The Treasurer’s House in York is a National property in the centre of York, overlooked by York Minster.

We chose this for our sort of monthly, more-like-every-few-monthly, visit to a National Trust property. There is no parking there so we had booked a space in the Barbican car park which was about a 20 minute walk away.

Access to the house is by guided tour only, which they recommend booking in advance but they do keep back some places on each tour for walk ins. We (thought we) had booked a 12:00 tour which only lasted 15 minutes, and we were running a little late due to the ongoing roadworks mess that Bradford city centre currently is. As it turned out, we had booked a 12:15 tour that lasted an hour. It’s not altogether clear on the website (or it wasn’t to me) that the when you book the timings mean arrival time and not length of tour. So 12:00 to 12:15, means get there for 12:00 for the 12:15 tour! Which worked out great for us, as we just made our tour time.

The house is one of eight properties that were donated to the National Trust in 1930 by their last owner, a Mr Frank Green.

The original house dates back to 1091, when it was the home of the Treasurer of York Minster. All that remains of the original building (which was built over Roman road, parts of which can still be seen in the cellar of the building which is not currently open to the public), is a wall which is now part of Grays Court hotel, and some masonry within the house.

With the reformation of the English church in 1547 the role of Treasurer came to an end and the house was surrendered to the Crown. From here it passed into the hands of Archbishop Thomas Young in 1561, and he and his descendants built the house that still stands today.

By the 18th century the house had been split into five separate houses and remained this way until 1897 when the second son of a wealthy industrialist, Francis Green, was able to buy 3 of the five houses. The other two remained the property of a lawyer, Mr Grey and is now a hotel, Grays Court. Frank was an antiquarian and, as soon as he had been able to purchase all three houses, began the work of restoring the property to the way we can see it now.

In 1930, Frank Green left the house and everything in it, along with and some other properties he owned in York. to the National Trust with some strict instructions as to how it should be kept, including that it should be kept as a house rather than a museum and should be shown by guided tour only.

This was in keeping with his time living in the property, where he had some strict rules about the upkeep of the house, including having studs embedded into the floor to indicate exactly where the furniture should be kept!

We had a wonderful guide showing us around and telling us the history, pointing out various portraits and paintings, some of which depicted Green family members, and others which were either unknown, or placed there to make it look like they had rich ancestors.

The highlight for me was the large banqueting hall which composed the what had been the middle house of the three. The upper floors had been removed to give the impression of a large medieval banqueting hall. In here was a large oak table, which had once belonged to an Aunt of Oliver Cromwell’s. The other standout room for me was the large upstairs drawing room, which contained the most exquisitely detailed furniture. Some of the pieces dating back to the 16th and 17th century.

After viewing the house we visited the cafe downstairs for some coffee and cake, had a walk around the small, but delightful garden, before ambling (via the National Trust shop – which, if you have a National Trust passport – you can get a unique stamp here as well as at the house). By this time York was busy. We wandered down the Shambles, which was absolutely rammed with tourists, narrowly avoided the hen parties and headed back to the car park via Whip-ma-Whop-ma-Gate, which is a very long name for a very short street and my absolute favourite street name in the world.

We ended our day with a meal at our local, the Stansfield Arms, which never ever disappoints.