reading and writing

The team have been researching the history of York recently. We've looked at Viking , Medieval York and Roman York. Each member of the group has written a short essay on the topic - hear them read their own work using the links below...



Andy

Andy's power-point

On 1 st November 866. Led by Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless, the Viking army chose a really special day to invade York. That day was called ‘All Saints Day’. It is an important festival in York. As the result, they took over York but the Northumbrian Kings Alele and Osbert escaped .

Now in York, we seldom hear people call it Yorvik or Jorvik. These were the names for York when the Viking were here. People have found a 9 meter thick Archaeological layer of Viking remains under a bank underground, and in five years archeologists found over 4 million Viking items. This is one of the reasons York is famous. It could be also related to Coppergate. Gate; it’s an important word to remember in York. Bar means Gate and Gate means street, and Coppergate, which the street that Jorvik is located on, come from its Viking name, Koppari-Gate .

  Ships are really useful invention. It’s one of the things that can show the civilization of a nation. In Viking ships history,  there are four kinds of ship. Karvi was the smallest longship that Vikings used. Snekkja, which means long, thin and sharp, was the smallest war longship they used. Shei, which also means ‘Riding the wind and breaking through the waves’, was a bigger long war ship that Viking used in war. Drekars although they only appear in history, were described as ships that scare away the scary monsters from the Nordic Mythology. In the history of the of 13 th Century, ‘The Saga Of Rollo ‘described the body of a ship that was sculptured with elegant and beautiful pictures on it and the head of the boat could be a dragon or snake head.    

Haruna

Haruna's power-point

I will be talking about Medieval York.

It is a city with a lot of ancient architecture for you to visit.

I will introduce three buildings to you.

First, York Minster. It was built in 1472, and it is a cathedral which represents the north of England. It is one of the biggest Gothic buildings in England, and it has some very ancient stained glass. It has more Medieval glass than anywhere else in England. The windows in each direction are designed with different pictures. East is the end of the world. South is the end of the War of the Roses.

My second building in St Mary's Abbey. It is in the Museum Gardens, which is in York. It is an abbey which was built in 1088 and it was used until 1539. It was in a style called decorated Gothic, and was for Monks.

Thirdly, I want to tell you about Mystery plays. This is a type of theatre for the community of York. It has forty eight theatrical performances by different Medieval guilds. It is drawn from the history of Christianity, from the first book of the bible to the Last Judgement.

All of York's ancient buildings are very beautiful. All in all I think you will enjoy a trip to York and you will be impressed by them.

Sean

Sean's power-point

Roman York

Eboracum was a fort and city in the Roman province of Britannia in its prime it was the largest town in Northern Britain and the provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the Roman Empire, and ultimately evolved into the present-day city of York. Occupying the same site in North Yorkshire, England.

York was founded by the Roman ninth legion to serve as a main operation base within the hostile territory of the Brigantes tribe. The fortress they built led to a civilian settlement which was later enclosed within walls. The vikings and Normans would both augment the defences, which were tested during the wars with Scotland and during the Civil War.

York has since Roman times been defended by walls of one form or another, to this day substantial portions of the wall remain and York has more miles of intact walls than any other city in England. They are know variously as York City Walls, the Bar Walls and the Roman Walls. Though the last is a misnomer as very little of the extant stonework is of Roman origin, and the course of the wall has been substantially altered since Roman times.

Constantine cam to Britain with his father, the Emperor Constantius in 305. Constantius died in July the following year in York.

The Roman bath is a public house in York built above an ancient Roman bath house.