Mystery in the Minster (48 page)

Visitors to York today can see many reminders of the bustling medieval town. Besides the magnificent minster, there are the atmospheric ruins of St Mary’s Abbey (including the hospitium), the castle, gates, city walls and many churches. Some of the abbey ruins have been cleverly incorporated into the beautifully refurbished Yorkshire Museum and Gardens, along with a display about its history.

Nothing survives of St Mary ad Valvas, though. It is thought to have stood at the eastern end of the minster chancel, and was demolished in the 1360s. Its dedication is peculiar, but may have referred to a moving door, perhaps a reference to the stone that was rolled across the entrance of Jesus’s tomb.

The church at Huntington belonged to the Abbot and convent of Whitby, and its rector was John Cotyngham (Cottingham). The fourteenth-century vicars-choral had had their eye on it for some time, and had petitioned Archbishop Zouche to encourage Whitby to give it to them. They claimed their motive was poverty, although they owned at least a hundred and fifty properties at this time. It was duly passed to them in 1351 (one local witness was John Keysmaby). Zouche died before the proper deeds could be issued, and it was left to Thoresby to provide them. He was careful to state that the vicars should not have it until Cotyngham died or resigned. Cotyngham resigned in 1354.