The York Castle Museum offers an odd juxtaposition of exhibits. This might be temporary; on our visit half the museum was closed due to a problem with the roof. The current exhibit sequence (and there is no straying) is first WWI, then the swinging 1960s, and, finally, the life of castle prisoners in the 1700s.
Our visit to the museum began with a long series of small rooms that step through the grim history of WWI via posters, memorabilia, and other types of exhibits. The exhibit is well done: details are many, the stories are all sad, York's role in the war effort is highlighted, and at the end one sits and takes in the deadly accounting of the cost of the war. I took no snaps of this exhibit.
Next it is England and the swinging 60s. Good times! The Beatles, Twiggy, etc. Bright colours, fun tunes. A couple of rooms are filled with the sights, sounds, and memorabilia of the decade when English pop culture took the planet by storm. A great decade full of earalicious music.
Finally we dropped down into the basement of the castle, a series of grim rooms showing how this building was used as a prison in the 1700s. A truly wretched prison. We explored a series of cold cement cells, some featuring videos telling the tales of a few of the prisoners. A fellow imprisoned for his debts that made me think of the story of Les Miserables. A woman who was executed by simultaneously being strangled and burned, as if one torturous method wasn't enough. Cells so packed with prisoners that some died of asphyxiation.
Oh, the humanity!
