This is the history of York as you have never encountered it before Travel back to a time when Erik Bloodaxe was resident monarch, or when William the Conqueror was in the middle of his relentless 'harrying of the north'. There are no tea rooms or hanging baskets in this York, but the severed heads on the walls have a certain decorative effect and there are plenty of places to stay if you don't mind risking cholera, plague and typhus York has been the backdrop to some of the most significant and bloody events in British history. Read on if you dare