Dominated by its magnificent Gothic cathedral, Lincoln is one of England’s most historic cities. From Roman remains to the Norman castle to the grand houses of medieval merchants, the city is packed with reminders of nearly 2000 years of history.
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hear me and see me and uh hopefully we are going to be all good and I’m just moving around so that I’m can lean my arm on the back of the bench and I can see that I a signal and I can see some chat and I hope that people can see and hear me so uh we got uh some discussion of the weather wow and uh I’m delighted to be here hello Trista lovely to see you lovely to see everybody I can see Tiss in the chat I can see Susan and Marlene hello everybody hello Dr Bonita we have a we do have a good signal at the moment hello beatric as well hello beatric with the spanner already don’t know if we’ll need it today so uh hello Linda and Lethy and Lorna nice to see you all Dawn as well lovely to see you all here today it is a beautiful day here in in Lincoln today the sun has been shining the entire day it’s been warm it’s been beautiful uh just a little bit of Breeze up here on the hill which has been Pleasant for walking around uh and uh all around hello an nice to see you and um it has been very busy as you will see as we start to make our way around it’s you know it’s a Saturday afternoon one of the first really kind of nice weather weekends we’ve had this year uh it’s a popular city you know with Visitors Center of of quite a rural area so there’s not a it attracts a lot of people in from the surrounding Countryside and there’s a big sports event on in the city this weekend as well which I I’ll tell you about a little bit later so all in all it is very busy hopefully that won’t um disturb us too much hello Peter L you had one warm day well that’s good it’s how we feel most of the time in England to be honest hello Elizabeth oh we’ve we have got some uh absolute gems of houses for on our tour today that you’re going to love I’m sure we were we were walking around earlier I was walking through through the planned route and um and S Jen kept saying to me uh Elizabeth will like that house oh there’s another house for Elizabeth so uh yeah it’s uh it’s definitely a city packed with history it’s a city packed with people today as well hopefully they’re not all trying to get on the same signal as I am hello fr lovely to see you here and uh it’s a it’s a city I always enjoy visiting I I don’t come here an awful lot and um cuz it’s a it’s a kind of not an easy place to get to from where we live um it’s I mean it’s not a million miles away but it’s a a long kind of long drive because of the directions you have to go you kind of have to do two sides of a triangle when you when you go to Lincoln it’s uh so um you know it is only about about 90 M from from home but it’s uh does take quite some time uh but it’s a it’s a city that when I when I do come here and when I’m kind of passing this way I I do always enjoy the the atmosphere and the history of Lincoln and uh it’s it’s a lovely place thanks marleene s Jane is somewhere down in the town she’s gone to get herself a cool drink and sit in the shade and read her book while I uh while I show the town to the uh to the rest of you lovely people she’s uh had a nice we had a nice walk around together and a nice lunch and um we are and now s Jane’s uh getting out of the sun English Rose that she is getting in the shade and having a cold drink hi Pete lovely to see you you you um I think I believe you were you were here did you say last weekend a couple of weeks ago it’s um I don’t know whether it would have been as busy it is today it’s uh certainly pretty busy because L only 8° there wow well it’s about it’s been about 23 24 Celsius here today hello Ellen lovely to see you here so it’s been um a beautiful day your dog sitting for posy oh we saw a lot of dogs today all people out with their dogs making sure they were well watered all the all the cafes seem to have bowls outside for the dogs but it seems like everybody in the whole of the city and in the whole of Lincolnshire really is out here today enjoying the sunshine uh enjoying um what the city has to offer Carol Sue lovely to see you and uh I will pass on everybody’s good wishes to S Jane she’s not she well she she’s not with me here now on the tour she she has made the journey to Lincoln with me Pete I I well as recently as that four days ago wow F that doesn’t sound good a forest fire and sometimes we We complain a lot about things we have in in the UK but you know compared to what people in other parts of the world have I I think we get away pretty lightly really don’t we and taking posy to the hard West or they always get to give her treats yeah that’s what so uh now I’m not sure how long today’s tour is going to be um basically um well I’ve got to walk back to where I park the car so um I’m going to basically carry on until I get near where I parked the car uh and if it takes us over the usual kind of hour time well then so be it if we’re a little bit under that well okay that’s okay too um it’s uh when you kind of do one of these oneoff tours uh it’s always really difficult to know exactly how long it’s going to take because you’re not used to walking around them and um talking and you know you’re never quite sure how long it’s going to take to uh to tell everybody everything and you should get a treat too I I think so I think um people should get treats Polly sounds good well hopefully hopefully so I mean I’m I’m a great believer in the fact that if I’ve got a walk there anyway I might as well keep filming as long as there’s a couple of things to show you and show you a little bit more of the the town and um you know if I’m if I’m walking that way anyway I might as well let you all uh see what I’m seeing and um we’ll make the most of the time here it’s uh it’s not like it’s one of the places where I’m going to becoming time time time again in quick succession getting you got to beg for chocolate Elizabeth wow I don’t know what the world’s coming to we’re begging for chocolate pis you’ve done most of your duty so you got some time to spend with me well I’m I’m glad to hear that and I’m I’m pleased that you’re here and um another on another lovely place and of course this is one of our community funded tours and um we’ve one of the other funds is now fully funded um and I I’ve decided where I’m going to go so when we when we kind of officially start in a couple of minutes I will sort of tell you that the world is our personal chocolate bar okay uh we were doing an online quiz last night and there there was a question about treaties like you know International treaties that end Wars and things uh and S Jan said um well I went to one of those places and nobody gave me a treaty I would have liked a little bit of chocolate or something but I never got any treat at all I said that uh she should go and sign the Treaty of bourneville that would that would get her some chocolates thank you beis for posting the link there to the wish list page on buy me a coffee which is where all of our community funded tours are listed where you can uh contribute to the uh to the community funded tours like this one um every little contribution helps so um yeah it was uh it’s great to see that um people are contributing to those Ah that’s great Marlene everything you know everything that people do to support my work it all it all adds up Linda Am I by any chance opposite the Castle Hotel well it’s funny you should say that because yes Linda I absolutely am you were staying here last week Pete was here as well okay was there anybody here who has not been to Lincoln in the last little while just me I don’t even have to entice you Elizabeth S of like the the old carrot and stick approach I dangle a little chocolate along uh we we walk past two cheese shops on on this tour as well and you you guys know how hard it is for me to walk past cheese chops last in Lincoln in 86 Elizabeth your first time okay just just Pete and Linda then and me today that’s okay Marlene um if you go to the buy me a coffee page um you’ll find a page called wishlist and that has the different funds listed for for the different tours that that I’ve got up oh that sounds promising as a the cathedral bells are telling me it is oh there we go listen to that well there we go the the cathedral Bells have just informed us that it is 4: p.m. so it is time to start our tour thank you beatric for putting the link um Marlene beatric has just put the link in the chat again for um the wish list pages so um we are going to make a start I want to begin by welcoming all of you to a beautiful historic City of Lincoln in eastern England um and um it’s a place that has uh really witnessed all of the different eras in English History and we’re going to be talking about various ones of them along the way uh a lot of um great things that we can see that uh are a throwback to those different times um before we begin I I want to thank everybody who supported um this Tour by contributing to the fund and we’ve just been talking about the wish list page on my buy me a coffee um that’s where you can find the um next funds for for future tours so as soon as the the the pot is full so to speak we can um I can schedule the tour and then everybody will be able to join it just like this one so um we are uh here in Lincoln today but the next commun Community funded tours that are complete the one is four which I called English towns uh and I’ve decided that uh well if we’re going to do an English we should do an English town with a bit of a silly name so I’m going to be bringing you a tour from the little town of Market Bosworth uh very soon um so look out for that one um now it is busy in lincol today there is a big event on here called the Lincoln Grand Prix that’s not a uh a car racing event it’s a cycle race um it’s a big professional cycling event the the main Professional Event takes place tomorrow but today um there have been all kinds of kind of amateur Cycling Club events taking place over the uh same course which includes a big steep glim as you’ll see um and so um when we get down towards where the cycle race finish line is there’s quite a lot of music and noise um I probably will mute the sound when we get down there because YouTube’s um copyright spotters are very very precise uh and if I’m walking past where they’re playing music um it could get picked up um the stream could get in just taken off straight away um so I will um mute that if if the music is quite loud as we’re walking along there okay so um let’s um let’s turn the camera around and um well really the thing that I um said in the description of the tour was that we’d be uh talking about the Roman origins of the town and we’d be talking about Lincoln castle and we’d be talking about Lincoln Cathedral uh well the uh bricks on the Square where we’re starting the door Mark out the site of some of the former buildings in the Roman Forum just up there are the walls of Lincoln castle and just over there the towers of Lincoln Cathedral so um that was a short tour wasn’t it I’m going home now no I think we can see a little bit more than that and across the way the Castle Hotel I believe where Linda stayed just last week um so we’re going to we this part the historic part of Lincoln is built on a big Steep Hill um that’s where the Romans built their fortifications it’s where the Normans built a castle it’s where the cathedral was built it’s where the wealthy people built their residences um and um it’s a great spot to be because Lincoln Shire this area of Eastern England is a very very flat area there are not many Hills so when you have a big hill like this you build a castle on it you can see everybody in a from my miles and miles around it gives you such a strong strategic position you’re also above the Little River called the withm that flows through the city you’re close to the Valley of the river Trent one of the biggest rivers in England um you have easy access to the Sea and it was close to two of the biggest Roman roads in England the fossway it was the end of the fossway which went well over 200 miles all the way down to exitor in Devon and it was the also on or close to IR Street which was the main Roman Road that ran from London to York so uh perfect place to build a a fortification uh and the Romans came here not within a few years of invading England they came here um and established a legionary encampment here on this hill um about 49 ad and um that um fortification was called by the Romans lindum um it’s believed that the old Ina settlement here was called Lindon Lin means a pool and there’s kind of a a wide area of the river in the center of the city that is kind of like a pool and it that’s what it’s named after uh so it’s an old Celtic word so like the cap of Island dub Lin that means black pool the Linn means pool same word so the Lin done here lindum um the Romans as they Advanced through England they moved the main seat of the legions from Lincoln to York from lindum to Iber akam and um what happened then was that this the former Roman legionary fortification here started to become a Roman town and it had it was called a colonial that was a a Roman town that was settled by veterans when they finished their military service and so it became lindom Colonia and that’s where the name of Lincoln comes from lindom Colonia okay so up here we are standing in the center of Roman Lincoln Lindam gonia we are in the Roman Forum the main Center of Commerce and trade and Commercial activity and Civic life within the Roman encampment okay and um so I’m going to mute and what I hope you can see down here sorry I did mute for a while I went past some music um this down here these are the remains of a Roman well this is one of the water sources that the people of Lyndon were using almost 2,000 years ago and there’s quite a bit of Reflection from the um from the um glass that’s covering it over but these are real Roman remains okay so it’s an old Roman well um this part of town up here on the hill is absolutely lovely and um because you know people were visiting if people were visiting they might well be visiting wealthy residents they might be visiting the cathedral as on religious pilgrimage they might be visiting the castle for some reason so there’s always been a lot of ins and taverns around this area many of them remain put on here called The Prince of Wales in and then one of the oldest um ins in the city of Lincoln is this one um which is called the lion and snake snake very interesting name the lion and snake very very busy the the outdoor seating getting particularly good use today but the lion and snake um dates back about 400 years as a building uh and it’s certainly been an in for most of that period so one of the Real historic drinking places within the city and this is an absolutely uh lovely shopping street lots of independent shops lots of shops of artisan products of various kinds from food to jewelry to textiles really uh really lovely part of town and um maybe we can slither in I like it Elizabeth we have to yeah I had a look earlier another little lovely little Street here actually we were going to go here for some lunch but all the tables were taken at the uh little t- rooms but uh little nice little Street and we can see at the end of the road the castle walls the castle walls were built um at the end of the 11th century and and they’re still very very intact brilliant preservation the the castle here at Lincoln oh the whiskey shop you really can’t get everything here cyclists those cyclists are looking far too energetic for people who’ve just cycled up this big hill I was originally planning to do the tour finishing up up here and starting in the town um which would have definitely tested my lungs and my uh um overall Fitness and my legs um but actually as I was planning it I thought no it made more sense to start up here in terms of the origin because this is where the origins of the Town were so we’re actually going to go down the Steep Hill I might be more likely to actually fall over on going down um but I’m but I’m less likely to uh be puffing and panting and able to speak so here’s another one of the big ins and hotels here um and that is the whiteart hotel uh quite a common name for pubs and ins in England uh one of the most common and um like a lot of our very old pub names uh it relates to a a royal family in this case um the white heart was the Insignia of a king many many years ago back in the 14th century um the King was Richard II and it was in the time of Richard II that a law was first introduced that ins and places selling drinks had to advertise that fact by having some kind of sign uh and so a lot of them kind of showed we are obeying the king’s laws by actually using the king’s Insignia the king’s symbol of the white heart as um their name that’s why it remains so um popular to this day but Richard II also has a very particular link to Lincoln uh he came to the city and um con conducted a special ceremony to um it was uh a new Town Council that was instituted uh under his Reign and he presented the uh town the city with a sword um and it’s still there today it is part part of the town’s uh kind of Insignia they carry it the mayor will have it on ceremonial occasions um and I’ll show you a bit later the building where where that is housed and where the May is so the whiteart and the multicolored flag there that’s the flag of the county of Lincolnshire so shows there not not much wind today but just a little breath of wind to um to show us and another lyen books what lovely lovely shops we have here Linda no we’re not going down to the the Newport Arch we’re we’re going to [Music] uh have a look around this area a little bit and then we’re going to go down into the city center I know a book shop and oh ice cream parlor even better now we got a great a building on the corner here this is a 15th century timber frame building um it was originally built for a wealthy Merchant you’ll see the whole of it when we go around the corner but I will have to mute around there cuz it’s the uh finishing glider of the cycle race and there’s there’s music playing quite loudly um and it’s called Lee pton House these days uh because uh it was owned by the NA national West Min Bank um in the 20th century and then it was given by them into the care of the uh local city council uh and it was renamed after the chairman of the bank at the time Sir Robert Lee pton uh but it’s a it was um a private residence of one of the wealthy merchants of Lincoln in the 15th century and now houses uh the city’s tourist information center so we’re going to go around the corner and you’ll see the finish line to the uh the cycling event there’s a lot of um music going on so I’m going to mute just as we walk through that bit up towards the castle e so we I’m back on the sound and we’re walking towards one of the main gates of Lincoln Castle so Lincoln Castle was on the site of the Roman fortification uh and it was built first of all Castle here was ordered in the year 1068 1068 just two years after King William the first William the Conqueror had come over from Normandy and defeated the last Saxon King of England Harold godwinson down at Hastings uh and again he was M like the Romans over a thousand years earlier you know he was moving up through England trying to secure his conquest and um this part of England was one of the parts of England that had been under vik rule had been under Danish rule was called the Dane law Lincoln was declared one of the so-called five burs so the eastern part of central England um this was uh the area ruled by the Danes previously uh and so William the first ordered castles to help to control the north to prevent rebellions and to um particularly here control this whole whole territory that had been uh once ruled by Scandinavians and just as the Romans recognize the Strategic location here so did he um and uh this Castle was built um first they would have built a Timber one so they quickly can establish but they built straight away almost in stone and the castle walls and fortifications as we see were pretty much completed by the year 1115 so by the early 12th century the um the castle wars were completed um the medieval walls are still in pretty good shape you can walk around them if you when you pay to go into the castle and um you know we got a lot of beautiful some of them beautiful medieval residential parts of the the castle here as well this is always a place not only of military force but a place where very wealthy local Pol politicians and power holders were actually uh living but you can we can come into the main section of the castle the main Castle Courtyard and what can we see well we can see the castle walls around us beautiful Courtyard there’s been a little market here today every all things for dogs and I think there might even have been a little dog show here this morning because we saw some dogs with little rosettes on when we arrived up here at lunchtime but they’re they’re selling dog treats dog well-being wool natural material dog beds you can even if you see all the cute dogs and think I want one of my own they’ even got the dog rescue place here where you can uh get one of the the dogs for yourself so the castle grounds being well used today by um by the uh doggy people now what kind what are the buildings in here now well obviously the medieval military buildings are no longer here um but um the castle was still used or is still used really uh in terms of Law and Order because um this building was built in the 18th century uh and from around the year 1770 uh until the 20th century uh this was the main jail the main prison of Lincoln uh and it was built uh you know they they had different theories about um how best to incarcerate and possibly rehabilitate prisoners uh and this was an example of what was known as the separate system where prisoners were kept regardless of their crime in complete isolation from one another single cells they had no contact at all with any other prisoners and uh the idea was that uh that would prevent the prisoners from being uh kind of a a a bad influence on one another and give them time to be in isolation thinking about what they’d done and uh maybe resolving to uh to make a change in their lives and you know I think I think uh we we all know that the impact of keeping people um in complete isolation with no human contact uh is is a pretty barbaric thing to do um and it’s something that would never be kind of considered as a way of potentially rehabilitating people but one of the features that this uh prison does have that is still there even though the prison is uh no longer obviously used um is that um the chapel um was created there and the chapel is still there the chapel is unique because it’s a chapel where each prisoner when they went into the chapel for the religious Services they had a an enclosed little bench so they could not see they had wooden boards all around them they could not see any of the other prisoners the only person they could see was the preacher the preacher could see all of them but they could not see anyone but the preacher um and so it was a really kind of strange system that they were they were trying out then um they did use other forms of more modern imprisonment there later uh and this system was not so much used but you know modern prison was built and um moved out of here this is now houses the castle Administration there’s a cafe and gift shop in there and also the castle archives now one building that is still OCC in use is this one this is a courthouse so there’s been a courthouse on this site for hundreds of years because the castle um you know was the seat of the local power players in the area and the seat of Justice um and um the the the local government in some ways and uh the courthouse was built here in the 19th century uh in the 1840s in fact uh as the local asai site aaa’s court and it is still the Crown Court it’s still in operation today as a courthouse so despite the castle being uh sort of an old medieval building it’s uh very much still being used now what else have we got well we’ve got an interesting statue of an English king over here it used to be on a memorial elsewhere in the city but the memorial I don’t know whether it was demolished or suffered damage but uh the the sculpture of this particular King from it was brought here that is King George III the one who was called mad although uh you know what what conditions he suffered from uh I know s James thought it was Queen Victoria first of all when we saw from the side I can see the family resemblance so this is uh King George and he’s depicted he’s King George but showing his George there we have St George represented St George killing the dragon here he is King George III and uh talking of George and the Dragon well as it would as look would have it this Castle does have a couple of dragons these might have had a dog show earlier today but we have dragons as well I think they’re asleep let’s not wake to [Music] me stay behind oh you know what they know you want to give him a name yeah they’re fantastic aren’t they I don’t know how often they do it but they they do have some uh sort of steam and things coming out of the nostrils at various intervals but you guarantee they won’t do it while we’re here though people still walking around the the walls up there you can see a look at the tail and there’s his tail through the [Music] yeah so they are so cool oh so we can see more of the uh fortifications there and that prison [Music] building and uh there were obviously at one time we did have public executions for the most well not even for the most serious crimes for many many many crimes um but in the time that this uh prison was mainly operational they they kind of reduced the the number of tribes you could get executed for so there were never that many here but uh one of the the most famous of the Victorian hang hangmen marwood uh he began his career here at Lincoln Jail uh he hanged his first prisoner here uh inside the the prison itself so it was after the days of public executions in 1872 uh he hanged the first man of his career here just four years earlier the first the last public execution had taken place and they used to do those up on the walls of the the the castle up there where where everybody from the upper town was able to actually see the executions taking place public executions still going on at that time do oh that so let’s make make our way back out of the castle a little bit shall we and um o oh that’s the uh the the doggy bed the doggy Bed Company look is called wool and woofers and we’ll make our way back to the castle and as we as we come out of the castle um one of the other things that this Castle is very well known for is that it has one of only four remaining original original copies original documents of the Magna carter the great Charter which uh King John was forced to sign by his rebellious Barons back in the year 1215 and it was one of the first kind of bills of Rights uh and it’s kind of an inspiration for anyone who’s trying to draw draw up constitutions uh and to establish a a system based on the rule of law and so on um the Magna Carta there four extent copies of it uh one is here one is at Salsbury Cathedral and two are in the British library and um the Magna car a hugely important document um R I don’t know what the qualifications for being a hangman were um willingness I think would have been one of the sort of not being too squeamish about what you had to do so the Magna carter in there and the Magna carter revolutionary as it was and iconic as it is neither of the two sides the Barons or the king adhered to it you know so uh very low light levels yeah Linda I’ve not seen the one here I oh I’ve seen the one at Salsbury SSB Cathedral and yeah it’s um it’s um they you know they really are such amazing um documents and um really precious you know some of the most precious documents I think that we have uh in Britain really you know they’re so iconic so important so we’re going back into the music music again but look ahead of us look at the towers of the cathedral the three towers the two Western towers and the central tower and I’m going to mute in a moment as we’re comeing into the area of the music e e Harry okay so we are about to go through the Gateway here into Elizabeth the Magna cartter store it’s not a store it’s a pub so they sell beer and food so here is a beautiful Lincoln Cathedral one of the most magnificent religious buildings in England and um the cathedral itself um was built I mean say built deliberately I mean all cathedrals were built deliberately but it was built for a specific purpose and um no show I had to um have to mute when I’m going past where the music is playing loudly cuz uh YouTube is is very hot on uh copyright violations um so so the cathedral was essentially built um on the instigation of King William I just a few years after the castle had been built and he requested that um a bishop from in Oxfordshire now there’s a town down south of Oxford called Dorchester onms it’s really a little village but it has a beautiful huge medieval church that used to be the site of a monastery and that used to actually be a cathedal it was the site of a bishop and the King instructed this bishop to move his Cathedral base from dorest RMS to Lincoln and to build a new cathedral on the hill adjacent to the castle now the idea of that was twofold one was to establish the twin Powers so you had secular power with the castle and then the religious power in the same place so you were concentrating the power it was also designed to send a message to the English people to the Anglo-Saxon people um that God was on the side of the Normans the Norman conquerors were God’s people and they were chosen by God to rule this country and their Splendor of their Cathedrals and their religious buildings would show this up off okay now on the Western Front here of the cathedral we have the remaining parts of the original 11th century building from the year 1092 and that is the three main doorways and archways which as you can see have rounded tops very typical of Norman or Romanesque architecture so that is absolutely typical Romanesque Norman style and they this this section the central section here of this West Front is the this is the kind of original section so the three black doors here and the archways the round topped archers just to the sides of them that was the original width of the cathedral the later extensions were in the 13 and 14th centuries when it was widened lengthened and the towers were extended upwards inner Gothic style so we start to have pointed Windows pointy archers and everything reaching upwards was very much the gothic style so what have we got we’ve got some really beautiful carvings on on the on the cathedral here we’ve got uh Bishops up here on the front and we’ve got Kings um Kings of England and that’s really the Normans trying to make a link back to connect themselves to the Old Kings from the past so we are not new conquerors of England we are a continuous line from the great Kings of the past and those statues are still here there’s a lot of empty places on the cathedral where there would once have been statues they would have been the statues of saints and when we came to the Reformation when the end of Catholic um control over the church in England and uh we got into a time where the church of England was established they W they got rid of a lot of the Catholic star decorations so all of the Saints statues were removed destroyed but of course Kings Bishops that’s not as they saw it um idolatry that’s just kind of a representation of historical figures so they um they they kept them in place and the door itself is just stunning isn’t it I mean we all know I like a door Susan you’re absolutely right the Normans would um need every bit of help they needed all the church es all the cathedrals all the monasteries they could have praying for them if they were thinking of getting in to heaven but look at the dragons heads the end of the the curves there they’re almost it’s very sort of almost Celtic Norse Pagan s symbols that are still going on these times they’re brilliant aren’t they and these carvings are just of people figures and just incredible they have been obviously they they have been restored but um you know these animal figures here around the door they are so typical of Norman Church doorways you can see them on churches of that era Peter it is one of the largest cathedrals in the UK yes um there are I think Durham might be bigger Liverpool Anglican cathedral is bigger um St Paul’s in London but it is and um interestingly um for the the towers the towers of the cathedral that we see today they are 83 M high but in medieval times they had spires on them and so they were twice as high as they are today and um that was um made this C cedral for over 200 years the tallest building in the world from when those Towers were built it took over from the Great Pyramid of Giza uh and then when those Towers were those spires were removed because they were dangerous uh in 1548 uh a church in Northern Germany um at 151 M with its Spire became the highest in the world and look at this restored sculpture up there this is supposed to show Dean tempting people and some of the torments that the uh unrighteous will be uh undergoing when they uh when they go the way that the Normans probably deserve to go many of them but we’re hoping that they wouldn’t Elizabeth you can’t even imagine the how much how a struck the people would have been to to see something like this appearing and you know this Hilltop location even today for miles around you see this building you know it literally is visible all over the place and um you know it’s even we know these kind of things we’ve seen them we’re familiar with them but for people back then to be traveling and suddenly see this thing on the hill in front of them you know it must have been absolutely incredible for for those people it’s just a just a beautiful structure isn’t it and it’s really quite difficult to imagine that they had spires that made the those Towers twice as high as they they are it’s pretty incredible now the most famous um sculpture in uh in the cathedral is a little sculpture of um a little demon uh which is called the Lincoln imp and the Lincoln imp has become a symbol of the city um and it’s also on the badge of the football team from Lincoln who are called the imps uh and the Lincoln imp um the sculpture and the legend of its origin is that the devil let a lot of his demons out to play on Earth to cause mischief and one of them came here to Lincoln Cathedral and the the Imp said the demon said oh he was going to um make trouble and he was going to trip over the bishop when he was trying to conduct the services and he was going to push the and nudge the uh Dean while he was trying to do the the gospel readings and he was going to throw stones at the choir when they were singing and so the demon was performing all this mischief and um some Angels Came because they thought well we got to they saw what was going on they thought well we’ve got to come and defend this church and um one of the Angels turned that demon into stone and they say that that demon that can still be seen in the in the cathedral the Lincoln imp um we’ll see a shop that’s got some pictures of the Lincoln Imp in in a little while um he um was turned into stone and he’s been there ever since so let’s have a last look up at this beautiful facade shall we and uh before we we leave the cathedral behind and and head down into the center of the town absolutely amazing so I am going to mute again as we go out of here because e okay so the street that leads up from the center of town to the Casta Cathedral has a very apt name steep hill and you’ll see as we go down it uh this is not the Steep bit this is the uh not very steep bit towards the top and uh it’s the first of the cheese shops there look here’s the cheese shop there’s the mouse The Mouse House is the name of the cheese shop I didn’t go in there honest and lovely old buildings coffee houses and old pubs and and everything down down this section little bit of Lincolnshire so we’re um Plum bird on the left another great Lincoln sh speciality [Music] this where you yeah this is where you well I don’t know whether you lose me going in the cheese shop or I lose all of you going into the other lovely Food Shops down here but uh so um lovely shops down oh here’s the here’s the chocolate shop look I know Lincoln sh fudge I know I know you’ll like to see these look what are these oh look at those very nice Lind no plums in the plumbed no plumbed is very nice CH I did not buy any cheese um today um I did buy some a couple of days ago um so um so I I didn’t buy any today so is it just lovely spot and look at the the cyclists making their way up look where they’ve got to come they’re coming all the way up here to the finish line up by the cathedral oh look at those poor guys H we got some tea mugs here and this these have got a picture of the Lincoln imp on and I I’ll put a picture of the Lincoln imp on the uh on the Facebook group as well but that’s what the Lincoln imp sculpture looks like in the cathedral so it really does look pretty cool actually doesn’t it yeah imp tea bags yeah Lincoln imp tea bags there we go and then a acrobatic cow as well at that or dead I don’t know so as we look through there you can see up on this hill you can just kind of see you that the road just drops and you get this um really sharp Hill and um that’s why this Main Street up from the uh City Center is called steep hill and here on the center we have um another beautiful timber frame building an old Inn there used to be an inn on that site it’s empty at the moment that Inn used to be called the harle Quinn but it’s another building that started Life as a private residence um probably May well have had a business on the ground floor but then the residence Family Residence above uh and it dates back to the 14th century in parts so really ancient buildings but um now this is still steep hill but this is still not the really steep bit still not the really steep bit this is kind of the the middling amount of steep so but you can see it’s pretty steep pretty steep now here’s a lovely place on the um on steep hill Bun’s tea room we the lovely te- room cakes and for lunches we had a a sandwich there to to go today we took it away and we we ate it on the grasp by the cathedral Bun’s te- room but one of the things we noticed was a a lovely letter they have framed uh and it’s a letter from Windsor Castle uh and let me just I’ll just read it to you cuz it’s really cool it says to Fay and all the staff at bunty’s te- room the queen wishes me to write and thank you for your message of good wishes on the occasion of Her Majesty’s 96th birthday it is also kind of you to tell the queen of the afternoon tea you have planned to celebrate her this Platinum Jubilee although unable to accept the queen was touched you invited her to join you and hopes the event is enjoyed by all who attend her majesty is grateful for your thoughtfulness in writing at this time and that’s from the lady in waiting at Windsor Castle on the 19th of May 2022 so for the Jubilee and of course just a few months before um the queen sadly passed away but they quite so quite right that they have the the letter there in the frame really really lovely interesting place there just to reassure you it’s that kind of pot quite cool actually so an old the used be the Hall of a church St Michael’s Church but now it’s a it’s a little sort of restaurant and there’s also a little hotel there as well and um we we did comment today imagine living there you come up from town you come all all up this hill and and then you got to go up these steps to get to your gate we weren’t quite sure what it would be like bringing the rubbish out from up there and to leave it on the street but you can see Steep Hill get in steeper and very interesting street name here as well D’s gate so that um Dan’s gate so it tells us that the Danes were here and uh gate is the word for a street that you will find in all the the Viking ruled places like in York it was the Scandinavian word for G for a street so it’s not to do with a gate like where you go through it’s very important to remember that Marlene that’s great You’ve Got Two Two Letters from uh the lady in waiting it’s lovely they do they do reply to things I know um I know that um some of the kids that s Jane teaches they wrote letters to um Duchess of Cambridge as she was then Princess of Wales as she is now Catherine and um they received very lovely replies as well from the from the office staff so when we say we’re going on to Steep Hill this is the Steep bit this is the bit where I think I might fall over [Music] I’m and uh lovely buildings here lovely Gardens the old lamps but this really is getting pretty steep now you can see and uh roller skates roller skates might be okay on the flat bit on these cobblestones roll skates would be not the best um and I also not quite sure what it would be like walking up here after a very rainy day and also in the winter I would not want to do it you did get up it you didn’t walk down it well I walked up it earlier and then we walked down and then I have to confess I got the bus back up to start the tour I cheated but I thought you know I want to be have a little bit of energy left to actually do the tour so that was my uh that was my intention there so let’s uh yes I’m definitely watching where I’m putting my feet uh somebody I was chatting to when I was waiting for the bus um they told me that um they lived in Lincoln they said one of of their friends works in the city center and after work every day they run um up and down three times and then they go home from work and that’s their kind of workout for the day and um we got a old sight of an well here public drinking place Well Lane uh and I I we we decided that that was because you get to here and you say well it’s about time for a [Music] rest home of the very fit well the problem is you see I suppose um the only thing is you if you can walk up to the top and then you can have your cake or your chocolate or your afternoon tea or your ice cream or all those lovely things that they sell but at the top of the hill Okay so we’ve seen um a cathedral that dates back in part to the 11th century we’ve seen a castle that dates back in part to the 11th century um we don’t often see residential homes that date back so far in history domestic property but here in Lincoln we do have one a stone building here halfway up the hill it’s known as the Jews house uh because it was the site of um it was lived in by a number of Jewish families and it dates back to around 1160 yes it is believed to be one of the very oldest surviving residential and domestic buildings in the whole of the country takes back to about 1160 how amazing is that and the Jews house um there was a thriving Jewish Community uh in Lincoln it was there were five cities that had thriving Jewish communities and Lincoln was one of them but uh in the later times um the Jewish Community was um very heavily persecuted and was all the Jewish people were expelled uh from England by King Edward I first uh but the name lived on in the fact that this was known as um where the Jewish people had lived the Jews house and next to it is another building called Jews Court which was taken over when the je Jewish people moved back to the city um as late as the 17th century they kind of moved back into the same area reclaimed these houses and these medieval buildings were taken over and used as a site of um meeting and Community Center uh for the Jewish community and they the Jewish people who live in Lincoln these days they do still meet there for the some of their religious purposes so it a tradition of Jewish meetings and community and um those kind of things going back many many centuries here but massively important this building in terms of it just its sheer age as a here as a residential building so the we had a great view look look how we see how a little bit how far we’ve come down by how much um we can see as we look up you can just about see the cathedral Towers peeping up over the top of the roofs and the trees there as we’ve come down um steep hill and now that the street kind of changes name and it becomes known as the strait which is St t r a i t and it becomes a little bit more modern although many of the buildings have kind of a slightly modern Frontage and um they you know it is a continuation of the medieval Street um the way that the the town developed really was that the wealthy people the center of power up on the hill the cathedral the castle the big Merchants houses and then the markets the commercial life of the city the places where the ordinary people were dwelling closer to the center of town down towards the river with them uh Elizabeth the modern population is about 130,000 so so it is a it is a good-sized city um know quite a quite a thriving City it’s got a got a university and uh we saw as we were having our lunch we saw some four young girls and they got kind of quite nice dresses on and they were taking photos um in front of the cathedral with their completed uh University dissertations uh and they just had them printed off uh and so they’d taken these kind of photos and and then they were going to go and go and hand them in on Monday we we were very nosy we wondered what they were doing so we asked them what I have to say we uh we asked them so uh yeah they they were was lovely to see and uh one of them said that the one who we asked her dissertation was something to do with uh it’s biochemistry I think uh something to do with proteins and uh Alzheimer’s so really important uh sort of medical biochemistry research field that they were involved in so as you can see we’re really coming down into the heart of of the modern city very busy still a lot of people out you know it’s Saturday coming into the early evening a lot of people out to enjoy themselves but we are going to continue all the way down to the river L yes well there are you know there are good public transport there is a there is a bus that runs from down here in the center up to the Cathedral and the castle it runs every half hour just 22 I just paid 22 to to go up there you can go all the way around I think for a single ticket so it is uh you know and the good thing about that apart from the one really very steep bit there are plenty of places to stop and sit down to go in and get a cup of tea you know there’s sedan CH on it’s what you need so we’re gonna we’re actually actually GNA cross a road here you know with most of the of Roads we’ve been on have been kind of shared pedestrian and uh vehicle roads but this is an actual actual road with traffic lights and The Pedestrian Crossing on it no you can see it is a really busy but I think I’m guessing that if you went to sort of any large town or city today it’s going to be the same because like I say this is kind of the first nice weather weekend we’ve had this year and uh the uh you know people are out enjoying right the winter seem to have lasted forever um this year so um you know I don’t blame anyone for being out and about enjoying the sunshine but uh it might look like we are in the the modern bit of the city and uh we’ve left all the history behind us but I promise you that that is not true cuz we have another couple of spots where the history of the city really comes back with a vengeance um which I wanted to show you before we end Susan yeah there there there are car Parks up by the cathedral yeah you can drive up there um the car Parks up there are not the cheapest because obviously uh supply and demand um down in the town parking is really pretty reasonable I I parked in a in a car park just by where we’re going to finish the tour in a few minutes and um it’s cost me uh less than4 for a 24hour ticket which I think is pretty good so ahead of us we’ve got an old gate now this was the site of the Southern gate of the Roman town so parts of the stone that are within this gate date back to as far as has been a to be um confirmed the early 3r Century ad and the remainer of that gate was built in the 13th century uh so there was always a gate here and the Scandinavians um when they were ruling here they called this um stain boggy stain bogy uh and that’s why it has the name um Stone bow to this day stain bogy the the Danish word for this for this um Archway so it was the Stone Arch that meant so you have the 13th century Stone Arch on top of the using Roman remains from the 3r century and above it you have the Guild Hall and the Guild Hall is the seat of the local government to this day it was a 15th century building that they built across the top of the stonebow and they um have used it ever since then for meetings and for ceremonies so that is where you can find this sword that I said that Richard II presented to the city uh there’s also a mace so a sort of a ceremonial staff that was presented to the City by King Charles I first and various other kind of the Insignia and Treasures of the local the local city and it’s where the meral events and um formalities take place so a really important historic building for 1,800 years so stonebow it’s called stonebow in the Guild Hall now we I did say right at the beginning that we we were on a hill and uh it overlooks the river uh the river is uh quite difficult to spot because it’s not a huge River and it does go between a lot of the houses but uh we’re going to go and take a look at the river and what we’re going to do is take a look at this fantastic building here on the right hand side this is called Stokes Stokes is is a t- room that dates back almost about just over 100 years I think um but the building itself was built around 1550 now during the reign of King Henry VII uh and actually uh I can uh tell you that uh when you go to the um bathrooms uh within the t- room um the on the gentleman’s there’s a picture of King hemry the eth and on the ladies there’s a picture of there are pictures of two of his wives I don’t know whether they rotate them you know so all six get a turn I don’t know but uh so uh but this building is interesting for a particular reason it’s because it’s called High Bridge house and believe it or not we are standing on the bridge we are standing in on the Main and the original bridge over the river with them and the bridge here was built in the middle of the 12th century stone bridge and like many of the bridges at that time it had buildings on it and some of those buildings were replaced with this one in 1550 but uh the stone bridge and this is actually the oldest bridge in the United Kingdom that still has buildings upon it so out of any build you see with buildings in this is the oldest and um the High Bridge it’s called and uh here is the river with them it basically takes the main street of the town which continues further these days down to the railway station but um you know outwards southwards from the town from the old town Gates there it um takes the main road over the river and this is the river with them very narrow at this point um kept under control when the area was developed uh just beyond here behind where we’re walking now it does open out considerably um but really interesting you know quite um I think quite tasteful modern buildings opposite but we get a great view back from here to the river going there under that bridge with the uh the t- rooms the black and white building on top of it and it is a a pinch point on the river and it is very susceptible to flooding this um Bridge does and this walkway does have often have to be closed because the all of the water is channeled through a very narrow spot as it goes under the High Bridge uh and when there’s a you know a flood surge um it is it is quite a difficult um thing to manage but we are going to just walk a little tiny bit further because we can stand on the modern bridge and we do get a great view back along the river towards the uh High Bridge and uh with a great contrast of of modern buildings and old ones and um really is kind of a very different atmosphere but very lovely actually this part of the city is has had a lot of development gone on and and um they they’ve got an Old Market Hall the old agricultural corn Exchange building um has just been redeveloped and it’s about to reopen as a New Market Hall here just going to see it on the on the right hand side oh my hat nearly blew into the river then so look at this beautiful 19th century building the cornhole and that has just been fitted out as a modern Market so amazing that they’re really making a great job of of redeveloping this part of town and there’s there’s more kind of old shopping streets oh there’s the pigeons coming at us and we’ve also got lovely boat there the moon rer floating tea room and got a cup of tea on a cake on the uh on the boat there and a great one of the another of the oldest pubs in the city is is down here by the river I mean I guess you’d always expand expect to find a few pubs by the Riverside and it’s very much the case here in Lincoln and uh the pub has an interesting name um I don’t know what its original name was but um let me show you what it’s called as you can see the stonework at the back of the building it’s a very ancient building with Timber framing on it it’s called It’s called The Witch and wardrobe so uh we better be careful because someone is missing a lion and I hope I hope it’s not wandering around looking for its dinner so uh let’s um go over to this section and here we we really get a look at the Modern the modern sculpture there with the two figures and then the river with the modern buildings and then the the historic High Bridge with the timber frame building on it isn’t that a lovely um View and uh that is the view I’m going to um actually finish with and uh you get to see me again which uh if you see that lion sneaking up on me please do shout up won’t you it’s behind you it’ll be like a best best pantomimes season so uh so um hope you’ve enjoyed this little stroll around Lincoln we’ve you know we’ve seen a lot we’ve packed a lot in I think and um but I wanted to show you as much as I could um as we’ve made our way here and people have generously contributed towards making this tour possible so um you know it’s a really interesting um City you know from The Amazing Cathedral and the history of the Roman area and the the castle right down to those wonderful H houses steep hills and the shops and t- rooms right down here to the to the Riverside and it’s um fantastic to have shared it with you so um I uh thank you again for coming if you missed any of it if you joined late or you just want to watch again it will be on the YouTube channel you can you can watch the recording there I’ll leave it up um as a public video for about um a couple of weeks or so and thank you beatric for putting a link to the padlet up and the padlet uh is where you can find details of all my upcoming tours and talks on all different platforms um so the next um tour that I have is uh a week tomorrow Sunday the 19th uh and that is going to be an asli tour and that’s the last of the the videos so far that I’ve taken on my trips to Germany we’re going to be I’m going to be showing you around a fantastic City at the city of Munich um and so definitely try and check that one out if you can and thank you to beis for putting the link up to the the shop page of buy me a coffee where you can book all the upcoming tours and we have um our next everybody has a story interview scheduled as well which is with the lovely Linda in New York who has agreed to be um the next guest for that and that’s the Kofi link that beatric has put up as well if you prefer to pay in US dollars or to use PayPal um that’s where you can do both of those things um some good news on the horizon for those of you that um like to pay in a different currency buy me a coffee has introduced a multicurrency feature finally we’ve been I’ve been badgering them and I’m sure other content creators have been badgering them for a long time to add that feature and they have now added it but I do need to have a couple of days where I tweak things around um and I have to be very careful that I don’t I don’t want the payment facilities to disappear for while the new one is coming in so um I do need to uh kind of work that out how I’m going to do it for the best but very soon um buy me a coffee will have the uh option of paying in a whole variety of different currencies um it’ll automatically convert um I I will put the price in in pounds and it will automatically convert it into your local currency or the currency of your choice so that’s something that will be hopefully coming very very soon so um the wish list of course is there and um beatric has put the link to there thank you beatric you’ve worked very hard putting all these links up you need you deserve to uh go for a cup of tea in one of the tea shops upon the Steep Hill um or just in your apartment for now thank you very much for your help with those um and um we’ve got the um the English one the coords one is nearly completed and we’ve got the statford boat trip which is now um which has started to build up as well that’s the next one of our community funded tours that’s on the site so have a wonderful rest of your Saturday everybody enjoy the rest of your weekend thank you so much for supporting me and supporting uh this tour and I will hopefully see you very very soon bye for now everybody he