We haven’t visited Barley Hall for years, and I was keen to see it decorated for Christmas, so we took a trip there last weekend. They call it ‘York’s Hidden Medieval Townhouse’, which perfectly describes it. You can find it in Coffee Yard, on a snicket between Stonegate and Grape Lane.
Barley Hall was once the home of the Priors of Nostell and also a past Lord Mayor of York. The star of the show is the Great Hall which was beautifully and festively decorated with garlands of holly and ivy, in the same way it would have been during the medieval period.
The table was laid for a feast (and provides a perfect place for a family photograph!).
You are welcome to touch everything in the hall, and there are some fun props to play with, like this crown!
There are many more rooms to explore like the Steward’s Room, Parlour, Gallery, Chambers, the Buttery, and the Pantry.
It’s a family friendly house with a children’s play tent with soft toys and games to keep younger ones entertained. There are also medieval games to play for the grown ups like Nine Men’s Morris, which is a game with similarities to noughts and crosses and mentioned in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
There are also drawing stations for the children where they can trace medieval drawings and then display their artwork on a wall (or take it home if they prefer of course!).
Barley Hall is part of the York Archaeology PastPort scheme. It’s a great way to save money if you are visiting more than one of their three attractions which include Barley Hall, the Jorvik Viking Centre and DIG: An Archaeological Adventure.
We were invited to visit and review – as always, all opinions expressed are my own.
