THE spotlight is about to fall on the days when the city of York really was the capital of the north.

During the medieval period great swathes of the country were ruled from within the city’s walls and it was home to some of the most powerful people in the land.

Now a major new exhibition at the city’s Yorkshire Museum will tell the story of those extraordinary times using some of the significant finds from the period.

Curator of archaeology Natalie McCaul said: “From the fifth century, for a thousand years, York was the northern city, the place from which the powerful ruled.

“Kings ruled the country from here; archbishops led the Church from here; traders and merchants made their fortunes here.

“This exhibition will look at how York became so powerful and the men and women who made it so.“

The exhibition will cover approximately 1,000 years of history - from the departure of Roman rule in the fifth century to the mid-sixteenth century.

It will be set out in chronological order and divided into eight distinct periods - Anglian, Viking, Norman, Angevin, House of York, People of York, Tudor and Rediscovered.

The exhibition opens on February 16. For more detailed information about the periods covered go to historyofyork.org.uk. For more information on the Yorkshire Museum go to yorkshiremuseum.org.uk

More York & Harrogate News