Old Lynn In The Cold Light Of Dawn

I travelled up to the North Norfolk coast today and found myself with a little over an hour to wait to make a connection between the train- and the bus parts of my journey. I decided to keep warm by taking a stroll around King's Lynn, or Lynn as the locals call it. The only problem with my plan was that it was still almost dark.

Believe it or not, Lynn was once the third largest seaport in England and was a very wealthy place; the old town centre has many buildings which testify to its former glory. It also was the home of one of the country's finest yet largely forgotten sea-faring heroes - more of him later.

The sun was slowly making its way over the horizon, throwing St Margaret's Church into a striking silhouette. The church was founded by the Bishop Of Norwich in 1101 but very little of that building remains having been largely rebuilt in the 13th century and then again in the 18th. It was also further restored by the Victorians.

The church is nevertheless an impressive structure as it soars above the Saturday Market Square.

Not far away stands the only remaining part of the Franciscan Friary known as "Greyfriars". But what an amazing survival it is; it looks as though it could be blown down by the first strong wind but here it has stood proudly since Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538.

Parts of the beautiful Town Hall date from 1421 and though it's been added to over the centuries the unusual "chequerboard" pattern of the stonework has been used throughout giving the structure a sense of unity. It shows better than any other building the wealth and style that the historic town possessed.

There are some fine streets too where many of the merchants houses survive intact.

All this grandeur was paid for by money earned by the port much of which can still be seen today though most of the commercial activity has moved a few hundred yards downstream. The little ferry still plies its trade, taking people across the River Great Ouse to West Lynn on the opposite bank. It can be seen behind the larger vessel in the picture above.

The 17th century Customs House was described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the most perfect buildings ever built". In front of it, among the old chains and anchors stands a small statue of George Vancouver.

Captain Vancouver, as his name suggests, was almost certainly descended from a Dutch family. There were close trading links between King's Lynn and  the Low Countries so it would not be surprising if some of them settled in Norfolk. He is mainly remembered, when he's remembered at all, as the man who led the expedition to chart the Pacific coast. His survey was extremely accurate though he somehow failed to chart the outlet of the Columbia River. But this oversight, important as it was, was not the reason that George Vancouver died in obscurity and was largely forgotten in English history. His problem was that he had disagreements with influential people on his return to England. The link above gives a fairly full account of the Captain's life.

A nearby monument lists those with King's Lynn connections:

 CAPTAIN GEORGE VANCOUVER 1757 - 1798

SEARCHED FOR NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

ACQUIRED BRITISH COLUMBIA FOR THE CROWN

CAPTAIN

SAMUEL GURNEY CRESSWELL

1827 - 1867

FIRST MAN TO NAVIGATE

THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

 ADMIRAL

SIR W EDWARD PARRY

1799 - 1855

 ARCTIC EXPLORER

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

1580 - 1631

VIRGINIA PIONEER

FOUNDER OF NEW ENGLAND

FRIAR NICHOLAS OF LYNN

DIED 1369

VOYAGED TO ICELAND

REPUTED DISCOVERER OF THE AMERICAS

ADMIRAL LORD NELSON

1758 - 1805

HERO OF

 THE NILE, COPENHAGEN & TRAFALGAR

KING EDWARD IV

1442 - 1483

FLED TO FLANDERS

FROM THE PORT OF KING'S LYNN IN 1460

ADMIRAL JAMES BURNEY

1750 - 1821

EXPLORED WITH COOK AND VANCOUVER



Just to prove me wrong about Vancouver being forgotten by the rest of the country when I got on the train to return home this evening I glanced at the nameplate - "Captain George Vancouver". 

Take care.

                     

Too Good To Pass By

A few more bits and bobs that I saw during bike rides and walks earlier in the year.

A well-laid hedge

Before the invention of barbed wire men toiled for endless hours during the winter months making hedges like the one above. The individual bushes of the hedge are cut almost through with a bill-hook and the branches are woven in and out to construct a stock-proof barrier. The hedge would continue to live and grow and also provided shelter for the animals during severe weather. For those of you who like to collect unusual and largely forgotten words, the strong leather gauntlets which were worn for the job were called "dannocks". My father spent many freezing hours at this thankless task.

How high?

If you're in the habit of inspecting old walls and stones you might have come across one of these mysterious marks. It's an Ordnance Survey bench-mark, an accurate measurement of the height above sea level of a particular point, all part of the minutely detailed and accurate work of mapping this country. If you're really interested in how the land was mapped then "Map Of A Nation" by Rebecca Hewitt should be on your reading list. It's a fascinating tale of the historical necessities which led to the map's creation and the obsessive madmen who undertook the mission. A glance at an old map tells me that the point above is precisely 59 feet above sea level. 

Have a "butcher's"!

The past use of this shop in St Ives is obvious for all to see, preserved in this lovely tiling. Well done, architects, for saving this shop front. Readers from outside Britain may not know that "having a butcher's" means "having a look". It's an example of Cockney rhyming slang - from "butcher's hook" = "look". 

The village pound

Most villages would have had one of these, a pound, where stray farm animals were penned in (impounded) till the owners came to collect them, usually after paying a small fee. This one is in Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire.

A model villager (or a village modeller).

These cheerful bits of craftsmanship were spotted in the village of Linton, brightening up, as well as individualising, an otherwise unremarkable house in a back street.

There was a church on top of the garage roof too!

Take care.

Five Merry Squeezeboxers

A selection of squeezeboxes and squeezeboxers from the annals of You Tube. First off the celebrated Mr K, or John Kirkpatrick, whose comments on playing the melodeon I included in my post about the said instrument. Here he is showing his remarkable musicianship playing a three-row box tuned to give a fully chromatic instrument - that means it's got all the notes you need to play any tune in any key!

Another very influential but much less well-known squeezer, Tony Hall from Norfolk, playing a two-row box, a much more limited instrument but you'd never know that when Mr Hall is at the controls.

From Ireland, The amazing Finbar Dwyer...

And also from Ireland Bobby Gardiner playing the simple one row melodeon. When I say simple I mean simple to play simply, but simply impossible to play well - unless you're the legendary Bobby Gardiner....

Just to finish off Totore Chessa from Sardinia. As someone once said of his playing "I know what he's doing and it's impossible!"

Well, you either love them or hate them, I suppose. Personally I'm off to practise some more...

Take care.

Miscellaneous Cambridge.

A rag-bag of photographs that I took on a single day last week when I was supposed to be Christmas shopping! Put together here for two reasons only:
                      a) I took 'em.
                      b) I like 'em!

Hope you like some of 'em too.
Take care.

Oxfam Crazy!

In a recent post I noted that the Oxfam Shop in Cambridge's Mill Road was, shall we say, a little unusual. Care to take a look?

Take care.

Coton Countryside Reserve

It was bright and frosty this morning. Just the kind of weather to make me feel like tramping down lanes, over meadows and around fields. As luck would have it I chanced upon a leaflet about Coton Countryside Reserve which promised to provide just the kind of walks that I desired.

The reserve is managed by Cambridge: Past, Present & Future, which used to be known as The Cambridge Preservation Society. The change of name seems to reflect a subtle shift of emphasis from trying to maintain things exactly as they were in some past golden age (which probably never existed anyway) to an attempt to create a sustainable, wildlife-friendly agriculture for the future. I wanted to see how they were moving towards that goal.

I started off my walk alongside the military rifle range. The red flag was flying but I think they must have been taking a break because I didn't hear any bangs or have to dodge any flying bullets! All was very quiet, thank goodness. I also passed the interestingly-named Haggis Farm - visions of fields of free-range haggis! - there's a Dumpling Farm nearby too! Honest!

I was soon climbing up the slight rise known as Red Meadow Hill which in this flat landscape afforded quite extensive views towards the city of Cambridge. Flocks of Fieldfares were feeding on the hedgerow berries and Kestrels hovered over the meadow. 

There are wide field margins, some of which double as footpaths.

In the hedges there are plenty of bird-boxes of various shapes to suit different bird species.

The old barn known as Wheatcases stands next to the main visitor car park and seems to serve as a gathering point for school parties; a stack of plastic chairs in one corner anyway. A wildlife pond had been created nearby and a rather smart notice board informed me that some 10,000 trees have been planted including woods, hedgerows and orchards.

The concrete road, which makes part of the reserve suitable for wheelchair-users, leads down to the bridge over Bin Brook and to the meadow area called Middle Green.

Middle Green is one of those wonderful bits of country where the evidence of the past is all laid out for anyone observant enough to interpret the signs. The land had been ploughed at some time but must have been meadow for a hundred years or so. The ridge-and-furrow pattern (which I hope you can see, running horizontally across the grassland, on the photo above) is a sure sign that it was ploughed by oxen. The land was divided up into strips, each one as much as a man could plough in a day. Constant ploughing up and down the strip, the plough turning the soil in towards the centre, caused the ridges to form over the centuries. If the ground had ever been ploughed with a tractor the whole thing would have been levelled. So there you have it; the old strips preserved in this little meadow.

I carried on through some rough grazing land where a good crop of teasels was being enjoyed by a flock of Goldfinch. A Green Woodpecker loped off into the adjacent Rowan's Wood with a flash of bright yellow.

I enjoyed my visit. Nothing too spectacular, but the kind of rich and varied landscape which existed here before agri-business moved in.

Take care.

The Round Church

One of the most distinctive and memorable landmarks, in a city full of distinctive and memorable landmarks, is Cambridge's Round Church, or Church of the Holy Sepulchre as it is more correctly known. It's thought to be the second oldest church in the city dating from about 1130 AD.

There are four "round churches" in England - at Northampton (c. 1100-1125), the Temple Church in London (1185) and at Little Maplestead in Essex (c. 1300). They are all thought to be associated with fraternities such as The Knights Templar, who took part in the Crusades. There is in the chronicles of Ramsey Abbey, twenty miles north-west of Cambridge, a document granting the land to build the church  to the Fraternity of the Holy Sepulchre who included in their number the splendidly named "Randolph with the Beard".

The church retains many of its Norman features including the magnificent doorway above. Much later the parish was probably unique in that the vicar was elected by the church wardens and parishioners rather than being appointed by the Bishops of Ely; a state of affairs which irritated the bishops greatly. Vicars were often Fellows of the colleges and, since they lived in the colleges there was no need for a vicarage in the parish.

The church suffered greatly at the hands of Cromwell's men. A diary from 1644 states, "in Pulcher's or Round parish we brake down fourteen superstitious pictures, and divers idolatrous inscriptions, and one of God the Father, and of Christ, and of the apostles".

By 1841 the church was in a state of near-collapse and plans were drawn up for a restoration project. The whole scheme was the subject of much heated debate and at one point the vicar and his opponents were involved in a race to Ely to persuade the Chancellor to their cause.

At present there is a display charting the history of the church and the development of Christianity in Britain which is depicted on several display boards situated around the building. It gives a fascinating insight into Cambridge's part in that development, though, in my opinion, rather detracts from the atmosphere of this unusual building.

Take care.