History City traces the story of York - possibly the second most important place in England - from the end of the last Ice Age to the present day.

Episode 11 The wills of strong women, The Black Death and afterwards

In this episode, people were making wills in the 1300s long before the Black Death arrived, but what do they say about them and what they had to leave behind? And as the need to write wills becomes more urgent, what impact does the Black Death have on York?

Our guests:

Zoe Eames, lecturer in history at York College,

and Professor Sarah Rees Jones, whose book;

York The Making of a City 1068-1350 is published by Oxford University Press.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/york-9780198201946?cc=gb&lang=en&

Other internet rabbit holes to go down are the In Our Time Podcast The Black Death:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bcqt8

Professor Alice Roberts interviewed on History Extra about disease in the Middle Ages:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/plague-leprosy-murder-unlocking-the-secrets-of/id256580326?i=1000647559979

Gone Medieval’s episode on the Black Death:

https://podfollow.com/gone-medieval/episode/e0f34f93269b6b641baffe2a9871e772d64c4d89/view

and the one on Geoffrey Chaucer:

https://podfollow.com/gone-medieval/episode/7f844759b6819c5c124744e94190efa587b615ed/view

and the one on The Hundred Years’ War:

https://podfollow.com/gone-medieval/episode/12b1348852f7338b02ca1ede34441451ac720709/view

This episode of History City was made with the help of the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past at the University of York. So thanks to Dr Victoria Hoyle and to researcher George Young.

Incidentally, Alex Harvey from the Yorkshire Museum -- our regular contributor on the Post Roman and Anglian periods has published his first book, not about York, but the Isle of Axholme in North Lincolnshire. Here’s a link to the Amazon page

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Riddles-Isle-History-Axholme-Normans/dp/1739191641/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2X32JAUZ40VH&keywords=riddles+of+the+isle+by+alex+harvey&qid=1702313655&sprefix=riddles+of+%2Caps%2C89&sr=8-1

The Spirit of York is Alison Willis.

This show was recorded and produced by Guy Morgan of Soundstagenorth.

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