Spring Still Springing

Spring continues its deceitful ways. In the gaps between these bright sunny days that have been featuring on this blog, we've had miserable cloudy days, high winds and frequent rain and showers. But, as I'm something of a fair-weather photographer these days, those less-than-perfect periods don't feature here very often.

The truth is further misrepresented in that, even beneath these blue skies, a chill wind is at large. But shoots are still shooting, blossoms still blossoming and flowers still flowering whatever the weather.

Our wandering footsteps led us to Wandlebury Country Park to watch the slowly unfolding spectacle. 

In the meadows the cattle are doing their conservation work. But hang on a minute! Those aren't the shaggy Highland beasts that we usually see here.....

Belties! Or Belted Galloways from the uplands of  SW Scotland. They are kept here as conservation grazers, keeping the land in perfect condition for wildflowers. However they also produce high-quality lean beef and are a popular breed across the world. It's hard to believe that just over a decade ago they were officially an "at risk" rare breed in the UK.

Their hairy Highland cousins are still here too.

But it was the spring blossoms I'd really come here in search of: either singing out against the blue skies....

....in detailed close-up.....

....overhanging the old Roman Road....

....or resting on a bed of moss, having been dislodged from the branch by a gust of wind.

Green shoots, mostly of Cow Parsley, are springing up through last year's leaves in the shelter of a fallen log.

Even old logs can exhibit a strange beauty when examined closely. Meanwhile Les has found a convenient bench....

Now, is he watching the golf? Or looking for birds? Or perhaps engaging in that favourite pastime hereabouts - scanning the horizon to try to find Ely Cathedral? It's almost 17 miles away (27 km), but you can usually see it on any reasonably clear day.

We walked back beneath more blossom, overhanging views of the meadows and some of the trees planted in the grounds of Wandlebury House.

The House itself is long-gone, but the enormous stable block now forms a focal point in the grounds. The little lake is edged, at this season, with daffodils and marsh marigolds.

There's more blossom to see in the vicinity of the old stable block, which nowadays is called Archway House and contains flats and offices.

I'm not sure what these items in the foreground might be. 

But I'm fairly certain that this is a flowering quince, adding a splash of hot colour on what was still a chilly morning - unless you could find a sheltered spot in the sun.

And so farewell to Wandlebury - till the next time.

Take care.

Shaped By Saxons

As if having an ancient priory and castle, both dating back to the eleventh century, was not enough history for a small area; just three-quarters of a mile (1.2 Km) from Castle Rising's castle stands a church which is older than either of them - the late Saxon church of All Saint's in the parish of Newton.

It's had a few "modernisations", like the windows which probably date from the fourteenth century, but the tower and much of the rest of the church date from before the Norman Conquest. Now we've come this far we may as well continue round to the back.

The blocked-in doorway and the tiny infilled window between it and the tower are almost certainly from the original building. Roofs never last as long as stone walls and there are faint lines visible on this side of the tower that suggest that a steeper pitched roof was there in the past - and that usually means a thatched roof in this part of the world.

We can go inside too, though I warn you, don't expect anything grand; this is a primitive building from the early days of Christianity on these islands. Times when men like Ælfgar, Osgod Clapa and Thorkell the Tall were Jarls of East Anglia.

The pulpit and prayer desk are modern additions but everything else is simple and functional. (Photographer's disclaimer: if the walls don't look straight in these photos that's because they're not!). The dark square, up to the left of the arch, is a small door which would have led out to a rood-loft, an important feature of medieval churches which rarely survives today in complete form.

On the left is the simple font and on the right are the rood stairs which led up to the small door which we saw in the previous photo and presumably up to the top of the tower too. All that green around the font is the result of damp which is present in many parts of the church.

Here, for example are the steps, leading up to the rood stairs. For me the damp patches and flaking plaster all add atmosphere to this venerable building.

Above is the view through the arch, which supports the tower. towards the chancel. Snigger all you like at the crude, misshapen masonry of the walls, but it's still standing after a thousand years - those Saxons must have known what they were doing!

Search as ye may, you won't find a level surface or perfect perpendicular throughout the whole place.

A somewhat crudely executed royal coat of arms is a relatively recent addition, dating as it does from the days of George III who reigned from 1760 to 1820.

The single bellrope is looped around the handle of an elderly iron-clad chest.

The sun streams through the small plain-glass windows and illuminates the uneven brick flooring.

And, once outside again, we can peer up at the tower. Those openings at the top are similar to others I've seen in very old churches and allow that single clanging bell to ring out across the countryside and call the dairymaid and the ploughman to prayer. For this is the building of the common people. It lacks the imposing size of the castle and the intricate decoration of the priory, but unlike those grand institutions this shabby, crooked little church is still here today and still fulfilling its original purpose. 

*******

Now, just to finish off, I must take you back to when I was about twelve years old and we got our first television set. In the evenings we gathered round for the local news programme which was presented by a kindly, smiling man called Dick Joice. Even in those days he was a bit of an oddity: a man who was on TV, it seemed, not because he liked to see himself on the screen, but because he loved the region, its people and its history.

He was not the most polished presenter either: "We seem to have a bit of time left at the end of tonight's programme.....", and he would reach below the desk to bring out some ancient item he'd found in a junk shop or farm sale. Sometimes he'd explain what it was, sometimes he didn't know and would ask viewers to write in and tell him. It led eventually to a much-loved local TV series called "Bygones". Maybe he was the man who sparked my interest in local history.

One of Mr Joice's projects was to restore Newton Watermill in traditional style. There's been a mill here (a series of mills, to be precise) for about as long as there's been a little Saxon church just down the lane. 

Take care.

A Story In Stone

William de Warenne, the Norman baron whose castle we explored briefly in the last post, was also responsible for founding a Cluniac priory on his other lands near Lewes in Sussex. He then brought some of the monks to Castle Acre. Initially they lived in the castle but when that proved to be an unsuitable home for religious gentlemen they were given land to build a priory just a short distance away.

The building of their church took place slowly and the western end, which you can see above, was not completed till 1160. Although the brothers of the Cluniac order lived simple lives, they went in for great ornamentation in their religious buildings.

There's just enough of the elaborate stonework to give some idea of how grand the church looked in its heyday.

In theory the Cluniac order was governed from Cluny in France, though this led to all kinds of practical problems when England and France were at war, as they often were during the lifetime of the priory. The monks, who were almost exclusively English anyway, suffered heavy taxation during those times. Mostly they governed themselves, according to their own strict rules.

Walking among the ruins you can try to conjure up a picture of life in those far-off days. Lets go "inside" the church and try to get an impression of the dimensions of the building. You really need to think of a cathedral-sized building, even though there were never more than 30 or 40 monks in residence here.

We are standing here by the High Altar. Three steps lead down into the Choir. The low walls running across in the distance mark the position of the great Crossing Tower. Beyond that is the Nave and eventually we reach the west end of the church, which we saw in the first photo. The beehive-shaped heaps of stone running along either side are the remains of the huge pillars which held up the roof.

One can look out through the missing walls towards the village church. If you look carefully you can still see the dressed stone around the bases of the arches and pillars.

Grand and impressive as it is there's a lot more to investigate than just the Priory Church. And in a lot of cases there's more remaining than just the ground-level footings.

Here we are looking across the Cloister towards the Prior's Lodging and a corner tower of the Priory Church.

What remains of my schoolboy-self surfaces briefly here to delight in the Reredorter, otherwise known as the latrine block. As you can see it was a two-storey affair; on the ground level were toilets which could be entered from the Cloister, while upstairs were similar facilities, connected to the monks' sleeping quarters by a bridge (which no longer exists). Water from the river was diverted here to flush the toilets.

The buildings seen above are the main Porch and the Prior's Lodgings, which is where I'll show you next. Though in reality we also explored the kitchens, fishponds, barns, the grain-drying facilities, the brewhouse and the infirmary - all of them interesting but plain structures, some of them only existing as outlines on the ground.

The building above is the main entrance, or porch, to the Priory. Although the Priory was closed down by Henry VIII and, like every other monastery, its lands and resources were seized by the crown, many of the buildings found other uses and so survive in reasonable condition to this day.

You can enter the undercroft of the entrance porch and from there you can climb a very narrow spiral staircase into the Prior's Study and private chapel.

Although everything is cracked and faded it's still possible to imagine the grandeur of these rooms.

You can peer through the windows to the church, just as the Priors of days gone by must have done.

Sometimes it's the tiny details that bring us closest to the people of the past - long ago a medieval craftsman balanced on a set of wooden steps and carefully painted these flowers on the beams.

In the Prior's Chapel some small details survive unscathed.

The grand fireplace where the Prior must have warmed himself during the winter. But we can make our way (slowly and carefully) back down those precipitous spiral stairs and back out into the spring sunshine to admire the building from there.

A few more visitors had begun to filter in, including these very young historians and their guide ("It's even bigger than our house!"). On the way out we had a look at the recently restored herb garden.

Take care.

Castle Acre Priory is in the care of the charity English Heritage. There is a charge to look around but it seemed a very reasonable sum to pay for so much history.