York

Churches come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, but they don't come much bigger than York Minster. York Minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, which is the second most prominent seat within the Church of England, after the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is therefore not too surprising to find that the Archbishop of York's official seat is very grand, in fact York Minster is the second largest Gothic Cathedral in Europe, and only the magnificent Kölner Dom, known as Cologne Cathedral to us Brits is bigger.

Anyone that has been to the historic city of York can not have failed to see its Minster, it dominates and the town and as the land around here is so flat it can be seen from many miles around.

Dating from 1220 York Minster has the official title of The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York. It is built on the site of a much older church and it is known that a timber structured church stood here in 627AD. This was the place where Edwin, King of Northumbria was baptised in that year but shortly after this event work began on a more permanent stone structured church. This church was completed in 637AD and dedicated to St Peter. This particular church was destroyed by fire in 741AD and a further church was built. This elaborate structure was one of the largest in Europe and contained over thirty different altars. However by the 12th century Gothic Cathedrals had appeared and Walter de Gray, who was appointed Archbishop of York in 1215 ordered a Gothic Cathedral to be built that would rival the one recently constructed at Canterbury.

I remember visiting here many years ago, when I was still at school. Shortly after that visit in 1984 a fire destroyed a large part of the roof after the tower was struck by lightening so I am hoping that following my recent visit it isn't about to suffer from a further mishap. Back in those days I seem to recall that it was free to visit but these days that is no longer the case.

There are various different ticket options available nowadays and I pondered for quite a while outside, wondering what to do. A "do everything ticket" currently costs £9 per adult and £3 per child. This allows access to pretty much all areas as its name suggests including the Minster, Undercroft, Treasury and Crypt and Tower. Since there was myself, my partner and two kids we felt that £24 was a bit steep since our time was somewhat limited so instead we opted for a ticket that just allowed access to the Minster and the Tower. This still doesn't come cheap at £7.50 per adult and £2 per child. There are a whole range of other options too, including tickets that allow you into the Minster only, or just into the Tower or audio tours etc.

I never cease to be amazed by the sight of York Minster. It truly is one of Britain's most impressive pieces of architecture. To give you an idea of its size it is 158 metres long (519 feet) and 60 metres high (198 feet), whilst its central tower measures 20 square metres (65 square feet) and is the largest church tower in England.

As a rule I try to avoid the major tourist attractions but in the case of York Minster I did make an exception. My only compromise was that we visited midweek, early in the morning to avoid the main crowds, but even at before 10am on a Wednesday morning there were still plenty of people about. According to the statistics one third of the visitors that come here are from overseas and over 1.2 million people pass through its doors each year. The overseas visitors are actually well catered for here, something of a bit of a rarity in England and the audio tours and leaflets are available in many different languages and there are even multilingual staff on hand.

York Minster took over 250 years to build so it is only fair that any visitor should spend as much time here as possible. Unfortunately I only put aside about an hour on my recent visit as there was so much else in York that I wanted to see and this was not nearly enough. I would suggest that two hours is probably more realistic and even longer if you are planning to visit all areas.

My whirlwind tour did however manage to take in many of the highlights. The Great Eastern Window is something that no visitor can fail to miss. Dating from around 1405 it is almost the size of a tennis court and is amongst the largest pieces of stained glass in the world. In this modern world it is difficult to comprehend that it cost just £58 to make, although obviously then that was a terrific amount of money, which was paid for by Walter Skirlaw, the Bishop of Durham.

The Great Eastern Window was designed by John Thornton and may be the most famous window in the Minster but it is not the oldest. The earliest stained glass here dates from the middle of the 12th century and actually predates the building itself, having been salvaged, along with many of the stones, from the previous church that stood on this spot.

In addition to the Great Eastern Window there are many other huge stained glass windows too. These include the West Window in the nave, which was constructed in 1338 and the Five Sisters Window in the north transept. Both of these windows are over 16 metres tall.

The Tower was the part of the Minster that I was particularly interested in seeing. The climb to the top however would not be suitable for the infirm as there are 275 steep steps to conquer before you get there. The view from the top however is breathtaking and not only can you look down on the narrow, medieval streets of York below but you can see much further too. It is said that on a clear day that you can see as far as the Yorkshire Wolds and the White Horse carved into the chalk hillside at Kilburn on the North Yorkshire Moors.

The north west end of the Tower is where the Minster's gigantic bell can be found, weighing 10.8 tonnes it is affectionately known as "Great Peter". The Tower itself weighs a staggering 16,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to about forty Jumbo Jets.

Back at ground level walking around is quite a sobering experience, there are huge supporting columns everywhere and there are even mirrors available so that the visitors can look at the roof without straining their necks, which I thought was quite a clever touch.. These mirrors can be found in the nave, which has an impressive ribbed roof. The nave at York Minster is the widest in the England.

Obviously the main purpose of York Minster is as a Christian place of worship and seeing the large crowds of people I could not help but feel some of this original purpose has been lost. Of course, there are many people that come here to pray and find solitude and services take place regularly but for the majority of the visitors these days this is purely a destination to add to their photo album.

The services that are held here are described as being on the high church Anglo-Catholicism side of worship, with long services that more closely resemble Catholic Mass than more typical Anglican services, the Minster also has its own choir.

York Minster is open daily throughout the year. During the Summer it open from 9am until 5pm and during Winter from 9.30am until 5pm. On Sundays it is open from Midday until 3.45pm.

If you are in York then a visit to York Minster is highly recommended.