The New Murrey and Blue blog

One of Richard III’s Haunts?

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Lendal Cellars in York by Malcolmxl5, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

York is a city full of history, wherever you look and Lendal Cellars is one such place. If you have ever visited the Cellars, you’re entering right into York’s medieval undercroft.

It has wonderful vaulted brick ceilings and chunky stone blocks that are all that remains of the Austin Friary that was once on the site, and which dated back to the late 1200s. The friars lived and worked there for centuries, but you may not know that, in the fifteenth century, the Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) is also reported to have stayed here regularly, when he was based in the North. York was close to his heart and he is known to have described returning there from the south as ‘coming home’.

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2 responses to “One of Richard III’s Haunts?”

  1. gracefullydream8082aa7f2c Avatar
    gracefullydream8082aa7f2c

    It is lovely to come across places associated with Richard. I’d love to visit York again and get a sense of his energy there.

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  2. mry4441 Avatar
    mry4441

    I visited here many years ago with the Worcestershire Branch. We were on a tour of York with Dorothy Mitchell of the Friends of Richard III. It was a very nice cafe where we had lunch. Then Dorothy took us into a room at the back. It was the remains of the Austin Friary. Dorothy then told us a story of Richard had arrived there very late one night and he was very tired. However, he couldn’t sleep because there was a drunk outside singing and making a noise. He tried to have him moved on but he wouldn’t go. So he was arrested. The next morning Richard left early for Middleham and when they were halfway there he suddenly remembered that he had not authorised the man’s release. So he turned around and rode back to York in order to release the man. As Dorothy said at the time, do you think that a man who did that would murder his nephews?

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