These gardens hold a wealth of well worn medieval history.
Included are the ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey, in front of which mystery plays are
presented every four years. Nearby is St. Olave’s Church, dedicated to Norway’s
patron saint. One can wander past the abbey's Hospitium and Gatehall entrance,
the Victorian Gothic Gardens Lodge and a VIP accommodation lodge dating from
1470. Don’t miss the Yorkshire Museum
and its fine collection of Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and medieval remains. The
highlight of the museum is the 15th Century Middleham
Jewel, Britain's
finest Gothic bauble, a remarkable gold pendant with a sapphire attatched.
National Railway
Museum
York’s railway
museum is the largest of its type in the world. It has a repository of
locomotives and other railroad materials dating back to 1829, the very
beginning of rail service in Great Britain.
The Great Hall displays interesting railway carriages ranging from a 1913
dining car to a Japanese bullet train. The impressive collection of carriages
includes Queen Victoria's saloon,
third-class rattlers, speedsters like the record-breaking Mallard and of
course a replica of Stephenson's Rocket. There're also quiet a few
uniforms, buttons, watches, clocks, tickets, maps, and posters.
Check out the Station Hall, a re-created period station,
complete with sound effects. It contains a variety of carriages and
wagons-dining cars and sleeping compartments as well as coaches into which
visitors can peer. A "Palaces on Wheels" Royal Trains exhibition
includes carriages dating from the 1840's to the 1940's. England's
kings and queens traveled with bedroom, dining room, and saloon carriages.