12 June 2026 York Minster and St Olave's Priory
York Minister was originally built in from 1080-1100 by William I's choice for Archbishop of York, Thomas of Bayeaux. Thomas had laid the original foundation upon a flood plain, so the ground wasn't stable enough to sustain the weight of the cathedral, so in 1225, Walter de Gray, the Archbishop at the time, completely rebuilt the cathedral. It took almost 400 years to get it completed, but because the time the elapsed was so great, what you end up with are 3 different time periods of English Gothic architecture adding the the charm of this place.
In 1405, the central tower's foundations failed, and the tower collapsed on itself, leading to more renovations. It took until 1472 before the cathedral was completed. In 1829 and 1840, two fires swept through the roofs of the Quire and the Nave, precipitating more construction. Add to it the English Civil War desecrations, and it has been a work in progress ever since it was first built.
There is some beautiful Gothic work in the cathedral, including stone carvings of England's first 15 Kings. I added a border when merging them for my Facebook background photo. The border is the Coat of Arms of these first 15 Kings. The reason for so few Crests, is that some Kings adopted the previous Kings coat of arms, instead of developing their own.
I had three ancestors that were supposed to be buried here, but couldn't find any of them. This could be because of the fires to the cathedral in the 1800's. Henry Hotspur Percy of the Battle of Shrewsbury fame was one of those, but one volunteer believed that his body was sent back to Alnwick (pronounce "Annick") castle instead of the cathedral.
I did find a couple of Chantries and a Chapel that had the last names Strange and Zouche, but there was nothing connected to my family tree. The other people that I looked for had brothers who were Archbishops here, and had elaborate tombs.
Thomas Savage 1463-1507 was the son of one of my ancestors (Sir John Savage IV) and from Macclesfield, Chester, England. He was Archbishop of York from 1501-until he died in 1507. His tomb is shown below.
Archbishop Richard Scrope was buried at York Cathedral after his beheading, and his tomb is shown below. He was the son of another one of my ancestors, Sir Henry Scrope 1315-1391.
These are my ancestors associated with the cathedral.
Sir Nicholas Hebden, Burial, June 1405
Henry
"Hotspur" Percy, Burial, 1403
Sir Stephen Scrope, Burial, 1404
St. Olave's Priory had the bad luck of being built fairly close to the York Cathedral. When the Dissolution of the Monasteries happened, it was an easy target to be destroyed. The only ancestor I had who was buried here was of Viking descent, and was the Earl of Northumbria under King Edward the Confessor. Earl Siward Digri (1020-1055) was instrumental in suppressing the Scots who were ruled by King MacBeth. He was also the father of Waltheof, who I have blogged about recently (Crowland Abbey and Winchester).
