The Urban Hares of York

It was the strangest of coincidences. On the train up the East Coast with Offsprog One, I was sewing up the jumper I had knitted for Offsprog Two (left), that features a boxing hare with a go-go-gadget arm.
Offsprog One was gazing out of the window as we glided into York.
"A hare!", she exclaimed... "and another one....and another one!".
In all, she saw six and I saw three of them, sitting on the big black stones next to the rails with their backs grumpily turned towards the passing train, with the wind from its wake riffling their long, greyish brown fur. They sat like offended cats, some looking back askance as though waiting for an apology for the disturbance; some were almost upright, erect and ready to bound off.
I have never ever even imagined hares in a town before; they were patently not rabbits. Their ears were long and elegant, their backs curved and bony and they were very big. They didn't look like babies, but I suppose they must have been, or at least teenagers. A misplaced colony of very wild animals right next to a busy stretch of railway.
Has anyone else ever seen them?