Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/912

Rh YORK. 900 YORK. an ancient building, had been much improved by the removal of houses on the S. side. The rectory of this parish was given by William the Conqueror to the Abbey of St. Mary. St. Michael-le-Belfry, Fctergate, is the most spacious and the most elegant of the York parochial churches. The present edifice dates from 1545, the previously existing church having been built about the time of the Conquest. St. Olave, llarygate, is, with the exception of the Minster, the oldest ecclesiastical foundation in York. A monastery was founded here by Seward, Earl of Northumbria, who was buried in it in 1005. The buildings were so much injured during the siege in 1644, that in 1732 they were taken down, and the present church built out of the ruins of the abbey. St. Sampson, Church-street, is old, with a steeple, on the W. side of which may be traced the figure of St. Samp- son, or Sanxo, who is said to have been Bishop of York in the time of the Britons. The steeple was injured in the parliamentary siege. St. Saviour, St. Saviour-gate, has been recently restored. Among the monuments in this edifice are those of Sir John Harley and his lady, whose bequest for the promotion of religious instruction has been so much under discussion in the chancery courts. The living was given by William the Con- queror to Whitby Abbey. St. Martin, Coney-street, was a parish church at the time of the Domesday survey. The square tower at the S.W. angle contains a peal of 8 bells, presented by W. Thompson, Esq., in 1729. The interior, and several parts of the exterior, were repaired about 1855, and it is now one of the most beautiful churches in the city. St. Martin cum Gregory, Mickle- gate, is an ancient building, but the steeple was rebuilt in 1677. The windows contain some painted glass. In 1585 the church of St. Gregory was united with St. Martin, hence its present name. The new churches are St. Paul's, Holgate-road, completed 1852; St. Thomas, Lowther-street, erected in 1854. The other principal buildings in York are the Centenary chapel of the Wes- leyan Methodists, erected in 1839 ; the Unitarian chapel, erected in 1692, principally by Lady Henley ; Salem chapel, belonging to the Independents, erected in 1838, at a cost of 5,000, and capable of accommodating 1,700 persons. The Royal school of St. Peter's, Bootham, bought within the present century for the cathedral school founded by Queen Mary in 1557 ; the Blue- coat charity, on Neaseholme-green ; the Diocesan train- ing school, for the supply of schoolmasters for the parochial schools. There are several other grammar schools, founded by charitable individuals in olden times. A school for the blind, which occupies the Manor House before-mentioned as the palace of the Lord-President of the North, was established in 1836, in memory of the late W. Wilberforco, by subscription nnd donation, which in 1837 amounted to 8,439. The York lunatic asylum, Bootham, was first established in 1772; in 1813 one of the wards of the asylum was burnt down, and four patients, who had been chained to the walls, perished in the names. The Retreat, a lunatic asylum of the Society of Friends, was built in 1796. It will now ac- commodate 140 patients. It is situate about one mile E. of the city. Half a mile E. of the city, on the Ful- ford-road, is the cemetery, 8 acres in extent, formed in 1836, by a company. The County Hospital, in North- gate, was founded in 1740, but the present building was erected in 1850. There are gasworks, waterworks, and cavalry barracks ; also a race-course, about a milo from the city, southward, where a grand stand was erected in 1754 by the corporation. The races are held twice a year April and August. There is a theatre in St. Leonard's-place ; and assembly rooms, for concerts and balls, designed by the Earl of Burlington, in Blake- street, near the site of the ancient church of St. Wilfrid. The largest room is 112 feet in length, by 40 wide, and as many high. St. Mary's Abbey, in ruins, occupies the site of a monastery founded by Siward, Earl of North- umbria, and dedicated to St. Olave, the Danish king and martyr. In the time of William Rufus its name was changed to St. Mary. In 1137 the monastery was con- sumed by fire, but rebuilt in 1270 by Simon de War- wick, the abbot, whose building remained till the Dissolution, in 1510. The site and remains of the abbey were in the possession of the crown until pur- chased by the Philosophical Society in 1826. Tho first stone of the museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society was laid October 24th, 1827, and the building opened February 22nd, 1830. In the museum gardens stands the Roman multangular tower, which formed an angle of the wall of the ancient Eboracum. The late Dr. Beckwith, who died in 1843, by his will directed the sum of 10,000 to he paid to the Society, for the better promotion of its objects. Hero aro attached to the gardens the swimming-baths, the property of the Society ; the largo bath is 120 feet by 80. The city walls, as rebuilt by Edward I. about 1280, and restored and paved with brick in 1831, make a promenade, and are 2 miles 3 furlongs round, with six gates Micklegate Bar, where Richard Duke of York's head was placed ; Bootham Bar ; Monte Bar, very old, with figures on the battlements, restored 1846 ; Walm- gate Bar, with its old portcullis battlements and bar- bican, restored 1648 and 1840; Fishergate (postern gone), which, having been walled up, was reopened 1827 ; and Skeldergate. About 20 towers appear to bo left out of the 40 which Leland saw. It gives the title of duke to a prince of the blood royal, the first one being Edward III. 'a son Edmund de Langley, 13S5. The first newspaper was established in 1790. There is a three-arched bridge over the Ouse, built 1810-20, for 80,000, 40 feet broad, the mid arch 75 feet span, the two others 65 feet. (The old bridge, built about 1235, broken up by floods in 1654, and restored, was at a great slant, on five pointed arches, with the mid arch 81 feet span, 26 feet high.) York has returned two members to parliament ever since the 49th year of Henry III., and by the Reform Act of 1832 the bounds were enlarged so as to take in, besides the old city, the suburbs of Clifton Haworth and part of Tal- ford ; the population in 1851 being 40,359, and in 1861 of 45,385, while the municipal borough contained only 40,433. York is also the place of election, and a polling place for the North Riding. From the time of the Conquest to the middle of the last century, the trade and commerce of STork were very considerable. There were numerous guilds or corporations of traders, who were empowered by charters from the crown to pursue their respective callings. The Ouso would admit the passage up to the bridge of the largest class of vessels at that lime employed in the merchant service ; but the increase in size of trading vessels, and the distance from the sea, with other causes, led to tho gradual decline of the trade of the city. York is not now the seat of any extensive manufacture. It has, however, been long celebrated for the making of shoes and leathern gloves, for combs, and other articles of horn. The confectionery, also, of York, is much celebrated. An extensive busi- ness is carried on by several druggists. Tho wholesale tea and coffee business is an important branch of the trade of York. Within the last sixty years the roasting of coffee was under the exclusive control of the Board of Excise, and London, Bristol, Liverpool, and York, were selected as the only places in England for the establishment of public roasting offices. The merchants of York took advantage of this privilege; the tea and coffee trade was extensively cultivated, dis- tant connections were formed, and, though the ox restrictions no longer exist, the trade that was widely formed during their continuance has become a distinct and important part of the traffic carried on in York. The general market is held on Saturday, besides which there are smaller markets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The corn market is on Saturday. There is a fortnightly cattle-mart or fair held on Thursday, in the cattle- market commenced in 1826, but which was in 1856 much enlarged and improved by the corporation. There is a weekly wool-market held on Thursday, during tho summer months. Live-stock fairs are held on the turday before Old Candlemas- day, Old Lady-day, Whit-