York Minster

If you have never visited the city of York, then why not? Perhaps you feel it's not man enough for you like Leeds or Manchester maybe? That it is predominantly populated by men dressed as macho vikings and the elderly?........well I'd say men dressed as strong and powerful vikings is man enough. It was only this weekend that I was in York killing two birds with one stone....not literally...... my mum had gone for the weekend with friends as it was her birthday, a big one at that, and I was also visiting my boyf who attends York University. I had a really nice weekend infact and it made me realise how much I actually like the city of York, despite it being the complete opposite to Leeds.

Whilst there I ate tasty food and drank fine wine as well as visiting the Christmas market and walking along the famous shambles. I also saw the Minster because for one, it is pretty hard to miss and two I think in terms of an architectural structure it is powerful and towering in height but on closer inspection the sheer detail within everything from the stained glass window to the archway entrance is incredible.

Here are some facts about the Minster itself. Did you know that it is the second largest Gothic cathedral of northern Europe? Building work of the present structure began in 1230 and was completed in 1472......over 240 years to complete, which an extremely long time you can imagine. On the whole York is well known for producing beautifully created stained glass and the Minster is no exception. Some of the stained glass in the Minster dates back to as early as the twelfth century and it is the 76 foot tall Great East window that actually breaks records. It is the largest example of medieval stained glass in the world, created in the early fifteenth century by a man called John Thornton.

I could not resist taking a few photographs whilst passing the Minster. Standing very close however makes it quite difficult to get a shot of the entire structure onto one photograph. I have created a joiner from the different photos that I took, which is shown below.