Barley Halls Historic Harvest

Ann Hills examines the work of the York Archaeological Trust on Barley Hall.

Barley Hall, a medieval town house in the heart of York, is coming to life. By the end of the year, the Great Hall, Parlour and Buttery will be furnished as authentically as historians' interpretation allows.

The York Archaeological Trust are continuing this detailed reconstruction of the late fourteenth-century monastic hospice and fifteenth-century timber- framed hall off Stonegate. Visitors will eventually mingle with costumed characters for an experience based on meticulous research into contemporary documents, archaeological digs and examinations of the dismantled beams.

Barley Hall was leased by the Augustinian priors of Nostell near Wakefield to private citizens – most notably around 1480 to Alderman William Snawsell, goldsmith, Lord Mayor of York, MP for the city, and Master of the Royal Mint. It is he and his family around whom the reconstruction of the Hall has been focused in this invitation to sample 'medieval life' in York.

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