History of York

This marvellous image is from a watercoloured drawing dated 1914 by Edwin Ridsdale Tate.

A lot of it is, of course, guesswork but the picture helps to evoke a time when York was pre-eminent in the north.

The city is dominated the three great institutions - the Castle sitting in the foreground, the Minster at the back and then, slightly set apart, the Abbey and its grounds.

The number of other church buildings is also revealing - there were about forty parish churches as well as three friaries, a priory and St Leonard's Hospital.