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I am indebted to John Fielding (www.flickr.com/photos/john_fielding/) for posting an aerial shot of Holy Trinity, and my interest was piqued by the timber-framed building with the triple gable at the east end. Turned out this was the Lady Chapel, and more of that later. So, on my way back home to Kent, I called in to see if it looked as remarkable in the flesh as in photographs.
I arrived at Long Melford, after being taken on a magical mystery tour in light drizzle from Wortham, down narrow and narrower lanes, under and over railway lines, through woods, up and down hills until, at last, I saw the town laid out beyond the church.
I parked at the bottom of Church Walk then walked up past the line of timber framed houses, the tudor hospital and the tudor manor house.
Holy Trinity sits on top of the hill, spread out, filling its large churchyard and the large tower not out of proportion.
Inside it really is a collection of wonders, from brasses, the best collection of Medieval glass in Suffolk, to side chapels, and behind, the very unusual Lady Chapel.
------------------------------------------
The Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity.
The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's, BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011.
A church is recorded as having been on the site since the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). It was originally endowed by the Saxon Earl Alric, who bequeathed the patronage of the church, along with his manor at Melford Hall and about 261 acres of land, to the successive Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund’s. There are no surviving descriptions of the original Saxon structure, although the roll of the clergy (see below) and the history of the site extend back to the 12th century.
The church was substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497. Of the earlier structures, only the former Lady Chapel (now the Clopton Chantry Chapel) and the nave arcades survive.
The principal benefactor who financed the reconstruction was wealthy local wool merchant John Clopton, who resided at neighbouring Kentwell Hall. John Clopton was a supporter of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses and in 1462 was imprisoned in the Tower of London with John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and a number of others, charged with corresponding treasonably with Margaret of Anjou. All of those imprisoned were eventually executed except John Clopton, who somehow made his peace with his accusers and lived to see the Lancastrians eventually triumphant at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
The dates of the reconstruction of the church are derived from contemporary wills, which provided endowments to finance the work
In 1710 the main tower was damaged by a lightning strike.[3] It was replaced with a brick-built structure in the 18th century and subsequently remodelled between 1898 and 1903 to its present-day appearance, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The new tower was closer to its original form with stone and flint facing and the addition of four new pinnacles.
The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure.
The interior is lit by 74 tracery windows, many of which retain original medieval glass. These include the image of Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sanctuary is dominated by the large reredos, of Caen stone and inspired by the works of Albrecht Dürer. It was installed in 1877, having been donated by the mother of the then Rector Charles Martyn.
On the north side is the alabaster and marble tomb of Sir William Cordell who was the first Patron of the Church after the dissolution of the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's in 1539. On either side of the tomb are niches containing figures that represent the four Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
The sanctuary also holds one of the earliest extant alabaster bas relief panels, a nativity from the second half of the 14th century. The panel was hidden under the floor of chancel, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, and was rediscovered in the 18th century.[6] The panel, which may be part of an altar piece destroyed during the Reformation, includes a midwife arranging Mary's pillows and two cows looking from under her bed.
The Clopton Chapel is in the north east corner of the church. It commemorates various Clopton family members and was used by the family as a place of private worship.
The tomb of Sir William Clopton is set into an alcove here, in the north wall. An effigy of Sir William, wearing chain mail and plate armour, is set on top of the tomb. Sir William is known to have died in 1446 and it is therefore believed that this corner of the church predates the late 15th-century reconstruction. There are numerous brasses set in the floor commemorating other members of the Clopton family; two date from 1420, another shows two women wearing head attire in the butterfly style from around 1480, and a third depicts Francis Clopton who died in 1558.
There is an altar set against the east wall of the chapel and a double squint designed to provide priests with a view of the high altar when conducting Masses.
The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death in 1497, his will made provision for the chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there.[10] The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.
The tomb of John Clopton and his wife is set in the wall leading into the chapel. Inside, the canopy vault displays faded portraits of the couple. Also displayed is a portrait of the risen Christ with a Latin text which, translated, reads Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. A series of empty niches in the south wall most likely once held statues of saints. Around the cornice, John Lydgate's poem "Testament" is presented in the form of a scroll along the roof, while his "Lamentation of our Lady Maria" is along the west wall.
The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.[12]
The stone carving seen in the Lady Chapel bears similarities to work at King's College Chapel, Cambridge and at Burwell Church in Cambridgeshire. It is known that the master mason employed there was Reginald Ely, the King's Mason, and although there is no documentary proof, it is believed that Ely was also responsible for the work at Holy Trinity, Long Melford.[13]
The chapel was used as a school from 1670 until the early 18th century, and a multiplication table on the east wall serves as a reminder of this use. The steep gables of the roof also date from this period.
The Martyn Chapel is situated to the south of the chancel. It contains the tombs of several members of the Martyn family, who were prominent local wool merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries, and who also acted as benefactors of the church. These include the tomb chest of Lawrence Martyn (died 1460) and his two wives. On the floor are the tomb slabs of Roger Martyn (died 1615) and his two wives Ursula and Margaret; and of Richard Martyn (died 1624) and his three wives.
Originally, the Martyn chapel contained an altar flanked by two gilded tabernacles, one displaying an image of Christ and the other an image of Our Lady of Pity. These tabernacles reached to the ceiling of the chapel, but were removed or destroyed during the English Reformation in the reign of King Edward VI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford
---------------------------------------------
The setting of Holy Trinity is superlative. At the highest point and square onto the vast village green, its southern elevation is punctuated by the 16th Century Trinity Hospital almshouses. Across the green is the prospect of Melford Hall's pepperpot turrets and chimneys behind a long Tudor wall. Another great house, Kentwell Hall, is to the north. Kentwell was home to the Clopton family, whose name you meet again and again inside the church. Norman Scarfe described it as in a way, a vast memorial chapel to the family.
Holy Trinity is the longest church in Suffolk, longer even than Mildenhall, but this is because of a feature unique in the county, a large lady chapel separate from the rest of the church beyond the east end of the chancel. The chapel itself is bigger than many East Anglian churches, although it appears externally rather domestic with its triple gable at the east end. There is a good collection of medieval glass in the otherwise clear windows, as well as a couple of modern pieces, and a very mdern altarpiece at the central altar. Jacqueline's mother remembered attending Sunday School in this chapel in the 1940s.
The intimacy of the Lady Chapel is in great contrast to the vast walls of glass which stretch away westwards, the huge perpendicular windows of the nave aisles and clerestories, which appear to make the castellated nave roof float in air. An inscription in the clerestory records the date at which the building was completed as 1496. Forty years later, it would all have been much more serious. Sixty years later, it would not have been built at all. A brick tower was added in the early 18th Century, and the present tower, by GF Bodley, was encased around it in 1903. As Sam Mortlock observes, this tower might seem out of place in Suffolk, but it nevertheless matches the scale and character of the building. It is hard to imagine the church without it.
I came here back in May with my friend David Striker, who, despite living thousands of miles away in Colorado, has nearly completed his ambition to visit every medieval church in Norfolk and Suffolk. This was his first visit to Long Melford, mine only the latest of many. We stepped down into the vast, serious space.. There was a fairly considerable 19th Century restoration here, as witnessed by the vast sprawl of Minton tiles on the floor, although perhaps the sanctuary furnishings are the building's great weakness. Perhaps it is the knowledge of this that fails to turn my head eastwards, but instead draws me across to the north aisle for the best collection of medieval glass in Suffolk. During the 19th century restoration it was collected into the east window and north and south aisles, but in the 1960s it was all recollected here. Even on a sunny day it is a perfect setting for exploring it.
The most striking figures are probably those of the medieval donors, who originally would have been set prayerfully at the base of windows of devotional subjects. Famously, the portrait of Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk is said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenneil's Duchess in his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not sure there is any evidence for this. Indeed, several of the ladies here might have provided similar inspiration.
The best glass is the pieta, Mary holding the body of Christ the Man of Sorrows. Beneath it is perhaps the best-known, the Holy Trinity represented in a roundel as three hares with their ears interlocking. An angel holding a Holy Trinity shield in an upper light recalls the same thing at Salle. Other glass includes a fine resurrection scene and a sequence of 15th Century Saints. There is also a small amount of continental glass collected in later centuries, including a most curious oval lozenge of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
Walking eastwards down the north aisle until the glass runs out, you are rewarded by a remarkable survival, a 14th century alabaster panel of the Adoration of the Magi. It probably formed part of the altar piece here, and was rediscovered hidden under the floorboards in the 18th century. Fragments of similar reliefs survive elsewhere in East Anglia, but none in such perfect condition. Beyond it, you step through into the north chancel chapel where there are a number of Clopton brasses, impressive but not in terribly good condition, and then beyond that into the secretive Clopton chantry. This beautiful little chapel probably dates from the completion of the church in the last decade of the 15th century. Here, chantry priests would have celebrated Masses for the dead of the Clopton family. The chapel is intricately decorated with devotional symbols and vinework, as well as poems attributed to John Lidgate. The beautiful Tudor tracery of the window is filled with elegant clear glass except for another great survival, a lily crucifix. This representation occurs just once more in Suffolk, on the font at Great Glemham. The panel is probably a later addition here from elsewhere in the church, but it is still haunting to think of the Chantry priests kneeling towards the window as they asked for intercessions for the souls of the Clopton dead. It was intended that the prayers of the priests would sustain the Cloptons in perpetuity, but in fact it would last barely half a century before the Reformation outlawed such practices.
You step back into the chancel to be confronted by the imposing stone reredos. Its towering heaviness is out of sympathy with the lightness and simplicity of the Perpendicular windows, and it predates Bodley's restoration. The screen which separates the chancel from the south chapel is medeival, albeit restored, and I was struck by a fierce little dragon, although photographing it into the strong south window sunshine beyond proved impossible. The brasses in the south chapel are good, and in better condition. They are to members of the Martyn family.
The south chapel is also the last resting place of Long Melford's other great family, the Cordells. Sir William Cordell's tomb dominates the space. He died in 1581, and donated the Trinity Hospital outside. His name survives elsewhere in Long Melford: my wife's mother grew up on Cordell Road, part of a council estate cunningly hidden from the High Street by its buildings on the east side.
Simon Knott, January 2013
(Ain't a gonna need this house no longer
Ain't a gonna need this house no more) Ain't got time to fix the shingles
Ain't got time to fix the floor
Ain't got time to oil the hinges
Nor to mend no window panes DYI's Dream! Open planning! Commune with nature!
Ragusa (Italian: [raˈɡuːza] Sicilian: Rausa; Latin: Ragusia) is a city and comune in southern Italy.
I am indebted to John Fielding (www.flickr.com/photos/john_fielding/) for posting an aerial shot of Holy Trinity, and my interest was piqued by the timber-framed building with the triple gable at the east end. Turned out this was the Lady Chapel, and more of that later. So, on my way back home to Kent, I called in to see if it looked as remarkable in the flesh as in photographs.
I arrived at Long Melford, after being taken on a magical mystery tour in light drizzle from Wortham, down narrow and narrower lanes, under and over railway lines, through woods, up and down hills until, at last, I saw the town laid out beyond the church.
I parked at the bottom of Church Walk then walked up past the line of timber framed houses, the tudor hospital and the tudor manor house.
Holy Trinity sits on top of the hill, spread out, filling its large churchyard and the large tower not out of proportion.
Inside it really is a collection of wonders, from brasses, the best collection of Medieval glass in Suffolk, to side chapels, and behind, the very unusual Lady Chapel.
------------------------------------------
The Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity.
The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's, BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011.
A church is recorded as having been on the site since the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). It was originally endowed by the Saxon Earl Alric, who bequeathed the patronage of the church, along with his manor at Melford Hall and about 261 acres of land, to the successive Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund’s. There are no surviving descriptions of the original Saxon structure, although the roll of the clergy (see below) and the history of the site extend back to the 12th century.
The church was substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497. Of the earlier structures, only the former Lady Chapel (now the Clopton Chantry Chapel) and the nave arcades survive.
The principal benefactor who financed the reconstruction was wealthy local wool merchant John Clopton, who resided at neighbouring Kentwell Hall. John Clopton was a supporter of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses and in 1462 was imprisoned in the Tower of London with John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and a number of others, charged with corresponding treasonably with Margaret of Anjou. All of those imprisoned were eventually executed except John Clopton, who somehow made his peace with his accusers and lived to see the Lancastrians eventually triumphant at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
The dates of the reconstruction of the church are derived from contemporary wills, which provided endowments to finance the work
In 1710 the main tower was damaged by a lightning strike.[3] It was replaced with a brick-built structure in the 18th century and subsequently remodelled between 1898 and 1903 to its present-day appearance, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The new tower was closer to its original form with stone and flint facing and the addition of four new pinnacles.
The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure.
The interior is lit by 74 tracery windows, many of which retain original medieval glass. These include the image of Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sanctuary is dominated by the large reredos, of Caen stone and inspired by the works of Albrecht Dürer. It was installed in 1877, having been donated by the mother of the then Rector Charles Martyn.
On the north side is the alabaster and marble tomb of Sir William Cordell who was the first Patron of the Church after the dissolution of the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's in 1539. On either side of the tomb are niches containing figures that represent the four Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
The sanctuary also holds one of the earliest extant alabaster bas relief panels, a nativity from the second half of the 14th century. The panel was hidden under the floor of chancel, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, and was rediscovered in the 18th century.[6] The panel, which may be part of an altar piece destroyed during the Reformation, includes a midwife arranging Mary's pillows and two cows looking from under her bed.
The Clopton Chapel is in the north east corner of the church. It commemorates various Clopton family members and was used by the family as a place of private worship.
The tomb of Sir William Clopton is set into an alcove here, in the north wall. An effigy of Sir William, wearing chain mail and plate armour, is set on top of the tomb. Sir William is known to have died in 1446 and it is therefore believed that this corner of the church predates the late 15th-century reconstruction. There are numerous brasses set in the floor commemorating other members of the Clopton family; two date from 1420, another shows two women wearing head attire in the butterfly style from around 1480, and a third depicts Francis Clopton who died in 1558.
There is an altar set against the east wall of the chapel and a double squint designed to provide priests with a view of the high altar when conducting Masses.
The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death in 1497, his will made provision for the chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there.[10] The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.
The tomb of John Clopton and his wife is set in the wall leading into the chapel. Inside, the canopy vault displays faded portraits of the couple. Also displayed is a portrait of the risen Christ with a Latin text which, translated, reads Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. A series of empty niches in the south wall most likely once held statues of saints. Around the cornice, John Lydgate's poem "Testament" is presented in the form of a scroll along the roof, while his "Lamentation of our Lady Maria" is along the west wall.
The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.[12]
The stone carving seen in the Lady Chapel bears similarities to work at King's College Chapel, Cambridge and at Burwell Church in Cambridgeshire. It is known that the master mason employed there was Reginald Ely, the King's Mason, and although there is no documentary proof, it is believed that Ely was also responsible for the work at Holy Trinity, Long Melford.[13]
The chapel was used as a school from 1670 until the early 18th century, and a multiplication table on the east wall serves as a reminder of this use. The steep gables of the roof also date from this period.
The Martyn Chapel is situated to the south of the chancel. It contains the tombs of several members of the Martyn family, who were prominent local wool merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries, and who also acted as benefactors of the church. These include the tomb chest of Lawrence Martyn (died 1460) and his two wives. On the floor are the tomb slabs of Roger Martyn (died 1615) and his two wives Ursula and Margaret; and of Richard Martyn (died 1624) and his three wives.
Originally, the Martyn chapel contained an altar flanked by two gilded tabernacles, one displaying an image of Christ and the other an image of Our Lady of Pity. These tabernacles reached to the ceiling of the chapel, but were removed or destroyed during the English Reformation in the reign of King Edward VI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford
---------------------------------------------
The setting of Holy Trinity is superlative. At the highest point and square onto the vast village green, its southern elevation is punctuated by the 16th Century Trinity Hospital almshouses. Across the green is the prospect of Melford Hall's pepperpot turrets and chimneys behind a long Tudor wall. Another great house, Kentwell Hall, is to the north. Kentwell was home to the Clopton family, whose name you meet again and again inside the church. Norman Scarfe described it as in a way, a vast memorial chapel to the family.
Holy Trinity is the longest church in Suffolk, longer even than Mildenhall, but this is because of a feature unique in the county, a large lady chapel separate from the rest of the church beyond the east end of the chancel. The chapel itself is bigger than many East Anglian churches, although it appears externally rather domestic with its triple gable at the east end. There is a good collection of medieval glass in the otherwise clear windows, as well as a couple of modern pieces, and a very mdern altarpiece at the central altar. Jacqueline's mother remembered attending Sunday School in this chapel in the 1940s.
The intimacy of the Lady Chapel is in great contrast to the vast walls of glass which stretch away westwards, the huge perpendicular windows of the nave aisles and clerestories, which appear to make the castellated nave roof float in air. An inscription in the clerestory records the date at which the building was completed as 1496. Forty years later, it would all have been much more serious. Sixty years later, it would not have been built at all. A brick tower was added in the early 18th Century, and the present tower, by GF Bodley, was encased around it in 1903. As Sam Mortlock observes, this tower might seem out of place in Suffolk, but it nevertheless matches the scale and character of the building. It is hard to imagine the church without it.
I came here back in May with my friend David Striker, who, despite living thousands of miles away in Colorado, has nearly completed his ambition to visit every medieval church in Norfolk and Suffolk. This was his first visit to Long Melford, mine only the latest of many. We stepped down into the vast, serious space.. There was a fairly considerable 19th Century restoration here, as witnessed by the vast sprawl of Minton tiles on the floor, although perhaps the sanctuary furnishings are the building's great weakness. Perhaps it is the knowledge of this that fails to turn my head eastwards, but instead draws me across to the north aisle for the best collection of medieval glass in Suffolk. During the 19th century restoration it was collected into the east window and north and south aisles, but in the 1960s it was all recollected here. Even on a sunny day it is a perfect setting for exploring it.
The most striking figures are probably those of the medieval donors, who originally would have been set prayerfully at the base of windows of devotional subjects. Famously, the portrait of Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk is said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenneil's Duchess in his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not sure there is any evidence for this. Indeed, several of the ladies here might have provided similar inspiration.
The best glass is the pieta, Mary holding the body of Christ the Man of Sorrows. Beneath it is perhaps the best-known, the Holy Trinity represented in a roundel as three hares with their ears interlocking. An angel holding a Holy Trinity shield in an upper light recalls the same thing at Salle. Other glass includes a fine resurrection scene and a sequence of 15th Century Saints. There is also a small amount of continental glass collected in later centuries, including a most curious oval lozenge of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
Walking eastwards down the north aisle until the glass runs out, you are rewarded by a remarkable survival, a 14th century alabaster panel of the Adoration of the Magi. It probably formed part of the altar piece here, and was rediscovered hidden under the floorboards in the 18th century. Fragments of similar reliefs survive elsewhere in East Anglia, but none in such perfect condition. Beyond it, you step through into the north chancel chapel where there are a number of Clopton brasses, impressive but not in terribly good condition, and then beyond that into the secretive Clopton chantry. This beautiful little chapel probably dates from the completion of the church in the last decade of the 15th century. Here, chantry priests would have celebrated Masses for the dead of the Clopton family. The chapel is intricately decorated with devotional symbols and vinework, as well as poems attributed to John Lidgate. The beautiful Tudor tracery of the window is filled with elegant clear glass except for another great survival, a lily crucifix. This representation occurs just once more in Suffolk, on the font at Great Glemham. The panel is probably a later addition here from elsewhere in the church, but it is still haunting to think of the Chantry priests kneeling towards the window as they asked for intercessions for the souls of the Clopton dead. It was intended that the prayers of the priests would sustain the Cloptons in perpetuity, but in fact it would last barely half a century before the Reformation outlawed such practices.
You step back into the chancel to be confronted by the imposing stone reredos. Its towering heaviness is out of sympathy with the lightness and simplicity of the Perpendicular windows, and it predates Bodley's restoration. The screen which separates the chancel from the south chapel is medeival, albeit restored, and I was struck by a fierce little dragon, although photographing it into the strong south window sunshine beyond proved impossible. The brasses in the south chapel are good, and in better condition. They are to members of the Martyn family.
The south chapel is also the last resting place of Long Melford's other great family, the Cordells. Sir William Cordell's tomb dominates the space. He died in 1581, and donated the Trinity Hospital outside. His name survives elsewhere in Long Melford: my wife's mother grew up on Cordell Road, part of a council estate cunningly hidden from the High Street by its buildings on the east side.
Simon Knott, January 2013
The Ayalon Institute was a secret ammunition factory disguised as part of a kibbutz to fool the British back in the 1940s. Jewish people used the factory in their efforts to fight for the independent state of Israel. Organizers went to extreme measures to build and sustain this secret factory within the kibbutz. Between 1945 and 1948, the Ayalon Institute produced more than 2 million 9mm bullets.
During the British mandate, the Jewish people began planning ways to make machinery and guns to fight for independence. While manufacturing guns didn’t prove to be that difficult, it was very challenging to make bullets for the guns.
So, a group of Jewish people decided to build a ammunitions factory under a kibbutz, which is a communal area of land designed for a specific purpose, such as farming. The area was near a British base. In 1945, the group built structures on the surface that resembled a kibbutz and in about three weeks, they built an entire ammunitions factory eight meters underground. The factory was about the size of a tennis court.
The factory stopped operating in 1948, three years after being built. In 1987, the factory was restored and turned into a museum that is now open to the public.
This is the old Log Cabin Association Consolidated School, located atop a knoll overlooking US 74-441 at the community of Barker’s Creek, near Dillsboro, North Carolina. The building was one of three elementary schools constructed between 1949 and 1952, which consolidated the last remaining rural wood-frame one-room and two-room schools in the county, with the other two schools, with similar designs, being located at the communities Addie (Scott’s Creek Township) and Argura/Sols Creek (Canada Township). The Log Cabin School was the first to be built, with construction starting in 1949 due to the condemnation of the old Barker’s Creek School in 1947, due to how dilapidated it had become. The Log Cabin School opened in 1950, and Consolidated the schools at Dicks Creek (now Dicks Creek Baptist Church), Wilmot, and Barker’s Creek into a single, modern facility with a gymatorium, library, cafeteria, bathrooms, central heating, and separated classroom spaces, none of which were amenities that existed in the schools it replaced. The modernist building features several long window bays that provide ample light to the interior spaces, with the classrooms having glass block to provide diffuse sunlight, and the building heavily using steel-frame awning windows for ventilation. The school also features some interesting detailing, including curved brick faces at the front entrance, pilaster-like facade elements, and a vertical element of bricks turned at an angle that breaks up the center of the massing of the large brick face of the gym’s facade. The school operated from 1950 until 1980, when, prompted by a drop in enrollment, it was Consolidated with nearby Qualla Elementary School to form Smokey Mountain Elementary School. The school sat vacant, with sporadic activity until 1995, when the deteriorated structure was renovated and converted into an antique mall. However, the building was put up for sale about 13 years ago, and has since sat vacant and fallen into serious disrepair, with a failed roof and vandalism taking their toll. It needs serious renovation to be used, but thankfully, it is a well-built structure that is still sound.
The school remains on the market, though pictures in the listing are inaccurate as to its current state, which has severely deteriorated from the pristine building it was in 2006, when the antique mall closed. The building needs a new roof, replacement window glass, a thorough cleaning, paint job, new ceilings and floors, and new doors if it is reused. Electrical systems in the building were stolen by scrappers, and need to be completely replaced. Some plumbing fixtures remain, but they have been subject to severe vandalism over the decade the building has sat empty. As for the HVAC system, the building did at one time have a boiler, installed in 1950, and an air conditioning system that was installed circa 1995, but both of these systems are likely non-functional due to water damage and vandalism, and will need to be replaced. The wooden interior structures in the gym also need to be torn out, along with all electrical fixtures. All of this will need to be done if the building is to be used again, but it does have the upside of being a solid concrete, brick, steel, and concrete masonry structure that has taken the elements on remarkably well, and can still be salvaged with the right resources and care put into it. The building is by no means unstable or in a state of collapse, as it was built very solidly, and could make a great adaptive reuse opportunity for the right person or organization. I hope to see this building saved and reused, as it is one of only a few mostly intact modernist school buildings from the late 1940s/early 1950s left in this part of the state.
The skilled craftsmen of the Woodland Period designed and built structures for many purposes. Their buildings were weather tight and snug during the winter months and could be made open and airy in the summer. Permanent settlements of multi-family houses were typically located near a river, stream or large spring.
Village Design
Larger towns might have 100 houses while smaller villages numbered from two to fifty homes. The houses in a village might be spread out over 100 acres. Usually each house had a nearby garden.
The two hand-colored pictures at left are copies of engravings by Theodor de Bry based on earlier drawings by John White.
In the "Village of Secoton", the artist chose to depict the houses and fields in a grid-like pattern. This stylized view allowed the artist to show many aspects of village life in a single image. The small hut in the corn field provided shelter for children whose job it was to guard the crops from animals.
In the "Village of Pomeiock," the open houses reveal raised platforms within. Notice the cupola-like roof on one of the buildings. The entire village is surrounded by a protective stockade.
The Long House
The Long House could be 100 feet long and twenty four feet wide. As many as twenty people could live in a large house. Doors were placed at either end of the home and the reed mats or bark sheets which covered the outside of the house could be removed to form windows. At the center was the fire pit with a hole in the roof above to vent the smoke. Larger houses might be partitioned with hanging mats. Low benches built along the interior wall provided a place to sit and sleep. Another style of house, the roundhouse, was dome-shaped and smaller - large enough for six to eight people.
Photo and transcription by Kevin Borland. Part of the "Woodland Indians of Arlington" exhibit at the Gulf Branch Nature Center. Photo of reproduction roundhouse from the Powhatan Village, Jamestown settlement, Virginia, photographer unknown. Similar photograph available (attribution required, non-commercial use only), courtesy of Bill Barber. Source of depicted Long House diagram unknown. Public domain electronic image of de Bry's "Village of Pomeiock" available at www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/6237. Public domain electronic image of de Bry's "Village of Secoton" available at www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/6276. Original John White watercolors on display at The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, VA. Source of background image unknown.
The exuberant floral decorative tiles on the ceiling of the iwan in Atiq Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in iran, situated in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province of Iran.
Atiq Mosque, also known as Jame (Friday) Mosque, is the oldest and the first mosque in Shiraz. Its underlying building dates back to pre-Islam period. It was first built in 875 CE during the reign of Saffarid ruler Amro Leis. It was renovated and expanded several times thereafter, due to the damages from earthquakes.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
Santa Maria dei Miracoli presso San Celso is a church and a sanctuary. The construction was begun by Gian Giacomo Dolcebuono and Giovanni Battagio in 1493, to house a miraculous icon of the Madonna, initially on the central plan. The first part to be built was the octagonal dome, covered externally by a tambour with a loggia and arcades decorated by twelve brickwork statues by Agostino De Fondulis, designed in Lombard style by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo (1494-1498). In 1506 to the original edifice a complex with nave and two aisles was added, the former covered by a monumental barrel vault also by Amadeo; the presbytery received a polygonal ambulatory inspired to that in the Duomo. In the 16th century also the square portico in classical style was added, perhaps designed by Cesare Cesariano or Cristoforo Lombardo (il Lombardino). The massive eclectic and Mannerist style façade was designed by Galeazzo Alessi in the late 16th century and was realized by Martino Bassi; it is decorated by numerous statues and reliefs by Stoldo Lorenzi and Annibale Fontana.
Комплекс Санта-Мария дей Мираколи состоит из церкви Св. Цельсия (chiesa di San Celso) и храма Санта-Мария прессо Сан-Челсо (Santa Maria presso San Celso). Первая церковь, восходящая к древним временам, была перестроена в 996 году рядом с бенедиктинским монастырем, при реконструкции в XI веке она была перестроена в романском стиле: трехнефная базилика с единой абсидой. Нынешний фасад, продвинутый назад, по сравнению с оригинальным, является результатом стилистической реконструкции, осуществленной Луиджи Каноника (1851-54). Справа возвышается мощная колокольня в романо-ломбардском стиле, являющаяся одной из старейших в городе. Сантуарий был выполнен после 1490 года и заменил небольшую капеллу поздней готики (1429-39), которая уже не вмещала большого количества паломников, приходивших поклониться чудодейственному образу Девы Марии, хранившемуся там. Строительство купола (украшенного статуями из терракоты Агостина де Фонтутиса) и тибуриума было поручено Джованни Антонио Амадео и Джан Джакомо Дольчебуоно в 1497 году. В 1505 году Кристофоро Солари начинает строительство тройного портика перед фасадом, который стал первым миланским образцом зрелого классицизма; внутри открытая кладка кирпича с отдельными коринфскими бронзовыми капителями, снаружи отделан белым мрамором. Позднее церковь быда расширена под руководством Чезаре Чезариано (с 1513 года) и Кристофоро Ломбардо (с 1528 г.) путем строительства крытой галереи и боковых нефов. В 1563 году начались работы на фасаде, по проекту Галеаццо Алесси, позднее дополненные Мартино Басси.
APAAME_20091008_RHB-0247.jpg
The many stone built structures that are distributed across the basalt desert of Jordan were once protected by their isolation in the harsh conditions of the desert. Development into the desert is increasing however, and clearance of tracks over the tyre unfriendly basalt, or the marking of subdivided land by bulldozers is unknowingly erasing sections of these millenia old sites.
The museum is a purpose-built structure that houses the art collection of John Bowes (1811-1885), who mostly made his money from coal, and his French wife, the actress and singer Joséphine Coffin-Chevallier (1825-1874). The couple employed the French architect, Jules Pellechet, to design the building.
Work began in 1869 and was completed in 1892, by which time the founders had died. The building was listed Grade I in 1950.
There's a Wikipedia page about the museum here and a personal appreciation here. The museum's full of fine and beautiful works -- sculptures, glass, fabrics, pottery, furniture and carvings, as well as paintings. There are 25 of the best exhibits shown here. (The Ottoboni portrait and the Canalettos are especially wonderful.)
Barnard Castle, County Durham.
I am indebted to John Fielding (www.flickr.com/photos/john_fielding/) for posting an aerial shot of Holy Trinity, and my interest was piqued by the timber-framed building with the triple gable at the east end. Turned out this was the Lady Chapel, and more of that later. So, on my way back home to Kent, I called in to see if it looked as remarkable in the flesh as in photographs.
I arrived at Long Melford, after being taken on a magical mystery tour in light drizzle from Wortham, down narrow and narrower lanes, under and over railway lines, through woods, up and down hills until, at last, I saw the town laid out beyond the church.
I parked at the bottom of Church Walk then walked up past the line of timber framed houses, the tudor hospital and the tudor manor house.
Holy Trinity sits on top of the hill, spread out, filling its large churchyard and the large tower not out of proportion.
Inside it really is a collection of wonders, from brasses, the best collection of Medieval glass in Suffolk, to side chapels, and behind, the very unusual Lady Chapel.
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The Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity.
The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's, BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011.
A church is recorded as having been on the site since the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). It was originally endowed by the Saxon Earl Alric, who bequeathed the patronage of the church, along with his manor at Melford Hall and about 261 acres of land, to the successive Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund’s. There are no surviving descriptions of the original Saxon structure, although the roll of the clergy (see below) and the history of the site extend back to the 12th century.
The church was substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497. Of the earlier structures, only the former Lady Chapel (now the Clopton Chantry Chapel) and the nave arcades survive.
The principal benefactor who financed the reconstruction was wealthy local wool merchant John Clopton, who resided at neighbouring Kentwell Hall. John Clopton was a supporter of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses and in 1462 was imprisoned in the Tower of London with John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and a number of others, charged with corresponding treasonably with Margaret of Anjou. All of those imprisoned were eventually executed except John Clopton, who somehow made his peace with his accusers and lived to see the Lancastrians eventually triumphant at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
The dates of the reconstruction of the church are derived from contemporary wills, which provided endowments to finance the work
In 1710 the main tower was damaged by a lightning strike.[3] It was replaced with a brick-built structure in the 18th century and subsequently remodelled between 1898 and 1903 to its present-day appearance, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The new tower was closer to its original form with stone and flint facing and the addition of four new pinnacles.
The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure.
The interior is lit by 74 tracery windows, many of which retain original medieval glass. These include the image of Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sanctuary is dominated by the large reredos, of Caen stone and inspired by the works of Albrecht Dürer. It was installed in 1877, having been donated by the mother of the then Rector Charles Martyn.
On the north side is the alabaster and marble tomb of Sir William Cordell who was the first Patron of the Church after the dissolution of the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's in 1539. On either side of the tomb are niches containing figures that represent the four Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
The sanctuary also holds one of the earliest extant alabaster bas relief panels, a nativity from the second half of the 14th century. The panel was hidden under the floor of chancel, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, and was rediscovered in the 18th century.[6] The panel, which may be part of an altar piece destroyed during the Reformation, includes a midwife arranging Mary's pillows and two cows looking from under her bed.
The Clopton Chapel is in the north east corner of the church. It commemorates various Clopton family members and was used by the family as a place of private worship.
The tomb of Sir William Clopton is set into an alcove here, in the north wall. An effigy of Sir William, wearing chain mail and plate armour, is set on top of the tomb. Sir William is known to have died in 1446 and it is therefore believed that this corner of the church predates the late 15th-century reconstruction. There are numerous brasses set in the floor commemorating other members of the Clopton family; two date from 1420, another shows two women wearing head attire in the butterfly style from around 1480, and a third depicts Francis Clopton who died in 1558.
There is an altar set against the east wall of the chapel and a double squint designed to provide priests with a view of the high altar when conducting Masses.
The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death in 1497, his will made provision for the chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there.[10] The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.
The tomb of John Clopton and his wife is set in the wall leading into the chapel. Inside, the canopy vault displays faded portraits of the couple. Also displayed is a portrait of the risen Christ with a Latin text which, translated, reads Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. A series of empty niches in the south wall most likely once held statues of saints. Around the cornice, John Lydgate's poem "Testament" is presented in the form of a scroll along the roof, while his "Lamentation of our Lady Maria" is along the west wall.
The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.[12]
The stone carving seen in the Lady Chapel bears similarities to work at King's College Chapel, Cambridge and at Burwell Church in Cambridgeshire. It is known that the master mason employed there was Reginald Ely, the King's Mason, and although there is no documentary proof, it is believed that Ely was also responsible for the work at Holy Trinity, Long Melford.[13]
The chapel was used as a school from 1670 until the early 18th century, and a multiplication table on the east wall serves as a reminder of this use. The steep gables of the roof also date from this period.
The Martyn Chapel is situated to the south of the chancel. It contains the tombs of several members of the Martyn family, who were prominent local wool merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries, and who also acted as benefactors of the church. These include the tomb chest of Lawrence Martyn (died 1460) and his two wives. On the floor are the tomb slabs of Roger Martyn (died 1615) and his two wives Ursula and Margaret; and of Richard Martyn (died 1624) and his three wives.
Originally, the Martyn chapel contained an altar flanked by two gilded tabernacles, one displaying an image of Christ and the other an image of Our Lady of Pity. These tabernacles reached to the ceiling of the chapel, but were removed or destroyed during the English Reformation in the reign of King Edward VI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford
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The setting of Holy Trinity is superlative. At the highest point and square onto the vast village green, its southern elevation is punctuated by the 16th Century Trinity Hospital almshouses. Across the green is the prospect of Melford Hall's pepperpot turrets and chimneys behind a long Tudor wall. Another great house, Kentwell Hall, is to the north. Kentwell was home to the Clopton family, whose name you meet again and again inside the church. Norman Scarfe described it as in a way, a vast memorial chapel to the family.
Holy Trinity is the longest church in Suffolk, longer even than Mildenhall, but this is because of a feature unique in the county, a large lady chapel separate from the rest of the church beyond the east end of the chancel. The chapel itself is bigger than many East Anglian churches, although it appears externally rather domestic with its triple gable at the east end. There is a good collection of medieval glass in the otherwise clear windows, as well as a couple of modern pieces, and a very mdern altarpiece at the central altar. Jacqueline's mother remembered attending Sunday School in this chapel in the 1940s.
The intimacy of the Lady Chapel is in great contrast to the vast walls of glass which stretch away westwards, the huge perpendicular windows of the nave aisles and clerestories, which appear to make the castellated nave roof float in air. An inscription in the clerestory records the date at which the building was completed as 1496. Forty years later, it would all have been much more serious. Sixty years later, it would not have been built at all. A brick tower was added in the early 18th Century, and the present tower, by GF Bodley, was encased around it in 1903. As Sam Mortlock observes, this tower might seem out of place in Suffolk, but it nevertheless matches the scale and character of the building. It is hard to imagine the church without it.
I came here back in May with my friend David Striker, who, despite living thousands of miles away in Colorado, has nearly completed his ambition to visit every medieval church in Norfolk and Suffolk. This was his first visit to Long Melford, mine only the latest of many. We stepped down into the vast, serious space.. There was a fairly considerable 19th Century restoration here, as witnessed by the vast sprawl of Minton tiles on the floor, although perhaps the sanctuary furnishings are the building's great weakness. Perhaps it is the knowledge of this that fails to turn my head eastwards, but instead draws me across to the north aisle for the best collection of medieval glass in Suffolk. During the 19th century restoration it was collected into the east window and north and south aisles, but in the 1960s it was all recollected here. Even on a sunny day it is a perfect setting for exploring it.
The most striking figures are probably those of the medieval donors, who originally would have been set prayerfully at the base of windows of devotional subjects. Famously, the portrait of Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk is said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenneil's Duchess in his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not sure there is any evidence for this. Indeed, several of the ladies here might have provided similar inspiration.
The best glass is the pieta, Mary holding the body of Christ the Man of Sorrows. Beneath it is perhaps the best-known, the Holy Trinity represented in a roundel as three hares with their ears interlocking. An angel holding a Holy Trinity shield in an upper light recalls the same thing at Salle. Other glass includes a fine resurrection scene and a sequence of 15th Century Saints. There is also a small amount of continental glass collected in later centuries, including a most curious oval lozenge of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
Walking eastwards down the north aisle until the glass runs out, you are rewarded by a remarkable survival, a 14th century alabaster panel of the Adoration of the Magi. It probably formed part of the altar piece here, and was rediscovered hidden under the floorboards in the 18th century. Fragments of similar reliefs survive elsewhere in East Anglia, but none in such perfect condition. Beyond it, you step through into the north chancel chapel where there are a number of Clopton brasses, impressive but not in terribly good condition, and then beyond that into the secretive Clopton chantry. This beautiful little chapel probably dates from the completion of the church in the last decade of the 15th century. Here, chantry priests would have celebrated Masses for the dead of the Clopton family. The chapel is intricately decorated with devotional symbols and vinework, as well as poems attributed to John Lidgate. The beautiful Tudor tracery of the window is filled with elegant clear glass except for another great survival, a lily crucifix. This representation occurs just once more in Suffolk, on the font at Great Glemham. The panel is probably a later addition here from elsewhere in the church, but it is still haunting to think of the Chantry priests kneeling towards the window as they asked for intercessions for the souls of the Clopton dead. It was intended that the prayers of the priests would sustain the Cloptons in perpetuity, but in fact it would last barely half a century before the Reformation outlawed such practices.
You step back into the chancel to be confronted by the imposing stone reredos. Its towering heaviness is out of sympathy with the lightness and simplicity of the Perpendicular windows, and it predates Bodley's restoration. The screen which separates the chancel from the south chapel is medeival, albeit restored, and I was struck by a fierce little dragon, although photographing it into the strong south window sunshine beyond proved impossible. The brasses in the south chapel are good, and in better condition. They are to members of the Martyn family.
The south chapel is also the last resting place of Long Melford's other great family, the Cordells. Sir William Cordell's tomb dominates the space. He died in 1581, and donated the Trinity Hospital outside. His name survives elsewhere in Long Melford: my wife's mother grew up on Cordell Road, part of a council estate cunningly hidden from the High Street by its buildings on the east side.
Simon Knott, January 2013
Creator: Unidentified.
Location: Wickham, Terrace, Brisbane, Queensland.
Description: The Old Windmill in Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, is the oldest surviving convict-built structure in queensland. From 1922 to 1926 the tower served the Institute of Radio Engineers for meetings and experiments, Gympie Radio Pioneer A. E. Dillon 4CH, was the first experimenter to conduct Medium Wave tests and transmissions from this tower in late 1921 or early 1922. The Tower was ideally suited for this purpose as it commanded a panoramic view from Moreton Bay in the east, to Darling Downs on the western horizon. Nearby he erected a 150-foot (46 m) mast and strung an 80-foot (24 m) antenna between it and the Tower - the most impressive configuration of its kind in Queensland at the time.
From 1924 Thomas Elliott installed equipment in the tower to undertake cutting-edge television research; he and Allen Campbell giving a demonstration from the site in 1934 which constituted Queensland's first television broadcast. It was considered by many at the time as the most outstanding achievement thus far in the history of television in Australia. They gained a licence from the government and continued experimental broadcasting from the tower until about 1944.
During the 1930s and 1940s the tower was the venue for pioneer television broadcasting. (Information from Wikipedia)
View the original image at the State Library of Queensland: hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/113123
Information about State Library of Queensland’s collection: www.slq.qld.gov.au/research-collections
You are free to use this image without permission. Please attribute State Library of Queensland.
A lamppost illuminates a trullo in an alley in the historic center of Alberobello (Italy) at dayfall
An approximately 1884 photo (August / September) of the first official High School in Wichita, KS, a confirmed Sternberg-built structure. Sternberg built more of the government and commercial buildings and fine homes in Wichita, KS from about 1875 - 1906 than any other designer and builder during this time. Indeed this was a time of tremendous growth in Kansas. A few hundred to, at the height of the boom, a few thousand buildings were being completed in Wichita each year.
The 1888 book, "Portrait and Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kansas" (Chapman Brothers; Chicago, 1888) noted the following about the buildings Sternberg erected in the Wichita area...
“Ninety brick stores in Wichita stand as monuments of
his skill and industry, besides numberless other
buildings, probably twice as many as have been put
up by any other contractor in the city.”
This brick structure is no longer standing. It appears to be virtually complete minus a few windows and a marble insert over the side door. The front door to this school (to the right in the picture had marble inserts over the doorway. Before this brick building was built the grade school and high school were co-located together in a wood frame building (about a half a block north of this site). That building burned down in 1879. In building back, it was decided that the grade school and high school should be separate, hence the erection of the first high school in this photo. As of 1884, the grade school and high school were no longer co-located. Construction started on this in the Spring of 1884. It was located between Second Street and Third Street on the east side of Emporia. This high school opened, Sept. 16, 1884, with an attendance of 34 students. By December of 1884, the enrollment had increased to 42. This structure cost approximately $41,500 to construct, originally. As enrollment continued to increase, a large addition was made to this structure... the tower was removed and extra rooms were added in 1886. This was not a small addition. It at least doubled the size of the High School and may have been more space than was needed in 1886, but it needed to accommodate future population growth. See Photostream for photo of the expanded high school: "First High School - Expanded; Wichita, KS". In this photo of the expanded high school note the square windows on the right side of the building (2nd floor) yet all the new windows on the expanded (left) portion have arches.
Wichita's population growth was indeed rapid during this time 1880s. For example Wichita's population in 1880 was 4,911, but by 1890, it was almost 24,000. This type of growth wasn't unusual for Kansas towns at this time. After the Civil War ended in 1865, black people began moving to Kansas to take part in the great prosperity being promoted through Kansas agriculture. Printed flyers were circulated encouraging colored people to go to Kansas and blacks generally associated Kansas with the underground railroad and abolitionism, so indeed they moved. Nicodemus, Kansas in particular was at one point a community entirely comprised of colored persons. Many towns in Kansas including Great Bend, Garden City, Larned, Kiowa, Dodge City were experiencing explosive growth. The people moving to Kansas came from many places (of course eastern states like New York and Pennsylvania) but mainly the Ohio Valley region (i.e, Ohio and Illinois). Immigrants from countries such as Germany, Russia, and Ireland also came to Kansas because of deliberate recruiting efforts by the railroads. These immigrants brought with them unique customs (which although unusual by local standards were generally well accepted by locals). Indeed early Kansas was very open to different races and cultures, even though this changed in the early 1900s. These foreign immigrants also brought with them wealth which was used to buy land and land offices were very busy places in many small Kansas towns. In fact they were so busy not uncommonly, people camped out over night in front of the local land office in order to get a good spot in line the next day to either buy or sell. Because of the pandemonium in front of many land offices, rules were established (a "pecking order" of sorts) to ensure that people waiting outside were being served in a fair and systemmatic way. This undoubtedly cut down on many a fist fights.
W.H. Sternberg designed and built up more of the area (by about twice) than any other contractor and all during one of the greatest economic booms in U.S. history. In fact, he was such familiar name that in some years, simply listing him in the city directory by name only (no address) was sufficient. An address was not required for Mr. Sternberg (at least this year). All other contractors, however, required an address. Given that this was a directory, an ommission of an address is unlikely. Also in those early directories, it was not unusual to simply list commonly known buildings and people by name without an address, for example, "Fletcher Building" or "Bitting Building". Because they were commonly-known, an address was really redundant and was frequently omitted. In New York City this would be similar to saying, "Empire State Building"... and if anyone needs an address at that point, there may be a problem! Following is a "copy & paste" of the Contractors and Builders from the 1890 Wichita City Directory:
Contractors and Builders
Downing B H, ab 211 n Main
Gribi S G, 201 n Water
Minick Andrew, 114 s Lawrence
Parsons F F, 118 s Main
Sawyer J K, 208 Sedgwick
Smith A, rear 447 n Lawrence
Stem W P, 124 s Lawrence
Sternberg W H
Woody Enoch, 1055 n Topeka
Your thoughts, comments, ideas, stories and/or additional information about this place and/or this photo are welcome and appreciated!
This photo is courtesy of the Wichita Public Library, (www.wichita.lib.ks.us).
Now in its second century, the 1918 built structure is a L&NW Railway type 5 design.
Again, a box that has seen a huge downturn in movements during the past few years. It is still pivotal to signalling trains to Fiddlers Ferry power station so will likely be around for a while yet.
The signal box used to herald the entrance to the Lymm line, used by virtually all coal trains from Yorkshire that ran to supply Fiddlers Ferry power station. This line closed in 1985 following the miners strike and BRs reluctance to invest in repairing the rail bridge at Latchford.
Morning sunlight shines through colorful stained glass windows inside main prayer hall of Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, also known as the Pink mosque, situated in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province of Iran.
Nasir al-Mulk mosque was built during the Qajar era, between 1876 to 1888, by the order of Mirzā Hasan Ali (Nasir ol Molk), a Qajar ruler. It includes extensive colored glass in its facade, and displays other traditional elements such as the Panj Kāse ("five concaved") design.
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