I had set the alarm for 09:00, but we were awake around 08:20. We got up and ready. Then we headed for breakfast. It was pretty busy that morning, but we managed to get a table in the main breakfast area. Shortly after we got there, they started to send people to the overflow area. Graham had some white coffee and apple juice, muesli, a banana, an apple, and a bowl of plain yoghurt with berry compote. I had a latte macchiato, orange juice, muesli with almond milk and cherry yoghurt. Neither of us was in the mood for a cooked breakfast.
After breakfast, we headed back up to the room. Our plan for that day was to head for Beverley. I had first visited Beverley in 1994, and it was love at first sight. We were lucky enough to live there from 2004 to 2006. As much as I love Manchester, I still miss Beverley. I was excited that I would get another chance to visit. I checked out train times and then we headed across to the station. Unfortunately, we just missed a train by the time we had our tickets. Still, we were on no tight schedule and there was a train about 20 minutes later. We headed to the waiting room on the platform and sat down until our train arrived.
The train journey from Hull to Beverley only takes about 15 minutes and some of it is quite pretty. I had located a treasure hunt for Beverley. Mystery Guide concentrates on larger cities, but there are a number of different companies that offer treasure hunts. One of them, Treasure Trails, offer a huge selection. They have one for Beverley and I figured that would be worth a try. Their version is not quite as elaborate as Mystery Guide but still looked like a lot of fun. Better still, the starting point was right outside the railway station.
The first clue sounded incredibly like a post box. I could recall that there was a phone box outside the station but did not remember a post box. There was a good reason for this as the post box in question was not a freestanding post box, but it is recessed in the station wall. We solved this clue and then moved on. The next clue was a beautiful clock right opposite the station. Then we headed down Trinity Lane. I must have been up and down this street hundreds of times over the years, but I had never noticed the building that was the clue there. This surprised me as it is a beautiful building. It took me a while to figure out what it was. It was the Beverley Masonic Hall.
We moved gradually closer to the minster. Our next clue was a 16th century gate. I initially thought it was in an alley that led us to a courtyard with a beer garden. I did not know that this was there. I discovered later in the day that this belonged to a pub on an adjacent street that I was aware of, I just did not know about the beer garden. There were some nice views of the minster. However, the gate in that area was much more recent than the 16th century.
We did eventually find the gate further up the street. I was actually aware of it being there but had never stopped to find out more. It is pretty but always felt oddly out of place. It turned out there was a good reason for this. A plaque next to the gate explained the history. This gate his called Friary Gate and originally was part of the Dominican Friary that is down an alley just a little bit further up the road. It was moved to this location in 1964 to preserve it. No wonder that it feels out of place.
The friary itself was not part of the treasure hunt. We were supposed to turn right where the friary is off to the left. However, I could not visit Beverley without checking this out. Beverley friary is home to the local youth hostel. The building has all kinds of interesting historical features, but it is rarely open to the public. However, the outside and the garden are pretty, and I have many happy memories linked to this place.
After a fleeting visit, we picked up the trail again. The treasure hunt was taking us away from the minster. I had booked a guided tour of the minster after we really enjoyed the tours of Lichfield and Norwich cathedrals. This was not for another 90 minutes. I had figured we could carry on with the treasure hunt for a bit longer before backtracking for the tour. However, when we got to the minster, it looked like a downpour was imminent. We decided to just enjoy the minster until it was time for the tour.
I have always loved Beverley Minster. When I lived in Beverley, whenever I felt the need to gather my thoughts, I tended to just go and sit in the minster. It is a very pretty church. I always thought that this looks like I imagined the cathedral in my favourite book, The Pillars of the Earth, would look like. We came in through a side entrance this time, which meant that we entered the minster near some of the chapels rather than in the nave. There are three military chapels in the south transept, two of them are dedicated to soldiers that lost their lives in the First World War, and the final is dedicated to soldiers that lost their lives in the Second World War. This was the chapel I was interested in. It contains a cross that was carved by Robert Thompson. He was known as the Mouse Man of Kilburn and was famous for carving a small mouse on each piece of furniture he produced. There are mice carved on some of the chairs in this chapel. Supposedly there are 11 mice in this chapel. We found 10, which is more than we ever managed before.
After this, we headed to the nave. The feel of this was entirely different this time. While we were there, they had an exhibition called Threads that consisted of two parts. Threads Through Creation is consisted of twelve very large textile panels, re-telling the story of Creation. Threads Through the Cross consisted of eighteen textile panels, portraying the life of Jesus, his crucifixion, resurrection, and Pentecost. The panels were stunning, but they covered most of the walls in the nave and made the minster look cluttered. I was a little disappointed that I did not quite get the usual sense of light and airiness. We still took some time to sit down and absorb the beauty around us. We were lucky that somebody was playing the organ while we were sitting there. This was a rather sweet sound. Graham made the comment that they should have a concert playing the music of Phantom of the Opera on the organ. This would be absolutely amazing, and I would happily make the journey if something like this was ever offered.
Many years ago, I did a roof tour of Beverley Minster. There are wo things I very clearly remember from this tour. One is the very scary spiral staircase that takes you up to the roof and the tower. The other is the lift. The lift is powered by a huge wheel and was used to lift construction materials, and it is still working to this day. I was by myself the day I did this tour. We were sitting very close to the roof boss that can be lifted to allow the lift to operate. I pointed this out to Graham and told him what it hides. The next time we looked up, the roof boss had been removed. Graham thought this was rather cool.
I wanted to use the bathroom, which is outside the minster. On the way back, I had a quick look at the choir. One of the things that have always fascinated me at Beverly Minster are the misericords. Misericords, or mercy seats, were hinged wooden seats placed in the choir stalls of medieval churches which, when tipped up, presented a ledge for the user to rest on when attending long services. Beneath the ledge were carved figures. Beverley Minster has 68 misericord seats, the largest number of any church in the country. Many carvings are quite tongue in cheek. The most famous carvings are a fox, holding a rosary (an indication that he is a Dominican friar) preaching to a bunch of silly geese (the congregation of the church). Another scene shows the geese hanging the fox. In the past usually all the misericords were folded back so that the carvings were clearly visible. On the last couple of visits, most of the misericords were in the down position and this was the case this time, too, which was real shame.
When I headed back to rejoin Graham, I noticed that they had set up tables and chairs near the shop and there was a table with tea and coffee. Once upon a time, they had a café in that area that was staffed by volunteers. Now they encouraged people to help themselves to hot drinks and leave a donation. I told Graham about this and as we still had some time until our tour was due to start, we decided to get a coffee.
Once had finished our coffees, we headed towards the main entrance where our tour was due to start. We were the only people who had booked in advance. There were however three couples that had seen the guided tour sign and shown an interest. They had been sent to pay at the shop just before we got there and returned shortly afterwards.
We started the tour very close to where we had met our tour guide. There is an enormous Norman font in this area. It is made from something called Frosterley Marble, which is actually polished limestone. Our tour guide pointed out some fossils to us. In 1726, a very elaborate carved cover was added, which weighs about 200 tons. The reason that this was added was to prevent people stealing holy water. At some stage, a very sophisticated lifting mechanism was added meaning that this can be lifted with a single finger. This was quite impressive.
Our guide then pointed out various pieces of art around the nave. Near one of the side entrances are statues of Saint John of Beverley and King Athelstan. They were both instrumental in Beverley becoming such a significant town. Saint John of Beverley was already venerated during his lifetime and after his death, a steady stream of pilgrims came to pray at his grave. Kings came to Beverley to pray at the grave of Saint John of Beverley before heading into battle. They then returned once they had succeeded and gave endowments to the minster. King Athelstan also visited the grave of Saint John of Beverley before heading for battle. Once he returned victorious, he not only provided the minster with the customary endowments but also gave Beverley the right of sanctuary. Other significant artwork in the nave is the Medieval Minstrels. There are over 70 carvings, in wood and stone, from the medieval period depicting about 20 different instruments. This is believed to be the largest collection in the world. Unfortunately, quite of few of them were obscured by the fabric panels.
As we moved down the nave, our guide pointed out the three different styles of Gothic architecture and how we could tell them apart. She also pointed out the grave of Saint John of Beverley. She told us that the whole body is not buried there, but just a few bones. She then mentioned the lift and pointed out the roof boss that covers it apparently is not just used for materials, but also to evacuate people if there is ever a medical emergency in the roof space. This sounded a little scary to say the least. The biggest surprise was the organ. Although admittedly, it has a very sweet sound, it does not look all that impressive. However, the organ is made up of over 4000 pipes.
We then moved on to some of the chapels. We stopped by the military chapels that we had visited earlier. We also checked out the Percy chapel, which is the burial place of Henry Percy. He is not the only member of the Percy family to be buried in Beverley Minster. The Percy Canopy is recognised as one of the masterpieces of English Decorated stone carving. It is not entirely clear who this canopy was meant to commemorate, but the most likely person is Lady Eleanor Percy.
Next up was the retro quire. This contains a modern stained-glass window and a sculpture by Helen Whittaker. The sculpture consists of two life-sized copper figures with three triangular stained-glass hearts within them. I could have sworn that they have always been there, but apparently, they were installed in 2004.
We then went to see the high altar. Next to this is the oldest item in the minster. The Saxon Fridstool (or Chair of Peace) is at least 1,000 years old and is one of only two left in the country, with the other being at Hexham Abbey. The chair has been associated with the granting of sanctuary to fugitives (after 938). The suggestion is that a Canon would sit in it whilst the fugitive recited an oath.
We also checked out the choir and our guide explained about the misericords. I was familiar with those. However, I still learned something new. I have looked at the marble floor in the choir plenty of times. Looking at it, it does have a slight 3D optic to it. However, our guide encouraged us to look at this with a mobile phone and then the 3D optic really popped out.
After the tour, we quickly made another bathroom stop. Then we picked up the treasure hunt again. We headed towards the centre of the town. Beverley is full of little side streets, and the treasure hunt took us along a few of them. I am quite familiar with the side streets and alleys near where we used to live, but at this end of the town, they were new to me. Eventually we looped around to some more familiar territory. One of the photo clues, I thought I recognised as being on the church I used to go to. I was right. There were some more clues along the busiest part of town and then we took to one of the side streets again, but this one we were familiar with.
At this stage, we failed to find a clue. The clue referred to dates on a building, but we walked the whole length of the street without finding any dates. There was one building that is currently being renovated that had areas on the wall that looked like they may have had dates on them, but those had been painted over. Thankfully, there was a QR code for clues at the end of the booklet.
We were quite close to where we used to live at this point. There was another photo clue, and I thought I knew what this was, but when I looked at it, it was not how I remembered it. The real thing in the photo was very close though and we had no trouble finding it. I was also sure that I knew what the next clue referred to, which was the Beverley Arms Hotel. This time round, my hunch was correct.
Just a couple of doors down was where we had been hoping to have dinner. Beverley used to have the most amazing Chinese restaurant called Lee Garden. They also offered take away service and as we used to live just around the corner, we sometimes used to get a takeaway from there when we lived in Beverley. When we visited Beverley in 2024, we had dinner there and it was as good as I remembered. When I checked opening hours, it was flagged as temporarily closed on Google. There was no indication of this on their website. Their Facebook page had not been updated since last year, but it looked like that they were often closed for a holiday around this time of the year. I was not particularly alarmed. As we were in the vicinity anyway, we decided to check out the situation. This did not make me happy. It looked like there was some extensive refurbishment going on, which by itself would be no reason for concern, but the branding had been removed. I wondered if this meant that the restaurant was gone for good. Sadly, that appears to be the case. As I could not find any information, I Googled the address when I started to type this trip report and this brought up the website of a Mexican restaurant with a banner saying, “coming soon”. This is a real shame.
There were a bunch of clues very close together. One of them was Coronation Garden. I had never heard of this before and was very surprised when I realised how close this was to where I used to live. I wish I had known about this then as this was a really pretty place. I started life as the burial ground of nearby St Mary’s Church. This was then transformed into a garden and later on, a sensory garden was added. The furthest part was a private burial ground and the graves in this area are still there.
One of the clues on the way back from the furthest point was a beautiful traditional water pump. I must have walked past this hundreds of times and it never registered that it was there. This brought us back to St Mary’s Church. Sadly, this was already closed. This church has all kinds of quirky features. My favourite is a messenger rabbit, which is a stone carving that is often cited as a likely inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. Whether or not this is accurate, it is definitely interesting.
We had one more clue in this area, which was in Beverley Memorial Gardens. Then we started to head back towards the centre. We cut through an alley that was right by the entrance to where we used to live. This made my smile. The clues then led us back to the opposite end of the down with the final clue being on Wednesday Market.
At that stage, we were both ready for something to eat. There used to be a lot of restaurants at that part of town, but most of them have disappeared. We did find something that looked promising, which was Mirage Cocktail Bar and Bistro. We shared some mixed olives with feta cheese and some haloumi fries. Graham had some white wine and a Diablo Burger, which was a beef burger with cheddar cheese, maple bacon, jalapenos, hot sauce, and mayonnaise. I had an Aperol Spritz and a Classic Bacon & Cheese Burger, which was a beef burger with maple bacon, cheddar cheese, and mayonnaise. The burgers came with skin on fries and coleslaw. I gave my coleslaw to Graham. Everything was delicious.
While we were waiting for our food. I took care of a couple of things. The first was to submit the result for the treasure hunt on their website. We had got two things wrong. It made me smile. Throughout the day, we had eliminated letters and numbers. This left us with a four-letter code. The back story was that a villain had set a device to destroy the church bells of St Mary’s Church. When we lived there, the bell ringers were practising for hours every Tuesday night. As much as I like church bells in small doses, they tend to get on your nerves when you have to listen to them for hours. The motivation to save the bells was very limited.
The second thing that I took care of is get a ticket for the theatre. I had found out the previous day that Mamma Mia was on at Hull New Theatre that weekend. I was not quite sure if I could make it back in time. However, as we had eaten quite early, I had amble time to get back. I had seen this musical on Allure of the Seas last year and loved it. I was hoping that at some stage I would get to see it on dry land. It had just finished a run in Manchester, but the theatre where it was on is very cramped and the last time I went there, I ended up standing at the back the theatre as I was in serious pain. I had no wish to repeat this experience. When we lived in Beverley, we had been to Hull New Theatre a couple of times and I remembered that it was pretty spacious. When I realised that I would be back in plenty of time for the evening performance, I decided to check if there were still tickets available. I was in luck and a few minutes later I was all set to go to the theatre that night.
I had one more disappointment that day. Beverley station always had covered wooden footbridge linking the two platforms. This footbridge had a very distinctive smell. I have always associated that smell with the feeling of coming home even when I no longer lived in Beverley. Sadly, at some stage the covered footbridge was replaced with a modern footbridge. The distinctive smell was gone. This is such a shame.
We did not have long to wait for a train and had a clear run back to Hull. Near the exit of the station is a huge map. We had a look at this to find my quickest way to the theatre. This was really straightforward. I still had time to relax a little at the hotel before I had to head out.
I had no issue finding the theatre. I had gone with the cheapest seat I could find in the stalls. Hull New Theatre is not particularly big, and I had a great view straight at the stage even though I was in the last row of the stalls. There was also amble legroom. The show was great. I was surprised when the set was identical to the one on Allure of the Seas. I figured it would be simpler on a ship. There were a few subtle differences in the show. I suppose especially one part would have been potentially unsafe on a moving ship. The show was amazing and the case was very talented. I was so glad that I had this opportunity. I was just the icing on the cake on this amazing weekend.
Once the show was over, I headed back to the hotel. As soon as I exited the square where Hull New Theatre is located, I could see the hotel. It did not take me long to get back. Graham was asleep. I got ready for bed and soon I was asleep, too.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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