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Welcome to York, we begin our tour at Cliffords Tower. Built in 1245 by Henry III it didn't get it's name until 1596, which came from the towers custodian Henry Clifford. It stands just over 33ft high and the walls are 9.5ft thick. The roof was destroyed in a fire when a cannon back fired celebrating St. Georges day in 1684. (if you look at the internal photo below you can see that some of the stones are still red from the intense heat.)

It stands on the original mound that William the Conqueror built his timber Motte & Bailey castle on in 1068. This was damaged a year later when an uprising began in York against Norman rule. William then put into motion his "harrowing of the north" where he destroyed

villages and crops, considerably lowering the population, evidence of which still shows in the north today. The wooden castle stood until 1190 when at the time it was illegal for Catholics to lend money so the Jewish community took over and became very rich. After their leader was killed by an angry mob the rest of the community took refuge in the castle which was laid seige to by the mob until finally the Jews took their own lives and the castle was burnt down.

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