Our visit to St Anthony's Hall was a first for me, and one full of surprises. I had taken photos of the outside but never been inside the building.
First, some history - The Hall was built between 1446 and 1453 on the site of a chapel of St Anthony for either the Guild of St Martin or the Guild of St Anthony (which was founded in 1446). After the decline of the Guilds, it was used between 1627 and 1705 for various purposes, including as an arsenal, a military hospital and a prison. Between 1705 and 1947 it housed the York Bluecoat School. In 1953, it became the Borthwick Institute for Historical Research (now the Borthwick Institute for Archives), which moved in 2004 to a purpose-built building on the campus of the University of York. A Quilt Museum and Gallery opened in the Hall in 2008 and closed in 2015. The Hall is now the home of Trinity Church, York.
The first surprise was the magnificent roof with it's huge beams and attractive decorative bosses - an imposing construction on a massive scale.
The second was the presence of a church here. It was church members who opened this hall to the public as part of the Resident's Festival, and who provided a wall display of the history of the hall, and in a side room served refreshemts and chatted with visitors.
Thank you all for your lovely comments, they are very much appreciated.
The roof is indeed impressive, and the roof bosses are an interesting mixture of themes, with a mixture of crafts, mythology and religeon being the most common.
My mother volunteered at the quilt museum for years. But sadly I never quite managed to go there to see it. But it's good to get a sense of what the building looks like at least.
Thank you all for your lovely comments, they are very much appreciated.
The roof is indeed impressive, and the roof bosses are an interesting mixture of themes, with a mixture of crafts, mythology and religeon being the most common.
Ian
Thank you both for your comments - it's amazing how much I learn in each Resident's Festival!
Ian
I have to confess that I never got there either despite living in York!
Ian