The Three-Legged Mare

Strange name for a pub? An explanation will be provided tomorrow, along with an indication of the location. 

Petergate perspective

York Minster from High Petergate, a classic composition that we will no doubt see again. I wonder if visitors sometimes miss this view in the pursuit of the average Brit's raison d'être: "I shop, therefore I am." There is a parable there waiting to be developed.

When "hanging around here" meant something else

What's in a name?  Yesterday, Whitby Daily Photo featured Arguments Yard, named after its builder, but the history of this York snickelway is rather more macabre: Mad Alice Smith was hanged at the castle in 1823 for poisoning her husband.

The word snickelway is the brilliant invention of local author, Mark W Jones, who used it in the title of his very popular and frequently republished book, A Walk Around the Snickelways of York. There are about 50 of them within the walls alone, best visited on a guided tour.