1 August: York

 Today is Yorkshire Day, so here are 10 facts about its main town, York.

1. York was founded by the Romans in 71 AD. They called it Eboracum. The name meant "Place of the Yew Trees". That name lives on as the Archbishop of York uses Ebor as his surname in his signature. When the Vikings arrived in 866, they called the place Jórvík.
2. The city's most famous landmark is York Minster, the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe. Building began in 1220 and it wasn't consecrated until 1472. One reason it took 250 years to build may have been attention to detail. The stained glass windows were incredibly detailed with the faces even having eyelashes, despite the fact most of the detail can't be seen from 100 feet below. York Minster is the tallest building in York and the Leaning Tower of Pisa could fit inside its central tower.
3. York is the only place outside of Japan where you can see a bullet train. There's one on display in the National Railway Museum, the largest railway museum in Britain by floor space. It's not the biggest in the world – that is La Cite Du Train in France; but the NRM gets more visitors.
4. York has the best preserved city walls in England, dating back 2,000 years.
5. The Shambles is believed to be the oldest shopping street in Europe and was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. In those days most of the shops were butchers, and there are still meat hooks hanging outside every building. There's also a shrine here to Saint Margaret Clitherow, who was married to a butcher who owned a shop on the Shambles.
6. According to the international Ghost Research Foundation, York is the most haunted city in Europe. There's the ghost of a crying girl in College Street and even a ghost dog, called Seamus, which haunts the Minster. The Treasurers House in York is in the Guinness Book of Records for being home to ‘ghosts with the greatest longevity’, and York is also home to Britain's most haunted pub, the Golden Fleece.
7. There is a law in York which makes it perfectly legal to shoot a Scotsman with a bow and arrow any day except Sunday.
8. There has been horse racing in York since 208 AD when the Romans started it. Racing grew in popularity in the eighteenth century.
9. York is home to the shortest street in England, Whip-ma-Whop-ma-Gate, which is an example of a ginnel, a small medieval alleyway.
10. A past Archbishop of York was Lancelot Blackburne, from 1724 to 1726. He's particularly interesting because he started his career as a pirate, and had possibly been a pirate captain, and a spy. In 1681 he was paid £20 pounds (£3,000 in today's money) by Charles II for “secret services”. Then, at some point, he decided to enter the Church and worked his way to the top.

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