The Roman cellar
Where Harry Martindale saw his Roman column in 1953 - and a real Roman road does run beneath the floor.
donald judge — CC BY 2.0 · donald judge — CC BY 2.0 · Chabe01 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tilman2007 — CC BY-SA 4.0
In 1953 an eighteen-year-old apprentice plumber working in this cellar heard a trumpet, then watched a column of Roman soldiers step out of the wall and trudge past him, visible only from the knees up because the old Roman road runs about half a metre below the cellar floor. Harry Martindale's story became one of Britain's best-known hauntings, and it is what pulls most people to this house tucked directly behind York Minster on the north-east side of Minster Yard. The house itself is the odder attraction. It stands on ground the Minster's treasurers occupied in the Middle Ages, but what you see is largely a 16th- and 17th-century building that the industrialist Frank Green bought in 1897, had restored by 1900 with the architect Temple Moore, and then spent thirty years arranging to his own taste: each room dressed in a different period, from a mock-medieval great hall to Georgian-style drawing rooms, with metal studs hammered into the floors marking exactly where every piece of furniture was to stand so nobody would move it. He then handed the lot to the National Trust in 1930 - the first house the Trust ever received complete with its contents. Entry is by guided tour only, leaving every quarter of an hour, lasting about an hour, with the last tour at 15:00. Adults pay 12 pounds, a family ticket (two adults, up to three children) is 30 pounds, and National Trust members go free. The season runs from late March to 31 October, Saturday to Wednesday 11:00-16:00, closed Thursday and Friday. Booking online saves a wait in summer - tickets are released every Thursday for the following four weeks, and a small number are held back for walk-ups. From mid-November it reopens dressed for Christmas until 21 December, with free-flow entry and no booking, then shuts completely for winter. Be honest with yourself: this is a small house for people who enjoy interiors and ghost stories, not a must-see, and the hour is spent on your feet and on stairs - no pushchairs or large bags are admitted. Children under ten tend to fade unless the cellar is the promised payoff. The little walled garden and the basement cafe are free on open days, and from the garden you get a view of the Minster most visitors never find. From York station it is about a twenty-minute walk through the old city.
Where Harry Martindale saw his Roman column in 1953 - and a real Roman road does run beneath the floor.
Each room in a different period style, with metal floor studs fixing where every piece of furniture must stand.
A small walled garden, free on open days, with a side-on view of York Minster most visitors miss.
Minster Yard, York YO1 7JL
York MinsterThe Great East Window alone is roughly the size of a tennis court: more than thr2 minutes walk4.8
Barley HallFor most of the twentieth century nobody paid this house any attention. Its four3 minutes walk4.5
York's Chocolate StoryKit Kat, Aero, Smarties and the Terry's Chocolate Orange were all born in York, 4 minutes walk4.5
York Art GalleryA seventeen-metre wall stacked with more than a thousand pots, from Roman potter5 minutes walk4.3
Yorkshire MuseumThe largest hoard of Iron Age metalwork ever found in Britain, more than eight h6 minutes walk4.4Honestly no, unless they are over ten and excited by the ghost story. The tour is an hour of standing, stairs and listening, and pushchairs are not admitted. With small children, use the free garden and cafe and move on to Jorvik or the city walls.
In July and August book online - tours are small and tickets are released every Thursday for the following four weeks. A handful are kept for walk-ups, but that can mean waiting for a later tour. In November and December no booking is needed at all.