are hung-sash windows with rubbed brick arches. At the back is a small central porch which has been extended.

The accommodation consists of eleven rooms on each floor, six along the front and five rooms and a staircase at the back.

(25) St. Catherine's Hospital, No. 45 Holgate Road, replaces an earlier almshouse which fronted The Mount in the centre of the site now occupied by Nos. 116–28. This older building is prominent in all the earlier prospects of York from The Mount (Plate 2) and had itself been built in 1652 on the site of a mediaeval foundation variously described as a lazar-house and a xenodochium or place of hospitality for poor travellers (Drake, 246; Hargrove, ii, 508–10; Davies, 105). The close of land in which the old almshouse stood was acquired by Leonard and John (afterwards Sir John) Simpson, who in 1833 petitioned the Corporation to be allowed to transfer the hospital to a new site on Holgate Lane, now Holgate Road, at the rear of the property, in order that they might develop the valuable frontage. They had obtained designs for the new building from the architect George T. Andrews. After taking legal advice the City agreed to the proposal and the hospital was built in 1834–5; on 7 May 1835 it was stated that 'the new building... is in all respects more commodious than the Old Hospital—the inmates shall be peremptorily required to remove within fourteen days from this time' (YCA, K.82; M.17/A, B). In fact completion seems to have been delayed until 22 August 1835.

Fig. 44. (24) Middleton's Hospital, Skeldergate.

The building is of a single storey, in brick with ashlar dressings in the Tudor style, with square-headed two-light mullioned windows; the roof is of Welsh slate. The centre of the almshouse is recessed at front and rear, between two side wings each containing a front and a back room. Demolished 1962.

(26) Mosley's School, Cambridge Street, now a fireplace factory, was founded in 1844, and its buildings erected shortly afterwards; at first it was called Holgate Classical and Commercial Seminary, but was usually known as Mosley's School. 'It provided an efficient commercial education for the sons of business and professional men' and closed soon after 1901 (Knight, 696).

The building consists of a large hall on the S.W. side and a low annexe to N.E. divided into two rooms. The walls are of broad red brick, and the windows have stone heads; the roofs are covered with slates. The N.E. front is of four bays defined by buttresses with sloping stone heads and above them is a moulded stone string and plain parapet. The S.E. bay is blank, the next two have large recesses with four-centred heads and chamfered reveals, and the end bay has a blocked doorway with similar features. There are gables at both ends with stone finials and copings prolonged to a lower slope above the annexe.

The S.E. end has a later opening cut into the bottom of a three-light window with a square stone head, chamfered reveals and a high transom, flanked by similar two-light windows, beneath a single-light window at the head. The N.W. end has similar windows to the S.E. gable. The S.W. wall is plain except for brick pilaster buttresses and has no openings. The main hall is of four bays: in the N.E. wall are four two-light clearstory windows from the annexe, and below are a series of plastered recesses with chamfered reveals. Under the second roof truss from S.E. is a doorway with a four-centred head. Each truss has principals and collar, with braces to wall pieces below, and king post and struts above, strengthened by iron ties. Purlins, braces and collars are all chamfered, and wall pieces and braces rest on stone corbels. The walls are plastered in imitation of stonework. The hall formerly had a basement. Some huge turned legs and heavy deal rails remain of the supports for the tiered seating, which sloped down from S.W. to N.E. Demolished 1968.

(27) The Queen's Staith forms the W. bank of the Ouse to S. of Ouse Bridge. It was built in 1660 by Christopher Topham, Lord Mayor of York, was repaired in 1676 and enlarged in 1678 (Drake, 282); it was rebuilt early in the 19th century. The revetting wall is of yellowish limestone ashlar and the pavement is of cobbles.

(28) Old Railway Station stands within the City Walls to N.W. of Toft Green and Tanner Row and was opened on 4 January 1841. The site had held important Roman buildings (York 1, (34), pp. 54–7) and is known to have been that of the King's House and Royal Free Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene c. 1133 (Rolls of Eyre for Yorks., Selden Soc., lvi, 1937, nos. 1142, 1143, 1147 and pp. xxxvii–xxxviii). In 1227 Henry III granted the chapel and a plot of land to the Dominican Friars for their house (C. F. R. Palmer, in YAJ, vi (1881), 396 ff.), and subsequent grants extended their precinct to upwards of 3 acres.

No remains of the Friary survive and accounts of the excavations of 1839–40 and 1846 do not describe many post-Roman finds. Some of the skeletons found (York I, 80) may belong to a burial ground associated with the Friary or the chapel that preceded it, particularly twenty-seven without coffins towards Tanner Row (Hargrove, Yorks. Museum Misc. MSS. (typescript), 2). A cross-head and base found under the mediaeval walls should, like the Roman material found with them (York 1, (34g), p. 57), derive from the Friary site and are therefore to be associated with the chapel or its predecessor, which on this evidence had probably been founded in the 8th century.

The Cross-head (Plate 26), of light-red sandstone 18½ in. by 11 in. by 6½ in., with a flat central boss within a circle of pellets, and a double bead around the edges of the arms now reduced to stubs, is well carved and may be 8th-century (YAJ, xx, pt. 78 (1908), 179; Yorks. Museum). The base is not now identifiable in the Museum but was described by W. Collingwood (YAJ, loc. cit.) as not of a pre-Norman type.

After the surrender the house was sold by the crown to William Blitheman on 24 April 1540 (LPH, xv, 296, no. 613 (16)), and eventually passed into the hands of Lady Sarah Hewley, to form part of the endowment of her charity (Hargrove, ii, 182). The site had always contained much garden; in 1380 the garden of the Friars Preachers was mentioned and at the dissolution in 1538 1 acre was in garden and orchard. In the 17th century it had become a nursery garden which under the management of the Telford family became the most important in the North of England (J. H. Harvey in YAJ, xlii, pt. 167 (1969), 352–7). The business was sold in 1816 to Thomas and James Backhouse (York Courant, 6 May), who had to vacate their lease when the freehold was sold by the Trustees to the York and North Midland Railway in 1839. Along with the gardens the railway acquired the house, which had been occupied successively by members of the Telford and Backhouse families, at the N.E. end of the precinct. From the York Corporation they obtained the House of Correction which had been built in 1814 on the open land of Toft Green, which lay beyond the precinct to the S.W., in the angle of the City Walls.

Fig. 45. (28) Old Railway Station.

A railway between York and London had been considered as early as 1835 (YCA, M.17/B) and in 1836 the City Corporation agreed to proposals for a 'York and North Midland Railway' and to a 'Great Northern Railway' (YCA, Council Minutes 1). In 1837 the Finance Committee reported on land bought by the York and North Midland Railway in the Holgate Road area and by 1838 the Y.N.M. wished to purchase the House of Correction and land within Toft Green for their station. Agreement was reached as to the necessary breach through the city walls (YCA, Council Minutes ii, 63) and in 1839 George Stephenson, representing the Great North of England Company, was invited to York to plan a joint station (Yorkshireman, 13 July 1839). The station was built by the two companies jointly after the G.N.E. had agreed to pay £5,000 for their interest. The local company, led by their chairman George Hudson, played the chief role in negotiations (see YCA, Council Minutes ii, 63, above). The (N.) archway was built in the summer of 1839. The architect was G. T. Andrews of York, with Thomas Cabrey, engineer to the Y.N.M., as consultant. By May 1840 the contract for building the station was let to Messrs. Holroyd and Walker of Sheffield (York Courant, 14 May 1840; Yorkshireman, 16 May 1840). The first line to be completed, in July 1840, was that constructed by the Y.N.M. from Normanton, where it made connections with lines to London and Leeds. A temporary station in Queen Street was used until the completion of the Old Station (VCH, York, 478). Plans for a booking-office block facing Tanner Row, to cost about £7,900, a refreshment room, and a train shed were approved in 1840. Although the station was to be used for passenger traffic only, the Y.N.M. was to use the joint line for other purposes and to build a goods depot within the walls; the G.N.E.'s depot would be outside. The station was to have been finished by 30 Aug. 1840 (York Courant, 14 May 1840), was reported on as nearing completion on 10 September (York Courant), but was not opened until 4 January 1841, owing to difficulties in building the train shed of cast iron and glass. The iron roof was by Mr. Bingley of Leeds (Yorks. Gazette, 9 Jan. 1841), with iron columns made by Thompson, the York firm of iron-founders (Plates 149, 150). The platforms were extended and covered-in shortly after the opening of the station. The G.N.E.'s line from Darlington to York, which joined the Y.N.M. outside the walls, was opened in 1841. In 1844 the Y.N.M. was authorised to construct a line to Scarborough, and obtained Corporation approval to pass under Bootham and to cross the Ouse (YCA, Council Minutes III for 5 Aug. 1844). A request to make a second breach in the city walls to enable the tracks from the warehouses situated between Toft Green and the passenger tracks to unite directly with the main line outside the walls was granted in 1845 (Yorks. Gazette, 15 Nov.). An extension to the station was under construction by 6 December 1845 (Yorks. Gazette), probably the extension and roofing of the platforms to the S.W. The additional passenger traffic was provided for by converting the G.N.E.'s coal depot to the N. of the station into another arrival platform (Yorks. Gazette, 12 Sept. 1846), and constructing a canopy. The arrangements at York, already complicated because through traffic was using a station built as a terminus, became worse when the Scarborough line was built, because the G.N.E. insisted that it should join their Newcastle line, and not cross it independently to reach the station. The necessary manœuvres were only possible because traffic was light; only eighteen trains a day ran from York in 1845. During the first two decades the expansion of traffic meant continuous alteration and extension. A hotel was erected to the designs of G. T. Andrews in 1852 across the end of the tracks, and was opened in February 1853. The open area behind the colonnade at the front of the hotel has been closed with brickwork in recent years to provide additional accommodation in the offices for which the old hotel now serves. The large and elaborate block of offices N.E. of the hotel was completed in 1906 to the designs of H. Field and W. Bell.

The new station outside the City Walls was designed by Thomas Prosser in 1867 but its construction was delayed for some years and it was not opened till 1877. The very impressive ironwork carrying the glass canopy over the platforms is part of Prosser's design with some modification by Benjamin Burley who succeeded him as architect to the N.E.R.

Architectural Description—The station (Figs. 45, 46) is aligned N.E. to S.W., with the main station building and departure platform on the S.E. side, facing Tanner RowToft Green. The main building was symmetrical except for the two-storey end blocks, which were of three and five bays respectively (Plate 148), and 250 ft. long. The central block of five bays, and the flanking blocks both of six bays, are three storeys in height, of West Riding carboniferous sandstone at ground-floor level, and of white brick with stone dressings and cornices above. The centre block containing the main entrance and booking office is of rusticated ashlar at ground-floor level, with five round-headed openings. The two outer openings were originally entrances, but have been replaced by copies of the adjacent windows (Plate 147). At either end of the block are pilasters at every level, and two added pilaster chimney-flues flank the central round-headed opening. The top member of a deep masonry band above a heavy moulded ashlar cornice on modillions acts as a continuous sill for the second-floor windows, which have segmental arched heads and eared architraves of ashlar. There is an ashlar cornice and parapet, and a hipped roof of slate. The adjacent three-storey blocks are lower and have Tuscan colonnades at ground-floor level each of five bays carrying a simple entablature and terminated by a projecting bay, rusticated at ground-floor level, with a round-headed recess containing a window; the colonnades have been altered by rebuilding the back walls to abut the column bases, and closing the entrances from the Booking Hall. There are moulded ashlar strings at both first and second-floor levels, and a moulded cornice and parapet. At the N.E. end, a third storey has been added to the two-storey end block shown in Andrews's drawing of 1858. Both outer blocks have windows set within round-headed recesses of fine ashlar at ground-floor level, the centre window of the N.E. end block replacing an entrance. On the N.W. side despite alterations earlier this century and in recent years, and the removal of most of the train shed canopy, part of the ground floor remains unaltered. The five bays of the centre block have round-headed arches of gauged brick, and plain ashlar sills. All the other original windows at ground-floor level have flat arches of gauged brick apart from four at the S.W. end. Where exposed beneath later accretions, the first and second floors are in Flemish-bonded white brickwork, and have sash windows with flat arches of gauged brick, and ashlar sills. Cast-iron fixtures on a simple ashlar band at first-floor level secure the roof members of the train shed. There is a moulded ashlar band at second-floor level, and a moulded ashlar cornice capping.

The plan (Fig. 46) shows the arrangement after additions and alterations in the 1850s. The earlier arrangement is traceable on the Ordnance Survey plan of 1852. On either side of the Booking Office were the 1st and 2nd Class Waiting Rooms, with toilet facilities. To the N.E. end of the range was the Parcel Office, and at the other end a Post Office; railway company offices occupied the upper storeys. Little of interest survives internally apart from a staircase with cast-iron balusters and a wooden handrail (Plate 89). The buildings on the Arrival (N.W.) side of the station have been much altered. Least altered is the original First Class Refreshment Room (Plate 147) with round-headed windows, and retaining its elegant decoration in Regency style. The entrance to the bar at the S.W. end of the room, though blocked, has simple pilasters and entablature framing the original opening. The Second Class Refreshment Room, the First Class Ladies Waiting Room, the Bar and Tearoom adjoining the Refreshment Room, have all been altered internally. The elevation to the platform is intact, with round-headed windows in recesses, but many of the openings have been modified. The original colonnade at the S.W. end of the range has been reduced by 2½ bays, by the erection of a later building. The N.W. elevation towards the City Walls has a centre block of two storeys and seven bays in red brick, with gauged red brick round-headed arches to the lower windows and flat arches to the upper, all with ashlar sills, and a simple moulded ashlar band to the first floor. A single-storeyed building of three bays in red brick to the S.W. is probably part of the original build, but has had a storey added and has been extended to the S.W. The three-storeyed range in white brick at the N.E. end, of seven bays, was built 1852–3 as part of the hotel. Only one of the eight original turn-tables survives, at the S.W. end of the arrival platform.

The Train Shed. Much of this remained intact until 1965. The width between the arrival and departure platform buildings is 100 ft., and the roof of iron and glass, contrived in two spans, covered the platforms and four tracks. In the middle there were originally pairs of cast-iron columns 16 ft. apart spaced at 20 ft. intervals along the entire length of the train shed and connected longitudinally by pierced arched members. The train shed, when completed in 1841, measured 300 ft. in length, and ended at a point just S.W. of the four turntables, still marked by a masonry pier at the S.W. end of the arrival platform. The N.E. end was originally enclosed by a pierced wall but when the hotel was built its ground floor was open to the train shed, with the upper floors supported on iron girders spanning between four columns. The longitudinal arched members were altered and abut the capitals awkwardly. A later brick wall fills in the spaces between the columns. To S.W. of the arrival platform, where the train shed projected beyond the station buildings, cast-iron lintels with a raised pattern on the underside replace the arched members connecting the columns.

Four main phases can be seen in the train shed and its extensions. The cast-iron columns of phases 1 and 3 are known to be by the York firm of ironfounders, Thompson. No nameplates could be found on the columns of the other phases. (1) Original Train Shed. The columns have enriched capitals and square bases standing on high plinth blocks (Plate 149). In the spandrels of the arched connecting members are a series of diminishing circles. The surviving column to S.W. of the arrival platform is an exception, with a plain column surmounted by a double bracket-shaped block (Plate 149). (2) South-West Extension of Train Shed. An addition about 185 ft. long probably of 1845, necessitated by the extension of the platforms. The caps are plain (Plate 149), and bases round, again on high plinths. The column bases on the platform are no longer visible, and were probably encased when the platform level was raised. The arched spandrel panels are similar to those of the main train shed. (3) Scarborough Platform—First Period. Probably dating from 1845/6, covers a length of about 130 ft., adjacent to the first stage of the train shed. The caps are plain bell-shaped, with an upper ovolo moulding instead of the cyma used elsewhere. The bases are more bulbous than those of the other columns, and stand on high plinths (Plate 149). The roof of this part differs from the rest in being constructed of timber. The iron columns were originally not connected by arched members, though these were later inserted. (4) Scarborough Platform—Second Period. Built before 1851, covered a long, narrow triangular space at the S.W. end of the platform, adjacent to the second stage of the main train shed. The enriched caps are similar to those of the original train shed (Plate 149). The bases resemble those of the earlier columns of this platform, but have low plinths (Plate 149). The arched members have short vertical struts in the spandrels. A fifth section of canopy, in 1851, covered the whole length of the Scarborough platform. This was entirely demolished before the building was recorded; it was probably of the same date as the work of the second period of the Scarborough platform. The ironwork of the roof (Plate 150) consists of light trusses spanning between the arcades; the finish is of lead-covered boarding except at the ridge where there is a raised clearstorey, glazed on top and with open louvres at the sides.

Fig. 46. (28) Old Railway Station.

The Station Approach. In 1850 a lodge and gates, seen in a drawing by Andrews (Plate 150), at the N.E. corner of the site gave access to Tanner Row. At a later date the cast-iron work (Plate 150) and ashlar piers were moved to their present position in the boundary wall of the area before the Old Station.

(29) The Old Warehouse, Skeldergate, is of the 17th century, built of brick, and has two storeys; the roofs are tiled. It was built probably for wine merchants, the ground floor being in the nature of a cellar. The plan is a long rectangle, with a small wing near the W. end of the S. side. A modern warehouse has been built against the N. side. A late 19th-century bonded warehouse adjoins the E. half of the S. elevation. At both stages of the E. end are large openings for access of goods from boats in the river below. Two parallel ranges, apparently of similar design, adjoined the building on the N. until early in this century (Fig. 47).

Fig. 47. (29) Old Warehouse, Skeldergate. Reconstruction.

The original wall of the West Elevation (Plate 152) has been altered by the insertion of various openings at the ground and first floors, but the curved Dutch gable with pedimental apex and the S. brick kneeler remain. In the upper opening, of 19th-century date, is the swivel post of a hoist or derrick; this has led to some ill-founded references to the building as the 'Old Crane', which was in fact further down the river. The small projecting wing (Plate 152) has a modern opening to the ground floor, a band of two courses at first floor, a small window with brick segmental head at second floor, and a Dutch gable with coping of two brick courses; the E. kneeler remains. To E. of the wing on the ground floor is a blocked original opening with segmental arch, and above it a blocked reconstructed opening. Internally the Ground Floor is brickvaulted throughout, with blocked openings at intervals on both side walls; the First Floor has stone flooring, brick walls, and a simple trussed-rafter roof. Demolished 1970.

(30) Holgate Windmill (58425148) was rebuilt in its present form (Plate 151) between 1770 and 1792 by George Waud senior, miller, who was stated in a surrender of the property on 26 May 1792 to have 'lately erected' the adjacent house and 'brick built wind-mill' (YCL, Court Rolls of Acomb and Holgate, 25 April 1793); Waud had been living in the manor from 1770. A mill has been on the site since the 15th century; in 1432 occurs a mention of 'the windmill standing near the hill of Holgate in the common field of the Archbishop' (York Memorandum Book, SS, cxx for 1911 (1912), 216). The mill had five sails, an unusual arrangement first introduced at Newcastle-upon-Tyne by the engineer John Smeaton. Although provided in the 19th century with a steam auxiliary engine, the mill continued to make use of the sails until they were seriously damaged in the heavy gales of January 1930; they were then taken down leaving only the struts, but milling continued with electric power (Yorks. Gazette, 1 Feb. 1930). The mill ceased to work, and the building was taken over in 1938 by York Corporation. It was repaired as a landmark in 1939 by Messrs. Thompson and Son, millwrights of Alford, Lincolnshire, but the intended refitting of sails was deferred by the outbreak of war. In 1940 the mill was sealed up and the warehouse and outbuildings demolished (N. M. Mennim in Yorks. Gazette, 22 July 1949; report by Rex Wailes dated 1 August 1954).

The tower mill is five storeys high, round in plan, of narrowish red brick, with broad mortar joints, and is painted with black bitumen. It batters up to a waist at the level of the third stage, and then finishes vertically with a six-course corbelled section to carry the cap. The bricks of the battered base are set horizontally and the wall is of constant thickness, so that both inner and outer faces slope inwards. At ground-floor level are two doorways, that to W. blocked with brick on the inside. Some of the eight staggered windows have segmental heads; the two bottom windows, which have sills, are blocked. The round cap is covered with steel plates on wooden cap spars or rafters, with a ball finial. Projecting main timbers hold the surviving sail stocks which retain some iron ties in front, and formerly carried a fantail behind. The walls are plastered inside; the ground floor is of concrete. The boards have been removed from the four upper floors: each floor has two main parallel square-sectioned beams, and stop-chamfered joists, all of pine, and a heavy softwood ladder. The first three ladders ascend the E. side. The machinery is largely intact, but some iron supports carrying the lower bearings have been broken off, and there are no bins nor means of feeding-in the corn. The main drive is of iron, but the stone-nuts have a metal frame carrying wooden cogs. One pair of millstones is of gritstone, but the other is of French Burr stones bound with iron.

(31) Bound Stones (59235075), by N. entrance to Knavesmire, two: (a) of brown limestone, 21 in. by 12½ in. by 5½ in., inscribed 'The Boundary of Micklegate Stray', with round head (18th-century) (Plate 92). The boundary marked is that between Micklegate Stray and ancient enclosures to N., coinciding with the former parish boundary between St. Mary Bishophill Junior and Holy Trinity Micklegate; (b) of magnesian limestone, 29½ in. by 12 in. by 9 in., uninscribed; both are in badly weathered condition.

(32) Bound Stone (58085022), of magnesian limestone with segmental head, bears the inscription 'Bounds of Bishophill' (18th-century). This stone marked the point where the ancient parish of St. Mary Bishophill Junior met the parish of Acomb and of Holy Trinity Micklegate (Dringhouses detached portion); it is in badly weathered condition.

(33) Bound Stone (59065037) of weathered limestone, 11 in. high by 7 in. by 17 in., on S.E. side of the Tadcaster Road opposite to Hob Lane, marking the ancient city boundary. It has been reused by the Ordnance Survey for a benchmark.

(34) Hob's Stone (58915042), on the N. side of Hob Moor Lane 140 yards W. of the Tadcaster Road, 39 in. by 21 in. by 15 in., consists of a heavy coffin-lid bearing a much weathered effigy of a knight, now set upright. On the left arm is a shield-of-arms of three water bougets, presumably for the family of Ros (probably early 14th-century). The original edge of the lid remains on the right side but a recess has been cut into it, and there are three dowel-holes in front. On the back was an 18th-century inscription already nearly defaced by 1818 (Hargrove, iii, 513, and Drake 398): 'This Statue long Hob's name has bore, / Who was a knight in time of yore, / And gave this Common to the poor', with the names of the Pasture Masters who erected it in 1717, as well as the later date '1757'. At the back of the lid is a separate flat stone, 25 in. by 22 in., with a shallow basin cut in it, probably used for the disinfection of money when the plague was in York; and in the surface of the lane to S. are two blocks of stone which may have formed an 18th-century pedestal for Hob's Stone. No evidence has been discovered to support the view (Davies, 98) that the effigy came from St. Martin's, Micklegate, or that the name Hob commemorates an historical Robert Ros; occurrences of the place-name elsewhere imply that it contains the element hob, a goblin (EPNS, xiv (1937), lx, 290). The two blocks of stone in the lane had been removed, or covered with tarmacadam, by 1969.

(35) Mounting Block (59145058), on the footpath on S.E. side of the Tadcaster Road, with three steps, was formerly used as the first milestone from York, measured from Ouse Bridge, and on the side towards the road an iron pin, set in lead, still remains to hold a metal inscription-plate. A similar pin set in the face towards the city would seem to have carried an Ordnance Survey benchmark added at the survey of 1850. The stone also served as a bound stone, marking a re-entrant angle of the City Boundary of 1832.

(36) Memorial Gates, Rowntree's Park (60465063), were brought, it is said, from 'Ritchland Park, near Windsor, Berks.', in 1954–5, by Messrs. Rowntree & Co. Ltd. They were set up at the main entrance to Rowntree's Park on its river frontage, as a memorial to the War of 1939–45. They are said to date from 1715 and to have been made by Jean Tijou; they were restored by W. Dowson of Kirbymoorside and erected under the supervision of the York City Engineer. It seems probable that 'Ritchland' is a mistake for Ritchings Park, near Iver, Bucks., where in 1960 only garden features of the former mansion survived (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England—Buckinghamshire (1960), 177).

The wrought iron gates (Plate 45) are set between square piers of Portland stone bearing stone cherubs and buttressed by oblong projections surmounted by volutes. There are curving sections of railing on each side set on brick dwarf walls coped with stone, leading inwards to the main gates which stand between two smaller gates for pedestrians. The ironwork is painted black with gilt enrichments. There are no features of identification such as monograms or heraldry.

(37) Knavesmire Wood (around 59204880) contains an avenue of tall lime trees, nearly a ¼-mile long, aligned between the Archbishop's Palace at Bishopthorpe and Dringhouses. The avenue appears on the engraved maps of Francis White and Robert Cooper, published in 1785 and 1832, but not on the atlas of Thomas Jefferys issued in 1772. It is probable that the planting was connected with the improvements at Bishopthorpe evidenced in 1773–4, when the archbishop's head gardener, Thomas Halfpenny, was paid for extensive work in the gardens and for 'clearing prospeck to Minster', which indicates an interest in such vistas (Borthwick Inst., cc 67885). York Corporation in 1965–6 removed decayed timber and planted new lime saplings as eventual replacements for the old trees.

ACOMB ROAD runs W. from Holgate Bridge across the township of Holgate to Acomb. Development did not take place until 1828 (see p. 123), apart from the few houses which constituted the hamlet of Holgate.

ALBION STREET was one of the earliest redevelopments of York within the walls, projected and in part built in 1815 (see p. 123). The ground had formed the gardens behind John Carr's own house in Skeldergate, left to his nephew William Carr, who sold the land in 1815 in two lots. It seems that the main developers were George Willoughby of Old Malton, builder, and Leonard Overend of York, slater, but one lot was acquired by Ralph Peacock, raff merchant (YCA, E.96, f. 243v, 249, 249v).

BAR LANE leads from Micklegate, immediately within the Bar, to Toft Green. The 'Jolly Bacchus' public house and a few other small houses, which formerly fronted on its W. side, have all been demolished; standing on the city rampart, they were Corporation properties (YCA, M.10D).

BARKER LANE, formerly known as Gregory Lane from the small parish church of St. Gregory which, until c. 1585, stood on its E. side, now contains no monuments. The lane follows the line of a Roman street and is evidenced in documents from the early 13th century. It led from Micklegate to the main gateway of the Dominican Friary, built on the site of the earlier King's House and Chapel (see TANNER ROW, with TOFT GREEN).

BISHOPGATE STREET, the first section of the Bishopthorpe Road, S.E. of the Old Baile, was so named by 1830, when there were four houses in it. Little further development took place until after 1850 (see p. 123).

BISHOPHILL (including Victor Street). The name Bishophill was formerly used to include the three streets now known as Bishophill Junior, Bishophill Senior, and Victor Street. Of these the last is certainly identical with the mediaeval Lounlithgate, evidenced in documents from the 12th century. Bishophill Senior was probably Besingate, mentioned from the 13th to the 15th centuries. The name Bishophill was originally (from 1344) that of a district, known earlier as Bichill and probably a possession of the pre-Conquest church of York (YAJ, xli (1966), 377–93).

In 1282 this was not a populous part of the city, as husgable was paid only upon twelve tofts in Besingate. In Lounlithgate were forty-one tofts but these were in the hands of only twelve persons (YCA, c. 60). Later the postern (Lounlith), on the site of the modern Victoria Bar, was blocked and the whole area became a backwater. In 1632 the parish of St. Mary Bishophill Junior was the poorest in the whole city, with twenty-six persons receiving relief against only four paying the Poor Rate (YCA, E.70). In the 17th century only a small part of Bishophill was built up, but several houses were of considerable standing, notably the great mansion of Lord Fairfax and later of the Duke of Buckingham to N. of the churchyard of St. Mary Bishophill Senior. The last remains of this house, known as Duke's Hall, were cleared away in the 18th century.

From 1756 onwards the City Corporation granted leases of plots along the N. side of Bishophill Junior W. of the church (YCA, B.44, f. 28 etc.), and a ribbon of small houses was built during the next 50 years (YCA, M.10D). Serious redevelopment of the area on a speculative basis began in 1811 with the building of the first houses of St. Mary's Row (in Victor Street), opposite to the Rectory (42) of Bishophill Senior, probably the earliest small 19th-century terrace houses in York (see p. 130). The builder was probably Thomas Rayson (YCA, E.96, f. 169). Near Bishophill Junior church a group of properties was bought up c. 1810–20 (YCA, E.97, f. 208) by John Tuke (1759–1841), surveyor and land agent. He rebuilt on some sites and in other instances resold to builders such as Ambrose Gray (E.97, f. 242v.), who c. 1825 put up Gray's Buildings, now demolished. The building-up of the whole area with streets of small houses at a high density did not take place until after 1850.

(38) Bishophill House, Nos. 11, 13, was built in the early 18th century on an L-shaped plan with a front four bays wide (Fig. 48). In 1740 the house was acquired by Richard Dawson (1696–1762), a prominent merchant and the wealthiest parishioner, who on 6 May 1740 advertised his house in Trinity Lane (128) as to let from Michaelmas (York Courant). Dawson enlarged the house by the addition of two further bays to the N.W. and built the present staircase in the re-entrant angle of the original house. He remodelled the front elevation, framing the present entrance, and refitted much of the interior. The house was subsequently tenanted by Lady Gascoign and was sold in 1764 on the death of Dawson's eldest son Thomas, a Portugal merchant of London; it was advertised as including 'a handsome large Drawing-Room, hung with India Paper, two Parlours fronting a pleasant Garden, belonging to the House...', (York Courant, 10 April 1764). The property passed to James Fermor, esq., who in 1771 married Mrs. Henrietta Standish, a widow, upon whom he made a large settlement including Bishophill House (Borthwick Inst., York Wills Reg. 128, f. 10). It was probably when Fermor took over the house that Dawson's addition was extended N.E. to allow the formation of a large Saloon with a semicircular bay at the N.E. end, and the fine plaster ceiling, so close in style to Francesco Cortese's work of 1764–5 at Newburgh Hall, was inserted. After Fermor's death (1783) his widow married in 1785 William Carr, nephew of John Carr the architect (York Courant, 18 Jan. 1785); William Carr lived in the house during his uncle's life, but about 1811 sold the property to John Tuke, who by 1825 had converted it into three tenements (YCA, E.97, ff. 96, 208). This remodelling is evidenced by the refitting of several rooms and the alteration of windows, including the two N.W. windows of the main front. Further alterations were made when the house was bought by Mrs. Sarah Preston, who was living there in 1828–30 (Directories), but soon afterwards leased it to the Misses Lucy and Eleanor Walker, who used it as a girls' boarding school from 1834 or earlier until c. 1850 (Directories; Tithe Map of 1847). In the course of the 19th century plate glass was put in all windows; it is probable that the cornice and roof are also of the second half of the century.

Fig. 48. (38) Bishophill House.

The Front Elevation (Plate 57), facing S.W. on Bishophill, is of two builds, the original S.E. part being in good stock brick, Flemish bonded, with fine brick dressings to openings, band and quoins. The three-course plinth, with chamfered weathering was originally returned round both ends, and so was the string course. The imposing entrance, roughly central, has round Ionic columns to the jambs, a pulvinated frieze to the entablature; a moulded, modillioned cornice and pediment; and a semicircular fanlight over a heavily moulded and fielded eight-panelled door (Plate 62). Beneath a four-course band, at ground floor, are two sash windows with ashlar sills and flat rubbed-brick arches. The first floor has two original window openings with ashlar sills and stuccoed flat arches with keys; two windows have been removed and a window has been inserted in the blocking immediately over the entrance; dressings of the former openings are visible. To the second floor are four sash windows, almost square, with stone sills and flat arches of rubbed bricks. About half-way up these windows, the character of the brickwork changes at the level of a timber plate one course deep. It is likely that the upper part of the wall was rebuilt when the structure was re-roofed and the pre-existing cornice was replaced by the present one. The front of the second build to the N.W., in pale red stock brick in Flemish bond, with good quality red brick dressings, has to the ground floor two large early 19th-century sash windows, with stone sills, carried up to the brick band and without arches. On the first floor are two sash windows with narrow stone sills and stuccoed arches with key-blocks, and on the second floor smaller sash windows matching those further S.E. The same change of brickwork and timber occurs half-way up the second-floor windows. The eaves are supported on shaped brackets, those to the S.E. build being in pairs, the six to the N.W. being almost evenly spaced. The Rear Elevation has a projection on the S.E. 3–4 ft. deep, and formerly provided with a shallow segmental bay (OS 1852); the original wall remains above a modern warehouse extension. In the middle of the house, above a single-storey addition, large semicircular arches with rubbed brick voussoirs remain over the openings for two windows lighting the staircase, one above the other. To the N.W. a wing projects approximately 20 ft. and has on the first floor a large semicircular bay window now under-built; it has stucco dressings and bronze frames and glazing bars; a similar bay on the second floor has been removed and the wall built up flush.

Inside, the Entrance Hall has a moulded and enriched cornice and skirting. In the S.E. wall is a doorway with moulded entablature with dentil cornice and pulvinated frieze. To the N.E., opening to the stair hall, is a large archway with panelled reveals between Ionic pilasters. The room to the S., with moulded cornice and skirting, has a reeded surround to the doorway in the N.W. wall; in the N.E. wall is a chimneybreast between a segmental-headed recess (to S.E.) and a blocked doorway retaining its door with six fielded panels; the windows have reeded surrounds with plain angle pieces.

In the stair hall, which has a moulded and enriched cornice and skirting and a floor laid with diagonally-set limestone flags, the Staircase (Plate 82) rises to the second floor in five flights with two landings and three half-landings, with a solid mahogany moulded rail curving round the angles, but no string; it has strongly cantilevered treads with recessed panels under them and moulding on the edges, all of soft wood. The heavy balusters have graduated bases stepped like those at Micklegate House (81) and Nos. 134, 136 Micklegate (98). The newel and spiral rail at the foot have been removed. The side wall has a rising boarded dado and a moulded dado rail and skirting. The window in the N.E. wall lighting the stair consists of two sashes placed together which have heavy ovolo-moulded glazing bars and a moulded surround. Doorways in the N.W. and S.E. walls of the stair hall have or had moulded entablatures with dentil cornice and pulvinated frieze.

A large room to the W. has a moulded cornice and skirting of c. 1820–30. On either side of the chimney-breast is a deep segmental-headed recess. The doorway has moulded jambs and lintel, square angle-pieces with handsome foliated paterae (c. 1820–30), and a reused door with six panels, fielded on the outside. The two S.W. windows have handsome moulded surrounds and the reveals have small elegant panels with applied moulding; there is similar panelling under each window.

To the N. the Kitchen is entered from a rear passage. On the N.W. is a large chimney-breast containing an open fireplace with a great segmental-headed arch, like the kitchen fireplace at Micklegate House (81). In a recess to S.W., above a doorway, is a window with six panes and heavy ovolo-moulded glazing bars. Between the S.W. wall and the chimney breast is the springer of an arch, probably cut away to insert this window.

The central Cellar, under the entrance and stair halls, has barrel vaults of brick rising from walls with two large attached piers. Two compartments have vaults at right angles to the rest and two others, belonging to the earlier build, have plastered ceilings.

On the First Floor, the landing, with plain walls and a moulded plaster cornice enriched with egg and dart and dentils, has four doorways serving the rooms, the one in the N.W. wall being like that on the ground floor with eared surround and pulvinated frieze. The E. room, redecorated with Regency fittings, has a reeded plaster cornice, with formalised flower paterae to the angles; in the N.E. wall is a 19th-century sash window with narrow lateral sashes. In the completely panelled N.E. wall of the S. room is a fireplace with an overmantel with moulded and eared surround of c. 1740. The W. room has in the N.E. wall a doorway opening to a small landing leading off the main landing and giving access to the main saloon to the N.E. The main feature of the Saloon is the plaster ceiling (Plates 61, 154, 155), possibly the finest example of rococo plasterwork in York. The bay window has bronze bars to the sashes. On the Second Floor, over the stair well, is a moulded plaster ceiling, and the landing has a moulded dado, skirting and doorways with simple doorcases. One of the rooms has a simple late 19th-century cornice. (Damaged by fire. Staircase and many fittings destroyed.)

(39) House, No. 15, was 'new erected' for John Tuke in 1825 (YCA, E.97, f. 208). The site was that of two old cottages of interest as the homes of the prominent York stonemasons Andrew Kilvington (d. 1774) and, next door, his son George Kilvington (1760–89) (YCA, E.94, f. 149v.; E.95, f. 11).

The street front, three-storeyed, is in Flemish bond brickwork, the bricks being of a pale colour and rough texture, and has a timber cornice with brackets and large dentils. On the ground floor are two windows, that to the N. somewhat broader than the other, with simple box-framed sashes, stone sills and slightly segmental arches of stock brick. The entrance to S. of centre, has a plain surround with a crude cornice. In the upper storeys are two sash windows with moulded flush frames, segmental brick arches and plain, painted stone sills, those to the first floor having twelve panes and those above being shorter and nine-paned.

(40) House, No. 17, was described as a 'cottage newly erected where an old house was' in 1755, when it was sold to Benjamin Grosvenor, gent., by William Carr, carpenter, and his wife Diana (YCA, E.94, f. 2; cf. ff. 6, 7v., 139v.); Carr was probably his own architect and builder. It has two rooms to each floor, a small yard to rear, and buildings adjoining both sides.

The street front, in Flemish bonded brickwork with red brick quoins, window dressings and bands, has a gable with ashlar coping. The ground floor has been considerably altered, the original window being replaced by a casement; the entrance is of c. 1835. At both first and second-floor levels are three-course bands. The first-floor and second-floor windows have segmental red brick arches, flush frames and plain timber sills.

Inside, the staircase, which is original, is the only feature of note; it has a closed string, moulded handrail, square newel posts and turned balusters with square knops.

(41) House, No. 19, is of the early 18th century and retains some original features. Built on part of the great Fairfax estate, it was a town house of standing, with a very large garden, extending from Bishophill almost to Skeldergate. The home for many years of the famous benefactor of York, Dr. Stephen Beckwith, M.D., who died there on 26 December 1843, the property was sold (Yorks. Gazette, 16 March 1844) to become the York Female Penitentiary. In this century the Penitentiary moved to Clifton and the site was acquired by Messrs. Cooke as an extension to their adjacent Buckingham works. In the 19th century an extension to N.E. and a two-storey porch in front of the entrance were added; the entire front elevation was probably stucco-dressed at this time. In this century a range of industrial buildings was constructed along the Bishophill frontage, abutting on the S.E. front.

The stucco-dressed South-East Elevation towards the garden was originally symmetrical, of three bays width, the centre bay projecting by some 4 in. To N.E., on both first and second floors, are original windows having flat arches with key-blocks. At the first floor there is a window in each of the N.E. and S.E. sides of the porch, matching the original openings, as do those in the N.E. extension, all windows being reglazed. The original entrance has been brought forward to the face of the porch. Above, is a timber modillioned cornice; the roof, hipped to N.E. and S.W., has a central dormer. The Interior has two rooms to each floor with a central stair well. The Staircase (Plate 88), rising in two flights with a half-landing between floors, has two turned balusters (Fig. 18n) to each tread and a swept moulded handrail. Apart from the fireplace in the first floor S.W. room, nothing of note remains. The kitchen was originally to S.W. in the basement-cellar, having a fireplace in the N.W. wall. Two attics within the roof space have part of the roof construction exposed.

(42) The Old Rectory, Nos. 3, 5 Victor Street (Plate 46), was built in the late 17th century. The first surviving terrier (Borthwick Inst. R. III.A, xvi.I), undated (? 1684) but signed by William Stainforth, rector 1668– 1705, probably refers to an earlier building on the site as 'a House and Garden . . . worth about five pounds per annum'; the next, of 1716, clearly describes the present building, the particulars remaining substantially unchanged until 1865 (ibid., xvi. 2–18). It had been declared unfit for residence by 1818 (Lawton, 26), and was sold by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners soon after 1876. In the late 19th century, the ground floor was converted to shop premises and a carriageway passage inserted.

The front and back elevations are each divided into four bays by brick pilasters with a projecting string-course at first-floor level. The original eaves cornice has been replaced by hardboard. The roof is covered with pantiles. Hung-sash windows to the front are all later than 1818 when the building was described as having 'small windows'. Some of the segmental arches for the original windows remain at the rear. One original window, now blocked, retains the original timber frame and mullion.

The interior has been much altered. Terriers mention two upper rooms only until 1764 but from 1770 refer to three; there was also a garret in the roof which is not now accessible. A fireplace on the first floor, probably of the late 18th century, has a frieze enriched with applied composition of unusually low relief.

BLOSSOM STREET (Plates 7, 158, 162) shares with THE MOUNT and MOUNT VALE a single continuous numbering and together they represent the suburban stretch of the main Tadcaster Road without Micklegate Bar. (For the continuation of this road see DRINGHOUSES, p. 116.) The name Blossom Street is derived from Ploxswaingate, the street of ploughmen, a name traceable to the early 13th century. Its great width allowed a horse and cattle market to be held along it. Beyond the turning of the Holgate Road the street continues as The Mount, and subsequently as Mount Vale, names derived from the Civil War fortification on the summit of the hill. It was the presence of this royalist outwork which enabled a number of old houses to survive in Blossom Street, the only suburb without the Bars to escape destruction in the siege of 1644. The road was already built up in the 13th century, as husgable was paid on twenty-nine tofts without Micklegate Bar in 1282 (YCA, c.60). By 1639 there were sixty-eight houses (Bodleian, MS. Rawlinson c. 886, pp. 51–2). Some of these were probably destroyed in the siege, and there is evidence that in the early 18th century there were many empty plots between inhabited houses. By the middle of the century these plots were being filled with new houses, sometimes detached, but often abutting on the side walls of the earlier buildings on each side.

From an early date the street contained a large number of inns and hostelries and it would seem that this was a main centre of accommodation for merchants of the lesser sort. In the second half of the 18th century the street began to be fashionable (a little later than Bootham, at the northern exit from the city) and several houses were built for letting to tenants of the gentle class. Interspaced with these were small farmhouses belonging to cowkeepers who kept cattle on their tofts and put them out to common on the Knavesmire during the daytime. By 1830 Blossom Street had several shops and many of its houses were the private residences of those in trade. The Mount was largely residential and included the homes of several of the minor gentry. New residential development began to fill vacant land off the street soon after 1824 (South Parade) and both terrace houses and detached villas were built on The Mount from 1824 onwards. This new development was of a high standard and catered largely for the growing professional class (see pp. 123–4, 127–9).

(43) Windmill Hotel, Nos. 14, 16 (Plate 157), consists of a large U-shaped complex of four or five separate builds, from the late 17th to the late 19th centuries. The earlier works have been considerably altered and considerable internal rebuilding and refitting was carried out in 1965. In the early 19th century the Windmill Inn was 'a noted house' (YAYAS coll. in York City Library, letter M. Johnson to W. A. Evelyn, 6 Nov. 1913).

Stage 1, the block at the N.E. corner, with two adjacent gables to Blossom Street and steep-pitched roofs running back, is of the late 17th century and consists of brick outer walls with timber-framed internal partitions. It probably represents an early stage of rebuilding after the damage caused in the Civil War. The bay windows to the front, though largely renewed, were in existence by c. 1785; the timber barge-boards to the gables are modern. Surviving internal features include chamfered beams, running N.–S., and rafters of the S. gabled roof, halved and pegged together at the apex. There are two large internal chimney-breasts, but all the fireplaces are of the late 19th or 20th century. The staircase is of mid to late 18th-century date with turned balusters to the bottom flight. It was probably only the structure constituted by these two parallel ranges that formed the 'two messuages cottages or tenements called the Windmill Inn', described in a deed of 1735, by which the children of the late Henry Lee conveyed the premises to the occupier, George Benson, innholder (YCA, E.93, f. 86). Henry Lee (1665–1727) belonged to the fifth generation of a family of millers who, from 1621 to 1690, had been lessees of a windmill belonging to the City near the top of The Mount (YCA, 1, ff. 102, 103), so that the inn must have taken its name from the mill worked by the family.

Stage 2, immediately to S., with a frontage to Blossom Street of about 21 ft., was probably originally a separate building, perhaps erected soon after the purchase of 1735. The roof, which is modern, has two ridges with a valley between, parallel to Blossom Street; the narrower span, to W., possibly represents a later addition, but no internal brick wall is thicker than 4½ in. A segmental bow window was put into the front elevation in the early 19th century.

Stage 3, a square three-storey block (No. 16) adjoining and S. of Stage 2, includes a carriageway to the hotel yard. It retains most of its original fittings. That it was built as an addition to the hotel is proved by the position of the staircase, accessible only from within Stage 2. It has a closed string, square balusters and turned newels. A long stable range behind, together with this block and carriageway, are shown on Baine's map of 1822, when they had probably just been completed, since No. 16 was first assessed to rates in 1823 (Borthwick Inst., Rate Books of Holy Trinity, Micklegate).

Stage 4, a long range running W. of Stage 1, is of c. 1890 but replaces an older range (OS 1852). There were intermediate stages of internal alteration, one of the mid 18th century including the main staircase and dado panelling in two ground-floor rooms; several doors are of c. 1840.

(44) House, No. 19, is on the site of an older house rebuilt in c. 1760, and in 1761 occupied by William Thornton, clockmaker (YCA, E.94, f. 34v.); of this house some external walling at the rear, the staircase and some doors, remain. It was later tenanted by William Green, esq.; in 1781 it was sold to Mrs. Ann Aspinall, Superior of the Bar Convent (E.94, f. 235); and William Hotham (Alderman from 1792; Lord Mayor, 1802 and 1819) was tenant from 1791 until his death on 8 August 1836 (Skaife MS.).

There was work on the house in 1791–3, but details are not available. The architect was Thomas Atkinson; John Prince was paid for bricks, plaster and work; Richard Hansom was responsible for carpentry, Mr. Croft for lead and glass, Mr. Haxby for ironwork, Mr. Smith for painting, Mr. Rusby for slates, and Mr. Fothergill for fixtures (Bar Convent Archives, 7 B 2(4)). A bill presented by Richard Hansom, specifically for this house, mentions work on the staircase, including a centre for a Venetian window, cutting a way for the stairs and hipping a roof over it, and various cornices (7 B 2 (8)). In c. 1815, the front of the house was taken down and rebuilt by Thomas Rayson (receipt dated 17 May 1821, 7 B 3(11)). A plan of the house by J. B. and W. Atkinson, dated August 1834, was doubtless a prelude to the alterations of 1837, to produce a residence for the chaplain (7 B 9 and 7 B 10). Richard Hansom provided staircase wainscotting and repaired bannisters (7 B 9(2)); took out front windows and refitted the sashes and shutters, removed the door-case, and provided a new front and a back staircase (7 B 10(1) and (3)). Richard Dalton provided bricks, lime and cement (7 B 9(5)); Matthew Walker did plumbing and glazing (7 B 9(6)) and in particular was paid 'for 10 windows in front glazing Best, for glass 12 squares each containing 213 feet', a description of the present windows in the lower two storeys. James Haxby provided ironwork (7 B 9(8)); Michael Taylor stonework, such as thresholds, sills and slips for fireplaces, and also four fireplaces (7 B 9(15)). Perhaps the most interesting payments are to Judith Jennings for plasterwork (7 B 9(7)), the details describing many of the cornices and features still existing. A lithograph of Blossom Street by Monkhouse of 1846 shows the house as still of two storeys, and indicates that a pair of windows to N, shown in the 1834 plan, had been replaced by one (probably in 1837) and that the doorway to S. must have been moved in 1847, when the staircase was inserted at that end. In that year G. T. Andrews added a third storey: work was carried out by William Shaw, joiner (7 B 14(3)), and John Ellis, bricklayer (7 B 14(5) and (6)); Henry Buckley provided window sills, moulded string, chimney pieces and hearth stones (7 B 14(7)); Matthew Walker did roof work in lead; Richard Knowlson plastered; and John Henry Cattley put best Bangor slates on the roof with copper nails. The house may have been divided at this time and the S. end combined with No. 21, newly built (1845), the new staircase being provided to give access to this complex; its iron balusters are characteristic of G. T. Andrews's work.

The front to Blossom Street (Plate 158), of six irregularly spaced bays, is of good quality red brick with a stone plinth, moulded and modillioned cornice, and a Welsh slate roof, hipped to S. At ground floor, the doorways each have two engaged, fluted columns with moulded caps and bases, supporting an entablature with plain frieze and moulded cornice; over the doors are radial fanlights. The doorway to S. was reset in 1847 and is not aligned with the windows above. The sash windows have flat rubbed brick arches and stone sills, and six windows at first floor are similar. Although the second storey was an addition of 1847, the brick and windows match up well with those below, but the windows are not quite so tall. No. 21 has a single window to each storey and is entered from No. 19.

The back of No. 19 shows the different builds clearly, the 18th-century work being in red brick and the additions of 1847 in large buff brick. To N., running through two storeys, are two red brick pilasters (c. 1760), between which is an infill of later brick with sash windows (1847). Against the second bay is a modern annexe, blocking a round-headed stair light at first floor. A projecting third bay, of late 18th-century brick, is lit at each floor by a large sash window with slightly segmental arch and thin stone sill. At the top of the first floor is a coping of stone flags on projecting blocks, representing the top of the house of c. 1760; in the recessed part, a lower band produces the effect of a parapet. The second floor is all of large brick of 1847. A fourth bay, slightly recessed and refaced from top to bottom in 1847, has at ground floor a doorway, cloaked by a one-storey annexe, with a sash window to S., both of c. 1760, reused. To S., again, a fifth bay, brought forward in 1847 to align with the back of No. 21, contains a large round-headed stair window with hung sashes and small marginal panes.

The interior fittings include doors and doorcases of c. 1760 and a staircase of the same date with cut string and turned balusters with plain umbrella-shaped knops spiralling at the bottom over a heavy newel similar in form to the balusters. Many of the fittings are of 1837, exemplified by a doorway in the stair hall (Plate 68). The S. staircase, of 1847, has cast-iron balusters.

(45) House, Nos. 22, 24, 26, was built in 1789 by John Horner, a wine merchant from Liverpool, as a pair of dwellings of unequal size pierced by a central carriageway leading to a warehouse (No. 24) behind. Horner occupied the smaller house (No. 22) and advertised the other for letting (York Herald, 27 Feb. 1790); it was taken by Joseph Newmarch, wine and spirit merchant. Horner died in 1791 (ibid., 12 Feb. 1791). In 1795 the property was described as 'a large, genteel, well-built Freehold Dwelling-house, with spacious cellars and convenient out-buildings (No. 26) . . . with a commodious warehouse and wine-vaults under the same (No. 24), a yard, stabling for three horses, and a very good garden, well stored with a variety of choice fruit-trees'. No. 22, the smaller house, was similarly described except for the omission of the word 'large' (York Herald, 14 March 1795). Mrs. Horner remained in No. 22 and Newmarch in No. 26 until 1798. Later occupiers of No. 22 included, in 1808–26, the widowed Lady Mary Stapleton, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Abingdon; and of No. 26, the architect Charles Watson. Watson moved from Wakefield to York at the end of 1807 (York Courant, 18 Jan. 1808) and resided and carried on practice in the house until 1821, when he was succeeded by James Pigott Pritchett (1789–1868), taken into partnership on 1 January 1813 (ibid., 4 Jan. 1813). The practice was carried on from Blossom Street until the partnership was dissolved in 1831, when Pritchett moved his office to Lendal (Yorks. Gazette, 1 Jan. 1831). Thomas Cabry, engineer of the York and North Midland Railway, lived in No. 26 in 1841–4 and was succeeded from 1845 to 1848 by Joseph Rowntree (1801–59), founder of the famous firm; later occupiers were the Rev. Robert Whytehead, rector of All Saints' North Street 1854–63, author of A Key to the Prayer Book, and his widow (Borthwick Inst., Rate Books of Holy Trinity, Micklegate). The whole property was conveyed in 1888 to the North-Eastern Railway (British Railways, York, Estate & Rating Dept., Survey Vol. 17, p. 6, No. 32) and in 1895 a rent-charge of 10s. a year payable to Holy Trinity Micklegate by charity of Christopher Waide, Sheriff in 1619 (d. 1623), was redeemed (ibid., No. 32A). During the period of ownership by the N.E.R. it was usual for No. 26 to be the residence of the York stationmaster and No. 22 that of a railway inspector. In 1934 the London & North-Eastern Railway sold the freehold to the York Railwaymen's Club, and extensive alterations were made: the ground floor of No. 26 was formed into a single large room, and the first floor of the whole property thrown into one. Many of the internal fittings are, however, in Regency style and presumably the work of either Watson or Pritchett.

The building is of special interest, both on account of its plan with central carriageway, very unusual in York, and because it is one of the earliest three-storey houses outside the city wall.

Nos. 22 and 26 form a simple rectangular building of three storeys. The E. elevation to Blossom Street is in five bays with a timber cornice at the eaves. The windows to the upper floor are regularly spaced, but on the ground floor those to the N. are offset to allow for the carriageway. The timber pilasters flanking the carriageway and the entablature above are all modern. At the back each house has a lofty round-headed window lighting the staircase.

(46) Houses, Nos. 32, 36 (Plates 64, 156), were built on part of a large plot which belonged to an old house to N. (site of the modern Nos. 28, 30), sold by Thomas Lupton to William Smith in 1747 (YCA, E.93, f. 195); less than 6 months later, in January 1748, Smith mortgaged the property, which then included 'three messuages two of which have been lately new erected by the said William Smith' (ibid., f. 199). The building was subsequently united in a single occupation and later redivided on several occasions, belonging for a considerable time to the family of Healey, merchant tobacconists. George Healey (1734–1824), Sheriff of York in 1789–90, and his younger brother John Healey (1751–1823) were occupiers of the two houses for nearly 50 years until their deaths (Borthwick Inst., Rate Books of Holy Trinity, Micklegate). From the middle of the 19th century onwards the occupiers were shopkeepers and various alterations were made. When No. 38 was built, to S., about 1822, an entrance passage to No. 36 was provided through the later building which stood upon part of the ancient curtilage.

The houses are roofed in two ranges: that over the front rooms has a central gable towards the rear; the back rooms are covered by a low-pitched lead roof belonging to the original build. At first floor the back elevation has a central round-headed stair light with rubbed brick arch. There is a rainwater head on this side dated 1777, probably the period when the Healeys took over the property.

Internally a staircase rises in two flights with a full landing and half landing, with a heavy moulded rail, a turned newel with spiral fluting, and turned balusters with alternately plain and spirally fluted stems; other fittings include original doors with two large fielded panels and angle hinges, and a marble fireplace of c. 1800. Demolished 1964.

(47) House, No. 40 (Plate 156), closely resembles Nos. 32, 36, built in 1747, and was presumably by the same designer. The original work of this period was an L-shaped building consisting of the front block to the street and a projecting wing at the back. The house belonged to Ann, widow of William Collingwood, gent., before her remarriage to Henry Casson in 1773, and it may have been built for Collingwood. From 1773 it was let to William Phillips Lee, esq., a wealthy bachelor of distinguished family and friend of Laurence Sterne, who put up £100 for the original publication of Tristram Shandy (YAJ, XLII (1967), 103–7). After Lee's death in 1778 the house was held for several short terms until, in 1792, the freehold was acquired for £700 by Thomas Swann, a prominent York banker. The property was described as a messuage 'with Coachouse, Stables, Outbuildings, Garden and Yard' (YCA, E.95, f. 131v.). It was probably Thomas Swann (d. 1832) who extended the range behind the main building and added a third storey to it. Further extensions at the rear, and other alterations, were carried out soon after 1850. Members of the Swann family continued to live in the house until 1846; later occupants were Joseph Crawshaw, the railway contractor, from 1847 until his death in 1856, and during the 1870s the Rev. John Metcalfe, rector of Holy Trinity, Micklegate (Borthwick Inst., Rate Books of Holy Trinity, Micklegate; Directories). In the present century the ground floor was altered to form a shop.

The street front, in six bays, has a projecting brick band at first-floor level and timber eaves cornice. The doorway (Plate 64) is similar to that to No. 32. Some of the windows retain the original sashes. The staircase, opening off the central passage in the N. corner of the main block, has turned newel and turned balusters, three to a tread. Demolished 1964–5.

(48) Bay Horse Inn, No. 55, contains a nucleus which goes back at least to the 17th century, possibly to the period of reconstruction after the Siege of York, when the property belonged to Joseph Denton (free of York 1677). It was then perhaps a small farmhouse, with a croft running back to Scarcroft, and by 1726 was described as having a Kiln, Barn and Stable (YCA, E.93, f. 30). In 1748 it belonged to Matthew Spence (1700–65), inn-holder (ibid., f. 204) and became an inn, though there is no evidence of its sign until 1798, when it was already 'The Bay Horse', very likely in reference to the famous Bay Malton, which won the Gimcrack 500 guineas at York in 1765 and even greater prizes at Newmarket in the two subsequent years (W. Pick, The York Racing Calendar). Among the later landlords of the house, during the 1860s and 1870s, was George Benson, father of George Benson (1856–1935), the York historian, most of whose childhood was spent there (York City Library, T. P. Cooper MSS.).

The earliest build is evidenced by a group of heavy ceiling joists in the ground-floor bar. The original house may have been L-shaped and it had only two floors with attics, but was later converted to three storeys. Enlargement to the W. and the addition of a second floor, with the existing staircase, doors, etc., at first floor, probably belong to the conversion of the house to an inn by Matthew Spence between 1748 and 1765. Some of the windows were altered in the 19th century, and in the back wall 18th-century work in 2½ in. bricks contrasts with very large bricks of the mid 19th century. Internally, the staircase is of the third quarter of the 18th century and there are other fittings of the Regency period, but much of the ground floor is modern.

(49) House, Nos. 82, 84, 86 The Mount (Plate 159), was built late in the 17th century on an L-shaped plan. It appears clearly on the view of York by John Haynes, engraved in 1731, but not on any of the prospects taken from the same point by Gregory King, William Lodge or Francis Place between 1666 and 1678. It was probably the messuage with an orchard, garden, yard etc., which descended from William Pemberton, merchant grocer of York (free of the City 1695 and Chamberlain 1699), to his relatives the Geldart family, and was sold to William Smith in 1750. It was then said to have been lately in the occupation of Mr. Abercromby (YCA, E.93, f. 244). By 1778 (York Minster Library, Terriers, K.2) the property was owned and occupied by Mr. Ikin (?William Aitken) and c. 1835 was taken by Robert Davies, the Town Clerk, who in 1851 built his own large house, Nos. 88, 90, on the garden to S. Later in the century the house became the home of Davies's sister, Mrs. Skaife, and her son Robert Hardisty Skaife, the antiquary. About 1895 it was divided into separate occupancies. Earlier in the century there had been substantial additions and alterations, including the provision of two staircases, probably to fit the house for occupation by members of the Davies and Skaife families. By 1847 it was described as 'two comfortable dwelling houses, with spacious garden'.

The street front is an early 19th-century symmetrical façade in yellow-red brick. In 1963 a modern shop front was removed from No. 82 and the sash windows replaced with modern casements. A second front door, to No. 86, was inserted in 1963. The steep-pitched pantiled roof has two small square dormers, now modern reconstructions. The rear elevation includes the stuccoed end of a 17th-century range with a Dutch gable having a pediment at the head and curved sides. The S. elevation has a stuccoed ground floor with three modern windows, and a first floor of rather narrow red brick in mixed bond, with some lines of headers, having two 19th-century sash windows in old openings to E. and a blocked window to W. The S. gable of the front range, now masked, has an attic window set in the blocking of a 17th-century window with ovolo-moulded brick cornice. The gable has a coping with, at the bottom of the W. side, a badly weathered Classical woman's head, the hair arranged in cable fashion, of dark gritstone and most probably Roman.

Internally the fittings are mostly of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In the attics some late 17th-century oak rafters and purlins of broad flat section are visible.

(50) Nunroyd, No. 109 The Mount, and No. 1 Mill Mount, form one building with an unusual front with bay windows in three storeys (Plate 46). The N.E. third of this front is modern. The building was originally one house, of which the nucleus may go back to the late 17th century and first appears on the prospect of York published in 1731 by John Haynes. This building may be represented by the present entrance hall to No. 1 Mill Mount (to S.W.), with stone footings and a small isolated cellar. An addition to S.E. along Mill Mount, in slightly different brick, may have been built soon afterwards. The extent of the early work is defined by the extra brick string-course appearing in the S.E. part of the elevation to Mill Mount. The main part of the building was erected in the first half of the 18th century with a symmetrical front to The Mount. By 1740 the property was described (YCA, E.93, f. 121) as a house with a barn, stable and cowhouses, occupied by Richard Middleton, yeoman, who with others conveyed it to Thomas Hungate (1710–77), the eccentric herald-painter, occupier until 1776. Hungate took up the freedom of York in 1736–7 and was Chamberlain in 1751; in 1749, on the death of Sir Charles Hungate, bart., of Saxton, Thomas was considered the next heir to the title but did not take it up, 'being a man of penurious habits and of reserved and singular manners. His friends, however, usually styled him Sir Thomas' (Skaife MS.). Later occupants were the Rev. Robert Stockdale, (d. 1786), vicar of St. Mary Bishophill Junior, and the Rev. John Walker, rector of St. Denys, who lived here in 1786–92. The rate assessment was raised from £5 to £7 in 1798, probably on completion of the alterations which included the building of the polygonal bay windows which give the house its marked individuality. The bays were in existence by 1802, the date of a watercolour of The Mount by Thomas White (Plate 7). In 1803–9 the tenant was the widow of Edward Bedingfield, Mrs. Mary Bedingfield, who moved here from No. 114 Micklegate (94) after her husband's death. Another phase of work is associated with the division of the house into two moieties in 1815 (Borthwick Inst., Rate Books of Holy Trinity, Micklegate). The first occupant of No. 109, the N.E. moiety, from 1816 to 1821, was Richard Allanson (Chamberlain of York, 1797), whose initials appear on a Georgian teaspoon found wedged into a lintel. Among later occupants of No. 109 were Leonard Simpson, J.P. (d. 1868), brother of Sir John Simpson; and from 1904 until his death in 1924 Alderman Norman Green, Lord Mayor in 1911–12, who added the block to N.E. of the older house, with a third bay window. When a passage was driven between two cellars a heavy rubble foundation was encountered, probably part of the foundations of St. James's Chapel, known to have stood near this spot.

The staircase to Nunroyd is of the 18th century, with square newels and turned balusters. That to No. 1 Mill Mount has a lower part of 1815 but is of the 18th century above. Some of the other fittings are 18th-century; several of the fireplaces are of c. 1815.

(51) House, Nos. 110, 110A The Mount, was built early in the 18th century and appears on John Haynes's view of York of 1731 (Plate 2) as the next house downhill from the old hospital of St. Catherine. In the last quarter of the century it was occupied by John Simpson, a farmer (York Minister Library, Terriers, K.2; parish registers). Early in the 19th century the house was altered and most of the fireplaces inserted; for about a century it remained a residence and from 1896 to 1906 was the home of William Angus Clarke, manager of the alpine department of James Backhouse & Co., the nurserymen; later the ground floor was converted to form a shop (Directories; Voters' Lists).

The colour-washed front elevation has 19th-century and modern features but retains a three-course band beneath the attic storey, heightened c. 1860. The rear elevation shows the original reddish-yellow brick. Original internal fittings include the staircase with square newel and turned balusters, and doors with two large fielded panels and angle hinges. Demolished 1962.

BRIDGE STREET. Before the rebuilding of Ouse Bridge in 1810–20 this short stretch of street, sometimes called Briggate, was regarded as part of the approach to the bridge. It was entirely redeveloped (in 1815–22) with the new bridge and was known in the 19th century as New Bridge Street (see p. 124).

CAMBRIDGE STREET, laid out in 1846 and completed in 1851, consisted of terrace housing for railway employees (see p. 124).

CARR'S LANE was formerly Kirk Lane or Kirkgail (13th century), and is a steep and narrow passage from Bishophill Senior leading down to Skeldergate. Its modern name goes back to the early 19th century and appears to commemorate the famous architect John Carr, who owned the large property at the foot of the lane on its N. side (see ALBION STREET).

CHERRY HILL, which presumably got its name from the adjacent Cherry Orchard referred to in a deed of 1780 (YCA, E.94, f. 220), is a narrow lane leading from Bishopgate Street to Clementhorpe, and was undeveloped until c. 1830 (see p. 124).

CLEMENTHORPE, originally the main street of a suburban village in the fee of the Archbishop of York, and leading to a staith, declined greatly in importance from the dissolution of the Nunnery (19) in 1536. By the 18th century it contained one or two small houses, and redevelopment, on a small scale, began only in 1823 (see p. 124).

CYGNET STREET was formerly Union Street, laid out in 1846 as small-scale terrace housing (see p. 124).

DALE STREET was built, as small-scale terrace housing, in 1823–8; it was occupied largely by railway employees and by minor artisans (see p. 124).

DOVE STREET was built in 1827–30 as small-scale terrace housing and was occupied by minor artisans and by railway employees (see p. 124).

FETTER LANE was originally Feltergail (13th century), the lane of the felt-workers, and in 1282 it comprised ten tofts on which husgable was paid (YCA, c.60). On the N. side were the backs of the Micklegate tofts, so that the houses of Fetter Lane were mostly S. of the street. Properties in the lane fell into decay and orders were given to rebuild two of them in 1587 (YCA, B.29, f. 108v.). By the early 19th century Fetter Lane contained a few small houses and the workshops of minor craftsmen.

HOLGATE ROAD was formerly Holgate Lane, leading W. from Blossom Street to the hamlet of Holgate and there dividing to become the roads to Acomb and Wetherby, and to Poppleton and Knaresborough. The hamlet of Holgate, beyond the Bridge (21), contained only about half-a-dozen houses until the 19th century. Apart from a few small cottages on Corporation land at the entrance to the lane, no buildings seem to have been erected until after 1823. Lindley Murray, the famous grammarian who occupied Holgate House (52) from 1786 to 1826, 'being unable to walk himself . . . contributed largely towards forming and keeping up a walk by the side of the road' and 'a seat, on which to rest the weary traveller, was put up by the side of this walk, entirely at Mr. Murray's own expense' (Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Lindley Murray, ed. Elizabeth Frank (1826), 221 n.). By 1850 a considerable amount of development had taken place to E. of the railway and on the N. side of Holgate Hill (see p. 125–6).

(52) Holgate House, No. 163 (Plate 160), was built, apparently as a speculation, by Edward Matterson, plumber and glazier, who had acquired the site in 1770. He disposed of the 'new erected messuage . . . with two gardens and stables and outbuildings with the back room called the Garden House' to John Iveson a dealer, who went bankrupt in 1783 and the property was sold to George Dawson, R.N. The latter intended to retire there, but on receiving the command of the frigate Phaeton in 1785 he sailed for the Mediterranean and the house was sold to William Tuke, acting on behalf of his fellow Quaker, the American lawyer and grammarian Lindley Murray, who had been recommended to settle near York for the sake of his health. (YCA, Acomb Court Rolls; Memoirs of . . . Lindley Murray, ed. E. Frank). Murray lived in the house for over 39 years and died there on 16 January 1826. In 1859 the Backhouse family, proprietors of the famous nurseries, moved here from No. 92 Micklegate (83); James Backhouse (1794–1869), founder of the firm, died here. Later occupiers were W. W. Morrell from 1882 and the Pressly family in 1912–22. Finally the property was acquired by the Railway and it is now (1970) British Transport Police Headquarters.

The original house, consisting of the central block, by the 19th century already had single storey additions to E. and W.; there was a portico but no porch (engraving by T. Sutherland after H. Cave). Later in the first half of the 19th century, the E. annexe was replaced by a two-storey wing, of larger bricks but still utilising part of the E. wall of the earlier addition; the W. addition was extended to W., a second storey added, and a small one-storey annexe built against its W. side. In the late 19th century the N. porch was built, the hall paved, and one of the bay windows on the S. front very much enlarged. A modern storey has been added to the W. annexe, and there have been internal changes.

The N. front has an 18th-century door-case reset at the entrance to the later porch and there are bay windows to the ground floor only. On the S. side bay windows are carried up through three storeys on each side of a modern porch and of upper windows of one large light flanked by narrow side lights.

Inside, original fittings include the staircase, with turned balusters and fluted newel, and on the first floor two fireplaces with pilastered surrounds (Plate 75). An 18th-century doorway (Plate 67) is reused in a later partition. Some renovation was carried out in the early 19th century and most of the other fittings on the first floor belong to this period.

An original Stable, W. of the house, is of two storeys under a pantiled roof and has bull's-eye windows in the S. front. A Summer House in the Classical style, presumably the 'Garden Room' of 1774, formerly stood in the garden but has been removed to the Mount School in Dalton Terrace (Plate 56).

(53) House, Nos. 167, 167A, was built in the second half of the 18th century on a nearly symmetrical plan. Minor changes were made early in the 19th century and later in that century two large bay windows were added to the front. In modern times the house has been divided into two.

The front, symmetrically designed in red brick, has two large bay windows, and a porch behind which the original entrance has fluted pilasters supporting a frieze with delicate swags and festoons beneath a moulded and dentilled pediment. Above are five original sash windows with flat arches, and a moulded and modillioned eaves cornice.

Internally the fittings of the entrance hall and the staircase are original. Most of the rooms have been refitted with fireplaces and other details of the early 19th century.