We-e-e-e-e're Off to See the Minster ...

The wonderful Minster of York.

We found it is an heraldic whiz

Just brimming with co-oats of arms.

I'm sorry about the title (and the first few lines of this post), but when I get a song in my head (in this case, from the movie The Wizard of Oz), and modify the lyrics, I sometimes can't get it to stop until I go ahead and sing it, or in this case, type it up to share with others. I apologize for inflicting you with this malady of mine.

Anyway, having finally now finished up our heraldic tour of the old City of York, we headed off to the cathedral, York Minster, which, as you can see (below), literally towers over the inner city.

As we came closer, we found a modern logo-style version of the modern arms of the See of York:

The arms of the See of York (ancient) are effectively the same as the arms of the See of Canterbury, Azure, an episcopal staff in pale or surmounted by a pall proper edged and fringed or charged with four crosses patty fitchy sable, though sometimes shown with a red field instead of the more common blue.

The modern arms of the See are Gules two keys in saltire wards to chief argent in chief a royal crown or, which came into use about 1520. (So not all that modern, being about 500 years old. It is always fun, as an American, to visit someplace where something 500 years old is called "modern" to differentiate it from something even older!)

As we get inside the Minster, we'll get to see depictions of both the ancient and modern arms of the See.

Then, as we came nearer the Minster, we found this "modern" heraldic wall and gate:

On the left of the gate, we have the attributed arms of St. Peter, Gules two keys in saltire wards upwards argent and or.

And on the right, we have the See of York (modern), Gules two keys in saltire wards to chief argent and in chief a royal crown or, impaling the pronomial arms of Arthur Purey Cust, Dean of the Cathedral 1880-1916, Ermine on a chevron sable three fountains proper, for difference in chief a martlet sable.

Feel free to click on either of the images above to open a larger photograph where you can see the arms in greater detail.

Again, a little later, inside the Minster, we will get to see another version of the arms of Dean Cust.

So we have all of those, and many more, to look forward to!