Some Entertaining Lamp Posts

(I was updating some information on this post and for some reason it's re-published itself with today's date. I've no idea why it did that, or how to change it, so here (with apologies to those who've read it all before) is a rather ancient post for your delight!)

.....the world seems so amusing everywhere that it is hardly worthwhile to travel. When I start out for the ends of the earth, I am stopped on the road by an entertaining lamp post.....
                                                                                                                              G K Chesterton.

That seems to be my problem sometimes. I keep having to stop and investigate something that any normal person would pass by. Here are just a few more things that I have encountered on my travels.


The Clock Tower

A well-known feature of the Cambridgeshire village of Fenstanton. It started off as a Market Hall in the 17th century. Later the building was converted to the parish lock-up, that is a cell where local miscreants could be detained until they could be dealt with by the local magistrates or, where appropriate, until they'd sobered up! Can you imagine that? Being locked up with a big clock ticking above you and chiming every hour - when you've got a hangover! Now that's what I call making the punishment fit the crime. Now of course it's just used for telling the time, not doing time.


Ron's Farm Shop

Quite nearby the clock tower is this establishment selling locally-produced vegetables. No supermarket shelves ever looked this attractive. The doors at first floor level suggest that the building was originally a hayloft.


Digging for Dinosaur Dung??

Well, no, not quite. But that's what the men who dug this hole thought they were doing. In the mid-19th century 'coprolites' were discovered throughout a large part of Cambridgeshire. These were rounded nodules of rock which were high in phosphate and which occurred perhaps 8 to 20 feet below the surface. These rocks could be ground down to make an excellent artificial fertilizer. It was suggested that they must be fossilized dinosaur dung and the word "coprolite" was coined, derived from the Greek for "dung-stone". It was later proved that this was not their origin, but the idea has persisted.

The method of mining was to dig a deep trench, then to dig away at one side of the trench and fill in from behind - much the same as digging the garden but on a much larger scale. Gradually the trench crept across the field and the coprolites were removed. Once they'd reached the other side of the field, of course, nobody could be bothered to fill the trench in, so several water-filled trenches are still to be seen in the landscape today, though very few people know what they are.

The industry formed the basis of the agrochemical industry in this part of the world. But the coprolite mining itself ceased as quickly as it had begun when guano (seabird droppings) began to be imported from the tropics.


An Old Sign

Up on a wall, beside a narrow alley in Cambridge is this sign. It catches the eye of the occasional tourist though most walk straight past. The age of the sign is somewhat debatable; it's been repainted at least once in my memory. But the name of the lane is perhaps more interesting. It recalls the time when the women of Cambridge could earn extra money by doing the laundry for the colleges. Laundress Lane is one place where they worked. Nearby Laundress Green, now a riverside park, was where the washing was hung to dry.


Henry VIII's Wooden Leg

High above the entrance to Trinity College stands this statue of the founder of the college. Look closely - in his hand, instead of a mace, is a wooden chair-leg. It was put there many years ago by students intent on an end of term prank. More recently another group of students climbed up and replaced the chair-leg with a bicycle pump. The authorities took a very dim view of this and arranged for a replacement chair-leg to take its rightful place in the monarch's right hand.

Take care.