Ouse Bridge in the times of Guy Fawkes

In the time of Guy Fawkes Ouse Bridge was crowded with buildings, one of which was the dreaded Kidcotes Prison, overcrowded with Recusants (Catholics who recognised the authority of the Pope). In 1572 an act of parliament ordered all Catholic priests to leave the country and declared that anyone associating with them was guilty of treason, punishable by death and loss of all possessions. It was here that Margaret Clitherow awaited trial for harbouring priests. On being found guilty she was taken up to the tollbooth on Ouse bridge, stripped and ‘pressed to death’ under her own front door. After the gunpowder plot, the situation for Catholics in York got worse. They were held under strict surveillance. More than 50 were imprisoned in York for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the King and forty of these died in the prisons at York Castle, Monk Bar and Ouse Bridge.