We have now passed down Coppergate home of the viking centre and arrived at York's oldest street, The Shambles. Mentioned in the Doomsday book the name derives from "fleshammels" which translates as "meat tables" and tells us this was the street of the butchers. The whole street was basically an abbatoir with blood flowing down the wide drain in the center. If you look at the photo you will see timber framed buildings in the background at either side of the street that jut-out and nearly touch at the top. Whilst it is true that many were built this way due to land tax and the lack of sanitation (they were handy to walk under whilst the slops were being tipped out of the windows above). These particular ones were built even further out to prevent as much sunlight as possible from getting through and therefore enabling the meat hanging from the hooks above the windows to last a little longer.

If we were to walk across Kings Square and onto Goodramgate we would stumble upon one of york's most beautiful medieval churches the Holy Trinity.

Built in the 13th century it still retains it's original box pews which were rented out. The richer you were the larger and nearer the alter it was, whilst the poor had to stand at the back. The really rich would hire out the new extension (partly covered by the tree in the photo) and employ their own priest to carry out a private mass. He would synchronise his movements by watching the main service through a window called a hagioscope.

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