On this day in 1558, our Royal Patron, Queen Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne. In this letter from 1597 she complained to the splendid looking man below - the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (now Germany) about an order excluding Merchant Adventurers from the Empire. She was most miffed!

Blue sky and sunshine for your Monday delectation and delight? Et voila! We've also thrown in a medieval guild hall for good measure. 😉

The Great Hall roof ladies and gentlemen. 👏

Good morning! Are we all present and correct? On a stormy weekend like this we think about the past residents of the almshouse who lived in the Undercroft. For centuries these windows only had shutters and no glazing to keep the weather out. ☹️

This is happening next Tuesday! It promises to be a really interesting talk but do you know what will sweeten the deal (apart from it being free) if you attend? We are making pom poms from 5.30pm which will go on our Christmas tree at York Minster!

It’s a dank, grey and miserable day so we’re having a brew. This is our Merchant Adventurers’ Hall mug (available from our shop FYI). What’s your mug of choice? We’d love to see them!

A little snippet from our minute books shines a light on a bit of global history: 20th Jan 1687: "French protestants have asked for the use of the chapel so they can have a Minister preaching in French to them..." There must have been a small but significant number of Huguenots living in York!

Bonjour nos petits macarons. It us the Merchant Adventurers' Hall! Today we are going to talk about Napoleon. Specifically this statue of Napoleon and his adventures in York. Rejoignez-nous!

Has this wet and windy Tuesday been a struggle? How about some red door energy to see you through to Wednesday. You are welcome. 😉 ♥️

Do you fancy joining us on a right royal regal thread? We are going to be finding out about the crown in this painting of King George I. However firstly...look at his tassels!

Morning! How are we all? Here's the Great Hall roof to inspire you this Monday morning. You too can reach lofty heights and look marvellous whilst doing it. 😘

This photo shows the Great Hall at Christmas in 1914. The men are soldiers of the 7th West Yorkshire Volunteers Band. They would be sent to the Front and would take part in some of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. #remembrancesunday

It’s the weekend, it’s a Saturday, we are looking all autumnal Whatever your plans may it involve long walks, snuggling by a fire and drinking copious amounts of tea (with biscuits obviously). ☺️

Do you think when Guy Fawkes planned to blow up Parliament that he thought he would be immortalised as a Christmas decoration? No neither do we. Join us as we look at some of the historical figures you can buy from our shop to decorate your Christmas tree. 👉

Look who made an appearance to drink out of our bird bath this morning! 🦊

Prepare for tenuousity on a scale thus far unmatched... Guy Fawkes’ second cousins - Henry and Thomas were Merchant Adventurers. #bonfirenight

When you remove the filler... This is Michael Barstow, 17th century Merchant Adventurer and all round good egg. The first picture shows years of over painting which had led to him looking a bit two dimensional. The second picture shows him after a few months of TLC looking much more like himself!

Want to see one of our secret bits? But shush don’t tell everyone. 🤫 This is the roof space above the Committee Room. It was once part of the Great Hall but has been hidden away since the late 16th century.

Did you know that ground was broken on the building of the Hall in early November 1357? That means it’s our birthday! Happy 668th birthday to us! 🥳

Did we all survive All Hallows Eve? That's good to hear. Us? Oh we survived spectacularly. 😉

Happy Halloween! We have a super duper spooky story to tell you. If you have followed us on other socials you will heard this story before but it's so good we have to share it again. Our short story is about the Undercroft...

They're creepy and they're kooky Mysterious and spooky They're all together ooky The old buildings of York cityyyy Okay what we lack in rhyme we more than make up for in spooky facts about York. Join us as we explore the UK's most haunted city... ...if you dare... ...mwah ha ha ha... ...ha.

Another day, another ghoultastic gem from the Merchant Adventurers' Hall! Today's spooky story comes from the 17th Century ante rooms. Visitors and staff alike have heard brushes being swept across the floors and have seen shadowy figures moving through the rooms. 🤔👻

🌱 There's still plently of time to support our Royston Museum Goes Green project! As a thank you for supporting us, there's a range of rewards available, from a Royston Museum pin badge to a private printing workshop for 4 using our Victorian printing press! ✨Donate online: buff.ly/VwabFPV

Something spooky this way comes… …or not. The chapel, despite its six centuries of history is the one area of the Hall which has not had any ghostly sightings reported. Other than the Holy Ghost. Obvs.

It's half term and therefore nearly Halloween so we thought this week we'd share some spooky stories about the Hall. We start surprisingly with the newest part of the Hall...

Good morning sunshine. We hope you enjoyed that extra hour in bed. May your Sunday be as bright as the sunlight on the Fossgate entrance to the Hall. ☺️

Bright sunshine, blue sky, leaves falling off trees and a distinct nip in the air. Oh why hello there autumn. 👋

Good morning! Oh this old thing? We just woke up like this. 😘

Would you like to see what the Hall looked like when it was just a mere pup? This is an artistic impression of what it may have looked like in the 15th century. We now know that the Hall would never have been rendered. Its lovely bones would have always been on show. 😍

We have a little medieval wow which is a story about our first feast to take place at the Hall. On Wednesday 15th August in celebration of the Feast of the Assumption, a porpoise was brought from Whitby and served as the main dish... (Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4º, Folio 60v)

We love the early medieval period almost as much as just the medieval period. Plus it’s Fishbourne Roman Palace. ❤️ Get your tickets with all due haste!

Are you ready for an amazing fact to wow friends, family and colleagues alike? Prepare for awesomeness (and just a hint of 💩) Did you know that Ouse Bridge in York had the earliest recorded public toilets in Yorkshire? Opened in 1367!

Right enough of this Louvre robbery/internet down malarkey. We are a medieval guild hall. We should be posting on appropriate topics. Ooh look at the Rudston Venus mosaic that we photographed in Hull last week! #mosaicmonday

Major service outage? This is not a coincidence.

We hope they find those responsible for the Louvre robbery. In the meantime we have got our own suspicions on who might be the culprit…

A pinch of autumn and a big dollop of medieval loveliness. The perfect recipe. 🥰

Happy Weekend! May your Saturday be as great and glorious as the Hall is old and wise.

We all like to do a bit of showing off and those working on the Hall in the 14th century were no exception. The carpenters were given the resources (money and beer, so say our archives) to embellish and generally do some woodwork showboating as can be seen here.

You’ve seen us in the 1990s. Here we are in the 1890s (or thereabouts). We are in our Dickensian shabby era.

It’s us in the 1990’s! All we are missing is a shell suit and a portable cd player.

It’s a gloomy old week in Blighty. Therefore we thought we’d provide our own sunshine courtesy of the Hall’s sunny plasterwork. Some medieval vitamin D!

Autumn + medieval guild hall = 🧡

Today's the 959th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, so obviously I'm reposting my scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry in Playmobil.

As you will no doubt know, we love a 17th century wainscot chair. They're not very bottom friendly but they're lovely to look at. So today we present not one, not two but three oaktastic (and a bit of ash) chairs. Let's take a closer look...

Happy Sunday everyone! May your day be as sunny and light as the Great Hall is on a early autumn afternoon.

Looking for an old post (that time we sent a Gareth Southgate Christmas decoration to @merchantshallyork.org if you're interested), and we stumbled on that time we TWANG-ed a bunch of stuff on our west wing. Hope you enjoy the memory as much as we did. (Follow the 🧵) bsky.app/profile/roma...

It’s beginning look a lot like… …autumn. 🍂 You thought we were going to say Christmas? No it’s too early for that. 🎅🏻 🎁

It is #worldmentalhealthday today (we'd argue that's every day). We love you all very much so this is for you...

You are now entering the twilight zone… …not really…or really? No it’s in fact the topper most part of the Great Hall. It’s not often these timbers get seen so we’re giving them some well deserved attention today. 👏