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An immitation of the famous sculpture by Rodin.
Placed near casino, probably reminds you of how you would look (naked and thinking) after getting broke by the house.
I think that maybe I'm dreaming...
I smell cinnamon and spices
I hear music everywhere
All around kaleidoscope of color
I think that maybe I'm dreaming...
Maids pass gracefully in laughter
Wine coloured flowers in their hair
Last call from lands I've never been to
I think that maybe I'm dreaming...
Some flash on a soda of prism
Bright jewels on the ladies flashing
Eyes catch on a shiny prism
Hear ye the crying of the vendors
Fruit for sale wax candles for to burn
Fires flare soon it will be night fall
I think that maybe I'm dreaming...
Renaissance Fair/Byrds
re-think nature before nature decides to re-think you. Respect and conscience toward the world is the only thing that can save us from drowning.
wohooooo my 50mm 1.7 lens has arrived and this is the "first" picture I've taken with it. I'm lovin' it!! :D I have been thinking to shoot this picture for a while now. The concept was in my mind and I wanted to work with a setting that I had to create, that wasn't completely there already. Although to achieve this picture, I had to decorate and shoot 2 days in a row (and get in the bathtub with a wet dress!), It was great fun and a good learning experience. This picture has been ispired by several things: my concern about the way we're dragging the world towards it's destruction
rosie hardy's bathtub picture, Gregory crewdson's stillness photography
picture by Violeta Minnick © all rights reserved.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Knight Concert Hall
1300 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami, Florida
Remarks by the President at a DNC Event
Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami, Florida
7:50 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, Miami! (Applause.) It's good to see you. (Applause.) It is good to be back in Miami. (Applause.) Thank you, thank you, everybody. Thank you. Everybody have a seat. Have a seat.
What do you guys think of our new DNC chair? (Applause.) Debbie Wasserman Schultz. We are so thrilled to have her. You want Debbie on your side. (Applause.) She's a mom, she's got that cute smile and all that, but she is tough. Don't mess with Debbie. (Laughter.) We are so glad of her leadership.
I know that a lot of folks have already been acknowledged. I want to make sure to mention resident commissioner Pedro Pierluisi of Puerto Rico. Where is he? Pedro, are you still here? There he is right there. (Applause.)
Adrienne Arsht, thank you so much for everything that you've done for the civic life in Miami. (Applause.) Our Florida finance chair, Kirk Wager, is here. (Applause.) Founding co-chair of Gen44, Andrew Korge, is here. (Applause.) Alonzo Mourning is in the house. (Applause.) And, look, he's not from Miami, but he's got 11 championships, so I've got to mention Bill Russell is in the house. (Applause.) Bill Russell -- greatest champion of all time in team sports in North America right here. (Applause.)
It is wonderful to be back. Many of you I've known for a very long time, some of you I'm getting a chance to see for the first time. And it got me thinking back to election night two and a half years ago, in Grant Park. It was a beautiful night in Chicago, and everybody was feeling pretty good who had supported me. And it was an incredibly hopeful time. And you will recall -- maybe you won't but I'm going to remind you -- (laughter) -- I said, this is not the end, this is the beginning. This is the beginning.
Because what I said to the American people that night was that for almost a decade too many Americans had felt as if the American Dream was slipping away. We had seen economic growth and corporate profits and a stock market that had gone up, but there were too many folks who were struggling each and every day, working as hard as they could, being responsible for their families, being responsible to their communities, but somehow they just couldn’t keep up. Wages and incomes had flat-lined, even though the cost of everything from health care to college tuitions to gas had all skyrocketed.
Around the world, the impression of America as a preeminent force for good had lost sway. We were in the midst of two wars. We didn’t seem to be able to tackle challenges that had confronted us for decades -- didn’t have an energy plan that was worthy of the greatness of America; didn’t have an immigration system that would allow us to be a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants; had a school system in which we had no longer -- we were no longer at the top and weren’t preparing our young people to meet the challenges and demands of the 21st century global interdependent economy.
And so when I started the race for President, what I said to all of you was, if you’re looking for easy answers, you’re looking in the wrong place. If you’re looking for just a bunch of partisan rhetoric, I’m probably not your guy. But if you want to join me on this journey,, to make sure that America is living up to its ideals, if you wanted to reclaim the that sense that in America anything is possible if we’re willing to work for it, and if you wanted to see if we could get beyond some of the politics of the past and point towards the future, then I wanted you to be a part of this process. And so all that culminated in Grant Park that night.
But then I said, you know what, this just gives us the opportunity to do what’s possible. This is not the end state. I didn't run for President just to be President. (Applause.) I ran for President to do things -- to do big things, to do hard things.
What we didn't know at the time -- I said this is going to be a steep climb to get to where we want to go, to achieve that summit. We didn't know how steep that climb was going to be because what we now know was we were already in the midst of what would turn out to be the worst recession since the Great Depression -- came this close to a financial meltdown that would have spun the global financial system out of control.
We lost 4 million jobs in the six months before I was sworn in, and we’d lose another 4 [million] before any of our economic initiatives had a chance to take effect. And all the challenges that ordinary families, working families, middle-class families had been feeling for years were suddenly compounded. Folks were losing their jobs, losing their homes, didn't know what the future held.
And so we’ve spent the last two and a half years trying to heal this country, trying to mend what was broken. And with the help of people like Debbie and Pedro, we’ve made enormous strides. With the help of you, we have made enormous strides. I mean, think about it. An economy that was contracting is now growing. An economy that was shedding millions of jobs, we’ve seen over 2 million jobs created in the last 15 months, in the private sector. (Applause.) The financial system stabilized. And some of the decisions that we made were not popular. Everybody acts now like, well, yeah, that was easy. (Laughter.) Think about it.
Just think for a moment about the U.S. auto industry. We were on the verge of the liquidation of two of the three big automakers in the United States -- Chrysler and GM. Now, there’s been some revisionist history that’s been offered lately about, well, they might have survived without our help -- except nobody at GM or Chrysler believes that. They were going to break that up and sell off the spare parts. And as a consequence, you would have seen a million people -- suppliers, dealerships -- all gone, in the midst of this incredible hardship that people were already experiencing. (Applause.) And we made tough decisions and we made the right decisions. And now we’ve got the big three automakers -- (applause) -- all profitable, all increasing market share, hiring back workers.
And we didn’t forget the promises that we had made during the campaign. We said we wanted to make sure that once again America would have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. And so in pursuit of that goal, we said let’s stop subsidizing big banks as middlemen on the student loan program. (Applause.) Let’s take back billions of dollars and give it directly to young people so that millions of children -- a million of our kids are going to be able to go to college without $100,000 or $200,000 worth of debt.
We said we’re going to start building a genuine clean energy industry in this country, and made the largest investment in clean energy in our history. And we did that. We said that we’d begin the process of rebuilding our infrastructure in this country, and made the largest investment rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our ports since Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s, putting hundreds of thousands of people to work all across America, doing the work that needs to be done.
We said we had to finally, after generations, deal with the travesty of the richest nation on Earth having people who went bankrupt because they went sick and couldn’t afford to provide health care to their families -- (applause) -- and we passed a historic health care law that is going to make sure that everybody in this country can get health care and is going to help drive prices down on health care in the bargain. (Applause.) We promised we’d do that, and we did it.
Oh, and along the way, we did a few other things, like pass equal pay for equal work legislation. (Applause.) And make sure that never again will you be barred from serving your country in uniform just because of the person that you love. (Applause.) And we appointed two women to the Supreme Court, one of them the first Latina in our history. (Applause.) And we expanded national service so that our young people would know what it means to give back to this country. (Applause.)
And we passed financial regulatory reform so that not only would we not see a reprise of the financial shenanigans that had gone on before, but we’d actually have a consumer bureau that would be able to look after folks when they take out credit cards and they take out mortgages, so that they wouldn’t be cheated. (Applause.)
And on the international front, we said we would end the war in Iraq -- and we have ended combat operations in Iraq and will be bringing our troops home this year. (Applause.) And we said that we would start refocusing our efforts in Afghanistan, and especially go after al Qaeda -- and we went after al Qaeda and we’re going after al Qaeda -- (applause) -- and beginning the transition process so that Afghans can take responsibility for their security.
And in the meantime, we dealt with a few other things -- like pirates. (Laughter.) And pandemic and oil spills. So there were a few other things that kept us occupied.
And I describe all this not for us to be complacent, but for all of us to remember that as hard as these battles have been, as much resistance as we’ve gotten, as much as the political debate has been distorted at times, that our basic premise -- the idea that when we put our minds to it, there’s nothing America can’t do -- that's been proven. (Applause.) That's been borne out. We have the evidence. We’ve brought about amazing change over the last two and a half years.
And we couldn’t have done it without you. We couldn’t -- we could not --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Keep your promise, stop AIDS now!
THE PRESIDENT: That's all right. That's all right. We’re good. We’re good.
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Hold up. Hold up.
So -- now, here’s the thing. The reason we’re here today is because our work is not done. (Applause.) For all the progress we’ve made, our work is not complete. We’re not at the summit. We just -- we’re just partway up the mountain. There’s more to do. There is more to do.
We still don't have the kind of energy policy that America needs -- and all of you experience that at the pump each and every day. Our economy is still vulnerable to the spot oil market and us having to import billions of dollars, when we could be not only producing more energy right here at home, but we could be producing energy that's clean and renewable and what would ensure that we could pass on the kind of planet to the next generation that all of us long for. (Applause.)
We know that we’re not done when it comes to issues like immigration reform. I was down here at Miami Dade -- (applause) -- an amazing institution that embodies what America is all about. Young people who can trace their heritage to 181 different countries were represented. (Applause.) And some of you who may not be familiar with the ceremony, what they do is they bring out the flags of each country where somebody can trace their roots. And everybody cheers. The Cuban flag comes up and everybody goes crazy. (Applause.) The Jamaican flag comes up and everybody is hooting and hollering. (Applause.) See, sort of just like this.
But then there’s one flag that comes up, and that is the American flag, and everybody explodes -- (applause) -- because that’s the essence of who we are. Out of many, one. But we don’t have a system that reflects those values. It is still an issue that’s exploited, that’s used to divide instead of bringing people together. We’ve got more work to do.
We’ve got more work to do when it comes to rebuilding the infrastructure of this country. We’ve got a couple of trillion dollars worth of work that needs to be done. We were at a Jobs Council meeting up in North Carolina and the chairman of Southwest, the CEO of Southwest, he explained how because our air traffic control system is so archaic, we probably waste about 15 percent of fuel because planes are having to go this way and that. The whole system was designed back in the 1930s before you even had things like GPS. But think about -- what’s true for the airlines industry is true for our roads, it’s true for our ports, it’s true for our airports, it’s true for our power system. We’ve got more work to do.
We’ve made incredible progress on education, helping students to finance their college educations, but we still don’t have enough engineers. We still don’t have enough scientists. We still lag behind other countries when it comes to training our young people for the jobs, the high-skilled jobs that are going to provide high wages and allow them to support a family.
But we’ve made incredible progress K through 12 with something we call Race to the Top, which basically says -- (applause) -- to school districts and to states, you reform the system and we will show you the money, and so providing incentives. And 40 states across the country have made critical reforms as a consequence to this program. But we still have schools where half the kids drop out. We still consign too many of our young people to lives of desperation and despair. We’ve got more work to do.
And we’ve got so much work to do on our economy. We’ve got so much more work to do on our economy. Every night I get letters. We get about 40,000 pieces of mail at the White House every day, and I ask my team to select 10 letters for me to read that are representative of what people are feeling out there. And I will tell you these really are representative, because about half of them call me an idiot. (Laughter.) And -- but most of the stories are just some ordinary folks who have done the right thing, have worked hard all their lives. Some of them are small business owners who have poured their savings into a venture, and then when the recession hit they lost everything, and now they’re trying to get back on their feet.
You get letters from moms who are trying to figure out how to pay their bills at the end of the month, and they’re going back to school while they’re working to see if they can retrain for a better job. Sometimes you get folks who have sent out 100 resumes and haven’t gotten a response, and are trying to describe what it’s like to tell your child than nobody wants to hire you. Sometimes you get a letter from a kid who says, my parents are about to lose my home -- Mr. President, is there something you can do to help?
And in all those stories, what you see is incredible resilience and incredible stick-to-itiveness, and a sense on the part of people that no matter how down they are, they’re not out. And they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. All they’re looking for is that somebody cares and that we’re doing everything we can, trying every idea to make sure that this economy is moving. And they don’t understand how it is that good ideas get caught up in partisan politics, and why is it that people seem to be arguing all the time instead of trying to do the people’s business.
So we’ve got more work to do -- investing in our education system and making sure that -- (applause) -- making sure that our infrastructure is built and we’re putting people back to work, and helping the housing market recover, and dealing with our budget in a way that allows us to once again live within our means but doing so in a way that is consistent with our values.
You know, this budget debate that we’re having in Washington right now, it’s not just about numbers. It’s about values. It’s about what we believe and who we are as a people. The easiest thing to do to balance a budget is you just slash and burn and you cut and you don’t worry about the consequences. But that’s not who we are. We’re better than that. (Applause.)
I don’t want to live in a country where we’re no longer helping young people go to college, and so your fate is basically determined by where you were born and your circumstances. If that were the case, I wouldn’t be standing here today. I don't want to live in a country where we no longer believe that we can build the best airports or the best rail systems. I don't want to live in a country where we’re no longer investing in basic research and science so that we’re at the cutting edge of technology. I don't want to live in a country where we are abandoning our commitment to the most vulnerable among us -- the disabled, our seniors -- making sure that they’ve got a basic safety net so that they can live with dignity and respect in their golden years. (Applause.)
And so here’s the -- the good news is that we can bring down our deficit and we can work down our debt, and we can do so the same way families all across America do, by prioritizing and deciding what’s important to us. So we’re going to have to scrub the federal budget and get rid of every program that doesn't work, and get rid of every regulation that is outdated. And we’ve got to make sure that we build on all the tax cuts that we’ve provided to small businesses and to individuals over the last couple years so that they’re getting back on their feet.
But we’ve also got to make sure that whatever sacrifices we make, whatever burdens are borne are spread among all of us; that we’re not just doing it on the backs of the poor; that we’re not just doing it on the backs of our seniors; that we’re not just doing it on the backs of the most vulnerable. (Applause.)
And the other side say, well, you know what, we can just cut and cut and cut and cut -- and by the way, you, Mr. President, since you’ve been so lucky, we’re going to give you a $200,000 tax break. I’d love to have a tax break. I don’t like paying taxes -- I’m the President. (Laughter.) This notion somehow that I enjoy paying taxes or administering taxes, that makes no sense. Nothing is better for a politician than saying, you know what, forget about it, you will have everything you need and everything this country needs and you don’t have to pay for a thing.
But, you know what, I don’t want a $200,000 tax break if it means that 33 seniors are each going to have to pay $6,000 more a year for their Medicare. (Applause.) I don’t want that. I don’t want a tax break if it means hundreds of kids won’t be able to go to Head Start. (Applause.) That’s not a tradeoff I’m willing to make. That’s not a tradeoff most of Americans are willing to make. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we believe in.
And the reason I’m not willing to make a tradeoff, it’s not out of charity. It’s because my life is better when I know, as I’m driving by a school, you know what, those kids in there, they’ve got the best teachers, they’ve got the best equipment -- I know that they’re going to succeed. That makes me feel better about my life and about my country. (Applause.)
And if I’m seeing an elderly couple stroll by holding hands -- and I’m saying to myself, you know, that’s going to be Michelle and me in a few years -- and I know that whatever their circumstances, I know they’ve got Social Security and they’ve got Medicare that they can count on, that makes my life better. That makes my life richer. (Applause.)
So that's what this campaign is going to be about. It’s going to be about values. It’s the same thing that the 2008 campaign was about: What's important to you? Who are we? What is it about America that makes us so proud?
When I think about why our campaign drew so much excitement, it was because it tapped into those essential things that bind us together. I look out at this auditorium, and I see people from every walk of life, every age, every demographic -- but there’s something that binds us together, that says this is what makes our country so special.
And that's what’s at stake. That's the journey that we’re on. And the only way that we stay on track, the only way that we continue that journey is if all of you are involved. Because what also made the campaign special was it wasn’t about me -- it was never about me -- it was about us. It was about you. (Applause.) It was about you being willing to be involved, and you being willing to be engaged. Because that's also what makes America special -- ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Now, two and a half years have passed since that night in Grant Park, and I’ve got a lot more gray hair. (Laughter.) And what seemed so fresh and new, now -- we’ve seen Obama so many times on TV, and we know all his quirks and all his tics and he’s been poked apart. And there’s some of you who probably have felt at times during the last two and a half years, gosh, why isn’t this happening faster? Why isn’t this easier? Why are we struggling? And why didn’t health care get done quicker? And why didn’t we get the public option? (Laughter and applause.) And what -- I know the conversation you guys are having. (Laughter.) "I’m not feeling as hopeful as I was." And I understand that. There have been frustrations, and I’ve got some dings to show for it over the last two and half years.
But I never said this was going to be easy. This is a democracy. It’s a big country and a diverse country. And our political process is messy. Yes, you don’t always get 100 percent of what you want, and you make compromises. That’s how the system was designed. But what I hope all of you still feel is that for all the frustrations, for all the setbacks, for all the occasional stumbles, that what motivates us, what we most deeply cherish, that that’s still within reach. That it’s still possible to bring about extraordinary change. That it’s still possible to make sure that the America we pass down to our kids and our grandkids is a better America than the one we inherited. (Applause.) I’m confident about that. I believe in that, because I believe in you.
And so I’m glad you guys came to the rally. But just like in 2008, if we want to bring about the change we believe in, we’re going to have to get to work. You’re going to have to make phone calls. (Applause.) You’re going to have to knock on doors. You’re going to have to talk to all your friends and all your neighbors, and you’re going to have to talk to the naysayers. And you’re going to have to go out there and say: We’ve got more work to do. And if they tell you, I don’t know, I’m not sure, I’m not convinced -- you just remind them of those three words that captured this campaign, captured the last campaign and will capture the 2012 campaign: Yes, we can.
Thank you, Miami. God bless you. (Applause.) God bless the United States of America.
END
8:20 P.M. EDT
This is my husband's uncle, still MIA from Vietnam. This is who I think about every Memorial Day.
Name:David Stanley Demmon
Rank/Branch:Sergeant/US Army
Unit:73rd Aviation Company,
765th Transportation Battalion
Date of Birth:30 November 1940
Home of Record:Venice, CA
Date of Loss:09 June 1965
Country of Loss:South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates:093514N 1062201E (XR035296)
Click coordinates to view maps
Status in 1973:Missing in Action
Category:1
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground:OV1C "Mohawk"
Other Personnel In Incident:Charles A. Dale (missing)
REMARKS: OV-1 DISAPPEARED OVER VINH BIHN
SYNOPSIS: The Grumman OV1C Mohawk arrived in Vietnam in 1962 with various models serving continuously throughout the war. It became an increasingly familiar sight from one end of Vietnam to the other. This twin engine aircraft was handy when only short, rough runways were available and ground units needed almost instantaneous photo coverage. Gradually increasingly effective sensors and radars were produced including side-looking aerial radar (SLAR). Further, surveillance techniques using infrared detection equipment and a forward-aimed camera proved especially useful since the Viet Cong relied heavily on darkness to conceal their activities. The Mohawk also had the ability to carry both offensive armament and defensive weapons. This made the sturdy OV1C not only an excellent FAC and intelligence gathering aircraft, but one which could give close air support to ground troops in need of assistance.
At 0317 hours on 9 June 1965, 1st Lt. Charles A. Dale, pilot; and then SP4 David S. Demmon, electronic sensor operator, departed Vung Tau Airfield in an OV1C (serial #61-2687) on a reconnaissance mission. During the first communications check, Charles Dale reported having difficulty with his communications system. Radio contact was lost, then regained with Saigon radar control at 0449 hours. Standard operating procedure for the Mohawk was to periodically fly over a known location to update the onboard navigation computer. One such update took place 87 minutes after takeoff and placed them over Vung Tau, which was located on the coast of South Vietnam approximately 35 miles southeast of Saigon. Charles Dale notified the communications center they were heading to a second mission area in Vinh Binh Province. This was the last radio communication Saigon's control center had with 1st Lt. Dale or SP4 Demmon.
Somewhere over the U Minh forest, the aircraft disappeared and was not heard from again. At 0717 hours, the aircraft was declared overdue at the estimated time their fuel would have been exhausted. Immediately extensive aerial search and rescue (SAR) operations were initiated and centered over an area covered by triple canopy jungle and extensive rivers, canals and waterways approximately 50 miles south-southwest of Saigon and 10 to 15 miles due east of Vin Loi, Vinh Binh Province, South Vietnam. SAR efforts failed to find any sign of the Mohawk or its crew. At the time formal search efforts were terminated, Charles Dale and David Demmon were listed Missing in Action.
Almost immediately after the loss, intelligence reports of sightings of unnamed caucasians who had been captured by the VC and were being held in a prison camp in the general area of the Mohawk's loss were received by the US military. These reports were correlated to 1st Lt. Dale and SP4 Demmon and copies of the reports were placed in both men's casualty files.
Some of these communist prison camps were actually way stations the VC used for a variety of reasons. Others were regular POW camps. Regardless of size and primary function, conditions in the VC run camps frequently included the prisoners' being tied at night to their bamboo bunks anchored by rope to a post in their small bamboo shelters. In others they were held in bamboo cages, commonly referred to as tiger cages, and in yet other camps the dense jungle itself provided the bars to their cage. There was rarely enough food and water to sustain them, and as a result, the Americans suffered from a wide variety of illnesses in addition to their injuries and wounds.
Several intelligence reports relating to 1st Lt. Dale and SP4 Demmon continued to surface well into 1970. These reports documented that at times both men were being held together, and at other times were being held separately. Based on these multiple independent reports, there is no doubt that both men were seen alive by several Controlled American Sources (CAS), and they were in the hands of the Viet Cong. Also in 1970, a visitor to a Cambodian prison camp claimed to have seen an American named Demmon and that person was able to identify David's photograph. During this same time frame, a defector provided the phonetic name "Phyan De Mann", which translates to "Family name of De Manh".
In December 1970, a prisoner identified SP4 Demmon's photograph as the picture of an individual imprisoned in a POW camp in Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia. This led to David Demmon's status being immediately upgraded from Missing in Action to Prisoner of War. Another report was received in March 1971 stating that SP4 Demmon was alive in a prison at Kratie, Cambodia in January 1970. This source was given a polygraph that confirmed the information being provided was truthful.
In 1987, evidence of a large number of Americans being held in China began to surface in the private sector. It was reported that these Americans were the "property" of a number of pro-China Vietnamese officials who had fled Vietnam in the wake of a stronger national alliance with the Soviet Union. These reports bore a striking resemblance to a number of intelligence reports documenting Charles Alva Dale serving as a houseboy for a Chinese General in southern China that were received by the US government beginning as early as the late-1970's.
In April 1991 the US government released a list of Prisoners of War and Missing in Action who were known to be alive in enemy hands and for whom there is no evidence that he or she died in captivity. This list, commonly referred to today as the USG's "Last Known Alive" list, included both Charles Dale and David Demmon.
In March 1992, a US team from the Joint Task Force for Full Accounting (JTFFA) traveled to Vinh Binh Province to investigate this loss incident. Team members interviewed residents living in the reported area of loss who provided information about the downing of an American aircraft that the team correlated to the OV1C flown by Charles Dale and David Demmon. Local villagers stated that the aircraft crashed, and the bodies of the aircraft's two occupants washed up on the shore where they were buried by other local residents. The team members were taken to an area where the Americans had been buried, but all efforts to locate the reported gravesites were unsuccessful.
Based on the numerous live sighting reports of SP4 Demmon and 1st Lt. Dale in captivity and being moved through several POW camps, there is no doubt they were captured and in under the control of the VC. If either soldier died under the direct control of the VC, there is also no question the Vietnamese could be return his remains to his family, friends and country any time they had the desire to do so. However, if David Demmon and Charles Dale continued to survive, as indicated by the continuing intelligence reports collected by our government, their fate like that of other Americans who remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, could be quite different.
You don't really think anyone is going to open a church in this weather? Said Jools. And at about the same time, a warden's wife was saying, you're not going to go and open the church are you? No one will visit a church on a day like this.
So, the madness of man wins out, as I did visit and found that the warden had just opened the church.
Sadly, Great Mongehmam wasn't open later, but looked interesting enough to demand a return visit ASAP.
As I now know, any settlement ending with "bourne" should have a stream source or running through it. And that is the case here, a winterbourne, though not as frequently running as the Nailbourne rises here and flows to Sandwich.
Northbourne lies to the west of Deal, in a patchwork of fields and woods that is most pleasant. It used to be near to Tilmanstone Colliery and the Davy Lamp hanging in the chanel remembers this.
I walk into the porch and there is the warden helpfully hanging the "church open" sign on the door. Come to visit the church he asked. Yes, is there one nearby, I quipped.
He showed me some interesting details, shred a bit of histor, then began his long walk back to Finglesham.
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One of the few cruciform churches to have been built in Kent in the twelfth century, on the site of, and incorporating fragments of, a Saxon building. Curtains help shut off parts of the church during the winter months. There is a good mass dial by the main door. The Lady Chapel contains the monument to Sir Edwin Sandys and his wife (d. 1629). It is one of the best of its date in Kent and shows the pair in recumbent position hand in hand. Surprisingly the wordy inscription was not added until 1830! The chancel was refitted in the mid-nineteenth century but the east window shows good quality medieval stonework of thirteenth-century date.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Northbourne
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NORTHBORNE,
USUALLY called Norborne, as it is written in the survey of Domesday, lies the next parish westward from Little Mongeham, being so called from the north borne, or stream, which runs from hence into the river at Sandwich. There are four boroughs in it, Norborne, Finglesham, Asheley, and Tickness, or Tickenhurst, for each of which a borsholder is chosen at the manor court of Norborne.
THIS PARISH lies for the most part exceedingly dry and healthy, in a fine uphill, open and pleasant country, though it extends northward towards Howbridge and Foulmead, into a low country of wet ground and marsh lands. It is a large parish, for although it is very long and narrow, extending only a mile and an half from east to west, yet it is full five miles from north to south, till it joins Waldershare and Whitfield. The part of this parish containing the borough, hamlet, and manor of Tickenhurst, is separated from the rest of it by the parishes of Eastry, Ham, and Betshanger, intervening; and there is a small part of the parish of Goodneston within this of Norborne, and entirely surrounded by it. The soil of this parish being so very extensive, must necessarily vary much. It is, however, much inclined to chalk, and is throughout it very hilly; though much of it is very light earth, yet there is a great deal of rich fertile land in the lower part of it northward. There is much uninclosed land and open downs interspersed throughout it. The street of Norborne, having the church and vicarage-house within it, and containing twentysix houses, is situated at the north-east boundary of the parish. Near it is Norborne-court, the almonry or parsonage, and a house and estate, called the Vine farm, now in the possession of the hon. lady Frances Benson.
Besides this, there are several other streets, hamlets, and eminent farms, within the bounds of this parish, of which, those most worthy of notice, the reader will find described hereafter.
THE MANOR OF NORBORNE, which is of very large extent, was given in the year 618, by Eadbald, king of Kent, by the description of a certain part of his kingdom, containing thirty plough lands, called Northborne, to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, in which monastery his father lay, and where he had ordered himself to be buried. In this state it con tinued at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, in which it is entered under the general title of the land of the church of St. Augustine, as follows:
In the lath of Estrea. In Cornelest hundred.
The abbot himself holds Norborne. It was taxed at thirty sulings. The arable land is fifty-four carucates. In demesne there are three, and seventy-nine villeins, with forty-two borderers, having thirty-seven carucates. There are forty acres of meadow, and wood for the pannage of ten hogs.
In the time of king Edward the Consessor, it was worth four times twenty pounds; when he received it twenty pounds; now seventy-six pounds.
Of the lands of the villeins of this manor, Oidelard holds one suling, and there he has two carucates, with eleven borderers..... It is worth four pounds. .... Of the same land of the villeins, Gislebert holds two sulings, all but half a yoke, and there he has one carucate, and four villeins, with one carucate. It is worth six pounds.
Wadard holds of this manor three sulings, all but sixty acres of the land of the villeins, and there he has one carucate, and eight villeins, with one carucate and two servants. It is worth nine pounds; but he pays no service to the abbot, except thirty shillings, which he pays in the year.
Odelin holds of the same land of the villeins one suling, and there he has one carucate, with three borderers..... It is worth three pounds.
Marcherius holds of the same land of the villeins what is worth eight shillings.
Osbern the son of Letard holds half a suling, and eleven acres of meadow, of the land of the villeins, which is worth twenty-five shillings. He pays to the abbot fifteen shillings.
Rannulf de Colubers holds one yoke .......worth fifty pence.
Rannulf de Ualbadon holds one yoke, and pays from thence fifty pence.
The above-mentioned Oidelard holds also of this manor one suling, and it is called Bevesfel, and there he has two carucates, with ten borderers. It is worth six pounds.
In the reign of king Edward II. the 7th of it, anno 1313, the abbot claimed upon a quo warranto, in the iter of H. de Stanton and his sociates, justices itinerant, and was allowed sundry liberties therein mentioned in this manor, among others, and the view of frank-pledge, and likewise wrec of the sea in this manor in particular, in like manner as has been mentioned before in the description of the several manors belonging to the monastery, in the former parts of this History. (fn. 1) And the liberty of the view of frankpledge was in particular further confirmed by that king, in his 10th year.
King Edward III. in his 5th year, anno 1330, exempted the men and tenants of this manor from their attendance at the turne of the sheriff, before made by the borsholder, with four men of each borough within it; and directed his writ to Roger de Reynham, then sheriff, commanding that in future they should be allowed to perform the same with one man only.
In the 8th year of king Richard II. the measurement of the abbot and convent's lands at Nordburne, with 208 acres of wood, was 2179 acres and an half and one rood.
Salamon de Ripple, a monk of this monastery, being, about the 10th year of king Edward III. appointed by the abbot keeper of this manor, among others, made great improvements in many of them, and in particular he new built the barns here, and a very fair chapel, from the foundations. But after wards, in the year 1371, their great storehouses here, full of corn, were, by the negligence of a workman, entirely burnt down; the damage of which was estimated at one thousand pounds.
After which, I find nothing further in particular relating to this manor, which continued part of the possessions of the monastery, till its final dissolution, in the 30th year of king Hen. VIII. when it was surrendered into the king's hands, with whom this manor continued but a small time; for the king, in his 31st year, granted it, with the parsonage or rectory, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange, and it remained parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till archbishop Parker, in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, reconveyed it to the crown, in exchange. After which, the manor itself, with its courts, franchises, and liberties, continued in the crown, till king Charles I. in his 5th year, granted it in fee to William White and others, to hold, as of his manor of East Greenwich, by sealty only, in free and common socage, and not in capite, or by knight's service; (fn. 2) and they that year sold it to Stephen Alcocke, gent. of London, who next year passed it away by sale, with some exceptions, to Edward Boys, gent. of Betshanger, to hold of the king in like manner, as above-mentioned. His descendant, Edward Grotius Boys, dying s. p. in 1706, gave it by will to his kinsman, Thomas Brett, LL. D. of Spring grove, and he, in 1713, alienated it to Salmon Morrice, esq. afterwards an admiral of the British navy, and of Betshanger, whose grandson William Morrice, esq. died possessed of it in 1787, unmarried; upon which it came to his only brother, James Morrice, clerk, who is the present owner of this manor.
The fee-farm rent reserved when this manor was granted away by the crown, came into the hands of the earl of Ilchester, who in 1788 sold it to the Rev. Mr. Morrice, the present owner of this manor; so there is now no fee-farm rent paid for it.
A court leet and court baron is yearly held for it; at the former of which, two constables, one for the upper half hundred, and the other for the lower half hundred of Cornilo, are chosen. The present manorhouse is a small cottage in Norborne-street, built upon the waste for that purpose.
NORTHBORNE-COURT, usually called Norborne abbey, from its having belonged to the abbey of St. Augustine, was the antient court-lodge of the manor, before they were separated by different grants from the crown. It is said to have been in the time of the Saxons the palace of king Eadbald, who gave it as above-mentioned, with the manor, to the above monastery. Accordingly, Leland, in his Itinerary, says, (fn. 3) "A ii myles or more fro Sandwich from Northburn cummeth a fresch water yn to Sandwich haven. At Northburn was the palayce or maner of Edbalde Ethelberts sunne. There but a few years syns (viz. in king Henry VIII.'s reign) yn breking a side of the walle yn the hawle were found ii childrens bones that had been mured up as yn burielle yn time of Paganits of the Saxons. Among one of the childrens bones was found a styffe pynne of Latin." This court-lodge, with the demesne lands of the manor, remained but a very short time in the hands of the crown, after the reconveyance of it by the archbishop, in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, as has been mentioned above; for it was almost immediately afterwards granted by the queen, for life, to Edward Sanders, gent. her foster brother. He afterwards resided at Norborne court, having married Anne, daughter and coheir of Francis, son of Milo Pendrath of Norborne, by Elizabeth, one of the heirs of Thomas Lewin, and nurse to queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth. His ancestors had resided for some generations at Chilton, in Ash, but were originally descended from Minister, in Thanet. They bore for their arms, Or, on a chevron, gules, three mullets, argent, between three elephants heads, erased, of the second. (fn. 4) On his death, about the middle of that reign, the possession of it reverted to the crown, where it remained, till king James I. soon after his accession, granted it in see to Sir Edwin Sandys, on whom he conferred the honour of knighthood, and had given this estate, for his firm attachment to him at that time. He rebuilt this mansion, and kept his shrievalty at it, in the 14th year of king James I. and dying in the year 1629, was buried in the vault which he had made in this church for himself and his posterity, and in which most of his direct descendants were afterwards deposited. He was second son of Edwin Sandys, archbishop of York, by his second wife. The archbishop's eldest son was Samuel, who was of Worcestershire, from whom descended the lords Sandys, late of Ombersley, in that county. Two of his younger sons were, Miles Sandys, of Worcestershire, and George, the noted traveller. They bore for their arms, Or, a fess dancette, between three cross croslets, fitchee, gules.o
Sir Edwin Sandys, though he had four wives, left male issue only by his last wife. From Edwin, their second son, descended the Sandys's, of Norbornecourt; and from Richard, the third son, those of Canterbury, still remaining there. On Sir Edwin Sandys's death, in 1629, his eldest son, Henry Sandys, esq. succeeded to this estate; and on his death, s. p. his next brother, Col. Edwin Sandys, the noted rebel colonel under Oliver Cromwell, well known for his sacrilegious depredations and insolent cruelties to the royalists, who died at Norborne-court of the wound he had received in 1642, at the battle of Worcester, His grandson Sir Richard Sandys, of Norborne-court, was created a baronet in 1684, and died in 1726. By his first wife he left only four daughters his coheirs, viz. Priscilla, the eldest, married to Henry Sandys, esq. (grandson of Henry Sandys, esq. of Downe, the son of Col. Richard Sandys, the younger brother of Col. Edwin Sandys, the great grandfather of Priscilla, above-mentioned). Mary, the second daughter and coheir, married William Roberts, esq. of Harbledowne; Elizabeth, the third daughter, died unmarried soon after her father's death; and Anne, the fourth and youngest daughter, married Charles Pyott, esq. of Canterbury, and they respectively, in right of their wives, became possessed of this, among the rest of his estates, in undivided shares, by the entail made in Sir Richard Sandys's will.
The third part of Henry Sandys, in right of his wife Priscilla, descended to his son Richard Sandys, esq. of Canterbury, whose surviving sons, and daughter Susan married to Henry Godfrey Faussett, esq. of Heppington, at length succeeded to it.
The third part of William Roberts, in right of his wife Mary, descended at length to his grand-daughter Mary, only daughter of Edward Wollet, esq. who carried it in marriage to Sir Robert Mead Wilmot, bart. and on his decease came to his eldest son Sir Robert Wilmot, bart.
The remaining third part of Charles Pyott, esq. in right of his wife Anne, descended to his only daughter Anne, married to Robert Thomas Pyott, esq. of Hull, but afterwards of Canterbury.
In 1795, all the parties interested in this estate joined in conveying their respective shares to the several purchasers undermentioned: to James Tillard, esq. of Street-End Place, near Canterbury, Northborne-court lodge, farm, and lands; to Robert-Thomas Pyott, esq. Stoneheap-farm; to Wm. Wyborn, the scite of the late mansion house, gardens, and LongLane farm; to Mr. John Parker, Cold-Harbour farm; and to several other persons, the remaining small detached parts of this estate. The whole purchase-monies amounting nearly to 30,000l. The whole estate contained near 1100 acres, all tithe-free, except about forty acres.
The mansion of Norborne-court, the residence of the Sandys's, appears to have been a large and stately building. It was pulled down in 1750, and the materials sold; and the walls are all that now remain of it, forming a very considerable ruin. Near the house was a handsome chapel, formerly used by the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, when they visited this mansion, and afterwards by the Sandys family. It is at this time nearly entire, excepting the roof, which has been long since taken off.
LITTLE BETSHANGER is an estate in the western part of this parish, which was antiently accounted a manor, and had once owners of the same name; one of whom, Ralph de Betshanger, was possessed of it in king Edward II.'s reign, as was his descendant Thomas de Bethanger, in the 20th year of the next reign of king Edward III. Soon after which, Roger de Cliderow, says Philipott, was proprietor of it, as appears by the seals of old evidences, which commenced from that reign, the shields on which are upon a chevron, between three eagles, five annulets. Notwithstanding which, it appears by the gravestone over his successor, Richard Clitherow, esq. in Ash church, that the arms of these Clitherows were, Three cups covered, within a bordure, ingrailed, or; at least that he bore different arms from those of his predecessor. At length, Roger Clitherow died without male issue, leaving three daughters his coheirs; of whom Joane, the second, married John Stoughton, of Dartford, second son of Sir John Stoughton, lord-mayor of London. After which, this estate was alienated from this family of Stoughton to Gibbs, from which name it passed into that of Omer; in which it staid, till Laurence Omer, gent. of Ash, leaving an only daughter and heir Jane, she carried it in marriage to T. Stoughton, gent of Ash, afterwards of St. Martin's, Canterbury, son of Edward Stoughton, of Ash, the grandson of John Stoughton, of Dartford, the former possessor of this estate. He died in 1591, leaving three daughters his coheirs; of whom, Elizabeth was married to Thomas Wild, esq. of St. Martin's, Canterbury; Ellen to Edward Nethersole, gent. and Mary to Henry Paramore, gent. of St. Nicholas, and they by a joint conveyance passed it away to Mr. John Gookin, who about the first year of king James, alienated it to Sir Henry Lodelow, and he again, in the next year of king Charles I. sold it to Edward Boys, esq. of Great Betshanger, whole descendant Edward Grotius Boys, dying s. p. in 1706, gave it by will to his kinsman Thomas Brett, LL. D. who not long afterwards alienated it to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, and his son, Sir Robert Furnese, bart. of the same place, died possessed of it in 1733. His three daughters and coheirs afterwards succeeded to his estates, on the partition of which this estate was wholly allotted, among others, to Anne, the eldest sister, wife of John, viscount St. John, which was confirmed by an act passed next year. After which it descended down to their grandson George, viscount Bolingbroke, who sold it in 1791 to Mr. Thomas Clark, the present owner of it. The house is large, and has been the residence of gentlemen; a family of the name of Boys has inhabited it for many years, Mr. John Boys now resides in it, a gentleman, whose scientific knowledge in husbandry is well known, especially by the publication of the Agricultural Society of the state of it, and its improvements in this county, for which they are, I believe, wholly indebted to him.
THE TITHES of this estate of Little Betshanger, as well great as small, belonged, with those of Finglisham in this parish, to the abbot and convent of St. Augusting, and were assigned in the year 1128 to the cloathing of the monks there; and after the dissolution of the monastery were granted together to the archbishop of Canterbury, part of whose revenues they remain at this time. (fn. 5)
Mr. Boteler, of Eastry, found near Little Betshanger, the plant astragalus glyeyphyllos, wild liquorice, or liquorice vetch, which is very scarce, and has never been observed by him any where else.
THE MANOR OF TICKENHURST, now called Tickness; in Domesday, Ticheteste, and in other antient records, Tygenhurst, is situated in the borough and hamlet of its own name. It lies most part of it in this parish, but at some distance westward from the rest of it, several parishes intervening, and partly in that of Knolton. In the time of the Conqueror, Odo, the great bishop of Baieux and earl of Kent, was owner of it, and continued so at the taking of the survey of Domesday, in which this manor is thus entered in it, under the general title of the bishop's lands:
Turstin holds of the bishop Ticheteste. It was taxed at one suling and an half. The arable land is ..... In demesne there is one carucate, with four borderers, and a small wood. In the time of king Edward the Consessor it was worth four pounds, and afterwards forty shillings, now one hundred shillings. Edric de Alham held it of king Edward.
Four years after the taking of the above survey, the bishop was disgraced, and all his possessions were confiscated to the crown. After which, this manor came into the possession of a family, which took their surname from it, some of whom were witnesses to deeds of a very antient date; but they became ex tinct before the reign of king Henry VI. and it was afterwards the property of the Stoddards, ancestors of those of this name, of Mottingham, in this county, in which this manor remained for some generations, till about the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign it was alienated to Peyton, of Knolton; since which it has continued in the possession of the owners of that manor and seat, down to Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart. now of Knolton, the present owner of it.
In the year 1074, the bishop of Baieux gave to St. Augustine's monastery, those tithes which his tenants had; i. e. the chamberlain Adelold, in the villes of Cnolton, Tickenhurst, and Ringelton, and likewise of Bedleshangre, and of Osbern Paisforer, in the small ville of Bocland, all which the king confirmed by his charter. But the tithes of Cnolton and Ringelton, William de Albiney, in process of time, being lord of the fee of those lands, took away from the monastery through his power; and the tithe of Boclonde, Roger de Malmains took away from it.
Within this borough and hamlet of Tickenhurst are two farms, called Great and Little Tickenhurst, belonging to Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart, both which pay tithes to the almonry or parsonage of Norborne, formerly belonging to St. Augustine's monastery.
NEAR THE north west boundary of the parish is the HAMLET OF WEST-STREET, containing five houses. In it is an estate, called WEST-STREET, alias PARK GATE, the first mention that I find of which is in the will of Roger Litchfield, anno 1513, who mentions his farm of West-street. This, with another farm called Parkgate, (the buildings of which are now pulled down) stood in Ham parish. Sir Cloudesley Shovel was in later times possessed of this estate, and after his unfortunate decease, his two daughters and coheirs. On the division of their estate, Anne the youngest daughter, entitled her husband John Black wood to the possession of it. He died in 1777, and was succeeded in it by his two sons and coheirs in gavelkind, Shovel Blackwood, esq. and Col. John Blackwood, of Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, who made a division of their inheritance; in which partition this estate of West-street, alias Parkgate, was, among others, allotted to the latter, who next year procured an act for the sale of it. After his death this estate came to his widow, who sold it in 1790 to Mr. William Nethersole, the present owner of it.
ABOUT HALF A MILE from West-street is THE HAMLET OF FINGLESHAM, containing thirty houses. It is written in the survey of Domesday, Flenguessam, in which it is thus entered, under the title of lands held of the archbishop by knight's service:
In Estrei hundred. William Folet holds of the archbishop, Flenguessam. It was taxed at half a suling. There he has six villeins, with one carucate and an half.
After this, I find no further mention of this place for some time; but in the reign of king Edward I. in the year 1288, the king granted licence to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, to appropriate to their use a messuage, and certain rents and lands in different parishes, and among others, in the tenancy of Norborne, at Fenlesham.
In later times I find that William Poyshe, of Norborne, by will in 1524, gave his place at Fynglisham, to John his son, and that Thomas Parker, late one of the jurats of Sandwich, by will in 1596, gave to Nicholas Parker, his brother's son, his house and lands in Fynglisham, called Fynglisham farm, situated in this street. His descendant, Valentine Parker, gent. resided here in 1669, and by will gave this estate to his godson, Mr. Valentine Hild, or Hoile, from whom it has descended to his great-grandson Mr. Thomas Hoile, the present owner of it.
ROBERT, abbot of St. Augustine's monastery, in king Henry III.'s reign, anno 1240, confirmed an exchange, made by his convent, of all THE TITHES of Finglesham and Little Betshangre, as well great as small, to the eleemosinary of his monastery, which tithes had before belonged to the chamberlain of it. (fn. 6) These tithes of Finglisham now belong to the archbishop, and are, with those of Little Betshanger in this parish, demised by him on a beneficial lease.
Through Finglesham, and over Howe bridge, the high road leads to Deal. From hence, the water, called the Gestling, or north stream, takes its course towards the river Stour, below Sandwich.
AT A SMALL DISTANCE southward from Finglesham, is the little HAMLET OF MARLEY, which consists of only four houses, one of which is that of GROVE, alias MARLEY FARM, the former of which is its proper name, though it is now usually called by the latter. It formerly belonged to the family of Brett. Percival Brett, of Wye, possessed it in 1630, whose descendant, Richard Brett, gent. left an only daughter Catherine, who married John Cook, formerly of Mersham, but afterwards of Canterbury, clerk. They left two daughters, Catherine, wife of Thomas Shindler, alderman of Canterbury, and Mary, and they joined in the conveyance of this estate, in 1727, to John Paramor, gent. of Statenborough; after which, it descended in like manner as Statenborough, to his niece, Mrs. Jane Hawker, afterwards the wife of John Dilnot, esq. who on her death became possessed of the see of it, which he sold in 1792, together with a farm in Finglisham, to William Boteler, esq. of Eastry, who resided here, and two years afterwards alienated them both to Mr. James Jeken, of Oxney, the present owner of them.
ABOUT A MILE south-westward, at the western boundary of this parish, is THE MANOR OF WESTCOURT, alias BURNT-HOUSE, stiled in the antient book of the Fædary of Kent, the manor of Westcourt, alias East Betshanger, and said in it to have been held of the late monastery of St. Augustine by knight's service, being then the property of Roger Litchfield, who died possessed of it in 1513, and in his will calls it a manor, since which it has always had the same owners as Great Betshanger, and is now possessed accordingly by the Rev. James Morrice.
Upon the north-north east point of the open downs adjoining to Little Betshanger are the remains of a camp, formed for the forces which lay here, under the command of Capt. Peke, to oppose the landing of the Spaniards, at the time of the armada, in 1588. About a mile further southward from hence, over an open uninclosed country, is Stoneheap, a good farm, which has long had the same owners as Norbornecourt, and is now by a late purchase, wholly vested in Robert-Thomas Pyott, esq. as has been already mentioned before. This estate is tithe-free, being most probably part of the demesnes of Norborne manor. It takes tithes of corn and grain, of eighteen acres of land in Little Mongeham, belonging to Mr. John Boys, and twenty-two acres in Norborne, late belonging to Sir Edward Dering, bart. separate from it, but by what means I know not.
AT A LIKE DISTANCE, still further southward, is WEST STUDDAL, formerly written Stodwald, an estate which some time since belonged to a branch of the numerous family of Harvey, originally of Tilmanstone, under which a further account of them may be seen. In the descendants of this family it continued down to Richard Harvey, who was afterwards of Dane-court; not long after which, this estate came into the possession of James Six, of whom it was purchased by Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, about the year 1707. After which it passed, in the allotment of the Furnese estates, to Sir Edward Dering, bart. who not long since conveyed it to Solley, of Sandwich, and he sold it to Mr. Thomas Packe, of Deal, whose daughter carried it in marriage to James Methurst Pointer, esq. who lately sold it to Mr. Laurence Dilnot, the present owner of it.
FROM HENCE over Maimage, but more properly Malmains down, is THE HAMLET OF ASHLEY, containing fifteen houses. In it is Ashley farm, belonging to Mrs. Elizabeth Herring. The rectory or parsonage of Ashley, called in antient records, Essela, was part of the possessions of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, with whom it continued till the dissolution of that abbey, anno 30 Henry VIII. After which it was granted to the archbishop, of whom it is now held on a beneficial lease; the interest in which belongs to Isaac Bargrave, esq. of Eastry, in right of his late wife Sarah, sister and coheir of Robert Lynch, M. D. of Canterbury, and to Mrs. Elizabeth Herring above-mentioned, the other sister and coheir. This lease consists of the glebe of land, with the tithes of the hamlet of Ashley, West Studdal, Minacre, Napchester, and of others in Little Mungeham.
SOUTHWARD from the above, is THE HAMLET OF MINACRE, sometimes spelt Minaker, one moiety, or half of which, was formerly the property of Silkwood, and was purchased of one of them by Sir Robert Furnese, bart. of Waldershare. Since which it has passed in like manner as the rest of the Furnese estates in this county, which came to the late earl of Guildford, by his marriage with the countess of Rockingham, one of Sir Robert Furnese's daughters and coheirs, and his grandson the present right hon. George Augustus, earl of Guildford, is now owner of it.
The other moiety, or half of this hamlet, belongs to Mr. Leonard Woodward, of Ashley.
Still further southward, at the utmost limits of this parish, is another hamlet of five houses, called NAPCHESTER, which adjoins to the parishes of Walder share and Whitfield, the principal farm of which belongs to the earl of Guildford. There are no fairs kept in this parish.
Charities.
SIR RICHARD SANDYS, bart. of this parish, by will in 1726, gave to the churchwardens and overseers 5l. to be laid out in buying coals at the cheapest time of the year, and to be by them sold out to the poor at the same price that they cost, and the monies arising from such sale to be a fund, to be yearly employed for the same purpose.
The poor constantly relieved are about twenty-five, casually thirty.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sandwich.
The church, which is exempted from the archdeacon, is dedicated to St. Augustine. It is a large goodly building, consisting of a nave, chancel, and transept, having a large square tower in the middle, which has probably been much higher. There are five bells in it. The church is built of flint, with quoins, door, and window cases of ashler squared stone; some arches of the windows are pointed, some circular, and some with zig-zag ornaments. The western arch of the tower is pointed with triple dancette ornaments; the others circular. The chancel is repaired by the archbishop's lessee of the almonry. In the south transept, which is repaired by the Sandys's family, is a large vault, in which are deposited their remains. Over it is a most costly and sumptuous monument, having at the back a plain blank tablet; on the tomb the recumbent essigies of a knight in armour and his lady in a loose mantle. Above the pediment, and in other places, several shields of arms, with the coat of Sandys, with quarterings and impalements. This tomb is for Sir Edwin Sandys, second son of Edwin, archbishop of York. He had a grant of Norborne court from king James I. and died in 1639. (His marriages and issue have been already mentioned before). This monument was erected by him in his life time; but he who erected this sumptuous monument, and added the provisional blank tablet and escutcheons on it, with a thought of securing to himself and his posterity a king of immortality, left not one behind him, of all his numerous children, who had the least veneration for him, or respect for his memory; both the tablet and escutcheons remaining a blank at this time. In the nave is a memorial for Richard Harvie of Eastry, obt. 1675. In the church-yard are three altar-tombs, one for George Shocklidge, A. M. vicar forty-nine years, ob. 1772; arms, Three fishes, their heads conjoined in fess, their tails extended into the corners of the escutcheon; and the other two for the family of Gibbon.
The church of Norborne, with its chapels of Cotmanton and Sholdon, was antiently appendant to the manor, and was in early times appropriated to the abbey of St. Augustine; and in 1128, anno 29 king Henry I. was assigned by Hugh, the abbot of it, to the use of the eleemosinary or almonry belonging to it, which almonry was an hospital, built just without the gate of the monastery, for the reception of strangers and the poor resorting to it from all parts, and the relief of the weak and infirm.
After this, there were continual disputes between the abbots of this monastery and the several archbishops, concerning their respective privileges and jurisdictions relating to the churches belonging to it, among others, to this of Norborne, which at last ended in the allowance of the abbot's exemption from all such jurisdiction; archbishop Arundel in 1397 pronouncing a definitive sentence in the abbot's favour; all which may be found inserted at large in Thorne's Chronicle. (fn. 7)
In the year 1295, the abbot made an institution of several new deanries, for the purpose of apportioning the churches belonging to his monastery to each of them, as exempt from the jurisdiction of the archbishop; in which institution this church was included in the new deanry of Sturry. This caused great contentions between the abbots and the several archbishops, which at last ended in the total abolition of this new institution.
In which state this appropriation, with the advowson of the vicarage, remained, till the final dissolution of the abbey in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, whence the parsonage appropriate, otherwise called the Almonry farm, was granted the next year in exchange to the archbishop, and it remains parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury at this time.
But the advowson of the vicarage of this church, being excepted out of the above grant, remained in the crown, till king Edward VI. in his 1st year granted it, being an advowson in gross, to the archbishop, in whose successors it has continued to this time, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.
¶Though the church of Norborne was so early appropriated to the use of the almonry, as has been mentioned before, and a vicarage instituted in it, yet there was no endowment of it till the 1st year of the reign of king Edward I. when the abbot and convent, under their chapter seal, granted an endowment of it, which was approved of by the archbishop's commissary. He decreed and ordained, that the vicar should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden, and two acres of land contiguous to it, together with eleven acres of land lying at Donneslonde, and the way usual to the same; all which the vicars had heretofore enjoyed. And that they should have yearly two cows feeding, and the right of feeding them, from the feast, of St. Gregory until that of St. Martin in winter, with the cows of the religious wheresoever within the bounds of the parish. Also that they should have, in the name of their vicarage, within the limits or titheries of this church, or chapels of it, all the tithes whatsoever of sheaves, corn, and other vegetables, in orchards or gardens, being dug with the foot; and also all tithes arising from all mills so situated then, or which hereafter might be built, excepting of the mill of the religious, nigh to the King's highway, leading from Northborne towards Canterbury. Also that they should receive, in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of hay arising within the parish, or within the bounds of the chapels aforesaid, excepting the tithe of hay, arising from the meadows of the religious in this parish, at the time of the endowment. Also that they should receive, in the name of the vicarage, all oblations whatsoever in the church of Northborne, and the chapels or oratories, wheresoever situated, dependent on it, excepting the oblations made by strangers, not parishioners of the church, or chapels, in the chapel of the religious, situated within their manor of Norborne, which they had retained to themselves. Moreover, that the vicars should receive all tithes of lambs, wool, chicken, calves, ducks, pigs, geese, swans, peas, pigeons, milk, milk-meats, trades, merchandizes, eggs, flax, hemp, broom, rushes, fisheries, pasture, apples, onions, garlic, pears, and all manner of small tithes, within the bounds, or tithings of the church and chapels aforesaid, in any shape arising or to arise in future; and also whatsoever legacies should be left in future to the church and chapels, and especially the tithes of reed, rushes, and silva cædua, whenever cut down, within the bounds or tithings of the chapels of Cotmanton and Scholdon, to this church belonging, or at any time arising. But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving in divine offices themselves, or other fit priests, in this church and chapels depending on it; but that the burthen of providing bread and wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary there for the celebration of divine services, they should undergo in the said church and chapels, at their own expence, excepting in the chapel of Cotmanton; in which the burthens of this kind, and likewise of the rebuilding and repairing of the chapel, used to be borne, by the lords of the manor of Cotmanton. In the payment likewise of the tenth, or other quota of ecclesiastical benefices, when it happened that the same should be imposed on the churches in England, or in the archbishop's province or diocese, the vicars and their successors there, according to the portion of taxation of the said vicarage, should be bound to pay the same for the said vicarage. But the burthens of repairing and rebuilding the chancel of the church of Northborne, and the chapel of Scholdon depending on it, within and without; and of finding and repairing the books, vestments, and ornaments of the church and chapel of Scholdon, which by the rectors of churches ought, or were wont to be found and repaired of custom or of right, and other burthens ordinary and extraordinary incumbent on the said church and chapel, the religious should undergo for ever and acknowledge; all and singular of which, he, the aforesaid John, archbishop of Canterbury, approving, confirmed by that his ordinary authority, reserving to him and his successors, &c. (fn. 8)
In 1396 there was an agreement entered into between the rector of East Langdon and the vicar of Norborne, concerning the annual payment of four shillings to the latter. In which the parishioners of East Langdon are mentioned as being bound to contribute to the repair of the church of Norborne.
The vicarage of Norborne, with the chapel of Sholdon annexed, is valued in the king's books at 12l. 11s. 8d. and the yearly tents at 1l. 5s. 2d.
In 1578 here were one hundred and ninety-two communicants, and it was valued at sixty pounds. In 1640 here were communicants two hundred and ninety-seven, and it was valued at Seventy-four pounds.
Here is a good vicarage-house, which with the homestall, measures two acres; and there are nine acres of glebe land beside.
Making ATC's has become officially my newest addiction. Thank God we do not pay taxes for it ;)
I reversed the tree of one Xmas set to get this dude and the branches in the side are also part of a large branch from another Xmas set.
Thanks for looking!
Supplies:
- White cardstock
- Stamps: Hero Arts S5208, CL357 (tree), CL238 (branch), CL266 (tiny speech bubble). Basic Grey sentiment.
- Ink: Distress Inks (Shabby Shutters, Aged Mahogany, Peeled Paint).
- Paper: Basic Grey
- Googly eyes
- Jute string
- Dew drops
- Dimensional foam adhesive
- Paper distresser
Amelia is turning into a SMURF!!! She got into a fight with her stamp pad to do an artwork today, and I think the stamps won! Jacques is learning all kinds of new things! I think our kids might need to start their own acrobat show! At lunch, Jacques surprised me with what he was doing, but I could not get him to do it again :( Later on we went outside and they had some fun riding on their cars and bikes! Later on that night, my mom came over and gave the kids some new clothes and had dinner with us! Subscribe: ift.tt/1fxosCc Yesterday's Vlog: ift.tt/1cQVFpy LaneVid Video: ift.tt/1fEISXS Mystery Video: ift.tt/19Rse2m Year 1: ift.tt/1eirrz4 Year 2: ift.tt/1fEISXU Year 3: ift.tt/1cQVFpA Year 4 (2012): ift.tt/1fEIVmw Vlogging Channel: ift.tt/XhTpg4 LaneVids Channel: ift.tt/Lbu9Um iPhone Channel: ift.tt/108WAJf Get a Text when I upload a new video, sign-up here: ift.tt/1elLNne You guys are AWESOMELY SHIGGITY SHANK! OWN YOUR SHIGGITY SHANKNESS by Subscribing to The Shiggity Shank List: ift.tt/1elLNni Help Us Get Out of DEBT: ift.tt/1cARtdz SOCIAL LINKS --------------------- Twitter (Lane): ift.tt/10aL8jw Twitter (Krista): ift.tt/10aL8jz Instagram (Lane): ift.tt/1fxosSB Instagram (Krista): ift.tt/1fEITea Facebook: ift.tt/108WAJg Google Plus: ift.tt/1fgUqQQ Pinterest: ift.tt/1fxosSz LANEVIDS SHIRTS: ift.tt/10aL6YX WEBSITE: www.LaneVids.com lanevid thefunnyrats baby kids kid children child family mom dad mommy daddy father mother love fun happy happiness home youtube video videos "hot wife" "sexy wife" "cute baby" daughter son cute toddler hilarious comedy haha lol ha funny silly silliness "family fun" "youtube video" "home video" "newborn baby"
CC Most Versatile abstract: Your unique style
My unique style? A notebook computer connected to a docking port so I still can use a real mouse and keyboard and monitor at my desk. The stapler is because I still like paper. A mixture of older and newer and because I'm not as young as I used to be, a helpful prompt to Think!
Or at least I do. This is my bit for breast cancer awareness. Yes, it is a somewhat cheesy set but a very serious cause.
Or at least I do. This is my bit for breast cancer awareness. Yes, it is a somewhat cheesy set but a very serious cause.
So You Think You Can Dance Live Tour | Rockford Metrocentre | Rockford, IL
10.29.10
© ae photography 2010
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I can't remember why i decided to to Ufford; I think it was because it is in Simon's top ten of Suffolk churches. Of course everything is down to taste and perspective and what the day, light, or other factors at play when you visited.
I drove through the village three times looking for the church, but this was Upper Ufford; all golf clubs and easy access to the A12.
I tried to find the church on the sat nav, but that wanted me to go to Ipswich or Woodbridge, I then tried to find Church Lane, and hit the jackpot. Down through a modern housing estate, then down a narrow lane, left at the bottom and there at the end of a lane stood St Mary, or the tower of the church anyway.
In the house opposite, a young man paused doing physical jerks to stare at me as ai parked, but my eyes were on the church. What delights would I find inside?
The south wall of the church inside the porch is lined with some very nice tiles; I take a few pictures. Inside, your eye is taken to the wonderful font cover, several metres high, disappearing into the wooden beams high above. A fine rood beam stretched across the chancel arch, and is still decorated.
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Upper Ufford is a pleasant place, and known well enough in Suffolk. Pretty much an extension northwards of Woodbridge and Melton, it is a prosperous community, convenient without being suburban. Ufford Park Hotel is an enjoyable venue in to attend professional courses and conferences, and the former St Audrey's mental hospital grounds across the road are now picturesque with luxury flats and houses. And I am told that the Ufford Park golf course is good, too, for those who like that kind of thing.
But as I say, that Ufford is really just an extension of Melton. In fact, there is another Ufford. It is in the valley below, more than a mile away along narrow lanes and set in deep countryside beside the Deben, sits Lower Ufford. To reach it, you follow ways so rarely used that grass grows up the middle.
You pass old Melton church, redundant since the 19th century, but still in use for occasional exhibitions and performances, and once home to the seven sacrament font that is now in the plain 19th century building up in the main village. Eventually, the lane widens, and you come into the single street of a pretty, tiny hamlet, the church tower hidden from you by old cottages and houses.
In one direction, the lane to Bromeswell takes you past Lower Ufford's delicious little pub, the White Lion. A stalwart survivor among fast disappearing English country pubs, the beer still comes out of barrels and the bar is like a kitchen. I cannot think that a visit to Ufford should be undertaken without at least a pint there. And, at the other end of the street, set back in a close between cottages, sits the Assumption, its 14th century tower facing the street, a classic Suffolk moment.
The dedication was once that of hundreds of East Anglian churches, transformed to 'St Mary' by the Reformation and centuries of disuse before the 19th century revival, but revived both here and at Haughley near Stowmarket. In late medieval times, it coincided with the height of the harvest, and in those days East Anglia was Our Lady's Dowry, intensely Catholic, intimately Marian.
The Assumption was almost certainly not the original dedication of this church. There was a church here for centuries before the late middle ages, and although there are no traces of any pre-Conquest building, the apse of an early-Norman church has been discovered under the floor of the north side of the chancel. The current chancel has a late Norman doorway, although it has been substantially rebuilt since, and in any case the great glories of Ufford are all 15th century. Perhaps the most dramatic is the porch, one of Suffolk's best, covered in flushwork and intriguing carvings.
Ufford's graveyard is beautiful; wild and ancient. I wandered around for a while, spotting the curious blue crucifix to the east of the church, and reading old gravestones. One, to an early 19th century gardener at Ufford Hall, has his gardening equipment carved at the top. The church is secretive, hidden on all sides by venerable trees, difficult to photograph but lovely anyway. I stopped to look at it from the unfamiliar north-east; the Victorian schoolroom, now a vestry, juts out like a small cottage.
I walked back around to the south side, where the gorgeous porch is like a small palace against the body of the church. I knew the church would be open, because it is every day. And then, through the porch, and down into the north aisle, into the cool, dim, creamy light.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, 21st August 1644, Ufford had a famous visitor, a man who entered the church in exactly the same way, a man who recorded the events of that day in his journal. There were several differences between his visit and the one that I was making, one of them crucial; he found the church locked. He was the Commissioner to the Earl of Manchester for the Imposition in the Eastern Association of the Parliamentary Ordinance for the Demolishing of Monuments of Idolatry, and his name was William Dowsing.
Dowsing was a kind of 17th century political commissar, travelling the eastern counties and enforcing government legislation. He was checking that local officials had carried out what they were meant to do, and that they believed in what they were doing. In effect, he was getting them to work and think in the new ways that the central government required. It wasn't really a witch hunt, although God knows such things did exist in abundance at that time. It was more as if an arm of the state extended and worked its fingers into even the tiniest and most remote parishes. Anyone working in the public sector in Britain in the early years of the 21st century will have come across people like Dowsing.
As a part of his job, Dowsing was an iconoclast, charged with ensuring that idolatrous images were excised from the churches of the region. He is a man blamed for a lot. In fact, virtually all the Catholic imagery in English churches had been destroyed by the Anglican reformers almost a hundred years before Dowsing came along. All that survived was that which was difficult to destroy - angels in the roofs, gable crosses, and the like - and that which was inconvenient to replace - primarily, stained glass. Otherwise, in the late 1540s the statues had been burnt, the bench ends smashed, the wallpaintings whitewashed, the roods hauled down and the fonts plastered over. I have lost count of the times I have been told by churchwardens, or read in church guides, that the hatchet job on the bench ends or the font in their church was the work of 'William Dowsing' or 'Oliver Cromwell'. In fact, this destruction was from a century earlier than William Dowsing. Sometimes, I have even been told this at churches which Dowsing demonstrably did not visit.
Dowsing's main targets included stained glass, which the pragmatic Anglican reformers had left alone because of the expense of replacing it, and crosses and angels, and chancel steps. We can deduce from Dowsing's journal which medieval imagery had survived for him to see, and that which had already been hidden - not, I hasten to add, because people wanted to 'save' Catholic images, but rather because this was an expedient way of getting rid of them.
So, for example, Dowsing visited three churches during his progress through Suffolk which today have seven sacrament fonts, but Dowsing does not mention a single one of them in his journal; they had all been plastered over long ago.
In fact, Dowsing was not worried so much about medieval survivals. What concerned him more was overturning the reforms put in place by the ritualist Archbishop Laud in the 1630s. Laud had tried to restore the sacramental nature of the Church, primarily by putting the altar back in the chancel and building it up on raised steps. Laud had since been beheaded thanks to puritan popular opinion, but the evidence of his wickedness still filled the parish churches of England. The single order that Dowsing gave during his progress more than any other was that chancel steps should be levelled.
The 21st of August was a hot day, and Dowsing had much work to do. He had already visited the two Trimley churches, as well as Brightwell and Levington, that morning, and he had plans to reach Baylham on the other side of Ipswich before nightfall. Much to his frustration, he was delayed at Ufford for two hours by a dispute between the church wardens over whether or not to allow him access.
The thing was, he had been here before. Eight months earlier, as part of a routine visit, he had destroyed some Catholic images that were in stained glass, and prayer clauses in brass inscriptions, but had trusted the churchwardens to deal with a multitude of other sins, images that were beyond his reach without a ladder, or which would be too time-consuming. This was common practice - after all, the churchwardens of Suffolk were generally equally as puritan as Dowsing. It was assumed that people in such a position were supporters of the New Puritan project, especially in East Anglia. Dowsing rarely revisited churches. But, for some reason, he felt he had to come back here to make sure that his orders had been carried out.
Why was this? In retrospect, we can see that Ufford was one of less than half a dozen churches where the churchwardens were uncooperative. Elsewhere, at hundreds of other churches, the wardens welcomed Dowsing with open arms. And Dowsing only visited churches in the first place if it was thought there might be a problem, parishes with notorious 'scandalous ministers' - which is to say, theological liberals. Richard Lovekin, the Rector of Ufford, had been turned out of his living the previous year, although he survived to return when the Church of England was restored in 1660. But that was in the future. Something about his January visit told Dowsing that he needed to come back to Ufford.
Standing in the nave of the Assumption today, you can still see something that Dowsing saw, something which he must have seen in January, but which he doesn't mention until his second visit, in the entry in his journal for August 21st, which appears to be written in a passion. This is Ufford's most famous treasure, the great 15th century font cover.
It rises, six metres high, magnificent and stately, into the clerestory, enormous in its scale and presence. In all England, only the font cover at Southwold is taller. The cover is telescopic, and crocketting and arcading dances around it like waterfalls and forests. There are tiny niches, filled today with 19th century statues. At the top is a gilt pelican, plucking its breast.
Dowsing describes the font cover as glorious... like a pope's triple crown... but this is just anti-Catholic innuendo. The word glorious in the 17th century meant about the same as the word 'pretentious' means to us now - Dowsing was scoffing.
But that was no reason for him to be offended by it. The Anglicans had destroyed all the statues in the niches a century before, and all that remained was the pelican at the top, pecking its breast to feed its chicks. Dowsing would have known that this was a Catholic image of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and would have disapproved. But he did not order the font cover to be destroyed. After all, the rest of the cover was harmless enough, apart from being a waste of good firewood, and the awkwardness of the Ufford churchwardens seems to have put him off following through. He never went back.
Certainly, there can have been no theological reason for the churchwardens to protect their font cover. I like to think that they looked after it simply because they knew it to be beautiful, and that they also knew it had been constructed by ordinary workmen of their parish two hundred years before, under the direction of some European master designer. They protected it because of local pride, and amen to that. The contemporary font beneath is of a type more familiar in Norfolk than Suffolk, with quatrefoils alternating with shields, and heads beneath the bowl.
While the font cover is extraordinary, and of national importance, it is one of just several medieval survivals in the nave of the Assumption. All around it are 15th century benches, with superbly characterful and imaginative images on their ends. The best is the bench with St Margaret and St Catherine on it. This was recently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Gothic exhibition. Other bench end figures include a long haired, haloed woman seated on a throne, which may well be a representation of the Mother of God Enthroned, and another which may be the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven. There is also a praying woman in a butterfly headdress, once one of a pair, and a man wearing what appears to be a bowler hat, although I expect it is a helmet of some kind. His beard is magnificent. There are also a number of finely carved animals, both mythical and real.
High up in the chancel arch is an unusual survival, the crocketted rood beam that once supported the crucifix, flanked by the grieving Mary and John, with perhaps a tympanum behind depicting the last judgement. These are now all gone, of course, as is the rood loft that once stood in front of the beam and allowed access to it. But below, the dado of the screen survives, with twelve panels. Figures survive on the south side. They have not worn well. They are six female Saints: St Agnes, St Cecilia, St Agatha, St Faith, St Bridget and, uniquely in England, St Florence. Curiously, the head of this last has been, in recent years, surrounded by stars, in imitation of the later Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Presumably this was done in a fit of Anglo-catholic enthusiasm about a century ago. The arrangement is similar to the south side of the screen at Westhall, and it may even be that the artist was the same. While there is no liturgical reason for having the female Saints on one side and, presumably, male Saints on the other, a similar arrangement exists on several Norfolk screens in the Dereham area.
Much of the character of the church today comes from it embracing, in the early years of the 20th century, Anglo-catholicism in full flood. It is true to say that, the later a parish took on the tradition, the more militant and intensely expressed it was, and the more evidence there is likely to be surviving. As at Great Ryburgh in Norfolk, patronage here ensured that this work was carried out to the very highest specification under the eye of the young Ninian Comper. Comper is an enthusiast's enthusiast, but I think he is at his best on a small scale in East Anglia like here and Ryburgh. His is the extraordinary war memorial window and reredos in the south aisle chapel, dedicated to St Leonard.
The window depicts Christ carrying his cross on the via dolorosa, but he is aided by a soldier in WWI uniform and, behind him, a sailor. The use of blues is very striking, as is the grain on the wood of the cross which, incidentally, can also be seen to the same effect on Comper's reredos at Ryburgh. The elegant, gilt reredos here profides a lovely foil to the tremendous window above it.
Comper's other major window here is on the north side of the nave. This is a depiction of the Annunciationextraordinary. from 1901, although it is the figures above which are most They are two of the Ancient Greek sibyls, Erythrea and Cumana, who are associated with the foretelling of Christ. At the top is a stunning Holy Trinity in the East Anglian style. There are angels at the bottom, and all in all this window shows Comper at the height of his powers.
Stepping into the chancel, there is older glass - or, at least, what at first sight appears to be. Certainly, there are some curious roundels which are probably continental 17th century work, ironically from about the same time that Dowsing was here. They were probably acquired by collectors in the 19th century, and installed here by Victorians. The image of a woman seated among goats is curious, as though she might represent the season of spring or be an allegory of fertility, but she is usually identified as St Agnes. It is a pity this roundel has been spoiled by dripping cement or plaster. Another roundel depicts St Sebastian shot with arrows, and a third St Anthony praying to a cross in the desert.
The two angels in the glass on the opposite side of the chancel are perhaps more interesting. They are English, probably early 16th Century, and represent two of the nine Orders of Angels, Dominions and Powers. They carry banners written in English declaring their relationship to eartly kings (Dominions) and priests and religious (Virtues). They would have been just two of a set of nine, but as with the glass opposite it seems likely that they did not come from this church originally.
However, the images in 'medieval' glass in the east window are entirely modern, though done so well you might not know. A clue, of course, is that the main figures, St Mary Salome with the infants St James and St John on the left, and St Anne with the infant Virgin on the right, are wholly un-East Anglian in style. In fact, they are 19th century copies by Clayton & Bell of images at All Souls College, Oxford, installed here in the 1970s. I think that the images of heads below may also be modern, but the angel below St Anne is 15th century, and obviously East Anglian, as is St Stephen to the north.
High above, the ancient roofs with their sacred monograms are the ones that Dowsing saw, the ones that the 15th century builders gilt and painted to be beautiful to the glory of God - and, of course, to the glory of their patrons. Rich patronage survived the Reformation, and at the west end of the south aisle is the massive memorial to Sir Henry Wood, who died in 1671, eleven years after the end of the Commonwealth. It is monumental, the wreathed ox heads a severely classical motif. Wood, Mortlock tells us, was Treasurer to the Household of Queen Henrietta Maria.
There is so much to see in this wonderful church that, even visiting time and time again, there is always something new to see, or something old to see in a new way. It is, above all, a beautiful space, and, still maintaining a reasonably High worship tradition, it is is still kept in High liturgical style. It is at once a beautiful art object and a hallowed space, an organic touchstone, precious and powerful.
Simon Knott, June 2006, updated July 2010 and January 2017
Or at least I do. This is my bit for breast cancer awareness. Yes, it is a somewhat cheesy set but a very serious cause.
4 Courtyard houses Zumikon
Zumikon, Switzerland
Architect: Think Architecture AG, Zürich
Category: Housing, Interior, Exterior
Photographer: Radek Brunecky architectural photography Zürich
© 2013 [ATELIER BRUNECKY]
more photos:
I think the last time I was in Niagara Falls, like 10 years ago, I took this elevator, so this time I just took the picture of it =D
Sylon Tower (opened in 1965), is an observation tower that overlooks both, the american and the canadian Niagara Falls. It was built using the slipform method, in which concrete is continually poured into a form moving slowly up the tower, the same way they built CN Tower in Toronto. It has 3 outside mounted "Yellow Bug" elevators. It only takes them 52 seconds to reach the top of the tower. You can see this tower in the movie superman II.
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Hace como 10 anios que estuve aqui, creo que me sube a este elevador, asi que ahora solo le tome la foto.
Esta torre es un observatorio que te permite ver tanto el lado canadiense como el americano de las cataratas del Niagara. Afuera de ella, suben 3 elevadores, los cuales son conocidos como los "bichos amarillos". Solo le toma 52 segundos subir a la torre, la cual mide 160 mts, o 236 mts si se toma como base el fondo de las cascadas. La torre aparece en la pelicula de Superman II
I think the hand printed letters on here say 1st grade, and I cannot read for sure if it says 1923 or 1928. Is there someone who knows for sure, and could identify some of the people in this class? And was it a Catholic School? I'm placing a note over the face area of the one little girl that I am pretty sure about her identity. I'm sending this to Found Photos and to ID Please group pools and will explain more in a minute about that.
Can someone tell me who some of these little children are? Oh, one other hint. This picture came in a whole box of genealogy stuff for the Masterson and Surber family.
I would say that this photo found me, more than I found it. I do genealogy, and I have MASTERSON in my surnames.
Someone contacted me after finding my name on USGenWeb or Ancestry.com or one of those kinds of places. They had come across a whole box of genealogical information on Margaret "Margie, Marjie, or Margey" Masterson who had married Earl Surber. They were no known living heirs, and they wanted to send the box of stuff to someone who put in writing the best reasons why they should be chosen. They liked my reply; so I got the box. Using information from the rest of the pictures in the box, is how I decided on the clues above.
NOTE: On October 29, 2011, I got Margie's birthday of March 31, 1914; so I don't think this was clear into 1928. I think 1923 or even 1920 would fit a routine kindergarten and first grade schedule. I'm thinking that since I can't read the number very well anyway, that this would be about 1920 for a child born in 1914 to be in kindergarten or first grade. I changed the date to 1920, making this photo over 100 years old.
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I hope this is OK for the Saturday for Stairs group, as these kids are definitely standing on steps/stairs that don't show much, but are there for sure. The kids aren't just floating in stair/step fashion. (grin)
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Tenuous Link: metal stair railing
As Many of us gathered around our flat screen TV's with family and friends or attended a fancy Oscar party, I decided to take some time to do a little street photography to capture images of daily life for many people who call the City of Angels home.
I think many people are surprised to learn that Los Angeles boasts the worlds 9th largest economy, but at the same time holds to distinction of the homeless capitol of the world.
It was very interesting to me that a movie about America's ugly and disgusting past was so well received, even taking best actress and best picture nominations. While another movie centered around HIV and AIDS. Both movies were awesome and I wish to congratulate the winners from each movie.
But before we skid down the yellow brick road holding hands and patting each other on the back and before we get this twisted any further let me drop some information on the subjects of homelessness which has been called the "new slavery" and the current numbers of HIV and AIDS.
According to the LA Times
"The number of homeless people in Los Angeles County jumped by 16% over the last two years, fueled by lingering economic devastation from the recession and rising rents and housing prices, according to a survey released."
"The sharp increase from 50,000 to more than 58,000 homeless people marked a departure from counts in 2011 and 2012, which showed reductions of 3% to 7% over previous years. And it came despite hundreds of millions of dollars in government aid pouring into the county each year to get people off the streets."
However, According Weingart Center, "an estimated 254,000 men, women and children experience homelessness in Los Angeles County during some part of the year and approximately 82,000 people are homeless on any given night. Unaccompanied youth, especially in the Hollywood area, are estimated to make up from 4,800 to 10,000 of these.
Although homeless people may be found throughout the county, the largest percentages are in South Los Angeles and Metro Los Angeles. Most are from the Los Angeles area and stay in or near the communities from which they came. About 14 to 18 percent of homeless adults in Los Angeles County are not U.S. citizens compared with 29% of adults overall. A high percentage - as high as 20 percent - are veterans. African Americans make up approximately half of the Los Angeles County homeless population - disproportionately high compared to the percentage of African Americans in the county overall (about 9 percent).
HIV and AIDS in Los Angeles
"More than 31,448 people have died of AIDS-related causes since the epidemic began.
More than 44,450 people are living with HIV, of which 24,600 are living with AIDS. Most are male (88%) and aged 40 or older (70%). An estimated 72% are gay or bisexual men, 7% of whom are also injection drug users.
Although African-Americans comprise less than 9% of the city’s population, they account for nearly 22% of those living with AIDS.
The communities with the highest numbers of people living with HIV/AIDS are Long Beach, Hollywood, West Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles."
(source AIDS/LifeCycle)
Having lived through 29 months of homelessness I know the homeless numbers are much higher than reported and living with HIV and experiencing many obstacles to care and treatment I also know the numbers for HIV and AIDS are also higher.
I guess what I'm saying is this, we still have lots of work to do nationally when it comes to homelessness (slavery) as well as HIV and AIDS, but especially right here in Los Angeles. We cant simply continue to blame homelessness on homeless people or blame the economy. Just like we cant blame the rate of new infections and AIDS deaths in populations of color (Black and Latino) on stigma, guilt, shame, churches or families.
We MUST begin to hold the powers that be accountable for work they claim to be doing so well. We only need to look at the numbers to know that the problem ISN'T homeless people or Black and Latino churches, families and radio stations, but instead a clear breakdown of caring and knowing how to fully engage populations where homelessness, HIV and AIDS go unchecked.
It's easy to point the finger at people who have no voice. After all they are the fish in the fish bowl.
Again these two movies were awesome and the performances were award worthy, but so are the lives of people dealing with the harsh reality and ugly disrespect of homelessness and the often times degrading, disrespectful and stigma filled treatment towards people LIVING with HIV or AIDS by the very people, places and things we MUST turn to for help.
We have work to do because people are STILL in slavery and people still become infected with HIV and die in record numbers from AIDS related complications.
These men, women and children ALSO deserve to have their stories told, but most importantly the right to LIFE.
Promotional cocktails were created as part of a national campaign Four Seasons ran in support of breast cancer awareness.
I think the fact I have seen two of these recently is more down to luck than a sign of how many remain, there really isn't that many left, but they don't appear to be too endangered a species. This one looked in fine shape, and the numberplate sourced it to Coventry. Funnily enough, the Acclaim attracts little criticism for a BL product, they were apparently incredibly reliable cars, which is most likely down to the Japanese parts in them. Nonetheless, good to find another survivor.
Regardless if your considering your 1st Tattoo , luvin' your latest or sportin' a seasoned piece , post healing sun protection is a must in order to keep your Tattoo looking its best for life... its almost never too late to start good protective habits!
All, and I mean ALL Tattoo pigments (ink) WILL fade due to sun exposure! (tanning beds are just as brutal on a Tattoo!!) , Color , B&G or BlackWork are all subject to the ravages of sun exposure , and if a potential Artist tells you His or Her ink won't fade my best advice to you is find the nearest exit & be on your way , I can't stand a damn liar & refuse to let such a sack-o-crapp do my Tatt !
Pigments , the base of any color or tone ,will fade from exposure to UV Rays and in a Tattoo fading is a real kick in the butt , no matter how well its applied ,the skill or talent of the Artist after healing its up-to YOU to protect it FOR LIFE ...many clients have a problem with placing the blame for a dull or weak looking Tattoo on the Artist & often enough (not always! ,but more often than not) it's the client that was a slacker in His or Her duty's to maintain the piece , it only takes a few trips into the sun or tanning bed to begin the fading & the only fix for that is to go under the needle again & I would rather take such adventures in an Artist's chair to get another Tattoo rather than redo whats already been done... but that's just me.
~As in any piece of Art , be it a painting , fresco , tapestry and so on safeguarding the work from damage is a ongoing task ..Tattoos are no different~
AFTER proper healing ,protecting your Tattoo(s) will be necessary for as long as you desire it to look the best , not a big deal, but its a ongoing need & by simply applying a good sunblock ANY & ALL times sun exposure is possible you can protect your ink... a Tattoo is yours for the rest of your life & protecting it is a life long responsibility.
*** FOR THE RECORD ***
Sunscreen is not sunblock , anything less than a SPF of 45 is an utter waste of time & will only -slightly- offer protection ,the smaller the SPF number the less it helps.
The absolute best protection I have found is a total sunblock & a product called "Zinc Oxide" (available at your local pharmacy or other shopping centers) ,yea yea I know its a diaper rash medication but its usefulness for protection is outstanding and is my best suggestion & ought be applied to the Tattooed area of the skin 15+ minutes prior to venturing out into the sun or cookin your hyde in a tanning bed ,its a ointment ,generally white in color but an assortment of similar products in assorted colors are available if you prefer. (doubtful your pharmacy will carry that but often surf-shops & other specialty stores have such pretty products)
...I will use "Panama Jack's SURF 'N SPORT SPF 75 Sunblock Lotion" or a similar product if Zinc Oxide is not available.
{for those with sensitive skin Baby or Infant Sunscreen or Sunblock products are available & are generally hypoallergenic ,water resistant & moisturizing to the skin , but keep a minimum SPF of 45 in mind ..the higher the SPF the better!}
!! -if you time in the sun exceeds 4+ hour's I would suggest a booster like a spray-on sunscreen is rather useful & a quick fix , I personally use "Coppertone's ultraGUARD SPF 50" ,but a similar product is acceptable- !!
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Many clients &/or fellow Artist have told me they never heard &/or thought of such protective measures but I assure you its worth it I personally have Tattoos that were done 10 , 15 & 20 years ago & guarantee they look bolder & brighter now due to my consistent use of "Zinc Oxide" than they would if I had not.
Weather riden' ,doing yardwork ,poolside ,at the beach on vacation or out -N- about protecting my Tatt's is worth it & when asked I gladly enplane ~or~ for fun I have often looked at people that just gawk & in a stern & miffed tone say;
"WHAT !! ..I'm a fuhhkin leper! , they don't exile us to islands or ban us from the general public anymore , keep staren' & I'll toss a finger at ya!!!" (as I grab my finger)
HaHaaHaaaah ! ..then smile & explane (LOL!)
;-D
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It's your Tattoo & upto you to take the simple steps to preserve the efforts of your Artist & keep your Epidermal Art looking its best...
I tell all my Clients;
THINK ZINC - PROTECT YOUR INK !!!!!!!
~SERGIO~
St Ethelbert, Hessett, Suffolk
Hessett is a fairly ordinary kind of village to the east of Bury St Edmunds, but its church is one of the most important in East Anglia for a number of reasons, which will become obvious. Consider for one moment, if you will, the extent to which the beliefs and practices of a religious community affect the architecture of its buildings. Think of a mosque, for instance. Often square, expressing the democracy of Islam, but without any imagery of the human figure, for such things are proscribed. Think of a synagogue, focused towards the Holy Scriptures in the Ark, but designed to enable the proclaiming of the Word, and the way that early non-conformist chapels echo this architecture of Judaism - indeed, those who built the first free churches, like Ipswich's Unitarian Chapel, actually called them synagogues.
The shape of a church, then, is no accident. A typical Suffolk perpendicular church of the 15th century has wide aisles, to enable liturgical processions, a chancel for the celebration of Mass, places for other altars, niches for devotional statues, a focus towards the Blessed Sacrament in the east, a roof of angels to proclaim a hymn of praise, a large nave for devotional and social activities, and wall paintings of the Gospels and hagiographies of Saints, of the catechism and teachings of the Catholic Church. As Le Corbusier might have said if he'd been around at the time, a medieval church is a machine for making Catholicism happen.
No longer, of course. The radical and violent fracture in popular religion in the middle years of the 16th century gave birth to the Church of England, and the new church inherited buildings that were quite unsuitable for the new congregational protestant theology, a problem that the Church of England has never entirely solved.
Over the centuries, the problem has been addressed in different ways. The early reformers celebrated communion at a table in the nave, for example, and blocked off the chancel for other uses. Although this was challenged by the Laudian party in the early part of the 17th century, it was the way that many parishes reinvented their buildings, and most were to stay like that until the middle years of the 19th century. Some went further. A pulpit placed halfway down the nave, or even at the back of the church, meant that the seating could be arranged so that it no longer focused towards the east, thus breaking the link with Catholic (and Laudian) sacramentalism. For several centuries, Anglican churches focused on the pulpit rather than the altar.
With the coming to influence of the 19th century Oxford Movement, all this underwent another dramatic change, with the great majority of our medieval parish churches having their interiors restored to their medieval integrity, reinventing themselves as sacramental spaces. This is the condition in which we find most of them today, and some Anglican theologians are asking the question that the Catholic Church asked itself at Vatican II in the 1960s - is a 19th century liturgical space really appropriate for the Church of the 21st century?
So, let us hasten at once to Hessett. The church sits like a glowing jewel in its wide churchyard, right on the main road through the village. It is pretty well perfect if you are looking for a fine Suffolk exterior. An extensive 15th century rebuilding enwraps the earlier tower, which was crowned by the donor of the rebuilding, John Bacon.The nave and aisles are deliciously decorated, reminding one rather of the church at neighbouring Rougham, although this is a smaller church, and the aisles make it almost square. A dedicatory inscription on the two storey vestry in the north east corner bids us pray for the souls of John and Katherine Hoo, who donated the chancel and paid for the trimmings to the aisles. Their inscription has been damaged by protestant reformers, who obviously did not believe in the efficacy of prayers for the dead.
Although not comparable with that at Woolpit, the dressed stone porch is a grand affair, and a bold statement. You may find the south door locked, but if this is the case then the priest's door into the chancel is usually open. And in a way it is a good church to enter via the chancel, because in this way St Ethelbert unfolds its treasures slowly.You step into relative darkness - or, at least, it seems so in comparison with the nave beyond the rood screen. This is partly a result of the abundance of dark wood, and in truth the chancel seems rather overcrowded. The most striking objects in view are the return stalls, which fill the two westerly corners of the chancel. These are in the style of a college or school of priests, with their backs to the rood screen, but then 'returning' around the walls to the east. They are fine, and are certainly 15th or 16th century. But one of the stalls, that to the north, is different to the others, and seems slightly out of place. It is elaborately carved with faces, birds and foliage.
Mortlock thought that it might have been intended for a private house. The stall in front of it has heads on it that appear to be wearing 18th century wigs. The sanctuary is largely Victorianised, with a great east window depicting Saints. The south windows of the chancel depict a lovely Adoration scene by the O'Connors. The chancel is separated from the nave by the 15th century rood screen, which is elegantly painted and gilt on the west side, the beautifully tracery intricately carved above. The rood screen has been fitted with attractive iron gates, presumably evidence of Anglo-catholic enthusiasm here in the early 20th century, and you step down through them into the light. A first impression is that you are entering a much older space than the one you have left. There is an 18th century mustiness, enhanced by the box pews that line the aisles. And, beyond, on walls and in windows, are wonderful things.
The number of surviving wall paintings in England is a tiny fraction of those which existed before the 15th and 16th centuries. All churches had them, and in profusion. It isn't enough to say that they were a 'teaching aid' of a church of illiterate peasants. In the main, they were devotional, and that is why they were destroyed. However, it is more complicated than that. Research in recent years has indicated that many wall paintings were destroyed before the Reformation, perhaps a century before. In some churches, they have been punched through with Perpendicular windows, which are clearly pre-Reformation. In the decades after the Black Death, there seems to have been a sea change in the liturgical use of these buildings, a move away from an individualistic, devotional usage to a corporate liturgical one. There is a change of emphasis towards more education and exegesis. This is the time that pulpits and benches appear, long before protestantism was on the agenda. What seems to happen is that many buildings were intended now to be full of light, and devotional wall paintings were either whitewashed, or replaced with catechetical ones.
The decoration of the nave was the responsibility of the people of the parish, not of the Priest. The wall paintings of England can be divided into roughly three groups. Roughly speaking, the development of wall paintings over the later medieval period is in terms of these three overlapping emphases.
Firstly, the hagiographies - stories of the Saints. These might have had a local devotion, although some saints were popular over a wide area, and most churches seem to have supported a devotion to St Christopher right up until the Reformation.
Secondly came those which illustrate incidents in the life of Christ and his mother, the Blessed Virgin. Although partly pedagogical, they were also enabling tools, since private devotions often involved a contemplation upon them, and at Mass the larger part of those present would have been involved in private devotions. These scriptural stories were as likely to have been derived from apocryphal texts like the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew as from the actual Gospels themselves.
Lastly, there are catechetical wall paintings, illustrating the teachings of the Catholic church. It should not be assumed that these are dogmatic. Many are simply artistic representations of stories, and others are simplifications of theological ideas, as with the seven deadly sins and the seven cardinal virtues. Some warn against occasions of sin (gossiping, for example) and generally wall paintings provided a local site for discussion and exemplification.
To an extent, all the above is largely true of stained glass, as well, with the caveat that stained glass was more expensive, relied on local patronage, and often has this patronage as a subtext, hence the large number of heraldic devices and images of local worthies. But it was also devotional, and so it was also destroyed.
So - what survives at Hessett? The wall paintings first.
Starting in the south east corner of the nave, we have Suffolk's finest representation of St Barbara, presenting a tower. St Barbara was very popular in medieval times, because she was invoked against strikes by lightning and sudden fires. This resulted from her legend, for her father, on finding her to be a Christian, walled her up in a tower until she repented. As a result, he was struck by lightning, and reduced to ashes. She was also the patron saint of the powerful building trade, and as such her image graced their guild altars - perhaps that was the case here.
Above the south door is another figure, often identified as St Christopher, but I do not think that this can be the case. St Christopher is found nowhere else in Suffolk above a south door. The traditional iconography of this mythical saint is not in place here, and it is hard to see how this figure could ever have been interpreted as such. I suspect it is a result of an early account confusing the two images over the north and south doors, and the mistake being repeated in later accounts.
In fact, digital enhancement seems to suggest that there are two figures above the south door, overlapping each other slightly. The figure on the right is barefoot, that on the left is wearing a white gown. There appears to be water under their feet, and so I think this is an image of the Baptism of Christ. Perhaps it was once part of a sequence.
The wall painting opposite, above the north door, is St Christopher. Although it isn't as clear as himself at, say, nearby Bradfield Combust, he bestrides the river in the customary manner, staff in hand. The Christ child is difficult to discern, but you can see the fish in the water. Also in the water, and rather unusual, are two figures. They are rendered rather crudely, almost like gingerbread men. Could they be the donors of the north aisle, John and Katherine Hoo in person?
Moving along the north aisle, we come to the set of paintings for which Hessett is justifiably famous. They are set one above the other between two windows, at the point where might expect the now-vanished screen to a chapel to have been. The upper section was here first. It shows the seven deadly sins (described wrongly in some text books as a tree of Jesse, or ancestry of Christ). Two devils look on as, from the mouth of hell, a great tree sprouts, ending in seven images. Pride is at the top, and in pairs beneath are Gluttony and Anger, Vanity and Envy, Avarice and Lust. Mortlock suggests that some attempt has been made to erase the image for Lust, which may simply be mid-16th century puritan prurience on the part of some reformer here. This would suggest that this catechetical tool was here right up until the Reformation.
The idea of 'Seven Deadly Sins' was anathema to the reformers, because it is entirely unscriptural. Rather, as a catechetical tool, it is a way of drawing together a multitude of sins into a simplistic aide memoire. This could then be used in confession, taking each of them one at a time and examining ones conscience accordingly. It should not be seen simply as a 'warning' to ignorant peasants, for the evidence is that the ordinary rural people of late medieval England were theologically very articulate. Rather, it was a tool for use, in contemplation and preparation for the sacrament of reconciliation, which may well have ordinarily taken place in the chapel here.
The wall painting beneath the Sins is even more interesting. This is a very rare 'Christ of the Trades', and dates from the early 15th century, about a hundred years after the painting above. It is rather faded, and takes a while to discern, and not all of it is decodable. However, enough is there to be fascinating. The image of the 'Christ of the Trades' is known throughout Christendom, and contemporary versions with this can be found in other parts of Europe. It shows the risen Christ in the centre, and around him a vast array of the tools and symbols of various trades. One theory is that it depicts activities that should not take place on a Sunday, a holy day of obligation to refrain from work, and that these activities are wounding Christ anew.
Perhaps the most fascinating symbol, and the one that everyone notices, is the playing card. It shows the six of diamonds. Does it represent the makers of playing cards? If so, it might suggest a Flemish influence. Or could it be intended to represent something else? Whatever, it is one of the earliest representations of a playing card in England. Why is this here? It may very well be that there was a trades gild chantry chapel at the east end of the north aisle, and this painting was at its entrance.
At the east end of the north aisle now is the church's set of royal arms. Cautley saw it in the vestry in the 1930s, and identified it as a Queen Anne set. Now, with additions stripped away, it is revealed as a Charles II set from the 1660s, and a very fine one. It is fascinating to see it at such close range. Usually, they are set above the south door now, although they would originally have been placed above the chancel arch, in full view of the congregation, a gentle reminder of who was in charge.
And so to the glass, which on its own would be worth coming to Hessett to see. Few Suffolk churches have such an expanse, none have such a variety, or glass of such quality and interest. It consists essentially of two ranges, the life and Passion of Christ in the north aisle (although some glass has been reset across the church), and images and hagiographies of Saints in the south aisle.
In the north aisle, the scourging of Christ stands out, the wicked grins of the persecutors contrasting with the pained nobility of the Christ figure. In the next window, Christ rises from the dead, coming out of his tomb like the corpses in the doom paintings at Stanningfield, North Cove and Wenhaston. The Roman centurion sleeps soundly in the foreground.
The most famous image is in the east window of the south aisle. Apparently, it shows a bishop holding the chain to a bag, with four children playing at his feet. I say apparently, because there is rather more going on here than meets the eye. The reason that this image is so famous is that the small child in the foreground is holding what appears to be a golf club or hockey stick, and this would be the earliest representation of such an object in all Europe. The whole image has been said to represent St Nicholas, who was a Bishop, and whose legends include a bag of gold and a group of children.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. St Nicholas is never symbolised by a bag of gold, and there are three children in the St Nicholas legend, not four. In any case, the hand in the picture is not holding the chain to a bag at all, but a rosary, and the hockey stick is actually a fuller's club, used for dyeing clothes, and the symbol of St James the Less.
What has happened here is that the head of a Bishop has been grafted on to the body of a figure which is probably still in its original location. The three lights of this window contained a set of the Holy Kinship. The light to the north of the 'Bishop' contains two children playing with what ae apparently toys, but when you look closely you can see that one is holding a golden shell, and the other a poisoned chalice. They are the infant St James and St John, and the lost figure above them was their mother, Mary Salome.
This means that the figure with the Bishop's head is actually Mary Cleophas, mother of four children including St James the Less. The third light to the south, of course, would have depicted the Blessed Virgin and child, but she is lost to us.
Not only this, but Hessett has some very good 19th Century glass which complements and does not overly intrude. The best is beneath the tower, the west window in a fully 15th Century style of scenes by Clayton & Bell. The east window, depicting saints, is by William Warrington, and the chancel also has the O'Connor glass already mentioned.
If the windows and wall paintings were all there was, then Hessett would be remarkable enough. But there is something else, two things, actually, that elevate it above all other Suffolk churches, and all the churches of England. For St Ethelbert is the proud owner of two unique survivals. At the back of the church is a chest, no different from those you'll find in many a parish church. In common with those, it has three separate locks, the idea being that the Rector and two Churchwardens would have a key each, and it would be necessary for all three of them to be present for the chest to be opened. It was used for storing parish records and valuables.
At some point, one of the keys was lost. There is an old story about the iconoclast William Dowsing turning up here and demanding the chest be opened, but on account of the missing key it couldn't be. Unfortunately, this story isn't true, for Dowsing never recorded a visit Hessett. The chest was eventually opened in the 19th century. Inside were found two extraordinary pre-Reformation survivals. These are a pyx cloth and a burse. The pyx cloth was draped over the wooden canopy that enclosed the blessed sacrament (one of England's four surviving medieval pyxes is also in Suffolk, at Dennington) before it was raised above the high altar. The burse was used to contain the host before consecration at the Mass. They are England's only surviving examples, and they're both here. Or, more precisely they aren't, for both have been purloined by the British Museum, the kind of theft that no locked church can prevent.
But there are life-size photos of both either side of the tower arch. The burse is basically an envelope, and features the Veronica face of Christ on one side with the four evangelistic symbols in each corner. On the other is an Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God. The survival of both is extraordinary. It is one thing to explore the furnishings of lost Catholic England, quite another to come face to face with articles that were actually used in the liturgy.
In front of the pictures stands the font, a relatively good one of the early 15th century, though rather less exciting than everything going on around it. The dedicatory inscription survives, to a pair of Hoos of an earlier generation than the ones on the vestry.Turning east again, the ranks of simple 15th century benches are all of a piece with their church. They have survived the violent transitions of the centuries, and have seated generation after generation of Hessett people. They were new here when this church was alive with coloured light, with the hundreds of candles flickering on the rood beam, the processions, the festivals, and the people's lives totally integrated with the liturgy of the seasons. For the people of Catholic England, their religion was as much a part of them as the air they breathed. They little knew how soon it would all come to an end.
And so, there it is - one of the most fascinating and satisfactory of all East Anglia's churches. And yet, not many people know about it. We are only three miles from the brown-signed honeypot of Woolpit, where a constant stream of visitors come and go. I've visited Hessett many times, and never once encountered another visitor. Still, there you are, I suppose. Perhaps some places are better kept secret. But come here if you can, for here is a medieval worship space with much surviving evidence of what it was actually meant to be, and meant to do.
The Flickr Lounge
Exhausted, but exhilarated after participating in the first (as far as I know) Spin For Life fundraising spin-a-thon event; 370 women in 6 countries participating simultaneously in the first spinning equivalent of Race4Life in order to raise thousands for Cancer Research! A proud moment for all - whoop, whoop!
I took quite a lot of pictures and this is the first time I've taken a picture of such a large group - given that everyone was hyper and the heavens opened about 30 seconds later I'm amazed I got (nearly) everyone looking at the camera.
I will admit that the dedications to loved ones posted on participant's bikes were really moving.
Oh, and I was mostly on my bike, but did hop off for a couple of minutes now and then to get some shots. I've done most of the edits, but need to double check prior to ordering copies of the group photo.
PS the lady in the pink cap and neon pink leggings sitting in the middle of the front row is my spinning instructor and neighbour and the unstoppable energy behind this event, which just 3 months ago was nothing more than a throw-away comment made at the end of a spinning class. To describe her as inspirational would be an understatement!
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2017 Think Outside Photo Contest entry
Park info: www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/pocahontas#general_infor...