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Pictures

Click on the thumbnails for pictures of The York Waits in action

The Sheriff's Riding, York, December 21st 2000

The sheriffs, by the custom of the City of York do ride to several parts every year betwixt   Michaelmas and midwinter, that is Yoole, and do, at several parts of the said City make a  proclamation.

The ceremony of riding, one of the greatest shews in the City, is performed on this manner. The  sheriffs appear on horseback, apparelled in their black gowns and velvet tippits, their horses in  suitable furniture, each sheriff having a white wand in his hand, and a badge of his office, and a   servant to lead his horse who also carries a gilded truncheon. Their sergeants at mace, attorneys  and other officers of their courts, on horseback in their gowns riding before them.

These are preceeded by the city’s waites, or musicians, in their scarlet liveries and silver badges  playing all the way through the streets. One of these waites wears on his head a red pinked or  tattered ragged cap, a badge of great antiquity.

Then follows a great concourse of country gentlemen, citizens, &tc. on horseback who are invited to  this honour and afterwards to dine with them, and I have seen near four hundred people at the  entertainment.

Eboracum Francis Drake (1736)

We recreate the Sheriffs' Riding or Yoolgirthol every 21st December (St Thomas's Day) beginning  at Micklegate Bar (the main entrance to the city from the north and south and arrival point for all  visiting monarchs) and stopping at various stations throughout the city in order that a proclamation  may be promulgated, heralded by a long blast on a horn. An amnesty is declared to "all manner of  thieves, whores, dice-players and other unthrifty folk for the feast of Yule, until the twelve days be  past; God Save The Queen". This was the event in 2000. Photograph © Chris Broadribb.

see the new York Waits CD

For more on the Sheriffs Riding, see the History section of the
Waits Website.

York Mystery Plays

1. Leading a pageant wagon.

2. Procession for York Mystery Plays.

3. Procession for York Mystery Plays.

Procession for Yorkshire Day 2000

Fawsley Hall

1. Dinner

2. Dinnertime perambulations

3. Outdoor concert

The union of the crowns of England & Scotland 1603
with the forthcoming coronation of James I of England and VI of Scotland. Berwick-upon-Tweed was celebrating his visit there on 6 April 1603 on his way from Edinburgh to London. After Berwick, of course, he went to York (16-17th April) the story of which is told in York Music.
The picture's a bit grainy, but I guess that's because photography was in its infancy in 1603.

The York Waits (c. 1615)
at the grave of Thomas Coward (1784-1845), the last of the town waits of Alnwick, Northumberland.

This stone
was erected by friends
and admirers of
Thomas Coward
musician,
the last of the "Waits"
of this ancient borough
who died on the 6^th. Of Feb. 1845
aged 61 years.

Mute is the music. Motionless is the hand
That touched with "Magic bow" the trembling strings.
But memory hath enbalm’d those viol tones
Which fill’d the enraptured ear and charm’d the soul.

At York Minster

Early Days in Dorset 1982