'How Henry VIII's toilet window set me down path of discovering York's hidden historic treasures'
In a new book, history enthusiast Dr Angela Ranson tells the story of York by exploring big, small and quirky remnants of past lives. Laura Reid reports.
It started at York’s King’s Manor with a little window to what was once a toilet used by Henry VIII. “So innocuous, you'd walk right past and wouldn't even see it,” says Dr Angela Ranson. “But there’s so many small things like this that are so significant in the city and its history and it made me think that these have to be explored just like the big things.”
Since she moved to York from her native Canada in 2010, Angela has immersed herself in its fascinating heritage and this week has released a book which tells the story of the city by exploring the small remnants of past lives.
York's Hidden Treasures tells tales that connect to life in the modern city, including features such as a Tudor staircase still in use in an office building and the medieval gargoyles watching people go by from their perches on the eaves of coffee shops.
“I really like finding the stories and the people behind the events and buildings of history,” 52-year-old Angela says. “That’s what really brings it to life…I like to see and I like to talk about how people lived, how people experienced the city and how what we have now - the life we're living now in York - is influenced by all of those other different people and eras and groups that were here before us.”
The little window of Henry VIII’s bathroom is, of course, featured in the book. It was one of the first historical hidden gems Angela came across when she arrived in York for PhD study – and as an (almost) lifelong lover of the Tudors, a personal favourite.
Her interest in the Tudors began as a girl already somewhat fascinated with the UK through her love of C. S. Lewis and the fictional realm of Narnia. “My mum still teases me about this but I used to walk around as a little girl imitating his accent,” she laughs. “I wasn’t very good at it.”
One night, back in the ‘80s, Angela began watching a TV show featuring English characters “in pretty clothes – Tudor dresses”. “A woman walked in in this beautiful dress and she had a white rose in her shirt and a man walked over to her and took the rose and tossed it and gave her a red rose. She bent down and picked up the white rose and put the two together on her dress and the music swelled and it was obviously significant but I had no idea why. So I started studying to find out what the roses meant.”
Finding out the answer was the beginning of her love of the Tudors. Angela studied them in her undergraduate degree, then, after ten years of teaching English and history to high school students, returned to the Tudors for her Master’s degree and PhD.
During the time of the latter, at the University of York, Angela also taught and was trained to give students historical tours of York. “That’s when I was taken down to King’s Manor and saw the fascinating tiny little window,” she says.
"When I first moved to York, I said, ‘I'm going to go explore the city.’ And a friend of mine went, ‘Don't forget to look up – look up and down. A lot of stuff at York isn't at eye level, so you're going to miss a lot if you don't.’ So there's two sections in the book now on looking up and looking down.”
Two years after graduating, Angela, who also produces the Catrin Surovell series of historical Tudor murder mystery novels, returned to York and trained as a ghost tour operator, spending a stint running child-friendly versions.
Soon after, she landed a job in administration at the university, where she still works, but Angela has continued with researching the ghosts of York and even gave talks on the subject to international students as part of a programme to help them get used to hearing and understanding UK lectures.
“Actually, one of my favourite times was when we were doing an away day with my university job and I said I'd do a ghost trail as a fun activity,” Angela recalls. “Then we got to the time when we were supposed to go downtown and people said they were too tired so I did a virtual ghost trail instead. I was using slides, and I did have a costume on with a top hat, but I was in a very generic classroom in the daytime with everybody sitting at tables - and I still got them scared to death.”
Some of Angela’s favourite ghost stories feature in the book – including reports in recent years of a bike riding itself through the Shambles area and the tale of a Canadian soldier who died after walking through glass in The Golden Fleece and apparently still haunts the pub’s hallway today. Then, there’s Treasurer’s House which has become known for its supernatural residents.
Perhaps the most well-known tale is that of a plumbing engineer working in the basement who described hearing trumpeting and then seeing and hearing ghostly Roman soldiers march across the room. “I think the thing that makes me most convinced that this story was true is that he never went back into another basement,” says Angela. “He left plumbing and became a pilot to get as far away from basements as he could.”
Those ghost stories sit as part of her quirky history of York exploring the people, places and events that have shaped the ancient city since its founding in 71AD. Angela hopes that the book will encourage both people who live in York and those who visit it to notice remnants of the past – big and little. “My favourite part when I go visit a new city is when somebody tells me a story about why (something) is there,” she says. “I hope that with all this beautiful stuff they see, they’ll understand why it’s there and why it’s beautiful.”
-York’s Hidden Treasures: The History You Might Have Missed, by Angela Ranson, is out now. A book launch will be held at The Black Swan in York, 6.30-pm-8pm, on Thursday, August 13.