Intro

 Northumbria. April 30, 2025-May 9, 2025

And off we go…

Allen took me to Dulles and off I went to Manchester on a Air France flight. It was noneventful. Got into Manchester and was sad to see all the construction. They are enlarging the airport which I was disappointed in, as flying to Manchester in my mind is always better as it is “smaller” than Heathrow. Wonder if that will always be true as it was hopping busy!

Map of the tour

I retrieved my three bags, got a dolly, and followed the signs to the train station. It was a LONGGG walk, and I was late for the train on my ticket we had purchased before I left. After much discussion with the lady at the platform, I could get on the train in one hour which was leaving for York. Ugh. So I sat and waited with all my stuff. I chatted with a little lady also going to York and she told me how unreliable the trains are! When the train came, I was concerned about getting my heavy suitcase up on the train but did it slowly and then took a seat. I had no idea where the seat was on my ticket but the ladies around me told me to just stay in the one I had, so I did it and when the conductor came he did not say anything, so I guessed I was ok. Rick Steves needs to come out with a guidebook for British trains! I kept my eye on my luggage as the ladies told me there had been a lot of theft. I laughed though as I knew nobody would take mine-it was too heavy! It was heavy with ten days of clothes, dress ware and two guidebooks.

The train to York was fun for me. Spring had just sprung, and it was very pretty. The only issue was I thought I had a direct train but alas, no, I got to see a lot of stops before arriving. It was ok as I had no time pressure, but it took along time to get there.

Once I arrived at the York train station I got confused. I was using my phone, and a nice lady asked me if I needed help-she told me she knew I might from “my accent”!  I kept seeing a u-turn on my directions and I did not understand. However, I only walked about 10 minutes and there was the The Grand York Hotel and was it grand! I checked in and then I went to get my first fish and chips of my trip. It was supposed to be the best and it was good. I did not mind going by myself as I got to see York Minster and walk around. I fell into bed like a rock.

My roommate Lynn arrived sometime in the middle of the night. She too got the “many stops” train to York. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Manchester train station

I made it!

Beautiful York hotel

Lovely

My hotel rom

Beautiful old pic of hotel

 

Day 1

Day 1

I woke up in the morning late London time and checked Lynn and I into the tour. It was great to see a lot of people from past trips and the wonderful historians. We had a very nice lunch right in the room where we met. Alison Weir gave the welcome, along with Michael Jones introducing Northumbria, and then we were all off for our first trip. No time to waste!

Welcome and reunion of good friends.

About eight of us visited Beningborough Hall. Nicola Tallis gave us a talk about the Hall on our way to visit:

John Bowser came back from his Grand Tour in 1706 and married Mary Howard. They built the Hall together. It is a Queen Ann House. It is an elegant red brick mansion overlooking the River Ouse, eight miles northwest of York. It boasts one of Britain’s finest baroque interiors and a walled garden, and it is home to over 100 portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery. The garden is undergoing a renaissance thanks to designer Andy Sturgeon and is surrounded by 380 acres of parkland. I enjoyed it immensely!

Beningborough Hall

We left the Hall and returned to the hotel where we had a reception and talk by Michael Jones about the creation of Northumbria.

Oswald  was King of Northumbria from 634 until his death, and is venerated as a saint,^[2] of whom there was a particular cult in the Middle Ages.^[3]

Oswald was the son of Æthelfrith of Bernicia and Acha of Deira and came to rule after spending a period in exile. After defeating the Welsh Gwyneddian ruler, Cadwallon ap Cadfan, at the Battle of Heavenfield, Oswald brought the two Northumbrian kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira once again under a single ruler and promoted the spread of Christianity in Northumbria. He was given a strongly positive assessment by the historian Bede, writing a little less than a century after Oswald's death, who regarded Oswald as a saintly king; it is also Bede who is the main source for present-day historical knowledge of Oswald. After eight years of rule, in which he was the most powerful ruler in Britain, Oswald was killed in the Battle of Maserfield while fighting the forces of Penda of Mercia, who then himself was defeated by Oswald's brother Oswi. Oswald is credited with the creation of Northumbria.

I knew then how much I was to enjoy this as my medieval British history background is null. I was excited to be learning a lot of new information.

We had dinner and drinks at the hotel and went to bed. I had sticky toffee pudding, so I was happy.

Day 2

 Day 2

Breakfast at the hotel.

We had talks on the bus about the dissolution of the monasteries. It was presented by Elizabeth Norton, a visiting historian. Succinctly, they were rich and a target,  as 20% of land was held by them. What was claimed from them went to Henry VIII. This occurred between 1536 and 1541.

As a result of the dissolution, the Pilgrimage of Grace occurred. Nicola Tallis explained that the  Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536, before spreading to other parts of Northern England including Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham and north Lancashire, under the leadership of Robert Aske. The "most serious of all Tudor period rebellions", it was a protest against Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church, the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, and the policies of the King's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, as well as other specific political, social, and economic grievances.^[2]

With this background we then visited Fountains Abbey which was a highlight of the trip. The Abbey buildings and land were seized by the Crown, and sold on 1 October 1540 to Sir Richard Gresham, at the time a Member of Parliament (MP) and previously Lord Mayor of London, the father of Sir Thomas Gresham. It was Richard Gresham who had supplied Cardinal Wolsey with the tapestries for his new residence of Hampton Court and who paid for the Cardinal's funeral.^[56]

In 1597 the site was acquired by Sir Stephen Proctor, who built Fountains Hall. Between 1627 and 1767 the estate was owned by the Messenger family. They sold it to William Aislabie who was responsible for combining it with the Studley Royal Estate.^[57]

The abbey is a Grade I listed building owned by the National Trust and is part of the designated Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[58]

Loved Fountains Abbey

I enjoyed this stop so much. I would have liked more time. We then left to see Markenfield Hall. Markenfield Hall is an early 14th-century moated manor house about 3 miles (5 km) south of Ripon, North Yorkshire, England.

The present house was built for John de Markenfield, an associate of Piers Gaveston and a servant of Edward II. The Crown granted a licence to crenellate Markenfield in 1310, the same year that John was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.^[10] Sir Thomas Markenfield was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1484 and fought on the side of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. In 1569 Thomas de Markenfield was involved in the pro-Catholic Rising of the North and fled to the Continent.^[11] Markenfield was confiscated and granted to Thomas Egerton, Master of the Rolls.

A news item about the property in May 2019 provided an update with photographs of the interior. The occupant at that time was Lady Deirdre, known as Lady Grantley for some years (née Deirdre Elisabeth Mary Freda Hare) and more recently, as Lady Deirdre Curteis,^[12] widow of the 7th Lord Grantley, who had died in 1995.^[16] Lady Deirdre married her second husband, Ian Bayley Curteis, the dramatist and television director, in 2001. The ceremony was held in the chapel which had been restored and refurnished by that time;^[17] this was the first wedding to be held there since 1487.^[18] Ian Curteis died on 24 November 2021, aged 86.

Markenfield Hall

We also visited Newby Hall.

The Hall was sold in the 1690s to Sir Edward Blackett, an MP for the constituency of Ripon. He demolished the existing manor house and in 1697 built a new mansion, reputedly with the assistance of Sir Christopher Wren. The present owners, the Compton family, are matrilineal descendants of William Weddell, a member of Parliament. They have restored the property.

Its contents weremcollected by an ancestor on the Grand Tour, include a rare setoff Gobelin tapestries, a statue gallery and Chippendale furniture.

We had champagne and canapes in the Statue Gallery. This was a lovely afternoon!

We left there and heard a talk by Alison on royal weddings and then returned to the Hotel.

York Minster

Lynn Henley in front of Henley sign!

View near our hotel in York

Lynn and I walked down to eat fish and chips at Drakes, but they were closed. We ended up in another pub and split. I also had a very large beer, after a long day.

Day 3

 Day 3

We had another great breakfast at the hotel and went to Hovingham hall.

Hovingham Hall is a country house built in the Palladian style in the village of Hovingham, North Yorkshire, England. It has been the seat of the Worsley family and the childhood home of the Duchess of Kent. It was built in the 18th century on a site the Worsleys have occupied since the 16th century.

Baron Sir William Worsley

The beautiful gardens 

Great roommates!

Sarah Gristwood, Tracy Borman, Nicola Tallis, all historians.

Jessica, a Bede lover!

In front of the house is a cricket pitch, possibly the oldest private pitch in England.

The house is presently occupied by Sir William Worsley, 6th Baronet (eldest son of the 5th Baronet), and his wife Marie-Noëlle. He actually greeted us in the gardens!

The talk on the bus by Nicola Tallis was about Margaret Clitherow. Margaret Clitherow (née Middleton, c. 1556 – 25 March 1586) was an English recusant,^[2] and a saint and martyr of the Roman Catholic Church,^[3] known as The Pearl of York. She was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea to the charge of harbouring Catholic priests. She was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.

She also spoke about the Middleham jewel. The Middleham Jewel is a late 15th-century gold pendant, set with a large blue sapphire stone. Each side of the lozenge-shaped pendant is engraved with a religious scene. It was discovered by a metal detectorist in 1985 near Middleham Castle, the northern home of Richard III, and acquired by the Yorkshire Museum in York for £2.5 million.

The afternoon was free in York so I shopped and walked around. Did get to stop at the House of Trembling Madness with Jessica for a Radler and some snacks. It felt really good to sit down.

All pictures from the House of Trembling Madness

Front door of York Minster

The rear end of the pub building began life as part of a Norman House dating back to c.1180AD, believed to be the oldest of its kind in York.

After returning to the Hotel, we all walked to Bedern Hall, the 14^th century dining hall of the Vicars Choral of York Minster, for a very nice dinner that evening. This was followed by a talk by Lauren Johnson, also a visiting historian, on Margaret of Anjou.

The Walls of York

York Minster at night

The Fotos sisters

Bedern Hall dinner

The highlight of my whole trip was that evening when I got to sit with Michael Jones and discuss his book about Leningrad. I had just read it so it was a fascinating discussion. I will always remember it. Exciting!

Margaret of Anjou (French: Marguerite; 23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) was Queen of England by marriage to King Henry VI from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471. Through marriage, she was also nominally Queen of France from 1445 to 1453. Born in the Duchy of Lorraine into the House of Valois-Anjou, Margaret was the second eldest daughter of René of Anjou King of Naples, and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine.

Margaret was one of the principal figures in the series of dynastic civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses and at times personally led the Lancastrian faction. Some of her contemporaries, such as the Duke of Suffolk, praised "her valiant courage and undaunted spirit".

Owing to her husband's frequent bouts of insanity, Margaret ruled the kingdom in his place. It was she who called for a Great Council in May 1455 that excluded the Yorkist faction headed by Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York. This provided the spark that ignited a civil conflict that lasted for more than 30 years, decimated the old nobility of England, and caused the deaths of thousands of men, including her only son, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.

Margaret was taken prisoner by the victorious Yorkists after the Lancastrian defeat at Tewkesbury. In 1475, she was ransomed by her cousin, King Louis XI of France. She went to live in France as a poor relation of the French king, and she died there at the age of 52.

We returned from dinner and slept.