Brockdish is one of three parish churches within about a mile that can be seen from the A143, but only the top of the tower is visible when heading north, and only fleetingly. THe only other clue is the truncated Church Lane which cuts across the main road, the name of which indicates the nearby church.

 

I came here at about eleven in the morning, having visited Oulton in Suffolk earlier, and wasn't expecting to find it open to be honest. But I heard the bells being rung, or at least pealing in intermittent intervals, the reason being some people were being given lessons.

 

Three cars were parked in the lane beside the church, which you reach by traveling up a green lane north out of the village before taking the track to the church.

 

The door to the tower, where the bellringers were being taught was ajar, and I could have gone up, but instead I go to the porch to try the door, and finding it open, I go inside lest someone comes and closes it.

 

Soon I am joined inside by the warden who is surprised, but pleased, to find a visitor: she is there to make teas for the ringers, and would I like one?

 

My breath had already been taken away by the tiles in the chancel, which are of exceptional quality. Tiles are something easily overlooked, and indeed many were clearly bought from catalogues, and so many are similar, but when more attention to detail was given, when extra quality was installed, it shines through.

 

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When I first visited this church in 2005, it was with something of a sinking heart to arrive at the third church in a row that was locked without a keyholder notice. Today, nothing could be further from the truth. In the south porch there is a large notice now which reads Come in and enjoy your church! Fabulous stuff.

The trim graveyard includes some substantial memorials to the Kay family, including one massive structure with an angel under a spire which would not look out of place opposite the Royal Albert Hall. No expense was spared by the Victorians here at Brockdish. The rebuilding was paid for by the Rector, George France, who also advised architect Frederick Marable on exactly what form this vision of the medieval should take. The tower above is curiously un-East Anglian, looking rather unusual surrounded by Norfolk fields. All around the building headstops are splendid, and fine details like faux-consecration crosses on the porch show that France was generally a man who knew what a medieval church should look like.

 

It will not surprise you to learn that St Peter and St Paul is similarly grand on the inside, if a touch severe. France actually devised a church much more Anglo-catholic than we find it today; it was toned down by the militantly low church Kay family later in the century. They took down the rood and replaced it with a simple cross, painting out the figures on the rood screen as well. When I first visited, the very helpful churchwarden who'd opened up for me observed that Brockdish is the only church in Norfolk that has stained glass in every window, which isn't strictly true (Harleston, three miles away, has as well) but we can be thankful that, thanks to the Reverend France's fortunes, it is of a very good quality. The glass seems to have been an ongoing project, because some of it dates from the 1920s. In keeping with low church tradition, the glass depicts mainly Biblical scenes and sayings of Christ rather than Saints, apart from the church's two patron Saints in the east window of the chancel. There are also some roundels in the east window of the south aisle, which appear to be of continental glass. They depict the Adoration of the Magi, the deposition of Christ, what appears to be Paharoah's daughter with the infant Moses, and the heads of St Matthias, St John the Evangelist, and Christ with a Crown of Thorns. However, I suspect that at least some of them are the work of the King workshop of Norwich, and that only the Deposition and the Old Testament scene are genuinely old.

 

If this is rather a gloomy church on a dark day, it is because of the glass in the south clerestory, a surprisingly un-medieval detail - the whole point of a clerestory was to let light reach the rood. The glass here is partly heraldic, partly symbolic. The stalls in the chancel are another faux-medieval detail - there was never a college of Priests here - but they looked suspiciously as if they might contain old bench ends within the woodwork. Not all is false, because the chancel also contains an unusual survival from the earlier church, a tombchest which may have been intended as an Easter Sepulchre.

 

Above all, the atmosphere is at once homely and devotional, not least because of the exceptional quality of the tiled sanctuary, an increasingly rare beast because they were so often removed in the 1960s and 1970s, when Victorian interiors were unfashionable. Brockdish's is spectacular, a splendid example that has caught the attention of 19th century tile enthusiasts and experts nationally.

 

Also tiled is the area beneath the tower, which France had reordered as a baptistery. The font has recently been moved back into the body of the church; presumably, whoever supplies the church's liability insurance had doubts about godparents standing with their backs to the steps down into the nave.

I liked Brockdish church a lot; I don't suppose it gets a lot of visitors, but it is a fine example of what the Victorians did right.

 

Simon Knott, June 2005, revisited and updated July 2010

 

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/brockdish/brockdish.htm

 

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Is the next adjoining town eastward, through which the great road passes to Yarmouth; on the left hand of which, stands the church, on a hill by itself, there being no house near it but the parsonage, which joins to the east side of the churchyard. The advowson always belonged to the Earl's manor here, with which it now continues.

 

In Norwich Domesday we read, that the rector had a house and 30 acres of land, that it was then valued at 15 marks, and paid as it now doth for synodals 1s. 9d. procurations 6s. 8d. and 12d. Peter-pence. It stands in the King's Books thus:

 

10l. Brokedish rectory. 1l. yearly tenths.

 

And consequently pays first-fruits, and is incapable of augmentation. The church stands included in the glebe, which is much the same in quantity as it was when the aforesaid survey was taken. It is in Norfolk archdeaconry, Redenhall deanery, and Duke of Norfolk's liberty, though he hath no lete, warren, paramountship, or superiour jurisdiction at all in this town, the whole being sold by the family along with the manors of the town.

 

In 1603, there were 103 communicants here, and now there are 50 families, and about 300 inhabitants; it was laid to the ancient tenths at 4l. but had a constant deduction of 14s. on account of lands belonging to the religious, so that the certain payment to each tenth, was 3l. 6s.

 

The Prior of St. Faith at Horsham owned lands here, which were taxed at 2s. 6d. in 1428.

 

The Prior of Thetford monks had lands here of the gift of Richard de Cadomo or Caam, (fn. 1) who gave them his land in Brokedis, and a wood sufficient to maintain 20 swine, in the time of King Henry I. when William Bigot, sewer to that King, gave to this priory all the land of Sileham, which from those monks is now called Monks-hall manor, and the water-mill there; all which Herbert Bishop of Norwich conveyed to his father, in exchange for other lands, he being to hold it in as ample a manner as ever Herbert the chaplain did; and in Ric. the Second's time, the monks bought a piece of marsh ground in Brokedis, to make a way to their mill, which being not contained in the grant of Monks-hall manor from Hen. VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk, William Grice, Esq. and Charles Newcomen, who had a grant of such lands as they could find concealed from the Crown, seized on this as such; and upon their so doing, the owner of the mill was obliged to purchase it of them, by the name of Thetford-Mill-Way, and it hath ever since belonged to, and is constantly repaired by the owner thereof.

 

Rectors of Brockidish.

 

12 - - Robert

 

12 - - Sir Ralf de Creping, rector.

 

1313, Sir Stephen Bygod. The King, for this turn.

 

1324, Nic. le Mareschal. Tho. Earl of Norfolk and Marshal.

 

1326, Mathew Paumer, or Palmer. Ditto. He changed for Canefield-Parva in London diocese with

 

Master Robert de Hales. Ditto.

 

1333, John de Melburn. Ditto.

 

1355, Roger de Wombwell. Lady Eleanor and Thomas de Wingfield, attorneys to Sir John Wingfield, Knt.

 

1356, John Knyght of Exeter. Mary Countess-Marshal, widow of Tho. de Brotherton, who recovered the advowson by the King's writ, against Sir J. Wingfield, Knt. and Thomas his brother, William de Lampet and Alice his wife, and Catherine her sister, and so Wombwell was ejected.

 

1357, John de Esterford. Mary Countess-Marshal. He resigned in

 

1367, to John son of Catherine de Frenge, and he in

 

1368, to John Syward. Sir Walter Lord Manney.

 

1382, John de Balsham, who changed for Stowe St. Michael in Exeter diocese, with

 

Bartholomew Porter. Margaret Marshal, Countess of Norfolk.

 

1405, Sir John Dalyngho of Redcnhall. Eliz. Dutchess of Norf. in right of her dower.

 

1417, he exchanged with Thomes Barry, priest, for the vicarage of Berkyng church in London. John Lancaster, Ric. Sterisacre, and Rob. Southwell, attorneys to John Duke of Norfolk, EarlMarshal and Notyngham, who was beyond the seas. Barry resigned in

 

1422, to Sir Thomas Briggs, priest, who died rector. Ditto.

 

1454, Sir Hen. White, priest. John Duke of Norf. Earl-Marshal and Notingham, Marshal of England, Lord Mowbray, Segrave, and Gower. He resigned in

 

1455, to Sir Thomas Holm, priest. Ditto. And he in

 

1478, to John Nun. The King, as guardian to Richard Duke of York and Norfolk, and Lady Ann his wife, daughter and heir of John late Duke of Norfolk.

 

1491, John Mene; he had a union to hold another benefice.

 

1497, John Rogers, A. M. Eliz. Dutchess of Norfolk. He resigned in

 

1498, to Sir John Fisk, priest, chaplain to the Dutchess. Ditto. At whose death in

 

1511, Sir Robert Gyrlyng, chaplain to Thomas Earl of Surrey, had it of that Earl's gift: he was succeeded by

 

Sir William Flatberry, chaplain to Thomas Duke of Norfolk, who presented him; he resigned in

 

1540, to Sir Nic. Stanton, chaplain to his patron, Tho. Duke of Norf. Lord Treasurer and Earl-Marshal, and was succeeded by

 

William Hide, priest. Ditto. He resigned, and the Duke presented it in

 

1561, to Sir John Inman, priest, who was buried here Aug. 1, 1586.

 

1586, Aug. 4, Master Richard Gibson was instituted, who was buried Oct. 1, 1625; he was presented by Robert Nichols of Cambridge, by purchase of the turn from William le Grice, Gent. and Hester le Grice, wife of Charles le Grice, Gent. true patrons.

 

1625, William Owles, who held it united to Billingford. John Knapp of Brockdish, by grant of this turn. He was succeeded in

 

1645, by Brian Witherel, and he by

 

Mr. James Aldrich, who died rector Nov. 10, 1657, from which time somebody held it without institution, till the Restoration, and then receded, for in

 

1663, May 14, Sir Augustine Palgrave, patron of this turn, in right of Catherine his wife, presented George Fish, on the cession of the last incumbent; he was buried here Oct. 29, 1686.

 

1686, Thomas Palgrave, A.M. buried here March 24, 1724. Fran. Laurence, Gent.

 

1724, Abel Hodges, A.B. he held it united to Tharston, and died in 1729. Richard Meen, apothecary, for this turn.

 

1729, Richard Clark, LL. B. was instituted Dec. 3, and died about six weeks after. Mrs. Ellen Laurence of Castleacre, widow.

 

1730, Alan Fisher. Ditto. He resigned in

 

1738, and was succeeded by Robert Laurence, A. B. of Caius college, who lies buried at the south-east corner of the chancel, and was succeeded in

 

1739, by Francis Blomefield, clerk, the present rector, who holds it united to Fresfield rectory, being presented by Mrs. Ellen Laurence aforesaid.

 

The church is dedicated to the honour of the apostles St. Peter and Paul, and hath a square tower about 16 yards high, part of which was rebuilt with brick in 1714; there are five bells; the third, which is said to have been brought from Pulham in exchange, hath this on it;

 

Sancta Maria ora pro nobis.

 

and on the fourth is this,

 

Uirgo Coronata duc nos ad Regna beata.

 

The nave, chancel, and south isle are leaded, the south porch tiled, and the north porch is ruinated. The roof of this chancel is remarkable for its principals, which are whole trees without any joint, from side to side, and bent in such a rising manner, as to be agreeable to the roof. The chancel is 30 feet long and 20 broad, the nave is 54 feet long and 32 broad, and the south isle is of the same length, and 10 feet broad.

 

At the west end of the nave is a black marble thus inscribed,

 

Here lyeth buried the Body of Richard Wythe Gent. who departed this Life the 6 of Sept. 1671, who lived 64 Years and 4 Months and 9 Days.

 

This family have resided here till lately, ever since Edw. the Third's time, and had a considerable estate here, and the adjacent villages. See their arms, vol. iv. p. 135.

 

Another marble near the desk hath this,

 

Near this Place lays Elizabeth Wife of John Moulton Gent. who died Oct. 31, 1716, aged 32 Years. And here lieth Mary the late Wife of John Moulton, who died March 20, 1717, aged 27 Years. And also here lyeth the Body of John Moulton Gent. who died June 12, 1718, aged 38 Years.

 

Moulton's arms and crest as at vol. iv. p. 501.

 

In a north window are the arms of De la Pole quartering Wingfield.

 

In 1465, Jeffry Wurliche of Brockdish was buried here, and in 1469 John Wurliche was interred in the nave, and left a legacy to pave the bottom of the steeple. In 1518, Henry Bokenham of Brockdish was buried in the church, as were many of the Spaldings, (fn. 2) Withes, Howards, Grices, Tendrings, and Laurences; who were all considerable owners and families of distinction in this town.

 

The chapel at the east end of the south isle was made by Sir Ralf Tendring of Brockdish, Knt. whose arms remain in its east window at this day, once with, and once without, a crescent az. on the fess, viz. az. a fess between two chevrons arg.

 

His altar monument stands against the east wall, north and south, and hath a sort of cupola over it, with a holy-water stope by it, and a pedestal for the image of the saint to which it was dedicated, to stand on, so that it served both for a tomb and an altar; the brass plates of arms and circumscription are lost.

 

On the north side, between the chapel and nave, stands another altar tomb, covered with a most curious marble disrobed of many brass plates of arms and its circumscription, as are several other stones in the nave, isle, and chancel. This is the tomb of John Tendring of Brockdish-hall, Esq. who lived there in 1403, and died in 1436, leaving five daughters his heirs, so that he was the last male of this branch of the Tendrings. Cecily his wife is buried by him.

 

On the east chancel wall, on the south side of the altar, is a white marble monument with this,

 

Obdormit hìc in Domino, lætam in Christo expectans Resurrectionem, Robertus, Roberti Laurence, ac Annæ Uxoris ejus, Filius, hujusce Ecclesiæ de Brockdish in Comitatû Norfolciensi Rector, ejusdem Villæ Dominus, ac Ecclesiæ Patronus, jure hereditario (si vixîsset) Futurus; Sed ah! Fato nimium immaturo abreptus; Cœlestia per Salvatoris merita sperans, Terrestria omnia, Juvenis reliquit. Dec. 31°. Anno æræ Christianæ mdccxxxixo. Ætatis xxvo. Maria, unica Soror et Hæres, Roberti Frankling Generosi Uxor, Fraterni Amoris hoc Testimonium animo grato, Memoriæ Sacrum posuit.

 

1. Laurence, arg. a cross raguled gul. on a chief gul. a lion passant guardant or.

 

2. Aslack, sab. a chevron erm. between three catherine-wheels arg.

 

3. Lany, arg. on a bend between two de-lises gul. a mullet of the field for difference.

 

4. Cooke, or, on a chevron ingrailed gul. a crescent of the field for difference, between three cinquefoils az. on a chief of the second, a lion passant guardant of the first.

 

5. Bohun, gul. a crescent erm. in an orle of martlets or.

 

6. Bardolf, az. three cinquefoils or.

 

7. Ramsey, gul. a chevron between three rams heads caboshed arg.

 

8. as 1.

 

Crest, a griffin seiant proper.

 

Motto, Floreat ut Laurus.

 

On a flat stone under this monument, is a brass plate thus inscribed,

 

Sacrum hoc Memoriæ Roberti Laurence Armigeri, qui obijt xxviijo die Julij 1637, Elizabeth Uxor ejus, Filia Aslak Lany Armigeri posuit.

 

Arms on a brass plate are,

 

Lawrence impaling Lany and his quarterings, viz. 1, Lany. 2, Aslack. 3, Cooke. 4, Bohun. 5, nine de-lises, 3, 3, and 3. 6, Bardolf. 7, Charles. 8, on a chevron three de-lises. 9, Ramsey. 10, Tendring. 11, on a fess two coronets. 12, Wachesam, arg. a fess, in chief two crescents gul. 13, a lion rampant. 14, Lany.

 

There is a picture of this Robert drawn in 1629, æt. 36. He built the hall in 1634; it stands near half a mile north-east of the church, and was placed near the old site of Brockdishe's-hall; the seat of the Tendrings, whose arms, taken out of the old hall when this was built, were fixed in the windows. The arms of this man and his wife, and several of their quarterings, are carved on the wainscot in the rooms.

 

On the south side of the churchyard is an altar tomb covered with a black marble, with the crest and arms of

 

Sayer, or Sawyer, gul. a chief erm. and a chevron between three seamews proper.

 

Crest, a hand holding a dragon's head erased proper.

 

To the Memory of Frances late the wife of Richard Tubby Esq. who departed this Life Dec. 22, 1728, in the 60th Year of her Age.

 

And adjoining is another altar tomb,

 

In Memory of Richard Tubby Esq. (fn. 3) who died Dec. 10th. 1741, in the 80th Year of his Age.

 

There are two other altar tombs in the churchyard, one for Mr. Rich. Chatton, and another for Eliz. daughter of Robert and Eliz. Harper, who died in 1719, aged 8 years.

 

The town takes its name from its situation on the Waveney or Wagheneye, which divides this county from that of Suffolk; the channel of which is now deep and broad, though nothing to what it was at that time, as is evident from the names of places upon this river, as the opposite vill, now called Sileham, (oftentimes wrote Sayl-holm, even to Edw. the Third's time) shows; for I make no doubt, but it was then navigable for large boats and barges to sail up hither, and continued so, till the sea by retiring at Yarmouth, and its course being stopt near Lowestoft, had not that influence on the river so far up, as it had before; which occasioned the water to retire, and leave much land dry on either side of the channel; though it is so good a stream, that it might with ease, even now, be made navigable hither; and it would be a good work, and very advantageous to all the adjacent country. That [Brod-dic] signifies no more than the broad-ditch, is very plain, and that the termination of ò, eau, or water, added to it, makes it the broad ditch of water, is as evident.

 

Before the Confessor's time, this town was in two parts; Bishop Stigand owned one, and the Abbot of Bury the other; the former afterwards was called the Earl's Manor, from the Earls of Norfolk; and the other Brockdishe's-hall, from its ancient lords, who were sirnamed from the town.

 

The superiour jurisdiction, lete, and all royalties, belonged to the Earl's manor, which was always held of the hundred of Earsham, except that part of it which belonged to Bury abbey, and that belonged to the lords of Brockdishe's-hall; but when the Earl's manor was sold by the Duke of Norfolk, with all royalties of gaming, fishing, &c. together with the letes, view of frankpledge, &c. free and exempt from his hundred of Earsham, and the two manors became joined as they now are, the whole centered in the lord of the town, who hath now the sole jurisdiction with the lete, belonging to it; and the whole parish being freehold, on every death or alienation, the new tenant pays a relief of a year's freehold rent, added to the current year: The annual free-rent, without such reliefs, amounting to above 3l. per annum. At the Conqueror's survey the town was seven furlongs long, and five furlongs and four perches broad, and paid 6d. to the geld or tax. At the Confessor's survey, there were 28 freemen here, six of which held half a carucate of land of Bishop Stigand, and the others held 143 acres under the Abbot of Bury, and the Abbot held the whole of Stigand, without whose consent the freemen could neither give away, nor sell their land, but were obliged to pay him 40s. a year free-rent; (fn. 4) and if they omitted paying at the year's end, they forfeited their lands, or paid their rent double; but in the Conqueror's time they paid 16l. per annum by tale. There were two socmen with a carucate of land, two villeins and two bordars here, which were given to Bury abbey along with the adjacent manor of Thorp-Abbots, but were after severed from that manor, and infeoffed by the Abbot of Bury in the lord of Brockdishe's-hall manor, with which it passed ever after. (fn. 5)

 

Brockdish-Earl's Manor, or Brockdish Comitis.

 

This manor always attended the manor of Forncet after it was granted from the Crown to the Bygods, along with the half hundred of Earsham, for which reason I shall refer you to my account of that manor at p. 223, 4. It was mostly part of the dower of the ladies of the several noble families that it passed through, and the living was generally given to their domestick chaplains. In 3 Edward I. the Abbot of Bury tried an action with Roger Bigod, then lord and patron, for the patronage; (fn. 6) pleading that a part of the town belonged to his house, and though they had infeoffed their manor here in the family of the Brockdishes, yet the right in the advowson remained in him; but it appearing that the advowson never belonged to the Abbot's manor, before the feofment was made, but that it wholly was appendant ever since the Confessor's time, to the Earl's manor, the Abbot was cast: notwithstanding which in 1335, Sir John Wingfield, Knt. and Thomas his brother, William de Lampet and Alice his wife, and Catherine her sister, owners of Brockdishe's manor, revived the claim to the advowson; and Thomas de Wingfield, and lady Eleanor wife of Sir John Wingfield, presented here, and put up their arms in the church windows, as patrons, which still remain; but Mary Countess Marshal, who then held this manor in dower, brought her quare impedit, and ejected their clerk; since which time, it constantly attended this manor, being always appendant thereto. In 15 Edw. I. Roger Bigot, then lord, had free-warren in all this town, as belonging to this manor, having not only all the royalties of the town, but also the assise of bread and ale, and amerciaments of all the tenants of his own manor, and of the tenants of Reginald de Brockdish, who were all obliged to do suit once a year at the Earl's view of frankpledge and lete in Brockdish; and it continued in the Norfolk family till 1570, and then Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk, obtained license from Queen Elizabeth to sell it; it being held in capite or in chief of the Crown, as part of the barony and honour of the said Duke, who accordingly sold the manor, advowson, free-fishery, and all the place or manor-house, and demean lands; together with the lete, view of frankpledge, liberty of free warren, and all other royalties whatsoever, free and exempt from any jurisdiction or payment to his half hundred of Earsham, to

 

Charles le Grice, Esq. of Brockdish, and his heirs, who was descended from Sir Rorert le Grys of Langley in Norfolk, Knt. equerry to Ric. I. and Oliva his wife, whose son, Sir Simon le Grys, Knt. of Thurveton, was alive in 1238, and married Agnes daughter and coheir to Augustine son of Richard de Waxtenesham or Waxham, of Waxham in Norfolk, by whom he had Roger le Grys of Thurton, Esq. who lived in the time of Edward I. whose son Thomas le Grice of Thurton, had Roger le Grice of Brockdish, who lived here in 1392; whose son Thomas left John le Grice his eldest son and heir, who married a Bateman, and lies buried in St. John Baptist's church in Norwich; (see vol. iv. p. 127;) but having no male issue, William le Grice of Brockdish, Esq. son of Robert le Grice of Brockdish, his uncle, inherited; he married Sibill, daughter and sole heir of Edmund Singleton of Wingfield in Suffolk, and had

 

Anthony le Grice of Brockdish, Esq. (fn. 7) who married Margaret, daughter of John Wingfield, Esq. of Dunham, who lived in the place, and died there in 1553, and lies buried in the church, by whom his wife also was interred in 1562. His brother Gilbert Grice of Yarmouth, Gent. (fn. 8) first agreed with the Duke for Brockdish, but died before it was completed; so that Anthony, who was bound with him for performance of the covenants, went on with the purchase for his son,

 

Charles le Grice aforesaid, (fn. 9) to whom it was conveyed: he married two wives; the first was Susan, daughter and heir of Andrew Manfield, Gent. and Jane his wife, who was buried here in 1564; the second was Hester, daughter of Sir George Blagge, Knt. who held the manor for life; and from these two wives descended the numerous branches of the Grices of Brockdish, Norwich, Wakefield in Yorkshire, &c. He was buried in this church April 12, 1575, and was found to hold his manor of the hundred of Earsham, in free soccage, without any rent or service, and not in capite; and Brockdishe's-hall manor of the King, as of his barony of Bury St. Edmund in Suffolk, which lately belonged to the abbey there, in free soccage, without any rent or service, and not in capite, and

 

William le Grice, Esq. was his eldest son and heir, who at the death of his mother-in-law, was possessed of the whole estate; for in 1585, William Howard, then lord of Brockdishe's-hall manor, agreed and sold it to this William, and Henry le Grice his brother, and their heirs; but Howard dying the next year, the purchase was not completed till 1598, when Edw. Coppledick, Gent. and other trustees, brought a writ of entry against John son of the said William Howard, Gent. and had it settled absolutely in the Grices, from which time the two manors have continued joined as they are at this day; by Alice, daughter and heiress of Mr. Eyre of Yarmouth; he left

 

Francis le Grice, Esq. his son and heir, who sold the whole estate, manors, and advowson, to

 

Robert Laurence of Brockdish, Esq. (fn. 10) who married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard, son of Edmund Anguish of Great-Melton, by whom he had

 

Robert Laurence, Esq. his son and heir, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Aslack Lany, who survived him, and remarried in 1640, to Richard Smith, Gent. by whom she had one child, Eliz. buried here in 1641: he died July 24, 1637, and lies buried by the altar as aforesaid: he built the present hall, and had divers children, as Aslak Laurence, Robert, born in 1633, buried in 1635, Samuel Laurence, born in 1635, Ellen, born in 1635, Elizabeth, who married William Reynolds of Great-Massingham, Gent. and

 

Francis Laurence of Brockdish, Esq. his eldest son and heir, who married Ellen, daughter of Thomas Patrick of Castle-acre, Gent. widow of Mathew Halcote of Litcham, Gent. who survived him, and held Brockdish in jointure to her death, which happened Jan. 6, 1741, when she was buried in the nave of Litcham church: they had Frances, and Elizabeth, who died infants; Mary, who died single about 1736, and was buried in the vestry belonging to Castleacre church; Jane, married to Mr. Thomas Shin of Great Dunham, by whom a Thomas, a son, &c. she being dead; Ellen, now widow of Thomas Young of Oxboro, Gent. who died Oct. 1743, leaving issue, the Rev. Mr. Thomas-Patrick Young of Caius college in Cambridge, Benjamin and Mary, and

 

Samuel Lawrence, Gent. their second son, is now alive and single; and

 

Robert Lawrence, Esq. their eldest son and heir, is long since dead, but by Anne daughter of John Meriton, late rector of Oxburgh, his wife, he left one son,

 

Robert Laurence, late rector of Brockdish, who died single, and

 

Mrs. Mary Laurence, his only sister, who is now living, and married to Robert Frankling, Gent. of Lynn in Norfolk, is the present lord in her right, but they have no issue.

 

Brockdishe's-Hall Manor,

 

Belonged to Bury abbey as aforesaid, till the time of Henry I. and then the Abbot infeoffed

 

Sir Stephen de Brockdish in it, from whom it took its present name; he was to hold it at the 4th part of a knight's fee of that abbey: it contained a capital messuage or manor-house, called now Brockdishe's-hall; 105 acres of land in demean, 12 acres of wood, 8 of meadow, and 4l. 13s. 10d. rents of assise; he left it to

 

Jeffery de Brockdish his son, and he to

 

William, his son and heir, who in 1267, by the name of William de Hallehe de Brokedis, or Will. of Brockdish-hall, was found to owe suit and service once in a year with all his tenants, to the lete of the Earl of Norfolk, held here. He left this manor, and the greatest part of his estate in Norwich-Carleton (which he had with Alice Curson his wife) to

 

Thomas, his son and heir, and the rest of it to Nigel de Brockdish, his younger son; (see p. 102;) Thomas left it to

 

Reginald, his eldest son and heir, and he to

 

Sir Stephen de Brockdish, Knt. his son and heir, who was capital bailiff of all the Earl of Norfolk's manors in this county; he was lord about 1329, being succeeded by his son,

 

Stephen, who by Mary Wingfield his wife, had

 

Reginald de Brockdish, his son and heir, (fn. 11) to whom he gave Brockdish-hall manor in Burston, (see vol. i. p. 127, vol. ii. p. 506,) but he dying before his father, was never lord here; his two daughters and heiresses inheriting at his father's death, viz.

 

Alice, married to William de Lampet about 1355, and Catherine some time after, to William son of John de Herdeshull, lord of North Kellesey and Saleby in Lincolnshire, who inherited each a moiety, according to the settlement made by their grandfather, who infeoffed Sir John de Wingfield, Knt. and Eleanor his wife, and Thomas his brother, in trust for them; (fn. 12) soon after, one moiety was settled on Robert Mortimer and Catherine his wife, by John Hemenhale, clerk, and John de Lantony, their trustees; and not long after the whole was united, and belonged to

 

Sir William Tendring of Stokeneyland, Knt. and Margaret his wife, daughter and coheir of Sir Will. Kerdeston of Claxton in Norfolk, Knt. who were succeeded by their son and heir

 

Sir John Tendring of Stokeneyland, Knt. who jointly with Agnes his wife, settled it on

 

Sir Ralf Tendring of Brockdish, Knt. one of their younger sons, who built the old hall (which was pulled down by Robert Lawrence, Esq. when he erected the present house) and the south isle chapel, in which he and Alice his wife are interred; his son,

 

John Tendring of Brockdish, Esq. who was lord here and of Westhall in Colney, (see p. 5,) and was buried in the said chapel, with Cecily his wife, died in 1436, and left five daughrers, coheiresses, viz.

 

Cecily, married to Robert Ashfield of Stowlangetot in Suffolk, Esq.

 

Elizabeth, to Simeon Fincham of Fincham in Norfolk, Esq.

 

Alice, to Robert Morton.

 

Joan, to Henry Hall of Helwinton.

 

Anne, to John Braham of Colney.

 

Who joined and levied a fine and sold it to

 

Thomas Fastolff, Esq. and his heirs; and the year following, they conveyed all their lands, &c. in Wigenhall, Tilney, and Islington, to

 

Sir John Howard, Knt. and his heirs; and vested them in his trustees, who, the year following, purchased the manor of Fastolff to himself and heirs; this Sir John left Brockdish to a younger son,

 

Robert Howard, Esq. who settled here, and by Isabel his wife had

 

William Howard of Brockdish, Esq. who was lord in 1469; he had two wives, Alice and Margaret, from whom came a very numerous issue, but

 

Robert, his son and heir, had this manor, who by Joan his wife had

 

William Howard, his eldest son and heir, who died in 1566, seized of many lands in Cratfield, Huntingfield, Ubbeston, and Bradfield in Suffolk; and of many lands and tenements here, and in Sileham, &c. having sold this manor the year before his death, to the Grices as aforesaid; but upon the sale, he reserved, all other his estate in Brockdish, in which he dwelt, called Howard's Place, situate on the south side of the entrance of Brockdish-street; which house and farm went to

 

John Howard, his son and heir, the issue of whose three daughters, Grace, Margaret, and Elizabeth, failing, it reverted to

 

Mathew, son of William Howard, second brother to the said John Howard their father, whose second son,

 

Mathew Howard, afterwards owned it; and in 1711, it was owned by a Mathew Howard, and now by

 

Mr. Bucknall Howard of London, his kinsman (as I am informed.)

 

The site and demeans of the Earl's manor, now called the place, was sold from the manor by the Grices some time since, and after belonged to Sir Isaac Pennington, alderman of London, (see vol. i. p. 159,) and one of those who sat in judgment on the royal martyr, for which his estate was forfeited at the Restoration, and was given by Car. II. to the Duke of Grafton; and his Grace the present Duke of Grafton, now owns it.

 

the benefactions to this parish are,

 

One close called Algorshegge, containing three acres, (fn. 13) and a grove and dove-house formerly built thereon containing about one acre, at the east end thereof; the whole abutting on the King's highway north, and the glebe of Brockdish rectory west: and one tenement abutting on Brockdish-street south, called Seriches, (fn. 14) with a yard on the north side thereof, were given by John Bakon the younger, of Brockdish, son of John Bakon the elder, of Thorp-Abbots; the clear profits to go yearly to pay the tenths and fifteenths for the parish of Brockdish when laid, and when they are not laid, to repair and adorn the parish church there for ever: his will is proved in 1433. There are always to be 12 feoffees, of such as dwell, or are owners in the parish, and when the majority of them are dead, the survivors are to fill up the vacancies.

 

In 1590, 1 Jan. John Howard, Gent. John Wythe, Gent. William Crickmere and Daniel Spalding, yeomen, officers of Brockdish, with a legacy left to their parish in 1572, by John Sherwood, late of Brokdish, deceased, purchased of John Thruston of Hoxne, Gent. John Thruston his nephew, Thomas Barker, and the inhabitants of Hoxne in Suffolk, one annuity or clear yearly rent-charge of 6s. 8d. issuing out of six acres of land and pasture in Hoxne, in a close called Calston's-close, one head abutting on a way leading from Heckfield-Green to Moles-Cross, towards the east; to the only use and behoof of the poor of Brockdish, to be paid on the first of November in Hoxne church-porch, between 12 and 4 in the afternoon of the same day, with power to distrain and enter immediately for non-payment; the said six acres are warranted to be freehold, and clear of all incumbrances, except another rentcharge of 13s. 4d. granted to Hoxne poor, to be paid at the same day and place

 

In 1592, John Howard of Brockdish sold to the inhabitants there, a cottage called Laune's, lying between the glebes on all parts; this hath been dilapidated many years, but the site still belongs to the parish.

 

From the old Town Book.

 

1553, 1st Queen Mary, paid for a book called a manuel 2s. 6d.; for two days making the altar and the holy-water stope, and for a lock for the font. 1554, paid for the rood 9d. 1555, paid for painting the rood-loft 14d. At the visitation of my Lord Legate 16d. To the organs maker 4d. and for the chalice 26s. 1557, paid for carriage of the Bible to Bocnam 12d. for deliverance of the small books at Harlstone 15d.; the English Bibles and all religious Protestant tracts usually at this time left in the churches for the information and instruction of the common people, being now called in by the Papist Queen. Paid for two images making 5s.; for painting them 16d. for irons for them 8d. But in 1558, as soon as Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, all these Popish, images, &c. were removed out of the church. Paid for sinking the altar 4d.; carrying out the altar 5d.; mending the communion table 3d.; 1561, paid for the X. Commandments 18d.; for pulling down the rood-loft 14d.; paid Roger Colby repairing the crosse in the street 26s. 8d.; for a lock to the crosse-house, &c.; 1565, for digging the ground and levelling the low altar, (viz. in the south chapel,) and mending the pavement. For makyng the communion cup at Harlston 5s. 4d. besides 6s. 2d. worth of silver more than the old chalice weyed. 1569, paid to Belward the Dean for certifying there is no cover to the cup, 8d. 1657, layd out 19s. 4d. for the relief of Attleburgh, visited with the plague. Laid out 17s. for the repair of the Brockdish part of Sileham bridge, leading over the river to Sileham church. This bridge is now down, through the negligence of both the parishes, though it was of equal service to both, and half of it repaired by each of them. In 1618, the church was wholly new paved and repaired; and in 1619, the pulpit and desk new made, new books, pulpit-cloth, altar-cloth, &c. bought.

 

From the Register:

 

1593, Daniel son of Robert Pennington, Gent. bapt. 13 July. 1626, John Brame, Gent. and Anne Shardelowe, widow, married Sept. 2. 1631, John Blomefield and Elizabeth Briges married May 30. 1666, Roger Rosier, Gent. buried. 1735, Henry Blomefield of Fersfield, Gent. single man, and Elizabeth Bateman of Mendham, single woman, married Feb. 27.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol5...

This is a photograph from the annual St. Coca's AC 5KM Road Race 2013 which was held in Kilcock, Co. Kildare, Ireland at 20:00 on Friday 27th June 2013. This superb road race is now firmly established again as one of the fastest and best organised road races of it's kind in Leinster. The course is left handed and starts outside the 'Bawn Og' St. Coca's AC track. It then proceeds around a well known local walking route around Laragh and in the closing kilometer runs parallel to the Royal Canal into the finish at the railway station. The members of St. Coca's AC and the many volunteers from the local community must be given great praise for organising another fantastic night of racing for runners, joggers, and walkers. The 5KM course is very flat with the exception of short incline up a motorway overpass and makes its way along narrow country lanes sheltered on either side by hedgerows. The weather was dry and humid and this made a good evening for an enjoyable night for everyone with a large crowd gathering at the finish to cheer on participants. Over 400 people participated in the race. There was a fantastic spread of refreshments (cakes, biscuits, sandwiches and hot drinks) in the school afterwards.

 

We have a large set of photographs from the event today. The full set is accessible at: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157645423471903/

 

Timing and event management was provided by Precision Timing. Results are available on their website at www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer with additional material available on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/davidprecisiontiming?fref=ts) See their promotional video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7_TUVwJ6Q

 

Reading on a Smartphone or tablet? Don't forget to scroll down further to read more about this race and see important Internet links to other information about the race! You can also find out how to access and download these photographs.

 

Some Useful Links

2014 St. Coca's 5KM Results www.precisiontiming.net/result.aspx?v=2056

GPS Trace of the 5KM Course (course hasn't changed in a few years) connect.garmin.com/activity/194011978

 

St. Coca's AC Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/stcocas.ac?ref=ts&fref=ts

St. Coca's Race Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/stcocas.roadrace?ref=ts&fref=ts

Start/finish area on Google Maps [Start: www.google.ie/maps/@53.397601,-6.675909,15z Finish: goo.gl/maps/3kPKq] are all within easy access of race HQ and the local village.

Google Streetview of the Location of the Race Finish: goo.gl/maps/3kPKq

 

Our Flickr Photograph Set of the St. Coca's 5KM 2013: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157634382263872/

Our Flickr Photograph Set of the St. Coca's 5KM 2012: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157630347296616/

Our Flickr Photograph Set of the St. Coca's 5KM 2011: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157627042558602/

 

The Boards.ie Discussion Forum Thread about the Race in 2014: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057223729

The Boards.ie Discussion Forum Thread about the Race in 2013: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056954512

Read the Irish Heart Foundation Booklet on the "Slí na Sláinte" which the race encorporates: www.irishheart.ie/media/pub/slinaslainte/maps/kilcock.pdf

 

Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account(s)?

 

Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.

 

We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us.

 

This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

 

I want to download these pictures to my computer or device?

 

You can download the photographic image here direct to your computer or device. This version is the low resolution web-quality image. How to download will vary slight from device to device and from browser to browser. However - look for a symbol with three dots 'ooo' or the link to 'View/Download' all sizes. When you click on either of these you will be presented with the option to download the image. Remember just doing a right-click and "save target as" will not work on Flickr.

 

I want get full resolution, print-quality, copies of these photographs?

 

If you just need these photographs for online usage then they can be used directly once you respect their Creative Commons license and provide a link back to our Flickr set if you use them. For offline usage and printing all of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution.

 

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

 

In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.

 

I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?

Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

 

We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs

We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?

The explaination is very simple.

Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.

ShareAlike – anyone can use these photographs, and make changes if they like, or incorporate them into a bigger project, but they must make those changes available back to the community under the same terms.

 

Creative Commons aims to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

 

I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?

 

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

 

     ►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

     ►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

     ►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

     ►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

  

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.

 

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets

Website:

www.museudooriente.pt/

www.museudooriente.pt/?lang=en

 

PORTUGUESE PRESENCE IN ASIA

english

The unifying concept underpinning this wide reaching exhibition was the

construction of an Oriental utopia by the Portuguese, from the 15th century right through to contemporary times based on trade, proselytism and the interchange of cultures. Given the boundaries to the collection theme allusive to the Portuguese presence in Asia, an enormous effort was therefore put into conceptualising and staging a narrative that would serve to maximise its unquestionable values and offset any shortcomings.

The visitor is welcomed into the central area on level 1 dedicated to Macau, a territory formerly under Portuguese administration and where the Fundação Oriente was founded in 1988. The large exhibition area is dominated by the four magnificent Chinese folding screens belonging to the collection. The oldest displays a Portuguese nau sailing the China Sea and flanked by another, essentially decorative in nature, bearing the coat of arms of the Gonçalves Zarco family and another inscribed with “do Coromandel”, with interesting Christian iconography echoing the school of painting founded by the Jesuits in Japan and that later spread to Macau. The fourth highly rare screen, displaying representations of the cities of Canton and Macau, is located next to the section dedicated to the iconography of the Cidade do Nome de Deus de Macau, with exhibits particularly focusing on the 17th and 18th centuries complemented by pieces from the 19th.

A granite statue, a crude depiction of a Dutchman, recalls the failed attempt to conquer Macau by Holland in 1622. This exhibition section also features a number of paintings and engravings from the period known as “China Trade” (18-19th centuries), both by Western and by Chinese artists.

A small set of designs and a charming painted miniature recall the extensive twenty seven year stay in Macau of the famous painter Georges Chinnery (1774-1852). This exponent of romantic Oriental landscapes left a sizeable legacy of urban, natural and human landscapes across the territory just as its final period of splendour as a key trading post between China and the West came to a close. On visits to Praia Grande or the sampans next to the A-Má Temple, the artist captured surprising instants of daily life dominated by the presence of the Chinese population going about their affairs against a backdrop influenced by a nostalgic European presence.

The role of Macau in international trade is extensively documented in the opposite section with highlights including the collection of porcelain bearing coats of arms laid out with the plates, dishes, terrines or jugs forming a dragon. Furthermore, there is a significant selection of examples of “China Trade” gouaches portraying the production and trade in tea and porcelain as well as Chinese fans so highly appreciated in the West.

Moving onto the eastern sector of level 1, leading onto the staircase, we encounter the following sections:

• And among remote people was founded/ A new kingdom held in great exaltation. Portuguese presence in Asia, in which, “guided” by the words of Camões in his epic Os Lusíadas in addition to those of Fernão Mendes Pinto in Peregrinação and based on a carefully selected range of objects (furniture, textiles, gold jewellery, painting and ivory pieces), complemented by maps and scale models, the establishment and expansion of the Portuguese Empire in the Orient is set out. Centred around Goa, this section features cities and strongholds, the social and cultural interchange resulting from the dialogue and confrontation between cultures and religions. Within this scope, of particular importance are an 18th century treatise written by a Goan on Hindu gentiles along with a set of watercolours making up an album portraying the traditional characters, professions and military authorities in India,

• The Far East, which testifies to the Portuguese discovery of the culture of the Middle Empire and the lucrative trade in luxury products that came about while also incorporating the role of the missionaries that would accompany the traders and soldiers and who first founded the Christian Church in China, as well as those martyred for their faith. The profitable interchange with Japan throughout the 16th and 17th centuries is brilliantly encapsulated by two folding screens and the Namban lacquered pieces, among the most significant pieces in the entire collection,

• The mother of pearl route: from the Holy Land to Oriental Asia, a collection made up of devotional pieces and “remembrances”, of small and medium size, destined either for export or the local Christian community with crucifixes and fixed crosses to the fore in a collection built up over decades by the sculptor Domingos Soares Branco and acquired by the Fundação Oriente.

With this section over, the visitor again returns to the central area of the Macau section and enters the western wing given over to the following:

• East Timor, peoples and cultures, a very rich collection that documents, through pieces related either to the daily reality and the genealogic traditions or to the sacred, the unity and diversity of the cultures presented in addition to the close ties these peoples held and still hold with Portugal. The seed remover and the bench are located in the daily world of working instruments while the bracelets, necklaces, insignias of power or circumcision knives project us into the worlds of ceremony and ritual and developed through the various types of mask present. The various types of cloth woven by Timorese women illustrate the genealogical traditions within community while the decorative doors and panels of homes or votive statues takes us into the microcosm of Timorese homes with their succession of storeys — from ground level, home to animals and lesser spirits, up to the quarters of the living before rising to the area given over to the worship of ancestors.

• Collecting the Art of East Asia contains a collection of terracotta and other antique Chinese, Japanese and Korean pieces acquired by the Fundação Oriente complemented by loans from Machado de Castro National Museum in Coimbra, enriched by the bequests of the poet Camilo Pessanha and the politician and writer Manuel Teixeira Gomes.

Given the extent of the Chinese ceramics collection, covering the most diverse period and techniques, the exhibition documents the typological evolution of funereal terracotta works, with examples dating back to the Neolithic period and running through to the Ming dynasty, as well as ceramics and porcelain both for practical daily purposes and pieces made for export.

The display further contains a small but significant set of bronzes in the majority deriving from the Camilo Pessanha Collection, some of them highly rare either due to their age or their artistic quality. A set of images, of various origins, and paintings in the Pessanha Collection provide a point of reference to the most erudite of Buddhist and Taoist artistic expression.

Courtesy of the painting and costumes in the Pessanha Collection, it is possible to evoke the office and artistic tastes of a 19th century Chinese man of letters with all his “cherished items”, libation recipients, screens and folding screens, objects of devotion and the roles and albums of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy in addition to their respective means of execution.

From the notable collection of Chinese snuff flasks built up by Manuel Teixeira Gomes, the second largest in Europe, there is a representative selection of existing different types. The same level is reached with the Japanese collection of the same type: inrô (small and portable personal containers), netzuke (to close the inrô and mask shaped mostly with depictions of the leading characters from Nô Theatre) and tsuba (sword hand guards), covering a broad chronological period and which in the case of Japan are complemented by three monumental sets of armour and other ceramics, bronzes, painting and furniture.

Concluding this section, there is a display of Korean pieces: a lacquered wooden box set with mother of pearl incrustations and an interesting set of watercolours from the late 19th century by the Korean artist Kim Jun-geun, known by his artistic name of Kisan, depicting the clothing, costumes and festivals of Korea and produced for European and American markets.

 

português

 

O conceito gerador deste grande módulo expositivo foi a construção de uma utopia oriental pelos Portugueses, desde o século XV até aos nossos dias, baseada no comércio, na missionação e no encontro de culturas. Dados os referidos condicionalismos da colecção alusiva à presença portuguesa na Ásia, houve que fazer um enorme esforço de conceptualização e de encenação narrativa para de algum modo potenciar os seus indiscutíveis valores e minorar as suas fraquezas.

O visitante é acolhido no espaço central do piso 1, que é dedicado a Macau, território outrora sob administração portuguesa onde foi fundada a Fundação Oriente, em 1988. Este amplo espaço é dominado pela exposição de quatro magníficos biombos chineses da colecção: o mais antigo representa uma nau portuguesa nos mares da China e encontra-se ladeado por outros dois, um de carácter essencialmente decorativo, decorado com as armas da família Gonçalves Zarco, e um outro, dito “do Coromandel”, com interessante iconografia cristã, eco da escola de pintura criada no Japão pelos Jesuítas, que mais tarde se estenderia a Macau. O quarto biombo, raríssimo exemplar decorado com as representações das cidades de Cantão e de Macau, encontra-se junto à secção dedicada à iconografia da Cidade do Nome de Deus de Macau, com exemplares que remontam aos séculos XVII e XVIII e se estendem pelo século XIX.

Uma estátua em granito, representando toscamente um holandês, evoca a tentativa frustrada de conquista de Macau pelos Holandeses, em 1622. Neste módulo expositivo destacam-se ainda várias pinturas e gravuras do chamado período “China Trade” (séculos XVIII-XIX), tanto de autores ocidentais como de autores chineses.

Um pequeno conjunto de desenhos e uma encantadora pinturinha lembram a prolongada presença de vinte e sete anos em Macau do famoso pintor britânico Georges Chinnery (1774-1852), expoente do paisagismo romântico no Oriente, que deixou um notável registo das paisagens urbana, natural e humana do território no derradeiro período do seu esplendor como entreposto entre a China e o Ocidente. Nas vistas da Praia Grande ou das sampanas junto ao Templo de A-Má surpreendem-se instantâneos do quotidiano que envolvem dominantemente a presença da população chinesa nas suas tarefas, em cenários marcados por uma nostálgica presença europeia.

O papel de Macau no comércio internacional está extensivamente documentado na secção oposta, salientando-se a colecção de porcelana brasonada, formando, na disposição de pratos, travessas, terrinas ou jarras, um dragão. Contudo, não deixam de ser significativas as séries de gouaches “China Trade” que representam o fabrico e o comércio do chá e da porcelana, assim como os leques chineses, muito apreciados no Ocidente.

Passando ao sector nascente do piso 1, fronteiro ao acesso por escada, sucedem-se os seguintes módulos:

 

• E entre gente remota edificaram/Novo reino que tanto sublimaram. Presença portuguesa na Ásia, em que, “guiados” pelas palavras de Camões n’ Os Lusíadas mas também pelas de Fernão Mendes Pinto na Peregrinação, se procura documentar, a partir de uma criteriosa selecção de objectos (mobiliário, têxteis, ourivesaria, pintura e marfins), complementada por mapas e maquetas, o estabelecimento e a construção do Império Português do Oriente, centrado em Goa, com as suas cidades e praças-fortes, as suas sociedade e cultura miscigenadas, em que se deu o diálogo e o confronto entre culturas e religiões. Neste particular destacam-se um exemplar setecentista de um tratado escrito por um goês sobre o gentilismo hindu, assim como as aguarelas de um álbum que representa tipos populares, profissões e autoridades militares da Índia;

• Ásia Extrema, em que se evidencia a descoberta, pelos Portugueses, da cultura do Império do Meio e do lucrativo comércio de produtos de luxo que com ele poderiam realizar, não esquecendo o papel dos missionários que acompanhavam os comerciantes e os soldados e deram início à Igreja Católica na China, inclusive os que sofreram o martírio pela Fé. O frutuoso encontro com o Japão nos séculos XVI e XVII é brilhantemente ilustrado por dois biombos e por lacas namban que estão entre as mais relevantes peças de toda a colecção;

Findo este sector, o visitante atravessa, de novo, o espaço central dedicado a Macau e entra no sector poente, em que se desenvolvem outros dois módulos:

• Timor-Leste, povos e culturas, colecção muito rica que documenta, através de peças relacionadas quer com as vivências quotidianas e as tradições linhagísticas quer com o sagrado, a unidade e a diversidade das culturas em presença, assim como os estreitos laços que esses povos souberam manter com Portugal. O descaroçador e o banco situam-nos no mundo quotidiano dos instrumentos de trabalho, enquanto as pulseiras, os colares, as insígnias de poder ou as facas de circuncisão nos projectam no universo cerimonial e ritual, tal como acontece com as diversas máscaras presentes. Os vários tipos de panos tecidos pelas mulheres timorenses ilustram os patrimónios linhagísticos das comunidades, enquanto as portas e os painéis decorativos das casas ou a estatuária votiva nos projectam no microcosmo da casa timorense com a sua sucessão de andares — do nível térreo, morada dos animais e dos espíritos inferiores, passando pela residência dos vivos, até ao lugar de culto dos antepassados.

• O coleccionismo de arte do Extremo Oriente, constituído pela colecção de terracotas e de outras antiguidades chinesas, japonesas e coreanas que foi adquirida pela Fundação Oriente, a que se acrescentaram os acervos em depósito provenientes do Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro, em Coimbra, em que se destacam os legados do poeta Camilo Pessanha e do político e escritor Manuel Teixeira Gomes.

Atendendo ao elevado número de exemplares de cerâmica chinesa dos mais diversos períodos e técnicas, é possível documentar a evolução tipológica das terracotas funerárias, com exemplares que remontam ao Neolítico e se estendem até à dinastia Ming, assim como da cerâmica e da porcelana de uso quotidiano, nela incluindo alguma de exportação.

Expõe-se também um pequeno mas significativo conjunto de bronzes provenientes, na sua maioria, da Colecção Camilo Pessanha, alguns deles de grande raridade pela sua antiguidade e pela qualidade artística. Um grupo de imagens de vária proveniência e algumas pinturas da Colecção Pessanha permitem referenciar a expressão artística mais erudita do budismo e do taoísmo.

Graças à pintura e ao traje da Colecção Pessanha, evoca-se o ambiente do gabinete e o gosto artístico de um letrado chinês de oitocentos, com as “preciosidades”, as taças de libação, os ecrãs e os biombos, os objectos devocionais ou os rolos e álbuns de pintura tradicional chinesa e de caligrafia, bem como os respectivos apetrechos de execução.

Da notável colecção de frascos de rapé de fabrico chinês de Manuel Teixeira Gomes, a segunda maior da Europa, apresenta-se uma significativa selecção das diferentes tipologias que a constituem. O mesmo se passa com as peças japonesas da mesma proveniência: os inrô (pequenos contentores portáteis pessoais), as netzuke (fechos dos inrô em forma de máscara, com personagens, na sua maioria, do Teatro Nô) e as tsuba (guarda-mãos de espada), peças de cronologia alargada, a que se acrescentam, ainda no âmbito do Japão, as três monumentais armaduras e outros objectos de cerâmica, bronze, pintura e mobiliário.

Concluindo este módulo, expõem-se também peças coreanas: uma caixa em madeira lacada com incrustações de madrepérola e uma curiosa série de aguarelas de finais de oitocentos da autoria do pintor coreano Kim Jun-geun, conhecido pelo nome artístico de Kisan, sobre trajos, costumes e festas da Coreia, realizadas para o mercado europeu e americano.

 

_______________________________________________________-

english

The Museum of the Orient (Portuguese: Museu do Oriente) in Lisbon, Portugal celebrates the history of Portuguese exploration with a collection of Asian artifacts. The museum opened in May, 2008, and is located in a refurbished industrial building on the Alcântara waterfront. The collection includes Indonesian textiles, Japanese screens, antique snuff bottles, crucifixes made in Asia for Western export, and the Kwok On Collection of masks, costumes, and accessories.

português

O Museu do Oriente está instalado no edifício Pedro Álvares Cabral, antigos armazéns da Comissão Reguladora do Comércio do Bacalhau em Alcântara, Lisboa.

O museu reúne colecções que têm o Oriente como temática principal, nas vertentes histórica, religiosa, antropológica e artística.

A exposição permanente engloba 1400 peças alusivas à presença portuguesa na Ásia e 650 peças pertencentes à colecção Kwok On.

O museu é da responsabilidade da Fundação Oriente e foi inaugurado no dia 8 de Maio de 2008.

A actual directora é Maria Manuela d'Oliveira Martins.

Foi classificado como Monumento de interesse público (MIP) pelo IGESPAR em 15 de junho de 2010.

 

The Museum of the Moon was still supposed to be on. Or, to be more accurate, I had not checked that it was still on, but would be a good excuse to return to Rochester for the first time in over a decade.

 

Last time here I took seven or so shots, I was hoping to improve on that.

 

But, as I was to find, the Moon moved out on Wednesday, so there was just the cathedral to look at and record, and I pretty much had the cathedral to myself.

 

There was a service in the chancel, so that and the Quire were out of bounds for a while, but once over I was given the nod I could go in.

 

How do you describe a cathedral? Especially one as grand and old as Rochester?

 

From the west, the cathedral doesn't look too big, but there is a viewing place from the High Street that shows the cathedral to be a large and complicated building.

 

Inside the nave is huge, with the organ towering over the altar. Through the doorway into the quire and the sanctuary beyond, and all the while, above the white vaulted ceiling reached from the high walls and columns.

 

All around the walls are memorials to the great and good of Kent, some tombs too. The step leading from the aisles to the sanctuary are worn down by the millions of feet that have climbed them over the centuries.

 

-------------------------------------------

 

The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church of England and the seat (cathedra) of the Bishop of Rochester, the second oldest bishopric in England after that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The edifice is a Grade I listed building (number 1086423)

 

The Rochester diocese was founded by Justus, one of the missionaries who accompanied Augustine of Canterbury to convert the pagan southern English to Christianity in the early 7th century. As the first Bishop of Rochester, Justus was granted permission by King Æthelberht of Kent to establish a church dedicated to Andrew the Apostle (like the monastery at Rome where Augustine and Justus had set out for England) on the site of the present cathedral, which was made the seat of a bishopric. The cathedral was to be served by a college of secular priests and was endowed with land near the city called Priestfields.[3][a][b]

 

Under the Roman system, a bishop was required to establish a school for the training of priests.[4] To provide the upper parts for music in the services a choir school was required.[5] Together these formed the genesis of the cathedral school which today is represented by the King's School, Rochester. The quality of chorister training was praised by Bede.

 

The original cathedral was 42 feet (13 m) high and 28 feet (8.5 m) wide. The apse is marked in the current cathedral on the floor and setts outside show the line of the walls. Credit for the construction of the building goes to King Æthelberht rather than St Justus. Bede describes St Paulinus' burial as "in the sanctuary of the Blessed Apostle Andrew which Æthelberht founded likewise he built the city of Rochester."[c][7]

 

Æthelberht died in 617 and his successor, Eadbald of Kent, was not a Christian. Justus fled to Francia and remained there for a year before he was recalled by the king.[8]

 

In 644 Ithamar, the first English-born bishop, was consecrated at the cathedral.[d] Ithamar consecrated Deusdedit as the first Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury on 26 March 655.[9]

 

The cathedral suffered much from the ravaging of Kent by King Æthelred of Mercia in 676. So great was the damage that Putta retired from the diocese and his appointed successor, Cwichelm, gave up the see "because of its poverty".[10]

 

In 762, the local overlord, Sigerd, granted land to the bishop, as did his successor Egbert.[e][11] The charter is notable as it is confirmed by Offa of Mercia as overlord of the local kingdom.

 

Following the invasion of 1066, William the Conqueror granted the cathedral and its estates to his half-brother, Odo of Bayeux. Odo misappropriated the resources and reduced the cathedral to near-destitution. The building itself was ancient and decayed. During the episcopate of Siward (1058–1075) it was served by four or five canons "living in squalor and poverty".[12] One of the canons became vicar of Chatham and raised sufficient money to make a gift to the cathedral for the soul and burial of his

 

Gundulf's church

 

Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, amongst others, brought Odo to account at the trial of Penenden Heath c. 1072. Following Odo's final fall, Gundulf was appointed as the first Norman bishop of Rochester in 1077. The cathedral and its lands were restored to the bishop.

 

Gundulf's first undertaking in the construction of the new cathedral seems to have been the construction of the tower which today bears his name. In about 1080 he began construction of a new cathedral to replace Justus' church. He was a talented architect who probably played a major part in the design or the works he commissioned. The original cathedral had a presbytery of six bays with aisles of the same length. The four easternmost bays stood over an undercroft which forms part of the present crypt. To the east was a small projection, probably for the silver shrine of Paulinus which was translated there from the old cathedral.[f] The transepts were 120 feet long, but only 14 feet wide. With such narrow transepts it is thought that the eastern arches of the nave abuted the quire arch.[14] To the south another tower (of which nothing visible remains) was built. There was no crossing tower.[15] The nave was not completed at first. Apparently designed to be nine bays long, most of the south side but only five bays to the north were completed by Gundulf. The quire was required by the priory and the south wall formed part of its buildings. It has been speculated that Gundulf simply left the citizens to complete the parochial part of the building.[16] Gundulf did not stop with the fabric, he also replaced the secular chaplains with Benedictine monks, obtained several royal grants of land and proved a great benefactor to his cathedral city.

 

In 1078 Gudulf founded St Bartholomew's Hospital just outside the city of Rochester. The Priory of St Andrew contributed daily and weekly provisions to the hospital which also received the offerings from the two altars of St James and of St Giles.[17]

 

During the episcopates of Ernulf (1115–1124) and John (I) (1125–1137) the cathedral was completed. The quire was rearranged, the nave partly rebuilt, Gundulf's nave piers were cased and the west end built. Ernulf is also credited with building the refectory, dormitory and chapter house, only portions of which remain. Finally John translated the body of Ithamar from the old Saxon cathedral to the new Norman one, the whole being dedicated in 1130 (or possibly 1133) by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by 13 bishops in the presence of Henry I, but the occasion was marred by a great fire which nearly destroyed the whole city and damaged the new cathedral. It was badly damaged by fires again in 1137 and 1179. One or other of these fires was sufficiently severe to badly damage or destroy the eastern arm and the transepts. Ernulf's monastic buildings were also damaged.

 

Probably from about 1190, Gilbert de Glanville (bishop 1185–1214) commenced the rebuilding of the east end and the replacement on the monastic buildings. The north quire transept may have been sufficiently advanced to allow the burial of St William of Perth in 1201, alternatively the coffin may have lain in the north quire aisle until the transept was ready. It was then looted in 1215 by the forces of King John during siege of Rochester Castle. Edmund de Hadenham recounts that there was not a pyx left "in which the body of the Lord might rest upon the altar".[14] However, by 1227, the quire was again in use when the monks made their solemn entry into it. The cathedral was rededicated in 1240 by Richard Wendene (also known as Richard de Wendover) who had been translated from Bangor.[14][18]

 

The shrines of Ss Paulinus and William of Perth, along with the relics of St Ithamar, drew pilgrims to the cathedral. Their offerings were so great that both the work mentioned above and the ensuing work could be funded.

 

Unlike the abbeys of the period (which were led by an abbot) the monastic cathedrals were priories ruled over by a prior with further support from the bishop.[19] Rochester and Carlisle (the other impoverished see) were unusual in securing the promotion of a number of monks to be bishop. Seven bishops of Rochester were originally regular monks between 1215 and the Dissolution.[20] A consequence of the monastic attachment was a lack of patronage at the bishop's disposal. By the early 16th century only 4% of the bishop's patronage came from non-parochial sources.[21] The bishop was therefore chronically limited in funds to spend on the non-monastic part of the cathedral.

 

The next phase of the development was begun by Richard de Eastgate, the sacrist. The two eastern bays of the nave were cleared and the four large piers to support the tower were built. The north nave transept was then constructed. The work was nearly completed by Thomas de Mepeham who became sacrist in 1255. Not long after the south transept was completed and the two bays of the nave nearest the crossing rebuilt to their current form. The intention seems to have been to rebuild the whole nave, but probably lack of funds saved the late Norman work.

 

The cathedral was desecrated in 1264 by the troops of Simon de Montfort, during sieges of the city and castle. It is recorded that armed knights rode into the church and dragged away some refugees. Gold and silver were stolen and documents destroyed. Some of the monastic buildings were turned into stables.[22] Just over a year later De Montfort fell at the Battle of Evesham to the forces of Edward I. Later, in 1300, Edward passed through Rochester on his way to Canterbury and is recorded as having given seven shillings (35p) at the shrine of St William, and the same again the following day. During his return he again visited the cathedral and gave a further seven shillings at each of the shrines of Ss Paulinus and Ithamar.

 

The new century saw the completion of the new Decorated work with the original Norman architecture. The rebuilding of the nave being finally abandoned. Around 1320 the south transept was altered to accommodate the altar of the Virgin Mary.

 

There appears to have been a rood screen thrown between the two western piers of the crossing. A rood loft may have surmounted it.[23] Against this screen was placed the altar of St Nicholas, the parochial altar of the city. The citizens demanded the right of entrance by day or night to what was after all their altar. There were also crowds of strangers passing through the city. The friction broke out as a riot in 1327 after which the strong stone screens and doors which wall off the eastern end of the church from the nave were built.[24] The priory itself was walled off from the town at this period. An oratory was established in angulo navis ("in the corner of the nave") for the reserved sacrament; it is not clear which corner was being referred to, but Dr Palmer[25] argues that the buttress against the north-west tower pier is the most likely setting. He notes the arch filled in with rubble on the aisle side; and on nave side there is a scar line with lower quality stonework below. The buttress is about 4 feet (1.2 m) thick, enough for an oratory. Palmer notes that provision for reservation of consecrated hosts was often made to the north of the altar which would be the case here.

 

The central tower was at last raised by Hamo de Hythe in 1343, thus essentially completing the cathedral. Bells were placed in the central tower (see Bells section below). The chapter room doorway was constructed at around this time. The Black Death struck England in 1347–49. From then on there were probably considerably more than twenty monks in the priory.

 

The modern paintwork of the quire walls is modelled on artwork from the Middle Ages. Gilbert Scott found remains of painting behind the wooden stalls during his restoration work in the 1870s. The painting is therefore part original and part authentic. The alternate lions and fleurs-de-lis reflect Edward III's victories, and assumed sovereignty over the French. In 1356 the Black Prince had defeated John II of France at Poitiers and took him prisoner. On 2 July 1360 John passed through Rochester on his way home and made an offering of 60 crowns (£15) at the Church of St Andrew.[27]

 

The Oratory provided for the citizens of Rochester did not settle the differences between the monks and the city. The eventual solution was the construction of St Nicholas' Church by the north side of the cathedral. A doorway was knocked through the western end of the north aisle (since walled up) to allow processions to pass along the north aisle of the cathedral before leaving by the west door.[27][28]

 

In the mid-15th century the clerestory and vaulting of the north quire aisle was completed and new Perpendicular Period windows inserted into the nave aisles. Possible preparatory work for this is indicated in 1410–11 by the Bridge Wardens of Rochester who recorded a gift of lead from the Lord Prior. The lead was sold on for 41 shillings.[g][29] In 1470 the great west window at the cathedral was completed and finally, in around 1490, what is now the Lady Chapel was built.[27] Rochester Cathedral, although one of England's smaller cathedrals, thus demonstrates all styles of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.[30]

 

In 1504 John Fisher was appointed Bishop of Rochester. Although Rochester was by then an impoverished see, Fisher elected to remain as bishop for the remainder of his life. He had been tutor to the young Prince Henry and on the prince's accession as Henry VIII, Fisher remained his staunch supporter and mentor. He figured in the anti-Lutheran policies of Henry right up until the divorce issue and split from Rome in the early 1530s. Fisher remained true to Rome and for his defence of the Pope was elevated as a cardinal in May 1535. Henry was angered by these moves and, on 22 June 1535, Cardinal Fisher was beheaded on Tower Green.

 

Henry VIII visited Rochester on 1 January 1540 when he met Ann of Cleves for the first time and was "greatly disappointed".[31] Whether connected or not, the old Priory of St Andrew was dissolved by royal command later in the year, one of the last monasteries to be dissolved.

 

The west front is dominated by the central perpendicular great west window. Above the window the dripstone terminates in a small carved head at each side. The line of the nave roof is delineated by a string course above which rises the crenelated parapet. Below the window is a blind arcade interrupted by the top of the Great West Door. Some of the niches in the arcade are filled with statuary. Below the arcade the door is flanked with Norman recesses. The door itself is of Norman work with concentric patterned arches. The semicircular tympanum depicts Christ sitting in glory in the centre, with Saints Justus and Ethelbert flanking him on either side of the doorway. Supporting the saints are angels and surrounding them are the symbols of the Four Evangelists: Ss Matthew (a winged man), Mark (a lion), Luke (an ox) and John (an eagle).[52] On the lintel below are the Twelve Apostles and on the shafts supporting it King Soloman and the Queen of Sheba.[53] Within the Great West Door there is a glass porch which allows the doors themselves to be kept open throughout the day.

 

Either side of the nave end rises a tower which forms the junction of the front and the nave walls. The towers are decorated with blind arcading and are carried up a further two stories above the roof and surmounted with pyramidal spires. The aisle ends are Norman. Each has a large round headed arch containing a window and in the northern recess is a small door. Above each arch is plain wall surmounted by a blind arcade, string course at the roof line and plain parapet. The flanking towers are Norman in the lower part with the style being maintained in the later work. Above the plain bases there are four stories of blind arcading topped with an octagonal spire.[54]

 

The outside of the nave and its aisles is undistinguished, apart from the walled up north-west door which allowed access from the cathedral to the adjacent St Nicholas' Church.[28] The north transept is reached from the High Street via Black Boy Alley, a medieval pilgrimage route. The decoration is Early English, but reworked by Gilbert Scott. Scott rebuilt the gable ends to the original high pitch from the lower one adopted at the start of the 19th century. The gable itself is set back from the main wall behind a parapet with walkway. He also restored the pilgrim entrance and opened up the blind arcade in the northern end of the west wall.[55]

 

To the east of the north transept is the Sextry Gate. It dates from Edward III's reign and has wooden domestic premises above. The area beyond was originally enclosed, but is now open to the High Street through the memorial garden and gates. Beyond the Sextry Gate is the entrance to Gundulf's Tower, used as a private back door to the cathedral.

 

The north quire transept and east end are all executed in Early English style, the lower windows light the crypt which is earlier. Adjoining the east end of the cathedral is the east end of the Chapter Room which is in the same style. The exact form of the east end is more modern than it appears, being largely due to the work of Scott in the 19th century. Scott raised the gable ends to the original high pitch, but for lack of funds the roofs have not been raised; writing in 1897 Palmer noted: "they still require roofs of corresponding pitch, a need both great and conspicuous".[56]

 

On the south side of the cathedral the nave reaches the main transept and beyond a modern porch. The aisle between the transepts is itself a buttress to the older wall behind and supported by a flying buttress. The unusual position of this wall is best explained when considering the interior, below. The southern wall of the presbytery is hidden by the chapter room, an 18th-century structure.

 

he western part of the nave is substantially as Gundulf designed it. According to George H. Palmer (who substantially follows St John Hope) "Rochester and Peterborough possess probably the best examples of the Norman nave in the country".[60] The main arcade is topped by a string course below a triforium. The triforium is Norman with a further string course above. The clerestory above is of perpendicular style. From the capitals pilasters rise to the first string course but appear to have been removed from the triforium stage. Originally they might have supported the roof timbers, or even been the springing of a vault.[61]

 

The easternmost bay of the triforium appears to be Norman, but is the work of 14th-century masons. The final bay of the nave is Decorated in style and leads to the tower piers. Of note is the north pier which possibly contains the Oratory Chapel mentioned above.[62]

 

The aisles are plain with flat pilasters. The eastern two bays are Decorated with springing for vaulting. Whether the vault was ever constructed is unknown, the present wooden roof extends the full length of the aisles.

 

The crossing is bounded to the east by the quire screen with the organ above. This is of 19th-century work and shows figures associated with the early cathedral. Above the crossing is the central tower, housing the bells and above that the spire. The ceiling of the crossing is notable for the four Green Men carved on the bosses. Visible from the ground is the outline of the trapdoor through which bells can be raised and lowered when required. The floor is stepped up to the pulpitum and gives access to the quire through the organ screen.

 

The north transept is from 1235 in Early English style. The Victorian insertion of windows has been mentioned above in the external description. Dominating the transept is the baptistery fresco. The fresco by Russian artist Sergei Fyodorov is displayed on the eastern wall. It is located within an arched recess. The recess may have been a former site of the altar of St Nicholas from the time of its construction in 1235 until it was moved to the screen before the pulpitum in 1322. A will suggests that "an altar of Jesu" also stood here at some point, an altar of some sort must have existed as evidenced by the piscina to the right of the recess.[64] The vaulting is unusual in being octpartite, a development of the more common sexpartite. The Pilgrim Door is now the main visitor entrance and is level for disabled access.

 

he original Lady Chapel was formed in the south transept by screening it off from the crossing. The altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary was housed in the eastern arch of the transept. There are traces of painting both on the east wall and under the arch. The painting delineates the location of the mediaeval north screen of the Lady Chapel. Around 1490 this chapel was extended westwards by piercing the western wall with a large arch and building the chapel's nave against the existing south aisle of cathedral. From within the Lady Chapel the upper parts of two smaller clerestory windows may be seen above the chapel's chancel arch. Subsequently, a screen was placed under the arch and the modern Lady Chapel formed in the 1490 extension.

 

The south transept is of early Decorated style. The eastern wall of it is a single wide arch at the arcade level. There are two doorways in the arch, neither of which is used, the northern one being hidden by the memorial to Dr William Franklin. The south wall starts plain but part way up is a notable monument to Richard Watts, a "coloured bust, with long gray beard".[65] According to Palmer there used to be a brass plaque to Charles Dickens below this but only the outline exists, the plaque having been moved to the east wall of the quire transept.[66] The west wall is filled by the large arch mentioned above with the screen below dividing it from the present Lady Chapel.

 

The Lady Chapel as it now exists is of Decorated style with three lights along southern wall and two in the west wall. The style is a light and airy counterpart to the stolid Norman work of the nave. The altar has been placed against the southern wall resulting in a chapel where the congregation wraps around the altar. The window stained glass is modern and tells the gospel story.

 

The first, easternmost, window has the Annunciation in the upper light: Gabriel speaking to Mary (both crowned) with the Holy Spirit as a dove descending. The lower light shows the Nativity with the Holy Family, three angels and shepherds. The next window shows St Elizabeth in the upper light surrounded by stars and the sun in splendour device. The lower light shows the Adoration of the Magi with Mary enthroned with the Infant. The final window of the south wall has St Mary Magdelene with her ointment surrounded by Tudor roses and fleurs-de-lis in the upper light with the lower light showing the Presentation in the Temple. The west wall continues with St. Margaret of Scotland in the upper light surrounded by fouled anchor and thistle roundels. The reference is to the original dedication of the cathedral as the Priory of St Andrew. The lower light shows the Crucifixion with Mary and St Peter. The final window is unusual, the upper light is divided in three and shows King Arthur with the royal arms flanked by St George on the left and St Michael on the right. The lower light shows the Ascension: two disciples to the left, three women with unguents to the right and three bare crosses top right.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Cathedral

Brockdish is one of three parish churches within about a mile that can be seen from the A143, but only the top of the tower is visible when heading north, and only fleetingly. THe only other clue is the truncated Church Lane which cuts across the main road, the name of which indicates the nearby church.

 

I came here at about eleven in the morning, having visited Oulton in Suffolk earlier, and wasn't expecting to find it open to be honest. But I heard the bells being rung, or at least pealing in intermittent intervals, the reason being some people were being given lessons.

 

Three cars were parked in the lane beside the church, which you reach by traveling up a green lane north out of the village before taking the track to the church.

 

The door to the tower, where the bellringers were being taught was ajar, and I could have gone up, but instead I go to the porch to try the door, and finding it open, I go inside lest someone comes and closes it.

 

Soon I am joined inside by the warden who is surprised, but pleased, to find a visitor: she is there to make teas for the ringers, and would I like one?

 

My breath had already been taken away by the tiles in the chancel, which are of exceptional quality. Tiles are something easily overlooked, and indeed many were clearly bought from catalogues, and so many are similar, but when more attention to detail was given, when extra quality was installed, it shines through.

 

I was told by the warden that the oldest glass had been purchased by the then vicar in Italy, certainly the three panels are ancient and European.

 

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When I first visited this church in 2005, it was with something of a sinking heart to arrive at the third church in a row that was locked without a keyholder notice. Today, nothing could be further from the truth. In the south porch there is a large notice now which reads Come in and enjoy your church! Fabulous stuff.

The trim graveyard includes some substantial memorials to the Kay family, including one massive structure with an angel under a spire which would not look out of place opposite the Royal Albert Hall. No expense was spared by the Victorians here at Brockdish. The rebuilding was paid for by the Rector, George France, who also advised architect Frederick Marable on exactly what form this vision of the medieval should take. The tower above is curiously un-East Anglian, looking rather unusual surrounded by Norfolk fields. All around the building headstops are splendid, and fine details like faux-consecration crosses on the porch show that France was generally a man who knew what a medieval church should look like.

 

It will not surprise you to learn that St Peter and St Paul is similarly grand on the inside, if a touch severe. France actually devised a church much more Anglo-catholic than we find it today; it was toned down by the militantly low church Kay family later in the century. They took down the rood and replaced it with a simple cross, painting out the figures on the rood screen as well. When I first visited, the very helpful churchwarden who'd opened up for me observed that Brockdish is the only church in Norfolk that has stained glass in every window, which isn't strictly true (Harleston, three miles away, has as well) but we can be thankful that, thanks to the Reverend France's fortunes, it is of a very good quality. The glass seems to have been an ongoing project, because some of it dates from the 1920s. In keeping with low church tradition, the glass depicts mainly Biblical scenes and sayings of Christ rather than Saints, apart from the church's two patron Saints in the east window of the chancel. There are also some roundels in the east window of the south aisle, which appear to be of continental glass. They depict the Adoration of the Magi, the deposition of Christ, what appears to be Paharoah's daughter with the infant Moses, and the heads of St Matthias, St John the Evangelist, and Christ with a Crown of Thorns. However, I suspect that at least some of them are the work of the King workshop of Norwich, and that only the Deposition and the Old Testament scene are genuinely old.

 

If this is rather a gloomy church on a dark day, it is because of the glass in the south clerestory, a surprisingly un-medieval detail - the whole point of a clerestory was to let light reach the rood. The glass here is partly heraldic, partly symbolic. The stalls in the chancel are another faux-medieval detail - there was never a college of Priests here - but they looked suspiciously as if they might contain old bench ends within the woodwork. Not all is false, because the chancel also contains an unusual survival from the earlier church, a tombchest which may have been intended as an Easter Sepulchre.

 

Above all, the atmosphere is at once homely and devotional, not least because of the exceptional quality of the tiled sanctuary, an increasingly rare beast because they were so often removed in the 1960s and 1970s, when Victorian interiors were unfashionable. Brockdish's is spectacular, a splendid example that has caught the attention of 19th century tile enthusiasts and experts nationally.

 

Also tiled is the area beneath the tower, which France had reordered as a baptistery. The font has recently been moved back into the body of the church; presumably, whoever supplies the church's liability insurance had doubts about godparents standing with their backs to the steps down into the nave.

I liked Brockdish church a lot; I don't suppose it gets a lot of visitors, but it is a fine example of what the Victorians did right.

 

Simon Knott, June 2005, revisited and updated July 2010

 

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/brockdish/brockdish.htm

 

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Is the next adjoining town eastward, through which the great road passes to Yarmouth; on the left hand of which, stands the church, on a hill by itself, there being no house near it but the parsonage, which joins to the east side of the churchyard. The advowson always belonged to the Earl's manor here, with which it now continues.

 

In Norwich Domesday we read, that the rector had a house and 30 acres of land, that it was then valued at 15 marks, and paid as it now doth for synodals 1s. 9d. procurations 6s. 8d. and 12d. Peter-pence. It stands in the King's Books thus:

 

10l. Brokedish rectory. 1l. yearly tenths.

 

And consequently pays first-fruits, and is incapable of augmentation. The church stands included in the glebe, which is much the same in quantity as it was when the aforesaid survey was taken. It is in Norfolk archdeaconry, Redenhall deanery, and Duke of Norfolk's liberty, though he hath no lete, warren, paramountship, or superiour jurisdiction at all in this town, the whole being sold by the family along with the manors of the town.

 

In 1603, there were 103 communicants here, and now there are 50 families, and about 300 inhabitants; it was laid to the ancient tenths at 4l. but had a constant deduction of 14s. on account of lands belonging to the religious, so that the certain payment to each tenth, was 3l. 6s.

 

The Prior of St. Faith at Horsham owned lands here, which were taxed at 2s. 6d. in 1428.

 

The Prior of Thetford monks had lands here of the gift of Richard de Cadomo or Caam, (fn. 1) who gave them his land in Brokedis, and a wood sufficient to maintain 20 swine, in the time of King Henry I. when William Bigot, sewer to that King, gave to this priory all the land of Sileham, which from those monks is now called Monks-hall manor, and the water-mill there; all which Herbert Bishop of Norwich conveyed to his father, in exchange for other lands, he being to hold it in as ample a manner as ever Herbert the chaplain did; and in Ric. the Second's time, the monks bought a piece of marsh ground in Brokedis, to make a way to their mill, which being not contained in the grant of Monks-hall manor from Hen. VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk, William Grice, Esq. and Charles Newcomen, who had a grant of such lands as they could find concealed from the Crown, seized on this as such; and upon their so doing, the owner of the mill was obliged to purchase it of them, by the name of Thetford-Mill-Way, and it hath ever since belonged to, and is constantly repaired by the owner thereof.

 

Rectors of Brockidish.

 

12 - - Robert

 

12 - - Sir Ralf de Creping, rector.

 

1313, Sir Stephen Bygod. The King, for this turn.

 

1324, Nic. le Mareschal. Tho. Earl of Norfolk and Marshal.

 

1326, Mathew Paumer, or Palmer. Ditto. He changed for Canefield-Parva in London diocese with

 

Master Robert de Hales. Ditto.

 

1333, John de Melburn. Ditto.

 

1355, Roger de Wombwell. Lady Eleanor and Thomas de Wingfield, attorneys to Sir John Wingfield, Knt.

 

1356, John Knyght of Exeter. Mary Countess-Marshal, widow of Tho. de Brotherton, who recovered the advowson by the King's writ, against Sir J. Wingfield, Knt. and Thomas his brother, William de Lampet and Alice his wife, and Catherine her sister, and so Wombwell was ejected.

 

1357, John de Esterford. Mary Countess-Marshal. He resigned in

 

1367, to John son of Catherine de Frenge, and he in

 

1368, to John Syward. Sir Walter Lord Manney.

 

1382, John de Balsham, who changed for Stowe St. Michael in Exeter diocese, with

 

Bartholomew Porter. Margaret Marshal, Countess of Norfolk.

 

1405, Sir John Dalyngho of Redcnhall. Eliz. Dutchess of Norf. in right of her dower.

 

1417, he exchanged with Thomes Barry, priest, for the vicarage of Berkyng church in London. John Lancaster, Ric. Sterisacre, and Rob. Southwell, attorneys to John Duke of Norfolk, EarlMarshal and Notyngham, who was beyond the seas. Barry resigned in

 

1422, to Sir Thomas Briggs, priest, who died rector. Ditto.

 

1454, Sir Hen. White, priest. John Duke of Norf. Earl-Marshal and Notingham, Marshal of England, Lord Mowbray, Segrave, and Gower. He resigned in

 

1455, to Sir Thomas Holm, priest. Ditto. And he in

 

1478, to John Nun. The King, as guardian to Richard Duke of York and Norfolk, and Lady Ann his wife, daughter and heir of John late Duke of Norfolk.

 

1491, John Mene; he had a union to hold another benefice.

 

1497, John Rogers, A. M. Eliz. Dutchess of Norfolk. He resigned in

 

1498, to Sir John Fisk, priest, chaplain to the Dutchess. Ditto. At whose death in

 

1511, Sir Robert Gyrlyng, chaplain to Thomas Earl of Surrey, had it of that Earl's gift: he was succeeded by

 

Sir William Flatberry, chaplain to Thomas Duke of Norfolk, who presented him; he resigned in

 

1540, to Sir Nic. Stanton, chaplain to his patron, Tho. Duke of Norf. Lord Treasurer and Earl-Marshal, and was succeeded by

 

William Hide, priest. Ditto. He resigned, and the Duke presented it in

 

1561, to Sir John Inman, priest, who was buried here Aug. 1, 1586.

 

1586, Aug. 4, Master Richard Gibson was instituted, who was buried Oct. 1, 1625; he was presented by Robert Nichols of Cambridge, by purchase of the turn from William le Grice, Gent. and Hester le Grice, wife of Charles le Grice, Gent. true patrons.

 

1625, William Owles, who held it united to Billingford. John Knapp of Brockdish, by grant of this turn. He was succeeded in

 

1645, by Brian Witherel, and he by

 

Mr. James Aldrich, who died rector Nov. 10, 1657, from which time somebody held it without institution, till the Restoration, and then receded, for in

 

1663, May 14, Sir Augustine Palgrave, patron of this turn, in right of Catherine his wife, presented George Fish, on the cession of the last incumbent; he was buried here Oct. 29, 1686.

 

1686, Thomas Palgrave, A.M. buried here March 24, 1724. Fran. Laurence, Gent.

 

1724, Abel Hodges, A.B. he held it united to Tharston, and died in 1729. Richard Meen, apothecary, for this turn.

 

1729, Richard Clark, LL. B. was instituted Dec. 3, and died about six weeks after. Mrs. Ellen Laurence of Castleacre, widow.

 

1730, Alan Fisher. Ditto. He resigned in

 

1738, and was succeeded by Robert Laurence, A. B. of Caius college, who lies buried at the south-east corner of the chancel, and was succeeded in

 

1739, by Francis Blomefield, clerk, the present rector, who holds it united to Fresfield rectory, being presented by Mrs. Ellen Laurence aforesaid.

 

The church is dedicated to the honour of the apostles St. Peter and Paul, and hath a square tower about 16 yards high, part of which was rebuilt with brick in 1714; there are five bells; the third, which is said to have been brought from Pulham in exchange, hath this on it;

 

Sancta Maria ora pro nobis.

 

and on the fourth is this,

 

Uirgo Coronata duc nos ad Regna beata.

 

The nave, chancel, and south isle are leaded, the south porch tiled, and the north porch is ruinated. The roof of this chancel is remarkable for its principals, which are whole trees without any joint, from side to side, and bent in such a rising manner, as to be agreeable to the roof. The chancel is 30 feet long and 20 broad, the nave is 54 feet long and 32 broad, and the south isle is of the same length, and 10 feet broad.

 

At the west end of the nave is a black marble thus inscribed,

 

Here lyeth buried the Body of Richard Wythe Gent. who departed this Life the 6 of Sept. 1671, who lived 64 Years and 4 Months and 9 Days.

 

This family have resided here till lately, ever since Edw. the Third's time, and had a considerable estate here, and the adjacent villages. See their arms, vol. iv. p. 135.

 

Another marble near the desk hath this,

 

Near this Place lays Elizabeth Wife of John Moulton Gent. who died Oct. 31, 1716, aged 32 Years. And here lieth Mary the late Wife of John Moulton, who died March 20, 1717, aged 27 Years. And also here lyeth the Body of John Moulton Gent. who died June 12, 1718, aged 38 Years.

 

Moulton's arms and crest as at vol. iv. p. 501.

 

In a north window are the arms of De la Pole quartering Wingfield.

 

In 1465, Jeffry Wurliche of Brockdish was buried here, and in 1469 John Wurliche was interred in the nave, and left a legacy to pave the bottom of the steeple. In 1518, Henry Bokenham of Brockdish was buried in the church, as were many of the Spaldings, (fn. 2) Withes, Howards, Grices, Tendrings, and Laurences; who were all considerable owners and families of distinction in this town.

 

The chapel at the east end of the south isle was made by Sir Ralf Tendring of Brockdish, Knt. whose arms remain in its east window at this day, once with, and once without, a crescent az. on the fess, viz. az. a fess between two chevrons arg.

 

His altar monument stands against the east wall, north and south, and hath a sort of cupola over it, with a holy-water stope by it, and a pedestal for the image of the saint to which it was dedicated, to stand on, so that it served both for a tomb and an altar; the brass plates of arms and circumscription are lost.

 

On the north side, between the chapel and nave, stands another altar tomb, covered with a most curious marble disrobed of many brass plates of arms and its circumscription, as are several other stones in the nave, isle, and chancel. This is the tomb of John Tendring of Brockdish-hall, Esq. who lived there in 1403, and died in 1436, leaving five daughters his heirs, so that he was the last male of this branch of the Tendrings. Cecily his wife is buried by him.

 

On the east chancel wall, on the south side of the altar, is a white marble monument with this,

 

Obdormit hìc in Domino, lætam in Christo expectans Resurrectionem, Robertus, Roberti Laurence, ac Annæ Uxoris ejus, Filius, hujusce Ecclesiæ de Brockdish in Comitatû Norfolciensi Rector, ejusdem Villæ Dominus, ac Ecclesiæ Patronus, jure hereditario (si vixîsset) Futurus; Sed ah! Fato nimium immaturo abreptus; Cœlestia per Salvatoris merita sperans, Terrestria omnia, Juvenis reliquit. Dec. 31°. Anno æræ Christianæ mdccxxxixo. Ætatis xxvo. Maria, unica Soror et Hæres, Roberti Frankling Generosi Uxor, Fraterni Amoris hoc Testimonium animo grato, Memoriæ Sacrum posuit.

 

1. Laurence, arg. a cross raguled gul. on a chief gul. a lion passant guardant or.

 

2. Aslack, sab. a chevron erm. between three catherine-wheels arg.

 

3. Lany, arg. on a bend between two de-lises gul. a mullet of the field for difference.

 

4. Cooke, or, on a chevron ingrailed gul. a crescent of the field for difference, between three cinquefoils az. on a chief of the second, a lion passant guardant of the first.

 

5. Bohun, gul. a crescent erm. in an orle of martlets or.

 

6. Bardolf, az. three cinquefoils or.

 

7. Ramsey, gul. a chevron between three rams heads caboshed arg.

 

8. as 1.

 

Crest, a griffin seiant proper.

 

Motto, Floreat ut Laurus.

 

On a flat stone under this monument, is a brass plate thus inscribed,

 

Sacrum hoc Memoriæ Roberti Laurence Armigeri, qui obijt xxviijo die Julij 1637, Elizabeth Uxor ejus, Filia Aslak Lany Armigeri posuit.

 

Arms on a brass plate are,

 

Lawrence impaling Lany and his quarterings, viz. 1, Lany. 2, Aslack. 3, Cooke. 4, Bohun. 5, nine de-lises, 3, 3, and 3. 6, Bardolf. 7, Charles. 8, on a chevron three de-lises. 9, Ramsey. 10, Tendring. 11, on a fess two coronets. 12, Wachesam, arg. a fess, in chief two crescents gul. 13, a lion rampant. 14, Lany.

 

There is a picture of this Robert drawn in 1629, æt. 36. He built the hall in 1634; it stands near half a mile north-east of the church, and was placed near the old site of Brockdishe's-hall; the seat of the Tendrings, whose arms, taken out of the old hall when this was built, were fixed in the windows. The arms of this man and his wife, and several of their quarterings, are carved on the wainscot in the rooms.

 

On the south side of the churchyard is an altar tomb covered with a black marble, with the crest and arms of

 

Sayer, or Sawyer, gul. a chief erm. and a chevron between three seamews proper.

 

Crest, a hand holding a dragon's head erased proper.

 

To the Memory of Frances late the wife of Richard Tubby Esq. who departed this Life Dec. 22, 1728, in the 60th Year of her Age.

 

And adjoining is another altar tomb,

 

In Memory of Richard Tubby Esq. (fn. 3) who died Dec. 10th. 1741, in the 80th Year of his Age.

 

There are two other altar tombs in the churchyard, one for Mr. Rich. Chatton, and another for Eliz. daughter of Robert and Eliz. Harper, who died in 1719, aged 8 years.

 

The town takes its name from its situation on the Waveney or Wagheneye, which divides this county from that of Suffolk; the channel of which is now deep and broad, though nothing to what it was at that time, as is evident from the names of places upon this river, as the opposite vill, now called Sileham, (oftentimes wrote Sayl-holm, even to Edw. the Third's time) shows; for I make no doubt, but it was then navigable for large boats and barges to sail up hither, and continued so, till the sea by retiring at Yarmouth, and its course being stopt near Lowestoft, had not that influence on the river so far up, as it had before; which occasioned the water to retire, and leave much land dry on either side of the channel; though it is so good a stream, that it might with ease, even now, be made navigable hither; and it would be a good work, and very advantageous to all the adjacent country. That [Brod-dic] signifies no more than the broad-ditch, is very plain, and that the termination of ò, eau, or water, added to it, makes it the broad ditch of water, is as evident.

 

Before the Confessor's time, this town was in two parts; Bishop Stigand owned one, and the Abbot of Bury the other; the former afterwards was called the Earl's Manor, from the Earls of Norfolk; and the other Brockdishe's-hall, from its ancient lords, who were sirnamed from the town.

 

The superiour jurisdiction, lete, and all royalties, belonged to the Earl's manor, which was always held of the hundred of Earsham, except that part of it which belonged to Bury abbey, and that belonged to the lords of Brockdishe's-hall; but when the Earl's manor was sold by the Duke of Norfolk, with all royalties of gaming, fishing, &c. together with the letes, view of frankpledge, &c. free and exempt from his hundred of Earsham, and the two manors became joined as they now are, the whole centered in the lord of the town, who hath now the sole jurisdiction with the lete, belonging to it; and the whole parish being freehold, on every death or alienation, the new tenant pays a relief of a year's freehold rent, added to the current year: The annual free-rent, without such reliefs, amounting to above 3l. per annum. At the Conqueror's survey the town was seven furlongs long, and five furlongs and four perches broad, and paid 6d. to the geld or tax. At the Confessor's survey, there were 28 freemen here, six of which held half a carucate of land of Bishop Stigand, and the others held 143 acres under the Abbot of Bury, and the Abbot held the whole of Stigand, without whose consent the freemen could neither give away, nor sell their land, but were obliged to pay him 40s. a year free-rent; (fn. 4) and if they omitted paying at the year's end, they forfeited their lands, or paid their rent double; but in the Conqueror's time they paid 16l. per annum by tale. There were two socmen with a carucate of land, two villeins and two bordars here, which were given to Bury abbey along with the adjacent manor of Thorp-Abbots, but were after severed from that manor, and infeoffed by the Abbot of Bury in the lord of Brockdishe's-hall manor, with which it passed ever after. (fn. 5)

 

Brockdish-Earl's Manor, or Brockdish Comitis.

 

This manor always attended the manor of Forncet after it was granted from the Crown to the Bygods, along with the half hundred of Earsham, for which reason I shall refer you to my account of that manor at p. 223, 4. It was mostly part of the dower of the ladies of the several noble families that it passed through, and the living was generally given to their domestick chaplains. In 3 Edward I. the Abbot of Bury tried an action with Roger Bigod, then lord and patron, for the patronage; (fn. 6) pleading that a part of the town belonged to his house, and though they had infeoffed their manor here in the family of the Brockdishes, yet the right in the advowson remained in him; but it appearing that the advowson never belonged to the Abbot's manor, before the feofment was made, but that it wholly was appendant ever since the Confessor's time, to the Earl's manor, the Abbot was cast: notwithstanding which in 1335, Sir John Wingfield, Knt. and Thomas his brother, William de Lampet and Alice his wife, and Catherine her sister, owners of Brockdishe's manor, revived the claim to the advowson; and Thomas de Wingfield, and lady Eleanor wife of Sir John Wingfield, presented here, and put up their arms in the church windows, as patrons, which still remain; but Mary Countess Marshal, who then held this manor in dower, brought her quare impedit, and ejected their clerk; since which time, it constantly attended this manor, being always appendant thereto. In 15 Edw. I. Roger Bigot, then lord, had free-warren in all this town, as belonging to this manor, having not only all the royalties of the town, but also the assise of bread and ale, and amerciaments of all the tenants of his own manor, and of the tenants of Reginald de Brockdish, who were all obliged to do suit once a year at the Earl's view of frankpledge and lete in Brockdish; and it continued in the Norfolk family till 1570, and then Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk, obtained license from Queen Elizabeth to sell it; it being held in capite or in chief of the Crown, as part of the barony and honour of the said Duke, who accordingly sold the manor, advowson, free-fishery, and all the place or manor-house, and demean lands; together with the lete, view of frankpledge, liberty of free warren, and all other royalties whatsoever, free and exempt from any jurisdiction or payment to his half hundred of Earsham, to

 

Charles le Grice, Esq. of Brockdish, and his heirs, who was descended from Sir Rorert le Grys of Langley in Norfolk, Knt. equerry to Ric. I. and Oliva his wife, whose son, Sir Simon le Grys, Knt. of Thurveton, was alive in 1238, and married Agnes daughter and coheir to Augustine son of Richard de Waxtenesham or Waxham, of Waxham in Norfolk, by whom he had Roger le Grys of Thurton, Esq. who lived in the time of Edward I. whose son Thomas le Grice of Thurton, had Roger le Grice of Brockdish, who lived here in 1392; whose son Thomas left John le Grice his eldest son and heir, who married a Bateman, and lies buried in St. John Baptist's church in Norwich; (see vol. iv. p. 127;) but having no male issue, William le Grice of Brockdish, Esq. son of Robert le Grice of Brockdish, his uncle, inherited; he married Sibill, daughter and sole heir of Edmund Singleton of Wingfield in Suffolk, and had

 

Anthony le Grice of Brockdish, Esq. (fn. 7) who married Margaret, daughter of John Wingfield, Esq. of Dunham, who lived in the place, and died there in 1553, and lies buried in the church, by whom his wife also was interred in 1562. His brother Gilbert Grice of Yarmouth, Gent. (fn. 8) first agreed with the Duke for Brockdish, but died before it was completed; so that Anthony, who was bound with him for performance of the covenants, went on with the purchase for his son,

 

Charles le Grice aforesaid, (fn. 9) to whom it was conveyed: he married two wives; the first was Susan, daughter and heir of Andrew Manfield, Gent. and Jane his wife, who was buried here in 1564; the second was Hester, daughter of Sir George Blagge, Knt. who held the manor for life; and from these two wives descended the numerous branches of the Grices of Brockdish, Norwich, Wakefield in Yorkshire, &c. He was buried in this church April 12, 1575, and was found to hold his manor of the hundred of Earsham, in free soccage, without any rent or service, and not in capite; and Brockdishe's-hall manor of the King, as of his barony of Bury St. Edmund in Suffolk, which lately belonged to the abbey there, in free soccage, without any rent or service, and not in capite, and

 

William le Grice, Esq. was his eldest son and heir, who at the death of his mother-in-law, was possessed of the whole estate; for in 1585, William Howard, then lord of Brockdishe's-hall manor, agreed and sold it to this William, and Henry le Grice his brother, and their heirs; but Howard dying the next year, the purchase was not completed till 1598, when Edw. Coppledick, Gent. and other trustees, brought a writ of entry against John son of the said William Howard, Gent. and had it settled absolutely in the Grices, from which time the two manors have continued joined as they are at this day; by Alice, daughter and heiress of Mr. Eyre of Yarmouth; he left

 

Francis le Grice, Esq. his son and heir, who sold the whole estate, manors, and advowson, to

 

Robert Laurence of Brockdish, Esq. (fn. 10) who married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard, son of Edmund Anguish of Great-Melton, by whom he had

 

Robert Laurence, Esq. his son and heir, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Aslack Lany, who survived him, and remarried in 1640, to Richard Smith, Gent. by whom she had one child, Eliz. buried here in 1641: he died July 24, 1637, and lies buried by the altar as aforesaid: he built the present hall, and had divers children, as Aslak Laurence, Robert, born in 1633, buried in 1635, Samuel Laurence, born in 1635, Ellen, born in 1635, Elizabeth, who married William Reynolds of Great-Massingham, Gent. and

 

Francis Laurence of Brockdish, Esq. his eldest son and heir, who married Ellen, daughter of Thomas Patrick of Castle-acre, Gent. widow of Mathew Halcote of Litcham, Gent. who survived him, and held Brockdish in jointure to her death, which happened Jan. 6, 1741, when she was buried in the nave of Litcham church: they had Frances, and Elizabeth, who died infants; Mary, who died single about 1736, and was buried in the vestry belonging to Castleacre church; Jane, married to Mr. Thomas Shin of Great Dunham, by whom a Thomas, a son, &c. she being dead; Ellen, now widow of Thomas Young of Oxboro, Gent. who died Oct. 1743, leaving issue, the Rev. Mr. Thomas-Patrick Young of Caius college in Cambridge, Benjamin and Mary, and

 

Samuel Lawrence, Gent. their second son, is now alive and single; and

 

Robert Lawrence, Esq. their eldest son and heir, is long since dead, but by Anne daughter of John Meriton, late rector of Oxburgh, his wife, he left one son,

 

Robert Laurence, late rector of Brockdish, who died single, and

 

Mrs. Mary Laurence, his only sister, who is now living, and married to Robert Frankling, Gent. of Lynn in Norfolk, is the present lord in her right, but they have no issue.

 

Brockdishe's-Hall Manor,

 

Belonged to Bury abbey as aforesaid, till the time of Henry I. and then the Abbot infeoffed

 

Sir Stephen de Brockdish in it, from whom it took its present name; he was to hold it at the 4th part of a knight's fee of that abbey: it contained a capital messuage or manor-house, called now Brockdishe's-hall; 105 acres of land in demean, 12 acres of wood, 8 of meadow, and 4l. 13s. 10d. rents of assise; he left it to

 

Jeffery de Brockdish his son, and he to

 

William, his son and heir, who in 1267, by the name of William de Hallehe de Brokedis, or Will. of Brockdish-hall, was found to owe suit and service once in a year with all his tenants, to the lete of the Earl of Norfolk, held here. He left this manor, and the greatest part of his estate in Norwich-Carleton (which he had with Alice Curson his wife) to

 

Thomas, his son and heir, and the rest of it to Nigel de Brockdish, his younger son; (see p. 102;) Thomas left it to

 

Reginald, his eldest son and heir, and he to

 

Sir Stephen de Brockdish, Knt. his son and heir, who was capital bailiff of all the Earl of Norfolk's manors in this county; he was lord about 1329, being succeeded by his son,

 

Stephen, who by Mary Wingfield his wife, had

 

Reginald de Brockdish, his son and heir, (fn. 11) to whom he gave Brockdish-hall manor in Burston, (see vol. i. p. 127, vol. ii. p. 506,) but he dying before his father, was never lord here; his two daughters and heiresses inheriting at his father's death, viz.

 

Alice, married to William de Lampet about 1355, and Catherine some time after, to William son of John de Herdeshull, lord of North Kellesey and Saleby in Lincolnshire, who inherited each a moiety, according to the settlement made by their grandfather, who infeoffed Sir John de Wingfield, Knt. and Eleanor his wife, and Thomas his brother, in trust for them; (fn. 12) soon after, one moiety was settled on Robert Mortimer and Catherine his wife, by John Hemenhale, clerk, and John de Lantony, their trustees; and not long after the whole was united, and belonged to

 

Sir William Tendring of Stokeneyland, Knt. and Margaret his wife, daughter and coheir of Sir Will. Kerdeston of Claxton in Norfolk, Knt. who were succeeded by their son and heir

 

Sir John Tendring of Stokeneyland, Knt. who jointly with Agnes his wife, settled it on

 

Sir Ralf Tendring of Brockdish, Knt. one of their younger sons, who built the old hall (which was pulled down by Robert Lawrence, Esq. when he erected the present house) and the south isle chapel, in which he and Alice his wife are interred; his son,

 

John Tendring of Brockdish, Esq. who was lord here and of Westhall in Colney, (see p. 5,) and was buried in the said chapel, with Cecily his wife, died in 1436, and left five daughrers, coheiresses, viz.

 

Cecily, married to Robert Ashfield of Stowlangetot in Suffolk, Esq.

 

Elizabeth, to Simeon Fincham of Fincham in Norfolk, Esq.

 

Alice, to Robert Morton.

 

Joan, to Henry Hall of Helwinton.

 

Anne, to John Braham of Colney.

 

Who joined and levied a fine and sold it to

 

Thomas Fastolff, Esq. and his heirs; and the year following, they conveyed all their lands, &c. in Wigenhall, Tilney, and Islington, to

 

Sir John Howard, Knt. and his heirs; and vested them in his trustees, who, the year following, purchased the manor of Fastolff to himself and heirs; this Sir John left Brockdish to a younger son,

 

Robert Howard, Esq. who settled here, and by Isabel his wife had

 

William Howard of Brockdish, Esq. who was lord in 1469; he had two wives, Alice and Margaret, from whom came a very numerous issue, but

 

Robert, his son and heir, had this manor, who by Joan his wife had

 

William Howard, his eldest son and heir, who died in 1566, seized of many lands in Cratfield, Huntingfield, Ubbeston, and Bradfield in Suffolk; and of many lands and tenements here, and in Sileham, &c. having sold this manor the year before his death, to the Grices as aforesaid; but upon the sale, he reserved, all other his estate in Brockdish, in which he dwelt, called Howard's Place, situate on the south side of the entrance of Brockdish-street; which house and farm went to

 

John Howard, his son and heir, the issue of whose three daughters, Grace, Margaret, and Elizabeth, failing, it reverted to

 

Mathew, son of William Howard, second brother to the said John Howard their father, whose second son,

 

Mathew Howard, afterwards owned it; and in 1711, it was owned by a Mathew Howard, and now by

 

Mr. Bucknall Howard of London, his kinsman (as I am informed.)

 

The site and demeans of the Earl's manor, now called the place, was sold from the manor by the Grices some time since, and after belonged to Sir Isaac Pennington, alderman of London, (see vol. i. p. 159,) and one of those who sat in judgment on the royal martyr, for which his estate was forfeited at the Restoration, and was given by Car. II. to the Duke of Grafton; and his Grace the present Duke of Grafton, now owns it.

 

the benefactions to this parish are,

 

One close called Algorshegge, containing three acres, (fn. 13) and a grove and dove-house formerly built thereon containing about one acre, at the east end thereof; the whole abutting on the King's highway north, and the glebe of Brockdish rectory west: and one tenement abutting on Brockdish-street south, called Seriches, (fn. 14) with a yard on the north side thereof, were given by John Bakon the younger, of Brockdish, son of John Bakon the elder, of Thorp-Abbots; the clear profits to go yearly to pay the tenths and fifteenths for the parish of Brockdish when laid, and when they are not laid, to repair and adorn the parish church there for ever: his will is proved in 1433. There are always to be 12 feoffees, of such as dwell, or are owners in the parish, and when the majority of them are dead, the survivors are to fill up the vacancies.

 

In 1590, 1 Jan. John Howard, Gent. John Wythe, Gent. William Crickmere and Daniel Spalding, yeomen, officers of Brockdish, with a legacy left to their parish in 1572, by John Sherwood, late of Brokdish, deceased, purchased of John Thruston of Hoxne, Gent. John Thruston his nephew, Thomas Barker, and the inhabitants of Hoxne in Suffolk, one annuity or clear yearly rent-charge of 6s. 8d. issuing out of six acres of land and pasture in Hoxne, in a close called Calston's-close, one head abutting on a way leading from Heckfield-Green to Moles-Cross, towards the east; to the only use and behoof of the poor of Brockdish, to be paid on the first of November in Hoxne church-porch, between 12 and 4 in the afternoon of the same day, with power to distrain and enter immediately for non-payment; the said six acres are warranted to be freehold, and clear of all incumbrances, except another rentcharge of 13s. 4d. granted to Hoxne poor, to be paid at the same day and place

 

In 1592, John Howard of Brockdish sold to the inhabitants there, a cottage called Laune's, lying between the glebes on all parts; this hath been dilapidated many years, but the site still belongs to the parish.

 

From the old Town Book.

 

1553, 1st Queen Mary, paid for a book called a manuel 2s. 6d.; for two days making the altar and the holy-water stope, and for a lock for the font. 1554, paid for the rood 9d. 1555, paid for painting the rood-loft 14d. At the visitation of my Lord Legate 16d. To the organs maker 4d. and for the chalice 26s. 1557, paid for carriage of the Bible to Bocnam 12d. for deliverance of the small books at Harlstone 15d.; the English Bibles and all religious Protestant tracts usually at this time left in the churches for the information and instruction of the common people, being now called in by the Papist Queen. Paid for two images making 5s.; for painting them 16d. for irons for them 8d. But in 1558, as soon as Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, all these Popish, images, &c. were removed out of the church. Paid for sinking the altar 4d.; carrying out the altar 5d.; mending the communion table 3d.; 1561, paid for the X. Commandments 18d.; for pulling down the rood-loft 14d.; paid Roger Colby repairing the crosse in the street 26s. 8d.; for a lock to the crosse-house, &c.; 1565, for digging the ground and levelling the low altar, (viz. in the south chapel,) and mending the pavement. For makyng the communion cup at Harlston 5s. 4d. besides 6s. 2d. worth of silver more than the old chalice weyed. 1569, paid to Belward the Dean for certifying there is no cover to the cup, 8d. 1657, layd out 19s. 4d. for the relief of Attleburgh, visited with the plague. Laid out 17s. for the repair of the Brockdish part of Sileham bridge, leading over the river to Sileham church. This bridge is now down, through the negligence of both the parishes, though it was of equal service to both, and half of it repaired by each of them. In 1618, the church was wholly new paved and repaired; and in 1619, the pulpit and desk new made, new books, pulpit-cloth, altar-cloth, &c. bought.

 

From the Register:

 

1593, Daniel son of Robert Pennington, Gent. bapt. 13 July. 1626, John Brame, Gent. and Anne Shardelowe, widow, married Sept. 2. 1631, John Blomefield and Elizabeth Briges married May 30. 1666, Roger Rosier, Gent. buried. 1735, Henry Blomefield of Fersfield, Gent. single man, and Elizabeth Bateman of Mendham, single woman, married Feb. 27.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol5...

The Museum of the Moon was still supposed to be on. Or, to be more accurate, I had not checked that it was still on, but would be a good excuse to return to Rochester for the first time in over a decade.

 

Last time here I took seven or so shots, I was hoping to improve on that.

 

But, as I was to find, the Moon moved out on Wednesday, so there was just the cathedral to look at and record, and I pretty much had the cathedral to myself.

 

There was a service in the chancel, so that and the Quire were out of bounds for a while, but once over I was given the nod I could go in.

 

How do you describe a cathedral? Especially one as grand and old as Rochester?

 

From the west, the cathedral doesn't look too big, but there is a viewing place from the High Street that shows the cathedral to be a large and complicated building.

 

Inside the nave is huge, with the organ towering over the altar. Through the doorway into the quire and the sanctuary beyond, and all the while, above the white vaulted ceiling reached from the high walls and columns.

 

All around the walls are memorials to the great and good of Kent, some tombs too. The step leading from the aisles to the sanctuary are worn down by the millions of feet that have climbed them over the centuries.

 

-------------------------------------------

 

The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church of England and the seat (cathedra) of the Bishop of Rochester, the second oldest bishopric in England after that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The edifice is a Grade I listed building (number 1086423)

 

The Rochester diocese was founded by Justus, one of the missionaries who accompanied Augustine of Canterbury to convert the pagan southern English to Christianity in the early 7th century. As the first Bishop of Rochester, Justus was granted permission by King Æthelberht of Kent to establish a church dedicated to Andrew the Apostle (like the monastery at Rome where Augustine and Justus had set out for England) on the site of the present cathedral, which was made the seat of a bishopric. The cathedral was to be served by a college of secular priests and was endowed with land near the city called Priestfields.[3][a][b]

 

Under the Roman system, a bishop was required to establish a school for the training of priests.[4] To provide the upper parts for music in the services a choir school was required.[5] Together these formed the genesis of the cathedral school which today is represented by the King's School, Rochester. The quality of chorister training was praised by Bede.

 

The original cathedral was 42 feet (13 m) high and 28 feet (8.5 m) wide. The apse is marked in the current cathedral on the floor and setts outside show the line of the walls. Credit for the construction of the building goes to King Æthelberht rather than St Justus. Bede describes St Paulinus' burial as "in the sanctuary of the Blessed Apostle Andrew which Æthelberht founded likewise he built the city of Rochester."[c][7]

 

Æthelberht died in 617 and his successor, Eadbald of Kent, was not a Christian. Justus fled to Francia and remained there for a year before he was recalled by the king.[8]

 

In 644 Ithamar, the first English-born bishop, was consecrated at the cathedral.[d] Ithamar consecrated Deusdedit as the first Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury on 26 March 655.[9]

 

The cathedral suffered much from the ravaging of Kent by King Æthelred of Mercia in 676. So great was the damage that Putta retired from the diocese and his appointed successor, Cwichelm, gave up the see "because of its poverty".[10]

 

In 762, the local overlord, Sigerd, granted land to the bishop, as did his successor Egbert.[e][11] The charter is notable as it is confirmed by Offa of Mercia as overlord of the local kingdom.

 

Following the invasion of 1066, William the Conqueror granted the cathedral and its estates to his half-brother, Odo of Bayeux. Odo misappropriated the resources and reduced the cathedral to near-destitution. The building itself was ancient and decayed. During the episcopate of Siward (1058–1075) it was served by four or five canons "living in squalor and poverty".[12] One of the canons became vicar of Chatham and raised sufficient money to make a gift to the cathedral for the soul and burial of his

 

Gundulf's church

 

Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, amongst others, brought Odo to account at the trial of Penenden Heath c. 1072. Following Odo's final fall, Gundulf was appointed as the first Norman bishop of Rochester in 1077. The cathedral and its lands were restored to the bishop.

 

Gundulf's first undertaking in the construction of the new cathedral seems to have been the construction of the tower which today bears his name. In about 1080 he began construction of a new cathedral to replace Justus' church. He was a talented architect who probably played a major part in the design or the works he commissioned. The original cathedral had a presbytery of six bays with aisles of the same length. The four easternmost bays stood over an undercroft which forms part of the present crypt. To the east was a small projection, probably for the silver shrine of Paulinus which was translated there from the old cathedral.[f] The transepts were 120 feet long, but only 14 feet wide. With such narrow transepts it is thought that the eastern arches of the nave abuted the quire arch.[14] To the south another tower (of which nothing visible remains) was built. There was no crossing tower.[15] The nave was not completed at first. Apparently designed to be nine bays long, most of the south side but only five bays to the north were completed by Gundulf. The quire was required by the priory and the south wall formed part of its buildings. It has been speculated that Gundulf simply left the citizens to complete the parochial part of the building.[16] Gundulf did not stop with the fabric, he also replaced the secular chaplains with Benedictine monks, obtained several royal grants of land and proved a great benefactor to his cathedral city.

 

In 1078 Gudulf founded St Bartholomew's Hospital just outside the city of Rochester. The Priory of St Andrew contributed daily and weekly provisions to the hospital which also received the offerings from the two altars of St James and of St Giles.[17]

 

During the episcopates of Ernulf (1115–1124) and John (I) (1125–1137) the cathedral was completed. The quire was rearranged, the nave partly rebuilt, Gundulf's nave piers were cased and the west end built. Ernulf is also credited with building the refectory, dormitory and chapter house, only portions of which remain. Finally John translated the body of Ithamar from the old Saxon cathedral to the new Norman one, the whole being dedicated in 1130 (or possibly 1133) by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by 13 bishops in the presence of Henry I, but the occasion was marred by a great fire which nearly destroyed the whole city and damaged the new cathedral. It was badly damaged by fires again in 1137 and 1179. One or other of these fires was sufficiently severe to badly damage or destroy the eastern arm and the transepts. Ernulf's monastic buildings were also damaged.

 

Probably from about 1190, Gilbert de Glanville (bishop 1185–1214) commenced the rebuilding of the east end and the replacement on the monastic buildings. The north quire transept may have been sufficiently advanced to allow the burial of St William of Perth in 1201, alternatively the coffin may have lain in the north quire aisle until the transept was ready. It was then looted in 1215 by the forces of King John during siege of Rochester Castle. Edmund de Hadenham recounts that there was not a pyx left "in which the body of the Lord might rest upon the altar".[14] However, by 1227, the quire was again in use when the monks made their solemn entry into it. The cathedral was rededicated in 1240 by Richard Wendene (also known as Richard de Wendover) who had been translated from Bangor.[14][18]

 

The shrines of Ss Paulinus and William of Perth, along with the relics of St Ithamar, drew pilgrims to the cathedral. Their offerings were so great that both the work mentioned above and the ensuing work could be funded.

 

Unlike the abbeys of the period (which were led by an abbot) the monastic cathedrals were priories ruled over by a prior with further support from the bishop.[19] Rochester and Carlisle (the other impoverished see) were unusual in securing the promotion of a number of monks to be bishop. Seven bishops of Rochester were originally regular monks between 1215 and the Dissolution.[20] A consequence of the monastic attachment was a lack of patronage at the bishop's disposal. By the early 16th century only 4% of the bishop's patronage came from non-parochial sources.[21] The bishop was therefore chronically limited in funds to spend on the non-monastic part of the cathedral.

 

The next phase of the development was begun by Richard de Eastgate, the sacrist. The two eastern bays of the nave were cleared and the four large piers to support the tower were built. The north nave transept was then constructed. The work was nearly completed by Thomas de Mepeham who became sacrist in 1255. Not long after the south transept was completed and the two bays of the nave nearest the crossing rebuilt to their current form. The intention seems to have been to rebuild the whole nave, but probably lack of funds saved the late Norman work.

 

The cathedral was desecrated in 1264 by the troops of Simon de Montfort, during sieges of the city and castle. It is recorded that armed knights rode into the church and dragged away some refugees. Gold and silver were stolen and documents destroyed. Some of the monastic buildings were turned into stables.[22] Just over a year later De Montfort fell at the Battle of Evesham to the forces of Edward I. Later, in 1300, Edward passed through Rochester on his way to Canterbury and is recorded as having given seven shillings (35p) at the shrine of St William, and the same again the following day. During his return he again visited the cathedral and gave a further seven shillings at each of the shrines of Ss Paulinus and Ithamar.

 

The new century saw the completion of the new Decorated work with the original Norman architecture. The rebuilding of the nave being finally abandoned. Around 1320 the south transept was altered to accommodate the altar of the Virgin Mary.

 

There appears to have been a rood screen thrown between the two western piers of the crossing. A rood loft may have surmounted it.[23] Against this screen was placed the altar of St Nicholas, the parochial altar of the city. The citizens demanded the right of entrance by day or night to what was after all their altar. There were also crowds of strangers passing through the city. The friction broke out as a riot in 1327 after which the strong stone screens and doors which wall off the eastern end of the church from the nave were built.[24] The priory itself was walled off from the town at this period. An oratory was established in angulo navis ("in the corner of the nave") for the reserved sacrament; it is not clear which corner was being referred to, but Dr Palmer[25] argues that the buttress against the north-west tower pier is the most likely setting. He notes the arch filled in with rubble on the aisle side; and on nave side there is a scar line with lower quality stonework below. The buttress is about 4 feet (1.2 m) thick, enough for an oratory. Palmer notes that provision for reservation of consecrated hosts was often made to the north of the altar which would be the case here.

 

The central tower was at last raised by Hamo de Hythe in 1343, thus essentially completing the cathedral. Bells were placed in the central tower (see Bells section below). The chapter room doorway was constructed at around this time. The Black Death struck England in 1347–49. From then on there were probably considerably more than twenty monks in the priory.

 

The modern paintwork of the quire walls is modelled on artwork from the Middle Ages. Gilbert Scott found remains of painting behind the wooden stalls during his restoration work in the 1870s. The painting is therefore part original and part authentic. The alternate lions and fleurs-de-lis reflect Edward III's victories, and assumed sovereignty over the French. In 1356 the Black Prince had defeated John II of France at Poitiers and took him prisoner. On 2 July 1360 John passed through Rochester on his way home and made an offering of 60 crowns (£15) at the Church of St Andrew.[27]

 

The Oratory provided for the citizens of Rochester did not settle the differences between the monks and the city. The eventual solution was the construction of St Nicholas' Church by the north side of the cathedral. A doorway was knocked through the western end of the north aisle (since walled up) to allow processions to pass along the north aisle of the cathedral before leaving by the west door.[27][28]

 

In the mid-15th century the clerestory and vaulting of the north quire aisle was completed and new Perpendicular Period windows inserted into the nave aisles. Possible preparatory work for this is indicated in 1410–11 by the Bridge Wardens of Rochester who recorded a gift of lead from the Lord Prior. The lead was sold on for 41 shillings.[g][29] In 1470 the great west window at the cathedral was completed and finally, in around 1490, what is now the Lady Chapel was built.[27] Rochester Cathedral, although one of England's smaller cathedrals, thus demonstrates all styles of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.[30]

 

In 1504 John Fisher was appointed Bishop of Rochester. Although Rochester was by then an impoverished see, Fisher elected to remain as bishop for the remainder of his life. He had been tutor to the young Prince Henry and on the prince's accession as Henry VIII, Fisher remained his staunch supporter and mentor. He figured in the anti-Lutheran policies of Henry right up until the divorce issue and split from Rome in the early 1530s. Fisher remained true to Rome and for his defence of the Pope was elevated as a cardinal in May 1535. Henry was angered by these moves and, on 22 June 1535, Cardinal Fisher was beheaded on Tower Green.

 

Henry VIII visited Rochester on 1 January 1540 when he met Ann of Cleves for the first time and was "greatly disappointed".[31] Whether connected or not, the old Priory of St Andrew was dissolved by royal command later in the year, one of the last monasteries to be dissolved.

 

The west front is dominated by the central perpendicular great west window. Above the window the dripstone terminates in a small carved head at each side. The line of the nave roof is delineated by a string course above which rises the crenelated parapet. Below the window is a blind arcade interrupted by the top of the Great West Door. Some of the niches in the arcade are filled with statuary. Below the arcade the door is flanked with Norman recesses. The door itself is of Norman work with concentric patterned arches. The semicircular tympanum depicts Christ sitting in glory in the centre, with Saints Justus and Ethelbert flanking him on either side of the doorway. Supporting the saints are angels and surrounding them are the symbols of the Four Evangelists: Ss Matthew (a winged man), Mark (a lion), Luke (an ox) and John (an eagle).[52] On the lintel below are the Twelve Apostles and on the shafts supporting it King Soloman and the Queen of Sheba.[53] Within the Great West Door there is a glass porch which allows the doors themselves to be kept open throughout the day.

 

Either side of the nave end rises a tower which forms the junction of the front and the nave walls. The towers are decorated with blind arcading and are carried up a further two stories above the roof and surmounted with pyramidal spires. The aisle ends are Norman. Each has a large round headed arch containing a window and in the northern recess is a small door. Above each arch is plain wall surmounted by a blind arcade, string course at the roof line and plain parapet. The flanking towers are Norman in the lower part with the style being maintained in the later work. Above the plain bases there are four stories of blind arcading topped with an octagonal spire.[54]

 

The outside of the nave and its aisles is undistinguished, apart from the walled up north-west door which allowed access from the cathedral to the adjacent St Nicholas' Church.[28] The north transept is reached from the High Street via Black Boy Alley, a medieval pilgrimage route. The decoration is Early English, but reworked by Gilbert Scott. Scott rebuilt the gable ends to the original high pitch from the lower one adopted at the start of the 19th century. The gable itself is set back from the main wall behind a parapet with walkway. He also restored the pilgrim entrance and opened up the blind arcade in the northern end of the west wall.[55]

 

To the east of the north transept is the Sextry Gate. It dates from Edward III's reign and has wooden domestic premises above. The area beyond was originally enclosed, but is now open to the High Street through the memorial garden and gates. Beyond the Sextry Gate is the entrance to Gundulf's Tower, used as a private back door to the cathedral.

 

The north quire transept and east end are all executed in Early English style, the lower windows light the crypt which is earlier. Adjoining the east end of the cathedral is the east end of the Chapter Room which is in the same style. The exact form of the east end is more modern than it appears, being largely due to the work of Scott in the 19th century. Scott raised the gable ends to the original high pitch, but for lack of funds the roofs have not been raised; writing in 1897 Palmer noted: "they still require roofs of corresponding pitch, a need both great and conspicuous".[56]

 

On the south side of the cathedral the nave reaches the main transept and beyond a modern porch. The aisle between the transepts is itself a buttress to the older wall behind and supported by a flying buttress. The unusual position of this wall is best explained when considering the interior, below. The southern wall of the presbytery is hidden by the chapter room, an 18th-century structure.

 

he western part of the nave is substantially as Gundulf designed it. According to George H. Palmer (who substantially follows St John Hope) "Rochester and Peterborough possess probably the best examples of the Norman nave in the country".[60] The main arcade is topped by a string course below a triforium. The triforium is Norman with a further string course above. The clerestory above is of perpendicular style. From the capitals pilasters rise to the first string course but appear to have been removed from the triforium stage. Originally they might have supported the roof timbers, or even been the springing of a vault.[61]

 

The easternmost bay of the triforium appears to be Norman, but is the work of 14th-century masons. The final bay of the nave is Decorated in style and leads to the tower piers. Of note is the north pier which possibly contains the Oratory Chapel mentioned above.[62]

 

The aisles are plain with flat pilasters. The eastern two bays are Decorated with springing for vaulting. Whether the vault was ever constructed is unknown, the present wooden roof extends the full length of the aisles.

 

The crossing is bounded to the east by the quire screen with the organ above. This is of 19th-century work and shows figures associated with the early cathedral. Above the crossing is the central tower, housing the bells and above that the spire. The ceiling of the crossing is notable for the four Green Men carved on the bosses. Visible from the ground is the outline of the trapdoor through which bells can be raised and lowered when required. The floor is stepped up to the pulpitum and gives access to the quire through the organ screen.

 

The north transept is from 1235 in Early English style. The Victorian insertion of windows has been mentioned above in the external description. Dominating the transept is the baptistery fresco. The fresco by Russian artist Sergei Fyodorov is displayed on the eastern wall. It is located within an arched recess. The recess may have been a former site of the altar of St Nicholas from the time of its construction in 1235 until it was moved to the screen before the pulpitum in 1322. A will suggests that "an altar of Jesu" also stood here at some point, an altar of some sort must have existed as evidenced by the piscina to the right of the recess.[64] The vaulting is unusual in being octpartite, a development of the more common sexpartite. The Pilgrim Door is now the main visitor entrance and is level for disabled access.

 

he original Lady Chapel was formed in the south transept by screening it off from the crossing. The altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary was housed in the eastern arch of the transept. There are traces of painting both on the east wall and under the arch. The painting delineates the location of the mediaeval north screen of the Lady Chapel. Around 1490 this chapel was extended westwards by piercing the western wall with a large arch and building the chapel's nave against the existing south aisle of cathedral. From within the Lady Chapel the upper parts of two smaller clerestory windows may be seen above the chapel's chancel arch. Subsequently, a screen was placed under the arch and the modern Lady Chapel formed in the 1490 extension.

 

The south transept is of early Decorated style. The eastern wall of it is a single wide arch at the arcade level. There are two doorways in the arch, neither of which is used, the northern one being hidden by the memorial to Dr William Franklin. The south wall starts plain but part way up is a notable monument to Richard Watts, a "coloured bust, with long gray beard".[65] According to Palmer there used to be a brass plaque to Charles Dickens below this but only the outline exists, the plaque having been moved to the east wall of the quire transept.[66] The west wall is filled by the large arch mentioned above with the screen below dividing it from the present Lady Chapel.

 

The Lady Chapel as it now exists is of Decorated style with three lights along southern wall and two in the west wall. The style is a light and airy counterpart to the stolid Norman work of the nave. The altar has been placed against the southern wall resulting in a chapel where the congregation wraps around the altar. The window stained glass is modern and tells the gospel story.

 

The first, easternmost, window has the Annunciation in the upper light: Gabriel speaking to Mary (both crowned) with the Holy Spirit as a dove descending. The lower light shows the Nativity with the Holy Family, three angels and shepherds. The next window shows St Elizabeth in the upper light surrounded by stars and the sun in splendour device. The lower light shows the Adoration of the Magi with Mary enthroned with the Infant. The final window of the south wall has St Mary Magdelene with her ointment surrounded by Tudor roses and fleurs-de-lis in the upper light with the lower light showing the Presentation in the Temple. The west wall continues with St. Margaret of Scotland in the upper light surrounded by fouled anchor and thistle roundels. The reference is to the original dedication of the cathedral as the Priory of St Andrew. The lower light shows the Crucifixion with Mary and St Peter. The final window is unusual, the upper light is divided in three and shows King Arthur with the royal arms flanked by St George on the left and St Michael on the right. The lower light shows the Ascension: two disciples to the left, three women with unguents to the right and three bare crosses top right.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Cathedral

Caedwalla of Wessex

 

In 685 it was invaded by Caedwalla of Wessex. The Jutish king of the Isle of Wight, Arwald, died in action and his nephews were betrayed to Caedwalla, who subsequently died of wounds received in the battle. The two boys were converted to Christianity and immediately executed. Their names are unknown, but are called collectively "St.Arwald"- after their pagan uncle (who died fighting Christianity).

 

The West Saxon invasion was by all accounts prolonged and bloody.

 

St.Bede states that "...After Caedwalla had obtained possession of the kingdom of the Gewissae, he took also the Isle of Wight, which till then was entirely given over to idolatry, and by merciless slaughter, endeavoured to destroy all the inhabitants thereof, and to place their stead people from his own province; binding himself by a vow, though it is said that he was not yet regenerated in Christ, to give the fourth part of the land and of the spoil to the Lord, if he took the Island. He fulfilled this vow by giving the same for the service of the Lord to Bishop Wilfrid..."

 

It is reported in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle that during Caedwalla's attempts to subdue the population he was gravely wounded - wounds from which he would die within a couple of years. Before final subjugation most of the Jutish population of the island were killed and the remnant forced to accept Christianity as their religion and the West Saxon dialect as their language. Bede states that Caedwalla endeavoured to "mercilessly" destroy the population, but that 300 "hides" were given to the Church in the person of St Wilfrid. A "hide" was the amount of land required to support a family, and the Island was rated at 1200 hides. Caedwalla was a Christian sympathiser under the tutelage of St Wilfrid and St Aldhelm and had promised Wilfrid a quarter of the land in return for his assistance in claiming the Wessex throne. Unfortunately for them, the Jutish Islanders were not only heathens, but apostates, and the mass conversion of the Island probably did not occur as smoothly as had been planned.

 

From 685 therefore the island can be considered to have become part of Wessex and following the accession of West Saxon kings as kings of all England then part of England. The island became part of the shire of Hampshire and was divided into hundreds as was the norm.

[edit] The Saxons

 

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle tells how Wiht-land suffered particularly from Viking predations. Alfred the Great's navy defeated the Danes in 871 after they had "ravaged Devon and the Isle of Wight". During the second wave of Viking attacks in the reign of Ethelred the Unready (975-1014) the Isle of Wight was taken over by the Danes as a base to harry Southern England, referred to as their "frith-stool". The inlet on the west of the River Medina at Werrar Copse seems to have been their main base. In 1002 Ethelred ordered the killing of all the Danes in England in the St. Brice's Day Massacre but the Danish Army remained intact, based on the Isle of Wight. In 1012 Sweyn Forkbeard revenged the Danish defeat. Ethelred was forced to flee England: he spent Christmas on the Isle of Wight en route to refuge in Normandy.

 

The Island again played a critical role in English history as the base for Harold Godwinson and his brothers in their revolt against Edward the Confessor and yet again in 1066, when Tostig Godwinson arrived to collect supplies - but very little other support - en route to his defeat by Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Both men had manors on the Isle of Wight - Harold at Kern and Tostig at Nunwell.

[edit] The Norman Conquest

 

In the Domesday book (1086) the Island's name is Wit. The Norman Conquest of 1066 transferred the overall manorial rights of the Island to William FitzOsbern as Lord of the Isle of Wight. Carisbrooke Priory and the fort of Carisbrooke Castle were founded. The Island did not come under full control of the Crown until it was sold by the dying last Norman Lord, Lady Isabella de Fortibus, to Edward I in 1293.

 

The Lordship thereafter became a Royal appointment, with a brief interruption when Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick was crowned King of the Isle of Wight, King Henry VI assisting in person at the ceremony, placing the crown on his head. He died in 1445, aged 22. With no male heir, his regal title expired with him.

[edit] Medieval

 

After the Norman Conquest, the title of Lord of the Isle of Wight was created and William Fitz-Osborne who subsequently founded Carisbrooke Priory and the fortifications on what was to become Carisbrooke Castle became the first to hold the title. (It is possible that the site of Carisbrooke Castle had previously been fortified originally by Romans and subsequently by Jutes or Saxons; there still remains a late Saxon burgh, or defensive wall, built to defend the site from Viking raiders.) The Island did not come under the full control of the crown until the Countess Isabella De Fortibus sold it to Edward I in 1293 for six thousand marks.

 

The Lordship thereafter became a Royal appointment with a brief interruption when Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick, was crowned King of the Isle of Wight, King Henry VI assisting in person at the ceremony, placing the crown on his head. He died in 1445, aged 22. With no male heir, his regal title expired with him. The title of Lord of the Isle of Wight expired in the reign of Henry VII with the title of Governor or Captain being used for sometime thereafter. During the English Civil War King Charles fled to the Isle of Wight believing he would receive sympathy from the governor Robert Hammond. Hammond was appalled, and incarcerated the king in Carisbrooke Castle. Charles was later tried and executed in London.

 

Henry VIII who developed the Royal Navy and its permanent base at Portsmouth, fortifications at Yarmouth, East & West Cowes and Sandown, sometimes re-using stone from dissolved monasteries as building material. Sir Richard Worsley, Captain of the Island at this time, successfully commanded the resistance to the last of the French attacks in 1545. In July 1545; French troops had landed on the southern coast of the Isle of Wight. Their aim was to seize important areas of the island; allowing the French to gain overall control of the Isle of Wight; giving the French a valuable jumping-off point for further operations against the mainland. However, the French advance was decisively defeated, when the local Isle of Wight militia defeated the French troops in the Battle of Bonchurch. Much later on after the Spanish Armada in 1588 the threat of Spanish attacks remained, and the outer fortifications of Carisbrooke Castle were built between 1597 and 1602.

 

In 1587 two Roman Catholic missionaries Anderton and Marsden, originally from Lancashire, but trained in France, were returned to England in disguise on the ferry to Dover, but due to a severe gale landed in Cowes in the Isle of Wight. Unfortunately for them, such was the danger they were in that they loudly prayed to God to "save the first of your seminarians to returm=n to England" which was overheard by fellow passengers who reported them to Governor Carey. They were taken to London for trial, but executed by hanging, drawing and quartering in Cowes, although the exact site is unknown. They were declared "Venerable" by Pope Pius XI.

[edit] Early Modern and Modern

 

Charles I evaded custody under the Army at Hampton Court by riding to Southampton in order to escape to Jersey. However,he and his companion became lost in the New Forest and missed their intended ship, and fled to the Isle of Wight instead. The Governor Colonel Robert Hammond had declared for Parliament and Charles was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle. Since an extensive bowling green was built for his use this was initially in some comfort, but this was made closer after an abortive escape attempt, when he failed to get through the window to where Royalist sympathisers under John Oglander were waiting with a horse.

 

Charles was approached by the Presbyterian faction of Parliament and concluded the Treaty of Newport, offering him a constitutional monarchy. However Charles had no intention of accepting its restrictions upon Royal power and also concluded the Engagement with the Scots to invade on his behalf. As a result of his perceived faithlessness, the moderate faction at Parliament were discredited and Charles was moved to more prison-like conditions at Hurst Castle and thence to execution on 30 January 1649.

 

Later Cromwell was to use Carisbrooke Castle as a place of imprisonment for Fifth Monarchists opposed to his Protectorate including Thomas Harrison and Christopher Feake.

 

Queen Victoria made the Isle of Wight her home for many years, and as a result it become a major holiday resort for members of European royalty, whose many houses could later claim descent from her through the widely flung marriages of her offspring. During her reign in 1897 the World's first radio station was set up by Marconi at the Needles battery at the western tip of the Island.

 

The famous boat-building firm of J. Samuel White was established on the Island in 1802. Other noteworthy marine manufacturers followed over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries including Saunders-Roe a key manufacturer of the Flying-boats and the world's first hovercraft. The tradition of maritime industry continues on the Island today.

 

In the mid- to late-nineteenth century, a sizeable network of railways was built on the island, notable for its punishing gradients and numerous tunnels, particularly to reach the town of Ventnor. Since the early twentieth century, these lines were often linked to plans for a tunnel under the Solent, an idea still talked of today. Most of the rail network closed between 1956 and 1966, and is now a series of cyclepaths.

 

The first Governor to hold the crown representative title used now of Lord-Lieutenant was Lord Mountbatten of Burma until his murder in 1979. Lord Mottistone was the last Lord Lieutenant to also hold the title Governor (from 1992 to 1995). Since 1995 there has been no Governor appointed and Mr Christopher Bland has been the Lord Lieutenant.

[edit] Caulkheads and other Island terms

 

Historically, inhabitants of the Isle of Wight have been known as Vectensians or Vectians (pronounced Vec-tee-ans). These terms derive from the Latin name for the Island, Vectis. Vectian is a word used more formally to describe certain geological features which are typical of the Island. As with many other small island communities the term Islander has long been used, and is commonly heard today. The term Overner is used for people originating from mainland Great Britain. This is an abbreviated form of Overlander; which is an archaic English term for an outsider still found in a few other places such as parts of Australia.[5]

 

People born on the island are colloquially known as Caulkheads (sometimes erroneously written as it is spoken, Corkheads), a word comparable with the name Cockney for those born in the East End of London. Some argue that the term should only apply those who can also claim they are of established Isle of Wight stock either by proven historical roots or, for example, being third generation inhabitants from both parents' lineage.[6]

 

One theory about the term 'caulkhead' is that it comes from the once prevalent local industry of caulking boats; a process of sealing the seams of wooden boats with oakum. It is said that the shipyard at Bucklers Hard in the New Forest employed labourers from the Isle of Wight , mainly as caulkers, in the building of early warships. Islanders may have been called "Caulkheads" during this time either because they were indeed so employed, or merely as a derisory term for perceived unintelligent labourers from another place. Another more fanciful story is that a group of armoured Island horsemen were chased into the sea by the marauding French, and took refuge on a sandbank when the tide came in, thus appearing to float in the sea despite their heavy armour, hence the name Cork- i.e. Caulk-, -heads When this supposed event happened is not clear, since the Island was frequently attacked in the Middle Ages, however in the last instance in 1546 Sandown Castle was under construction some way offshore and a battle was fought on site, resulting in the French being driven off and this could fit this particular tale.[7] In local folklore it is said that a test can be conducted on a baby by throwing it into the sea from the end of Ryde Pier whereupon a true caulkhead baby will float unharmed. Thankfully there is no record of the test ever being carried out.

[edit] Political History

 

The island's most ancient borough was Newtown on the large natural harbour on the island's north-western coast. A French raid in 1377, that destroyed much of the town as well as other Island settlements, sealed its permanent decline. By the middle of the sixteenth century it was a small settlement long eclipsed by the more easily defended town of Newport. Elizabeth I breathed some life into the town by awarding two parliamentary seats but this ultimately made it one of the most notorious of the Rotten Boroughs. By the time of the Great Reform Act that abolished the seats, it had just fourteen houses and twenty-three voters. The Act also disenfranchised the borough of Yarmouth and replaced the four lost seats with the first MP for the whole Isle of Wight; Newport also retained its two MPs, though these were reduced to one in 1868 and eventually abolished completely in 1885.

 

Often thought of as part of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight was briefly included in that county when the first county councils were created in 1888. However, a "Home Rule" campaign led to a separate county council being established for the Isle of Wight in 1890, and it has remained separate ever since. Like inhabitants of many islands, Islanders are fiercely jealous of their real (or perceived) independence, and confusion over the Island's separate status is a perennial source of friction.

 

It was planned to merge the county back into Hampshire as a district in the 1974 local government reform, but a last minute change led to it retaining its county council. However, since there was no provision made in the Local Government Act 1972 for unitary authorities, the Island had to retain a two-tier structure, with a county council and two boroughs, Medina and South Wight.

 

The borough councils were merged with the county council on April 1, 1995, to form a single unitary authority, the Isle of Wight Council. The only significant present-day administrative link with Hampshire is the police service, the Hampshire Constabulary, which is joint between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

 

From the closing decades of the 20th century onwards, there has been considerable debate on the Island over whether or not a bridge or tunnel should connect the island with mainland England. The Isle of Wight Party campaigned from a positive position, although extensive public debate on the subject revealed a strong body of opinion amongst islanders against such a proposal. In 2002 the Isle of Wight Council debated the issue and made a policy statement against the proposal.

[edit] Autonomy and Political Recognition

 

A number of discussions about the status of the island have taken place over many years, with standpoints from the extreme of wanting full sovereignty for the Isle of Wight, to perhaps the opposite extreme of merging with Hampshire. The pro-independence lobby had a formal voice in the early 1970s with the Vectis National Party. Their main claim was that the sale of the island to the Crown in 1293 was unconstitutional. However, this movement now has little serious support. Since the 1990s the debate has largely taken the form of a campaign to have the Isle of Wight recognized as a distinct region by organizations such as the EU, due to its relative poverty within the south-east of England. One argument in favour of special treatment is that this poverty is not acknowledged by such organizations as it is distorted statistically by retired and wealthy (but less economically active) immigrants from the mainland.

 

In more recent times, the regionalist movement has been represented by the Isle of Wight Party.

[edit] Isle of Wight Disease

 

In 1904 a mysterious illness began to kill honeybee colonies on the island, and had nearly wiped out all hives by 1907 when the disease jumped to the mainland, and decimated beekeeping in the British Isles. Called the Isle of Wight Disease, the cause of the mystery ailment was not identified until 1921 when a tiny parasitic mite, Acarapis woodi was first described by J. Rennie. The mite inhabited the tracheae of individual bees, and greatly shortened their lifespan, causing eventual death of the colony. The disease (now called Acarine Disease) frightened many other nations because of the importance of bees in pollination. Laws against importation of honeybees were passed, but this merely delayed the eventual spread of the parasite to the rest of the world.

[edit] The Isle of Wight Festival

Main article: Isle of Wight Festival

 

A large rock festival took place near Tennyson Down, West Wight in 1970, following two smaller concerts in 1968 and 1969. The 1970 show was notable for being the last public performance by Jimi Hendrix before his death. The festival was revived in 2002 and is now an annual event,[8] with other, smaller musical events of many different genres across the Island becoming associated with it.

 

The first of the modern festivals was a one day affair termed Rock Island,[9] which expanded to two days in 2003,[9] then three days by 2004.[10]

Given a very basic vinyl makeover for Wharfedale Links duty.

The Marrabel Roman Catholic was built on land given by one of Marrabel’s first settlers, Mr Garrett Hannan.

There was already a temporary pine and pug Chapel. Tenders were called for in February 1867: by July the foundation stone was laid, and the church opened on 5 July 1868. Wright, Woods & Hamilton were the architects.

 

*The Very Rev John Smyth, VG, assisted by the Rev Joseph Tappeiner and the pastor of the district, laid on Sunday, 7th instant, the foundation stone of a Catholic Church, under the title of St Agnes the Martyr. Though the constant and heavy rains during the week had rendered the roads in many places almost impassable, and the day itself was unsettled and showery, yet no fewer than about 400 persons came to see laid the first stone of their church.

 

At 10 o'clock am the Rev Joseph Tappeiner celebrated mass, after which the priests and laity walked in procession from the small and unsightly building hitherto used as a chapel to the site of the new church.

 

The Vicar-General having laid the foundation stone, according to the Roman Ritual, preached an excellent sermon

 

The handsome sum of £84 14s 10d was then laid upon the stone. The building will be Gothic: the nave will measure 60 by 25 feet, besides chancel, sacristies, and porch. The plinth, quoins, and buttresses will be cut stone; and as the site is elevated, with a background of fine old gumtrees, the building will greatly contribute to the beauty of the young and rising township of Marrabel. [Ref: Express and Telegraph 11-7-1867]

 

Catholic Church, Marrabel,—

*The Very Rev John Smyth VG, assisted by the Rev Messrs Polk and Huger SJ, solemnly blessed and opened the Church of St Agnes, at Marrabel on Sunday, the 5th instant.

The very rev gentlemen preached an eloquent sermon on the occasion, and the handsome sum of £170 was received towards the liquidation of the debt, which is only a little over £400. When it is borne in mind that the building cost £1,000 independently of the stones, which were given and carted free of charge, the liberality of the congregation and friends will be more clearly understood. [Ref: Adelaide Observer from the Kapunda Herald 18-7-1868]

 

*The Rev Chas Van der Heyden – We are requested to inform our readers that this gentleman has removed from Riverton, and is now living in the new presbytery at Marrabel, recently erected by the Catholics of the district. [Ref: Irish Harp and Farmers’ Herald 12-3-1870]

 

*S. Agnes, Marrabel — A bazaar in aid of the church and new presbytery at Marrabel was held in S. Joseph's schoolroom on Wednesday, the 15th instant and following days. There was a large, effective and artistic display of useful and ornamental articles…praise is due to the ladies of the community for their enthusiastic zeal and persevering endeavours to make the Bazaar a success. [Ref: Irish Harp and Farmers’ Herald 25-3-1871]

 

*Presentations to Rev Michael Kennedy of Marrabel.

On Friday evening, April 30, many of the parishioners of the Mission of Marrabel met at Tothill's Creek to present an address and a purse of sovereigns to the Rev Michael Kennedy, in acknowledgment of the many services which had been done them by the rev gentleman during his long sojourn among them.

 

The residents of the parish of Marrabel, thought it our duty to assemble here this evening for the purpose of tendering our thanks for the able and cheerful manner in which you have for the last five years forwarded our interests … especially for the great efforts which you made to liquidate the debt which had been incurred some years ago for the purpose of building our church and parochial residence at Marrabel.

Independent of the outlay of £120 on the interior of the church, and some smaller sums spent in various other improvements, he had collected towards the debt on the church and presbytery £631 in the space of five years. [Ref: South Australian Advertiser 17-5-1877]

 

*The annual picnic in connection the with St Agnes Church, Marrabel, was held on Easter Monday. There was good attendance, notwithstanding that the weather was cold and wet.

In the evening the Rev W O’Dowling delivered an interesting lecture on the life of Dan O’Connell. The lecture was followed by a ball, which wound up a very enjoyable day. [Ref: Kapunda Herald 20-4-1900]

 

*The tender of Mr S H Roberts, of Saddleworth, has been accepted for building a sanctuary and vestry at St Agnes Church, Marrabel.

The price of the tender was £563. [Ref: Kapunda Herald 18-9-1914]

 

*Mr O Colmer of Riverton has obtained the contract for extensive repairs to the Catholic Church at Marrabel, including the putting in of a new ceiling. It is anticipated that he will start during this week. [Ref: Kapunda Herald 7-8-1936]

Given the sad news of the passing of the Queen it seems a good time to post this. They do an amazing job with the landscaping of the palace and the work inside, while not photographable was beautiful and well done.

Although everyone else over the years had given up on Lydia’s dream, Lydia never faltered. She had always wanted to be a beautician and as a little girl of seven used to play make up with her dolls and willing friends.

 

Even at the tender age of eight when her brother accidentally shot out her left eye with his official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot BB gun complete with a compass in the stock Lydia learned to apply makeup without blinking for minutes at a time.

 

The dream lived on.

 

At age ten while running in the house she tripped over her sister’s sit and spin and ended up shattering her jaw in three places on the coffee table. Determent not being an option, at age eleven employing the fine art of foundation shadowing she moved on.

 

At twelve while revolting against the current bouffant hairstyle. Lydia would have her best friend Melissa iron her hair straight. Until one day the iron shorted out and Melissa suffered a severe electrical shock and dropped the hot iron on the right side of Lydia’s face. This little mishap caused a rather large triangular scar with the little steam holes looking like geese flying south for the winter.

 

Yet the dream lived on.

 

At thirteen while making a nasty face at a one of her classmates Lydia’s face mysteriously froze in that position. This little episode left her looking like Lucile Ball being found out in a scheme gone wrong.

 

During her fourteenth summer while at camp she neglected the camp counselor’s warning and went swimming 30 minutes after eating lunch thus suffering terrible cramps that would last throughout her teen years and into Cosmetology College where she would be known as Lumpy Limping Lydia by her classmates.

 

Yet the dream lived.

 

At 29 Lydia opened first neighborhood shop that specialized in extreme make over sessions for cross dressers, transvestites and exotic dancers.

 

The moral of this story, the moral of this tale…

 

No matter how much crap life deals out to you, if you keep your dream and expectations alive of what your purpose is there will always be a cliental out there for you. And you if you play your cards right you can charge whatever the hell you want.

 

Personally I would pass on lunch with any one beauty to just have coffee and scones with Lydia.

 

Photo taken in Atwater California 11/09/05

The Theodosian Walls were situated between the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Golden Horn and have a length of 6.5 km.

 

The walls were completed in 413 during the reign of Theodosius II (408–50). The wall was given his name, but was actually built under the supervision of Anthemius of Byzantium, a praefectus praetorio of the Eastern Roman Empire.

 

From 439 onwards, the sea walls were built along the Golden Horn and the Sea of ​​Marmara (Propontis), thus walling the entire peninsula on which the city was situated.

  

The Theodosian Walls consisted of:

- the main inner wall (5 meters thick and 12 meters high); this was separated by a terrace (peribolos) from

- the lower outer wall (2 meters thick and 8.5 meters high).

 

An outer terrace, the parateichion, extended between the outer wall and the moat. The moat was about 20 m (66 ft) from the outer wall. The moat itself was over 20 m (66 ft) wide and as much as 10 m (33 ft) deep, with a 1.5 m (5 ft) high crenellated wall on the inside, which served as a first line of defense.

 

Access to the outer wall from the city was provided through the main gates at the base of the towers of the inner wall. The outer wall also had towers, which were placed about halfway between the towers of the inner wall. They were spaced at a distance of 48–78 m (150–250 ft) from each other. Of the towers of the outer wall, 62 have survived.

 

The walls of Constantinople were notoriously impregnable throughout the Middle Ages. Greek engineers used a much more effective construction technique than others in the Middle Ages. The walls in the Byzantine Empire were usually not solid, but consisted of double walls filled with rubble, which allowed gaps to be quickly repaired. Numerous armies of Bulgarians, Avars, Kipchaks, Russians, Galatians and Arabs failed to penetrate the walls. The first breach of the walls came in 1204, when the Fourth Crusade laid the city to waste. Two centuries later, the city had not yet recovered from the damage of the Crusade, and in 1453, after a relatively short siege, it fell into the hands of the Turkish Ottomans.

Given by blind people, of course

Today the Sun reaches its northernmost point in planet Earth's sky. Called a solstice, the date traditionally marks a change of seasons -- from spring to summer in Earth's Northern Hemisphere and from fall to winter in Earth's Southern Hemisphere. The featured image was taken during the week of the 2008 summer solstice at Stonehenge in United Kingdom, and captures a picturesque sunrise involving fog, trees, clouds, stones placed about 4,500 years ago, and a 4.5 billion year old large glowing orb. Even given the precession of the Earth's rotational axis over the millennia, the Sun continues to rise over Stonehenge in an astronomically significant way. via NASA

Photo by Greg Shine, BLM

 

Redmond Caves is a site featuring five caves formed by volcanic flows of molten lava from the Newberry Caldera. Located inside the Redmond city limits, the site is managed by the Bureau of Land Management in partnership with the City of Redmond and is a unique site where visitors can learn about geology, wildlife, and past human use.

 

The five caves were created from the collapse of a single lava tube. While some caving groups have given the individual caves names, most academic and archaeological groups refer to the caves by number.

 

Cave 1: The largest cave opening, with the highest roof, located in the center of the site.

 

Cave 2: A very small and shallow entrance tube that is present as a surface feature, located to the northwest of Cave 1

 

Cave 3: A long section of lava tube, with a southern and northern opening.

 

Cave 4: A short section of lava tube with very low ceiling, located at the south end of the site, visible from Airport Avenue.

 

Cave 5: A very small and shallow cave opening, located immediately east of Cave 4.

 

The largest opening (Cave 1) enters a fairly deep and expansive cave, while Cave 3 has two openings joined by a narrow, but easily passable connection.

 

Caves 1, 3, and 4 are accessible and have deep, sandy soils, with scattered boulders and ceiling blocks.

 

The caves are a great place to explore today, and archaeological evidence and oral tradition point to human use of the caves for at least 6,000 years.

 

Visitors are asked to respect the caves and the land surrounding them as a natural park, and to avoid artifact collecting, trash dumping, woodcutting or adding graffiti to the cave walls and entrances.

The Prineville BLM will be managing the Redmond Caves area for foot traffic only with parking and an entrance on SW Airport Way.

 

The area is flat and covered with scattered juniper trees, sagebrush and rabbitbrush. Visitors to the area can take a short, 3/4 - 1/2 mile hike around the parcel and explore the five caves.

 

Redmond Caves have been listed as "Significant" under the Federal Caves Resources Protection Act due to their cultural, recreational, biological, and educational values.

Given the unique historical, cultural, wildlife, and geological values of the site, visitors should practice "leave no trace ethics" when visiting the site.

 

This 40-acre parcel is managed for education and interpretive use, and prohibits the following activities to help protect the caves:

•Motorized and mechanized vehicles;

 

•Campfires in the entire Redmond Caves Area, including the caves;

 

•Overnight use, except under permit;

 

•Placement of physical geocaches;

 

•Paintball use;

 

•All firearm discharge;

 

•All rockhounding and collection of decorative stone;

 

•Painting, marking, or otherwise defacing the caves and surrounding rocks;

 

•Digging and excavating;

 

•Use of fireworks or other pyrotechnic devices within the caves;

 

•Dogs or other animals within the caves;

 

•No smoking within the caves.

 

These caves are preserved in their natural state; therefore, inherent risks exist that require precautions:

•Always watch for rattlesnakes.

 

•Leave word with someone stating what cave you will be visiting and an approximate return time.

 

•Take three dependable sources of light.

 

•Wear sturdy shoes that protect the ankle and have non-leather, non-skid, non-marking soles.

 

•Gloves and kneepads may be necessary and/or useful in some caves.

 

•Wear a helmet to protect against low ceilings.

 

•Take someone with you when you enter a cave—don't go alone.

 

Over the past fifty years, proposals for the use of the site have been creative and diverse. At the height of the Cold War, the caves were proposed for use as a fallout shelter in the event of an atomic attack; farmers from Madras looked at the site as a possible mushroom farm; and, the Deschutes County Historical Society even received a proposal to develop their offices in the caves themselves.

 

In the mid-1990s, the Prineville BLM and City of Redmond formed a partnership to cooperatively manage the Redmond Caves site. This partnership was central to funding archaeological surveys and other site surveys to support management decisions for the area.

 

In 2005, the BLM completed the Upper Deschutes Resource Management Plan, which provides objectives for managing the Redmond Cave area, including:

•Protecting and maintaining the biologic, cultural, and geologic features of the caves;

 

•Working with the City of Redmond to pursue the development of the area into a natural community park and to interpret the important features of the area; and

 

•Providing recreation appropriate to management of the caves through the use of marked foot trails, designated parking and fencing.

 

Redmond Caves is located on the northern end of the Newberry lava plain between the Crooked and Deschutes Rivers. As part of the high desert, the hot and dry character of the area influenced how native human populations and local wildlife used the caves and the surrounding lands. While the rivers represented access to vital resources, trails between the two rivers passed near the Redmond Caves site, and the caves likely provided a cool, but short-term, stop-over for travelers.

 

Based on available information, this pattern of use seems to have persisted for the last 5000-7000 years. Formal archaeological excavations have provided a glimpse into the caves' use, with evidence of hunting and gathering through the remains of stone, bone, shell and textile artifacts.

 

In 1941, Robert Heizer of the University of Oregon, conducted partial excavations inside the caves. His discoveries included items like obsidian and chert flakes, dart points, arrow points, a mano (a hand-held stone for grinding), a sandal fragment, and several pieces of animal bone.

 

The scale of volcanic activity in Central Oregon is very large. The flows that created Redmond Caves came from Newberry Caldera over the past 2 million years. Newberry is a shield volcano located 35 miles away, and is the largest such volcano in the lower 48 states. Redmond Caves is just one portion of a system that stretches through eastern Bend, across BLM-managed lands east of State Highway 97 and into Redmond. A 1963 BLM mineral report mentions that local residents entered a cave on private property to the northeast of the site, crawled in a southwest direction, and exited one of the caves on the BLM parcel.

 

The BLM has led several field trips to the caves with members and elders of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (CTWSRO), Burns Paiute, and Klamath Tribes. Recollections of a few of the elders are as follows:

•According to Delbert Frank, Sr. and Geraldine Jim of CTWSRO, the area around Redmond is referred to in the Sahaptin language as P'oosh P'oosh for the number of juniper trees in the area.

 

•As young people, some of the elders recalled camping in the vicinity of the caves when their parents were working at nearby potato fields, while attending the rodeo, or traveling from one point to another off reservation.

 

•Some elders remember a shallow layer of water on the cave floor and to keep them from potential danger, their parents told them that water babies and other malevolent spirits lived there. Some of the elders confided that despite their parent's warnings, they went into the caves anyway!

 

In 2002, the BLM and the City of Redmond authorized the University of Oregon (Field School) to conduct a multi-year archeological project at Redmond Caves. This work included surveys of the entire 40-acre parcel, with the discovery of numerous prehistoric sites and a few historic period refuse scatters. Over the course of several seasons of work, archeological excavation was done inside the caves. Cultural items identified and recorded included:

•Projectile points (arrowheads);

 

•Fresh water and marine shells (Olivella and Dentalium);

 

•Bifaces and edge-modified flakes;

 

•Cordage, shell, bone and stone disc beads, and bone needles, awls, and hooks;

 

•Ochre;

 

•Tools such as an Elkhorn digging stick handle, a milling stone, and stone mortar;

 

•Large amounts of naturally and culturally deposited animal bones (the later resulting from food consumption by early human inhabitants);

 

•Obsidian from the site was analyzed through X-ray fluorescence, identifying where the stone originated.

 

Based on the testing, obsidian tools at the site came from the following locations:

Obsidian Cliffs - 33 miles

McKay Butte - 37 miles

Newberry Volcano - 36 miles

Spodue Mountain - 114 miles

Quartz Mountain - 45 miles

 

The Field School sent a sagebrush sandal fragment found in Redmond Caves in the 1940s for radiocarbon dating, which showed that it is roughly 1700 to 1900 years old. The sandal is a multiple warp type sandal, which is one of styles of sandal with the widest geographic and temporal distribution in the Northern Great Basin.

 

In 1938, J.M. Valentine collected a holotype (the individual organism used in naming and describing a new species and usually preserved afterward) of the Charlotte's False Scorpion (Parobisium charlotteae) from Redmond Caves. This false scorpion is in the family Neobisiidae, which contains over 200 named species of false scorpions.

Pseudoscorpions are very small (usually less than 4 millimeters) and generally beneficial. Their prey includes moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, mites, and small flies.

I was given a Mint CANON EOS 1000F outfit that the lady had not used for 30 years so of course the 2CR5 BATTERY was well dead ! There was a Fuji Superia 400 FILM in there still, which on processing I found some very FAINT images -- the 'Latent Image# had FADED over the years. On next upload I will show a couple of that film . Here I used a cut length of 'Chromogenic Kodak B&W 400' rated at 200 ASA and home-processed in C41. SIGMA UC AF 70-210mm f4.-5.6

Given that Parks have bases in Hamilton and Plymouth this is almost certainly sold to someone local; Milken would be a strong possible....

Given my ever growing collection of bottle caps it should be of no surprise that one of the first things I picked up to photograph with a macro lens was a cap. Of the ones I had with me I liked the design of this Arrogant Bastard Ale best and chose it.

But what if I decided to photograph every one of my caps at this size, and then wanted a print??

Well, here is where the math gets fun.

All calculations were made while assuming 1600 unique caps in my collection at the moment.

If I were to photograph them as I did this one, I could print each out at 8 x 12 while still remaining above 300+ dpi. When combined together they would cover an area of over 1000 square feet (approximately 100 square meters).

As for the computer file, if each one is 4060 x 2707 pixels, that would give us an image size of a little over 17.5 gigapixels

The Verona Arena (Arena di Verona) is a Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Bra in Verona, Italy, which is internationally famous for the large-scale opera performances given there. It is one of the best preserved ancient structures of its kind. Amphitheatre

The building itself was built in AD 30 on a site which was then beyond the city walls. The ludi (shows and games) staged there were so famous that spectators came from many other places, often far away, to witness them. The amphitheatre could host more than 30,000 spectators in ancient times.

 

The round façade of the building was originally composed of white and pink limestone from Valpolicella, but after a major earthquake in 1117, which almost completely destroyed the structure's outer ring, except for the so-called "ala", the stone was quarried for re-use in other buildings. Nevertheless it impressed medieval visitors to the city, one of whom considered it to have been a labyrinth, without ingress or egress. Ciriaco d'Ancona was filled with admiration for the way it had been built and Giovanni Antonio Panteo's civic panegyric De laudibus veronae, 1483, remarked that it struck the viewer as a construction that was more than human. Musical theatre

The first interventions to recover the arena's function as a theatre began during the Renaissance. Some operatic performances were later mounted in the building during the 1850s, owing to its outstanding acoustics.

 

And in 1913, operatic performances in the arena commenced in earnest due to the zeal and initiative of the Italian opera tenor Giovanni Zenatello and the impresario Ottone Rovato. The first 20th-century operatic production at the arena, a staging of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, took place on 10 August of that year, to mark the birth of Verdi 100 years before in 1813. Musical luminaries such as Puccini and Mascagni were in attendance. Since then, summer seasons of opera have been mounted continually at the arena, except in 1915â18 and 1940â45, when Europe was convulsed in war.

 

Nowadays, at least four productions (sometimes up to six) are mounted each year between June and August. During the winter months, the local opera and ballet companies perform at the L'Accademia Filarmonica.

 

Modern-day travellers are advised that admission tickets to sit on the arena's stone steps are much cheaper to buy than tickets giving access to the padded chairs available on lower levels. Candles are distributed to the audience and lit after sunset around the arena.

 

Every year over 500,000 people see productions of the popular operas in this arena.[3] Once capable of housing 20,000 patrons per performance (now limited to 15,000 because of safety reasons), the arena has featured many of world's most notable opera singers. In the post-World War II era, they have included Giuseppe Di Stefano, Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi and Renata Tebaldi among other names. A number of conductors have appeared there, too. The official arena shop has historical recordings made by some of them available for sale.

 

The opera productions in the Verona Arena had not used any microphones or loudspeakers until an electronic sound reinforcement system was installed in 2011.

 

In recent times, the arena has also hosted several concerts of international rock and pop bands, among which Laura Pausini, Pink Floyd, Alicia Keys, One Direction, Simple Minds, Duran Duran, Deep Purple, The Who, Dire Straits, Mike Oldfield, Rod Stewart, Sting, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Björk, Muse, Paul McCartney, Jamiroquai, and Whitney Houston.

 

In 1981, 1984 and 2010 it hosted the podium and presentation of the Giro d'Italia with thousands packing the arena to watch the prizes being handed out.

 

The 2011 Bollywood film Rockstar directed by Imtiaz Ali starring Ranbir Kapoor with music composed by Academy Award winner A.R.Rahman opens and closes with musical concerts shot here.

 

On 26 March 2013, Paul McCartney confirmed a show at the venue as part of his 2013 Tour. The show is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 25 June 2013.

British-Irish boy band One Direction performed on 19 May 2013 as part of their Take Me Home Tour

Piazza Bra , or simply the Bra (a name derived from a corruption of the term "Braida", which in turn derives from the Lombard breit , or "off"), is the largest square in Verona , located in its center historian .

 

The square of Piazza Bra began to turn into only the first half of the sixteenth century , when the architect Michele San Micheli concluded the palace of Honorij : this building was to delimit the western side of the square of the future, as well as to establish a correct outlook on the ' Arena . The first attempt to transform the clearing dirt road instead of walking, however, was the mayor Alvise Mocenigo, who wanted to create a meeting place for the rising bourgeoisie Verona: he was able to inaugurate the first part of the Liston , a paved sidewalk that lines connecting the Bra Corso Porta Nuova in Via Mazzini , in 1770. La Gran Guardia , begun by the Venetians in the seventeenth century and completed by the Austrians in the ' Nineteenth Century , went to delimit the southern side of the square, while in 1836 the architect Giuseppe Barbieri designed the eastern edge, where a hospital were demolished, some houses and a church, which was built in place of the Gran Guardia Nuova , better known as Palazzo Barbieri. This, initially used as a barracks by the Austrians, became, as a result of ' annexation of Veneto to the Kingdom of Italy , the seat of the municipality of the City of Verona.

 

History

Origins

In Roman times , the place where you would then open the Bra was outside the city and yet away from the main roads. It is only since the first century AD, when it was built the ' amphitheater in the Roman Empire, better known as the Arena of Verona , who came to define the northern edge of what centuries later would become one of the main squares of Verona. In 305 the Emperor Galerius , during a short stay in the city, he opened a door along the walls which was built in 265 by the Emperor Gallienus , which surrounded the Arena went thus creating a first connection between the city and the place where later would be born Bra.

 

The square, however, began to abbozzarsi only in the Middle Ages: the walls of the city was enlarged at that point between 1130 and 1153, going to close so that piece of land that later would become, coming to have the size of a square. Those areas between the walls and the Roman city walls were called braide, from the Lombard breit ; the braida that could match the current Bra in the twelfth century was far more extensive than at the edge of the square today.

 

A door that the Braida along the city walls is already mentioned in a document dated 1257, but later his place was taken by the gates of the Bra , probably due to the Visconti and to the Venetians : the first arch is dated to the late fourteenth century and the second to the second half of the fifteenth century. The clock that is located between the two arches of the gates of the Bra was a gift of Count Antonio Nogarola made ââin 1871: it was installed with the dials is visible from one side on the other walls. The clock was inaugurated on June 2, 1872 and refurbished in 1879 because of its vagueness.

 

Development

Piazza Bra after the arrangement of the central gardens

Piazza Bra in the mid-twentieth century.

The Bra began to be defined as a square only in the first decade of the seventeenth century, when they started on the south side of the factories Gran Guardia and the seat of the ' Accademia Filarmonica of Verona . In conjunction with the factory della Gran Guardia became the leveling the square as possible, and also create some gradients to regulate the flow of stormwater, operation up to that time never practiced because the space was used by stonemasons, that here, as well as work, abandoning the resulting material, and because the clearing was used for the discharge of material from construction in progress in the area.

 

For others, one hundred and fifty years the space was in clay, in fact, only in 1770 the foundations were laid of Liston will of the mayor Alvise Mocenigo. On March 13, 1782 Francis Menegatti presented a project to the final lastricamento of Liston that the City Council approved and, after this surgery, the bra became the favorite place for afternoon walks in place of Piazza dei Signori . Goethe , in his essay Journey to Italy , describes enjoyed the arrival carriage with ladies and gentlemen, and said that the sunset loitered along the rim of the amphitheater enjoying the most beautiful views of the city. I insole and down on the pavement off the Bra 'walked a multitude of people .

 

The square was smoothed more times: in 1808 he was entrusted with the task of remaking the Liston architect Luigi Trezza and in 1820 excavations were carried out along the Arena, in order to bring to light the basis of the same, as it was buried about two feet because of the sediments that were deposited after the numerous floods that had undergone the city. He also opted for a lowering of the average level of Bra about 70 centimeters along a line slightly inclined from the Gran Guardia At Arena, lowering the share of Liston.

 

Plan of Bra in a drawing by Giuseppe Barbieri

As for the lighting, until the eighteenth century the bra at night was totally immersed in the dark; only in the nineteenth century were installed lights in oil and gas lighting in 1845, so that the Liston also became a place for evening strolls. Then important for the conformation of the square today, is the accommodation in the central part of the garden Bra occurred in 1873: the central gardens were created with three circles forming a triangle with a central fountain.

Between 1884 and 1951 the square was affected by the rails of the tramway town .

 

Events

It is interesting to read the description of Liston of an astonished reporter of the magazine Esperia in an article of 1837:

 

" ... the audience is walking the plank of 'Veronesi, extended space, which is located in a few cities: here business people are dining and comforting conversation, idleness is recreated, and the beautiful flock there to get tributes of glances and sighs of their worshipers ... and many cafes offer brilliant and sufficient acceptance to the numerous meetings that there agree. Street musicians and improvisers, unpleasant indeed, but the liveliness of the inhabitants always well received, breaking the monotony of chatter; and the music of the military garrison increase much fun. Very pleasing to the eye is in the summer thousands of people of both sexes, and before sitting under the porch; and a more active crowd by constantly prowling the paths formed by the rows of seats, and now dispense with a bow, and now dwell near some nice, vibrate envious compliments and words of hope and voting ... while the beautiful turn cautious gaze looking at the confused teeming with ill-concealed impatience, greeting or stop most expensive among the happy meeting ... "

In the past, however, the Bra was used for uses other than those described well by this reporter: in particular, after the twelfth century it was included in the city walls it was used for the wood, hay, straw and cattle, so that in ancient documents is called the Bra cattle market. More often is cited as the parade ground, as was the case here the review of the troops from the beginning of the Venetian rule, which is why this was one of the points of conflict between the French and Venetian soldiers during the Veronese Easters in 1797 . Starting from 1633, after the approval of the Venetian Senate for the creation of an exhibition of goods in the city, there were held two annual fairs fifteen days each, which continued to be held until one of them was destroyed by fire October 28, 1712, and then restored in another place, it was established only in 1822, a new exhibition, which would last in Piazza Bra for twenty years.

 

Fair in very old custom is instead to Saint Lucia : it takes place every year from 11 to 13 December, but do not know its origins. Legend has it that, probably in the communal, an epidemic broke out in the city that struck my eyes, it was so that the Veronese decided to make a pilgrimage to the church of Saint Lucia (no longer exists): the children, who did not want to participate , were persuaded to return with the promise that they would find the shoes filled with gifts. The miracle occurred, and since then the fair is held to coincide with the feast of Saint Lucia.

 

The comet of Verona during a night snowfall

During the Christmas season takes place within the Arena arches dell ' Arena, the International Festival of the Nativity , an event born in 1984 from the mind of Alfredo Troisi , along with the comet symbol of the event, from the reservoir from the Arena, go to dive in Bra. Over the years the star has taken on meanings and values ââare independent of the review of the nativity, as to be appreciated by itself. This architecture-sculpture was designed by architect and designer Rinaldo Olivieri : his intuition came to looking at a map of the city, characterized by two large voids, one of the auditorium and that of the square in front of the Arena. It was from this impression that he was born an ideal line, a huge arch that connects the Arena with the urban space, an arc of light and steel from the Temple of the music goes to fall and explode among citizens

Junger Mädchenakt im ockerfarbenen Tuch/Young Nude Girl in Ocher-Colored Cloth, 1911

Bleistift und Aquarell/Pencil and watercolor

Albertina

 

The naked standing girl is squeezed into the rigid geometry of the coat, the sharp contours make for a compact representation. As in earlier children's portraits, the figure is psychologically organized via eye contact: the girl is staring at the viewer with wide-open eyes. Schiele, who sexualizes the girl's body by depicting the genital area in glowing red, creates an unbridgeable distance between the girl given up to the mercy of her vis-à-vis and the viewer. Schiele's subject is the defenselessness and helplessness of man.

 

Das nackte, stehende Mädchen ist in die starre Geometrie des Mantels gezwängt, durch die scharf gezogenen Umrisse wirkt die Darstellung sehr kompakt. Wie auch in den früheren Kinderbildnissen ist hier die Figur psychologisch über den Blickkontakt organisiert. Mit weit aufgerissenen Augen starrt das Mädchen den Betrachter an. Schiele, der den Körper des Mädchens durch die leuchtend rote Kolorierung des Geschlechts sexualisiert, schafft eine unüberbrückbare Distanz zwischen dem hilflos seinem Gegenüber ausgelieferten Mädchen und dem Betrachter. Er thematisiert Schutzlosigkeit und Ausgeliefert-Sein des Menschen.

 

The Albertina

The architectural history of the Palais

(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Image: The oldest photographic view of the newly designed Palais Archduke Albrecht, 1869

"It is my will that ​​the expansion of the inner city of Vienna with regard to a suitable connection of the same with the suburbs as soon as possible is tackled and at this on Regulirung (regulation) and beautifying of my Residence and Imperial Capital is taken into account. To this end I grant the withdrawal of the ramparts and fortifications of the inner city and the trenches around the same".

This decree of Emperor Franz Joseph I, published on 25 December 1857 in the Wiener Zeitung, formed the basis for the largest the surface concerning and architecturally most significant transformation of the Viennese cityscape. Involving several renowned domestic and foreign architects a "master plan" took form, which included the construction of a boulevard instead of the ramparts between the inner city and its radially upstream suburbs. In the 50-years during implementation phase, an impressive architectural ensemble developed, consisting of imperial and private representational buildings, public administration and cultural buildings, churches and barracks, marking the era under the term "ring-street style". Already in the first year tithe decided a senior member of the Austrian imperial family to decorate the facades of his palace according to the new design principles, and thus certified the aristocratic claim that this also "historicism" said style on the part of the imperial house was attributed.

Image: The Old Albertina after 1920

It was the palace of Archduke Albrecht (1817-1895), the Senior of the Habsburg Family Council, who as Field Marshal held the overall command over the Austro-Hungarian army. The building was incorporated into the imperial residence of the Hofburg complex, forming the south-west corner and extending eleven meters above street level on the so-called Augustinerbastei.

The close proximity of the palace to the imperial residence corresponded not only with Emperor Franz Joseph I and Archduke Albert with a close familial relationship between the owner of the palace and the monarch. Even the former inhabitants were always in close relationship to the imperial family, whether by birth or marriage. An exception here again proves the rule: Don Emanuel Teles da Silva Conde Tarouca (1696-1771), for which Maria Theresa in 1744 the palace had built, was just a close friend and advisor of the monarch. Silva Tarouca underpins the rule with a second exception, because he belonged to the administrative services as Generalhofbaudirektor (general court architect) and President of the Austrian-Dutch administration, while all other him subsequent owners were highest ranking military.

In the annals of Austrian history, especially those of military history, they either went into as commander of the Imperial Army, or the Austrian, later kk Army. In chronological order, this applies to Duke Carl Alexander of Lorraine, the brother-of-law of Maria Theresa, as Imperial Marshal, her son-in-law Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, also field marshal, whos adopted son, Archduke Charles of Austria, the last imperial field marshal and only Generalissimo of Austria, his son Archduke Albrecht of Austria as Feldmarschalil and army Supreme commander, and most recently his nephew Archduke Friedrich of Austria, who held as field marshal from 1914 to 1916 the command of the Austro-Hungarian troops. Despite their military profession, all five generals conceived themselves as patrons of the arts and promoted large sums of money to build large collections, the construction of magnificent buildings and cultural life. Charles Alexander of Lorraine promoted as governor of the Austrian Netherlands from 1741 to 1780 the Academy of Fine Arts, the Théâtre de Ja Monnaie and the companies Bourgeois Concert and Concert Noble, he founded the Academie royale et imperial des Sciences et des Lettres, opened the Bibliotheque Royal for the population and supported artistic talents with high scholarships. World fame got his porcelain collection, which however had to be sold by Emperor Joseph II to pay off his debts. Duke Albert began in 1776 according to the concept of conte Durazzo to set up an encyclopedic collection of prints, which forms the core of the world-famous "Albertina" today.

Image : Duke Albert and Archduchess Marie Christine show in family cercle the from Italy brought along art, 1776. Frederick Henry Füger.

1816 declared to Fideikommiss and thus in future indivisible, inalienable and inseparable, the collection 1822 passed into the possession of Archduke Carl, who, like his descendants, it broadened. Under him, the collection was introduced together with the sumptuously equipped palace on the Augustinerbastei in the so-called "Carl Ludwig'schen fideicommissum in 1826, by which the building and the in it kept collection fused into an indissoluble unity. At this time had from the Palais Tarouca by structural expansion or acquisition a veritable Residenz palace evolved. Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen was first in 1800 the third floor of the adjacent Augustinian convent wing adapted to house his collection and he had after 1802 by his Belgian architect Louis de Montoyer at the suburban side built a magnificent extension, called the wing of staterooms, it was equipped in the style of Louis XVI. Only two decades later, Archduke Carl the entire palace newly set up. According to scetches of the architect Joseph Kornhäusel the 1822-1825 retreaded premises presented themselves in the Empire style. The interior of the palace testified from now in an impressive way the high rank and the prominent position of its owner. Under Archduke Albrecht the outer appearance also should meet the requirements. He had the facade of the palace in the style of historicism orchestrated and added to the Palais front against the suburbs an offshore covered access. Inside, he limited himself, apart from the redesign of the Rococo room in the manner of the second Blondel style, to the retention of the paternal stock. Archduke Friedrich's plans for an expansion of the palace were omitted, however, because of the outbreak of the First World War so that his contribution to the state rooms, especially, consists in the layout of the Spanish apartment, which he in 1895 for his sister, the Queen of Spain Maria Christina, had set up as a permanent residence.

Picture: The "audience room" after the restoration: Picture: The "balcony room" around 1990

The era of stately representation with handing down their cultural values ​​found its most obvious visualization inside the palace through the design and features of the staterooms. On one hand, by the use of the finest materials and the purchase of masterfully manufactured pieces of equipment, such as on the other hand by the permanent reuse of older equipment parts. This period lasted until 1919, when Archduke Friedrich was expropriated by the newly founded Republic of Austria. With the republicanization of the collection and the building first of all finished the tradition that the owner's name was synonymous with the building name:

After Palais Tarouca or tarokkisches house it was called Lorraine House, afterwards Duke Albert Palais and Palais Archduke Carl. Due to the new construction of an adjacently located administration building it received in 1865 the prefix "Upper" and was referred to as Upper Palais Archduke Albrecht and Upper Palais Archduke Frederick. For the state a special reference to the Habsburg past was certainly politically no longer opportune, which is why was decided to name the building according to the in it kept collection "Albertina".

Picture: The "Wedgwood Cabinet" after the restoration: Picture: the "Wedgwood Cabinet" in the Palais Archduke Friedrich, 1905

This name derives from the term "La Collection Albertina" which had been used by the gallery Inspector Maurice von Thausing in 1870 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts for the former graphics collection of Duke Albert. For this reason, it was the first time since the foundation of the palace that the name of the collection had become synonymous with the room shell. Room shell, hence, because the Republic of Austria Archduke Friedrich had allowed to take along all the movable goods from the palace in his Hungarian exile: crystal chandeliers, curtains and carpets as well as sculptures, vases and clocks. Particularly stressed should be the exquisite furniture, which stems of three facilities phases: the Louis XVI furnitures of Duke Albert, which had been manufactured on the basis of fraternal relations between his wife Archduchess Marie Christine and the French Queen Marie Antoinette after 1780 in the French Hofmanufakturen, also the on behalf of Archduke Charles 1822-1825 in the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory by Joseph Danhauser produced Empire furnitures and thirdly additions of the same style of Archduke Friedrich, which this about 1900 at Portois & Ffix as well as at Friedrich Otto Schmidt had commissioned.

The "swept clean" building got due to the strained financial situation after the First World War initially only a makeshift facility. However, since until 1999 no revision of the emergency equipment took place, but differently designed, primarily the utilitarianism committed office furnitures complementarily had been added, the equipment of the former state rooms presented itself at the end of the 20th century as an inhomogeneous administrative mingle-mangle of insignificant parts, where, however, dwelt a certain quaint charm. From the magnificent state rooms had evolved depots, storage rooms, a library, a study hall and several officed.

Image: The Albertina Graphic Arts Collection and the Philipphof after the American bombing of 12 März 1945.

Image: The palace after the demolition of the entrance facade, 1948-52

Worse it hit the outer appearance of the palace, because in times of continued anti-Habsburg sentiment after the Second World War and inspired by an intolerant destruction will, it came by pickaxe to a ministerial erasure of history. In contrast to the graphic collection possessed the richly decorated facades with the conspicuous insignia of the former owner an object-immanent reference to the Habsburg past and thus exhibited the monarchial traditions and values ​​of the era of Francis Joseph significantly. As part of the remedial measures after a bomb damage, in 1948 the aristocratic, by Archduke Albert initiated, historicist facade structuring along with all decorations was cut off, many facade figures demolished and the Hapsburg crest emblems plunged to the ground. Since in addition the old ramp also had been cancelled and the main entrance of the bastion level had been moved down to the second basement storey at street level, ended the presence of the old Archduke's palace after more than 200 years. At the reopening of the "Albertina Graphic Collection" in 1952, the former Hapsburg Palais of splendour presented itself as one of his identity robbed, formally trivial, soulless room shell, whose successful republicanization an oversized and also unproportional eagle above the new main entrance to the Augustinian road symbolized. The emocratic throw of monuments had wiped out the Hapsburg palace from the urban appeareance, whereby in the perception only existed a nondescript, nameless and ahistorical building that henceforth served the lodging and presentation of world-famous graphic collection of the Albertina. The condition was not changed by the decision to the refurbishment because there were only planned collection specific extensions, but no restoration of the palace.

Image: The palace after the Second World War with simplified facades, the rudiment of the Danubiusbrunnens (well) and the new staircase up to the Augustinerbastei

This paradigm shift corresponded to a blatant reversal of the historical circumstances, as the travel guides and travel books for kk Residence and imperial capital of Vienna dedicated itself primarily with the magnificent, aristocratic palace on the Augustinerbastei with the sumptuously fitted out reception rooms and mentioned the collection kept there - if at all - only in passing. Only with the repositioning of the Albertina in 2000 under the direction of Klaus Albrecht Schröder, the palace was within the meaning and in fulfillment of the Fideikommiss of Archduke Charles in 1826 again met with the high regard, from which could result a further inseparable bond between the magnificent mansions and the world-famous collection. In view of the knowing about politically motivated errors and omissions of the past, the facades should get back their noble, historicist designing, the staterooms regain their glamorous, prestigious appearance and culturally unique equippment be repurchased. From this presumption, eventually grew the full commitment to revise the history of redemption and the return of the stately palace in the public consciousness.

Image: The restored suburb facade of the Palais Albertina suburb

The smoothed palace facades were returned to their original condition and present themselves today - with the exception of the not anymore reconstructed Attica figures - again with the historicist decoration and layout elements that Archduke Albrecht had given after the razing of the Augustinerbastei in 1865 in order. The neoclassical interiors, today called after the former inhabitants "Habsburg Staterooms", receiving a meticulous and detailed restoration taking place at the premises of originality and authenticity, got back their venerable and sumptuous appearance. From the world wide scattered historical pieces of equipment have been bought back 70 properties or could be returned through permanent loan to its original location, by which to the visitors is made experiencable again that atmosphere in 1919 the state rooms of the last Habsburg owner Archduke Frederick had owned. The for the first time in 80 years public accessible "Habsburg State Rooms" at the Palais Albertina enable now again as eloquent testimony to our Habsburg past and as a unique cultural heritage fundamental and essential insights into the Austrian cultural history. With the relocation of the main entrance to the level of the Augustinerbastei the recollection to this so valuable Austrian Cultural Heritage formally and functionally came to completion. The vision of the restoration and recovery of the grand palace was a pillar on which the new Albertina should arise again, the other embody the four large newly built exhibition halls, which allow for the first time in the history of the Albertina, to exhibit the collection throughout its encyclopedic breadh under optimal conservation conditions.

Image: The new entrance area of the Albertina

64 meter long shed roof. Hans Hollein.

The palace presents itself now in its appearance in the historicist style of the Ringstrassenära, almost as if nothing had happened in the meantime. But will the wheel of time should not, cannot and must not be turned back, so that the double standards of the "Albertina Palace" said museum - on the one hand Habsburg grandeur palaces and other modern museum for the arts of graphics - should be symbolized by a modern character: The in 2003 by Hans Hollein designed far into the Albertina square cantilevering, elegant floating flying roof. 64 meters long, it symbolizes in the form of a dynamic wedge the accelerated urban spatial connectivity and public access to the palace. It advertises the major changes in the interior as well as the huge underground extensions of the repositioned "Albertina".

 

Christian Benedictine

Art historian with research interests History of Architecture, building industry of the Hapsburgs, Hofburg and Zeremonialwissenschaft (ceremonial sciences). Since 1990 he works in the architecture collection of the Albertina. Since 2000 he supervises as director of the newly founded department "Staterooms" the restoration and furnishing of the state rooms and the restoration of the facades and explores the history of the palace and its inhabitants.

 

www.wien-vienna.at/albertinabaugeschichte.php

 

In the second century A.D. a temple of Mithras stood on the bank of the Walbrook, a stream running across London from the City Wall near Moorfie1ds to the Thames. In this temple Roman soldiers sought valour and virility in shower-baths of hot blood from slaughtered bulls. After the recall of the legions to Rome in 410 A.D. the building became a quarry; the locals left only the foundations. These were discovered when Bucklersbury House was built in 1953-1957, and they are preserved to this day. However, there were no foundations of the Christian church which stood on the site and was a going concern in 1090 A.D. when it was given to the monastery of St. John by Eudo, Dapifer (cupbearer) to Henry I. It was Saxon, not Norman, and must have been built on the Mithraic foundations to hallow a heathen site. This could have been as early as 700 A.D., or as late as 980.

By 1428 this church and its graveyard were too small for the parish, and licences were obtained to build a larger church on higher ground some twenty metres to the east, the ground having risen about six metres; and Walbrook, no longer a stream, was now a street. The land, 208½ feet by 66 feet, was given by Robert Chicheley, a member of The Worshipful Company of Grocers. The building, of flint and rubble with stone dressings, had a tower at the west and a cloister on the north. It was one of a hundred churches in the square mile of the City of London.

The houses were not so solid: most of them were built on timber frames, infilled with lath and plaster work, and as the population increased roofs were raised and back yards built over. In 1662 the diarist, Samuel Pepys, added a storey to his house elsewhere in the City, taking light from his neighbour. This crowding allowed the rapid spread both of infection and of fire. At the east end of the church was Bearbidder Lane, the source of the Great Plague of 1665. The only doctor who remained with his patients was Nathaniel Hodges, to whom there is a plaque in the present Church.

 

Then, early on Sunday, 2nd September, 1666, a fire in a bakery near London Bridge became out of control and a strong wind fanned the f1ames westward. Not only the wooden houses and their furnishings, but warehouses with their stocks, and public buildings, and churches of brick and stone, were consumed in the fierce heat - molten lead running in the gutters, while stone was burnt to lime. Within twenty-four hours, St. Stephen Walbrook as burnt to the ground.

The Great Fire destroyed over three quarters of the City. The disaster was felt by the whole nation, and King Charles II appointed a commission to plan rebuilding, which had to be done quickly in order to avoid a fresh start in a different place. The old street plan was retained and timber buildings were naturally banned. Many churches were not rebuilt: St. Bene't Sherehog, for example, was united with St. Stephen Walbrook as it could not simply be abolished. Churches had to be the appointed places for the legal recording of baptisms, marriages and burials.

 

The churches, and especially the Cathedral, were symbolic of religious and civic authority. Because it was bound to be complicated to design and costly to rebuild, St. Paul's Cathedral did not have priority in the reconstruction programme: this austere anomaly allowed St. StephenWalbrook, when rebuilt, to be unique.

The rebuilding commission's six members, nominated equally by the King and the City, were all concerned with architecture or building, but some of them were by profession occupied in other fields. On the King's side Dr. (later Sir) Christopher Wren (1632-1723), a geometrician, an astronomer and something of an anatomist, was at this time Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. Wren had already to his credit the design of university buildings, completed or under construction, in both Oxford and Cambridge. He was about to make architecture his life's work and to become, over the ensuing forty years or so, the most important, powerful and influential architect in England. Wren was to design the new St. Paul's Cathedral, Chelsea Hospital and Greenwich Hospital, Trinity College Library at Cambridge, and to improve and extend Hampton Court. He was to be responsible, after the Rebuilding Act of 1670, for the Monument to the Fire still to be seen on Fish Street Hill. He was also entrusted with the building of fifty or so new churches, in which enterprises his colleague, Dr. Robert Hooke, was to be of considerable assistance to him.

 

Wren had come to the notice of Charles II by 1661, soon after the Restoration of the Monarchy. The King tried without success to induce him to travel to Tangier, as a distinguished Oxford scientist, in order to supervise work on the fortifications of this newly acquired outpost. Wren elected to remain in England, perhaps anticipating the reversion of the Surveyorship of the King's Works on the death of the holder of that office. Charles II was a shrewd judge of men and may well have seen better than Wren at that time where the Doctor's true avocation lay. By 1665 Wren was sufficiently committed to architecture to devote to its study much of a long visit to France.

Early in 1669 the King's Surveyor died, and Wren was appointed to succeed him. This made him royal architect, but it was to the Great Fire and not to the Monarch that he owed the opportunity to rebuild St. Paul's and the City churches.

London already used up large amounts of coal from Tyneside. It would have been an ill wind indeed that blew only smoke and soot, and Parliament put a tax on coal arriving in the capital to pay for the rebuilding programme. Separate commissions were set up to deal with the rebuilding of the Cathedral and the churches.

Wren, because of his position as Surveyor, was appointed architect to both, with a special office staffed for each project. His personal control of the design and building of the Cathedral was far more strict than that applied to the churches. The limitations on one man's time and energy meant that a considerable amount of responsibility had to be delegated. This is confirmed by the range of variation in quality, of exactness, finish and decoration between one church and another. Certainly not all the sixteen churches begun in 1670 were entirely his personal work. Yet another four were started in 1671, and thirteen more between 1673 and 1677; but in 1672 only one church was begun, and that was St. Stephen Walbrook. It is probable that the unique character of this Church is connected both with the date of its commencement and with the fact that it was Wren's own parish church (he lived at No. 15 Walbrook). In retrospect we can say that Wren was bound to design a masterpiece in 1672, and it was a fortunate parish that requested him then to proceed.

 

The first stones of the new Church were laid on 17th December, 1672, by the Lord Mayor of London, the Lieutenant of the Tower of London, one of the Chicheley family, six members of the Court of the Grocers' Company (patrons of the Church), the Rector, two churchwardens and four other parishioners. Two months later the Vestry gave Wren 'or his lady' a silk purse with twenty guineas for 'his great care and extraordinary pains taken in contriving the design of the Church' - the usual formula for the person who designed a building, indicating that the design had been finalised. Wren's chief draughtsman was given five guineas; like Wren, he had been working simultaneously on designs for the Church as well as for St. Paul's Cathedral.

The whole London building trade was now working at full capacity, and it was still five years before the roofing of the Church was complete. In 1678 the high box pews were installed; Wren had allowed for their height in the high bases of the sixteen internal columns. The pews and font, like William Newman's font cover, pulpit, reredos and western screen, introduced in 1679, were paid for not out of the coal tax but by private subscriptions.

The portico to the north, which was never built, was intended to have colonnades on either side, continuing down the sides of the market place, at the opposite end of which was placed on 29th May, 1672, a marble equestrian statue of Charles II on a high pedestal, the gift of Sir Robert Viner. The sculpture is now resited at Newby Hall near Ripon. Wren may well have had in his mind that this open space should resemble the Forum of ancient Rome.

On 27th May, 1679, the Vestry planned a dinner for the architect, masons and joiners, as the Church was ready for use. The steeple was not built until 1713-1717; it closely resembles the steeples of St. James Garlickhythe and St. Michael Paternoster Royal.

 

A hundred years later an organ was placed in the western apse, and Benjamin West's huge altarpiece of 'The Burial of St. Stephen' was placed above the reredos, blocking the main east window. Benjamin West, born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, was the first (and so far the only) American painter to become President of the Royal Academy. He is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1850 the painting was moved to a position on the north wall, where the doorway intended by Wren, with portico, was blocked up because of the stench of the Stocks Market, the principal market at that time (now the site of the Lord Mayor's City residence, the Mansion House). At that time the windows were all filled with Victorian stained glass, which was later destroyed in the Second World War and replaced afterwards with clear glass. In 1963, War damage compensation paid for east windows of stained glass designed by the artist, Keith New, but because the higher buildings around have robbed the Church of much of its light, a return to clear glass is now planned.

In 1888 the box pews were removed and the paving stones replaced by mosaic, which unfortunately contradicts Wren's statement that this is a neo-Classical, not a Gothic, church. This provided for choir stalls and pews arranged to make a 'nave, transepts and chancel'. Neither the liturgical ideas of Wren's time, which called for a pulpit more impressive than the altar, nor the artistic ideas of the nineteenth century, allowed glorious use of the space under the dome for a central altar.

 

There are many burials under the Church and interesting memorials on the walls, unfortunately not including one to Sir John Vanbrugh, dramatist, architect of Blenheim and of Castle Howard, and junior colleague of Wren, whose body lies in the vault beneath the floor. There are memorials to John Dunstable, 'father of English Music', and to rector George Croly, the famous preacher whom the Brontë sisters were taken to hear by Emily's publisher's reader, himself a parishioner. The list of Rectors includes Henry Pendleton, the 'Vicar of Bray'; several divines, one of whom was later sent to the Tower of London; and de Courcey Laffan, who helped Baron Courbetin to revive the Olympic Games.

Because the building was not islanded as it is now, the exterior is roughly finished: 'Never was so rich a jewel in so poor a setting, so sweet a kernel in so rough a husk', wrote Bumpus. By the eighteenth century, the building was famous all over Europe. When Lord Burlington went to Rome to see fine buildings, he was met by the Italian sculptor-architect, Canova, who congratulated him on coming from London to which, he said, he would gladly return to feast his eyes once more on St. Paul's Cathedral, Somerset House, and, most of all, St. Stephen Walbrook. Burlington had to admit that he did not know the last, and Canova sent him back to look at it, saying 'we have nothing to touch it in Rome'. Sir John Sommerson has described the Church as 'the pride of English architecture, and one of the few City churches in which the genius of Wren shines in full splendour'. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner lists it as one of the ten most important buildings in England.

 

A good site, even an important one, is not, however, enough to account for the design of St. Stephen's, and it is here that the commencement date of 1672 becomes significant. Architecture is especially an art in which positive virtues are gained from compromise. One very common compromise must be between the architect's general dream of what his art is all about, and the requirements of each individual commission. In 1672 St. Paul's had occupied Wren's mind for nine years, first as a matter of restoration and modernisation, and later as one of totally replacing the old cathedral.

The first design he presented four years after the Fire, in 1670, was for no more than a large parish church with a nave and side galleries, attached to a large domed vestibule which had as much to do with his enthusiasm for domes as with the needs of ceremonial assembly. The domed churches he had seen in France had excited him - for there were none in England at this time - and must have engaged his emotions as well as appealing to his intellectual appreciation of the geometry of solids and voids. But at this stage he had not yet come to imagine the Cathedral as a building which would differ from parish churches, not merely in size and scale, but also essentially in kind.

This realisation came to him in 1672, when he began working on a sequence of designs that culminated in the 'Great Model' still preserved at St. Paul's. These were designs more radical, more European, and more unified than the ultimate one, in which he was made to compromise by incorporating the nave and transepts of a traditional Latin cross plan. Even so, what we see today inside St. Paul's centres round a large dome carried on eight piers. Both the Great Model and the final solution show a quality of mind, of feeling as well as of intellect, for which St. Stephen's provided a kind of dress rehearsal in visual terms.

The structural problems between the two buildings were quite different, for the dome and vaults of the Cathedral are all of masonry, whereas those of St. Stephen's are, as in all the parish churches, lath and plaster facings on elaborate carpentry frames. Wren could therefore design the Church with much smaller supports, giving an unparalleled feeling of lightness of weight and brightness of illumination. He was able to make the eight arches equal in span and to introduce light through all of them, whereas in St. Paul's the requirements of supporting the enormously tall and heavy landmark of the dome meant that the diagonal arches had to be smaller and windowless. Even so, at St. Paul's a ring of eight equal semicircular arches, coming down to acute points, is marked on the masonry by moulding; it is both a survival and a reminder of the conception Wren had tried out at Walbrook.

 

In many of the City churches Wren was not particular about right angles in the plans, but the geometry of St. Stephen's is perfectly rectangular. What makes this Church so remarkable, however, is not the delicacy of the plasterwork or the accuracy of the geometry, hut the subtlety of the space which that geometry defines. Significantly, the space has never been interrupted by galleries, for there is no place in which galleries could have been acceptably placed.

Wren's churches were intended to be what he called 'auditories', in which everyone present could see, hear and feel themselves part of the congregation. A well-lit interior was imperative, with the minimum of obstruction from internal supports. Wren also provided, as a matter of course, a place for the communion table at the east end, and a principal entrance at the west; the latter is unusually impressive because the slope of the site makes it necessary for a flight of steps up from the street.

From the porch, we pass into a short nave of only two bays with double aisles, to face a chancel of one bay on the far side of the dome; the main focus of the interior becomes immediately clear. But the space can be read in other ways. We seem to be inside a set of pillars arranged on a regular grid plan, except that four have been left out of the centre, under the dome. Or again, we may see a perfectly regular domed church, with four triplets of columns, but extended westwards into a sort of ante-chapel from which we can look into the central symmetrical space. The dome seems to rest on the points between the arches, and on the eight columns under these points; in fact there are walls and window arches behind these points, which share with the columns the function of support. These window arches have become the Church's principal light sources. since the east windows are coloured and the oval side windows are shielded by later buildings.

The worshipper and the agnostic alike may feel at first only that they are in a pleasant interior, but the flooding light, and the arrangement of the interior space, so clear yet capable of several readings, have a cumulative effect. That effect does not depend on decorative richness - the enrichment exists only to give softness and substance to the abstraction of lines; the roses, laurels and palms of the plasterwork are only the most conventional of symbols. Wren considered geometry to be the basis of the whole world and the manifestation of its Creator, while light not only made that geometry visible but also represented the gift of Reason, of which geometry was for him the highest expression. Like the solution to a mathematical problem, everything fits into place with apparent simplicity; yet this simplicity itself is mysterious and magical. Whether one experiences St. Stephen's alone, in stillness and quiet, or in a full congregation resounding with music, the effect is always the same. Life outside is complicated and chaotic. To enter is not to escape into fantasy; rather is it to submit to the strongest positive assertion of the true order of the universe.

Like all great works of art, St. Stephen's is of its time, and our sense of history requires that we recognise its associations with a great age; but again like all great works of art, it has something about it that is timeless, and its message, indeed its very survival, must be the concern of us all.

Professor Kerry Downes

 

ststephenwalbrook.net/index.htm

Given the temperatures predicted for California today, I thought a bit of winter chill might be welcome. I hope it helps...

This is a set of photographs from the annual St. Coca's AC 5KM Road Race 2013 which was held in Kilcock, Co. Kildare, Ireland at 20:00 on Friday 27th June 2013. This superb road race is now firmly established again as one of the fastest and best organised road races of it's kind in Leinster. The course is left handed and starts outside the 'Bawn Og' St. Coca's AC track. It then proceeds around a well known local walking route around Laragh and in the closing kilometer runs parallel to the Royal Canal into the finish at the railway station. The members of St. Coca's AC and the many volunteers from the local community must be given great praise for organising another fantastic night of racing for runners, joggers, and walkers. The 5KM course is very flat with the exception of short incline up a motorway overpass and makes its way along narrow country lanes sheltered on either side by hedgerows. The weather was dry and humid and this made a good evening for an enjoyable night for everyone with a large crowd gathering at the finish to cheer on participants. Over 400 people participated in the race. There was a fantastic spread of refreshments (cakes, biscuits, sandwiches and hot drinks) in the school afterwards.

 

We have a large set of photographs from the event today. The full set is accessible at: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157645423471903/

 

Timing and event management was provided by Precision Timing. Results are available on their website at www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer with additional material available on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/davidprecisiontiming?fref=ts) See their promotional video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7_TUVwJ6Q

 

Reading on a Smartphone or tablet? Don't forget to scroll down further to read more about this race and see important Internet links to other information about the race! You can also find out how to access and download these photographs.

 

Some Useful Links

2014 St. Coca's 5KM Results www.precisiontiming.net/result.aspx?v=2056

GPS Trace of the 5KM Course (course hasn't changed in a few years) connect.garmin.com/activity/194011978

 

St. Coca's AC Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/stcocas.ac?ref=ts&fref=ts

St. Coca's Race Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/stcocas.roadrace?ref=ts&fref=ts

Start/finish area on Google Maps [Start: www.google.ie/maps/@53.397601,-6.675909,15z Finish: goo.gl/maps/3kPKq] are all within easy access of race HQ and the local village.

Google Streetview of the Location of the Race Finish: goo.gl/maps/3kPKq

 

Our Flickr Photograph Set of the St. Coca's 5KM 2013: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157634382263872/

Our Flickr Photograph Set of the St. Coca's 5KM 2012: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157630347296616/

Our Flickr Photograph Set of the St. Coca's 5KM 2011: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157627042558602/

 

The Boards.ie Discussion Forum Thread about the Race in 2014: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057223729

The Boards.ie Discussion Forum Thread about the Race in 2013: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056954512

Read the Irish Heart Foundation Booklet on the "Slí na Sláinte" which the race encorporates: www.irishheart.ie/media/pub/slinaslainte/maps/kilcock.pdf

 

Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account(s)?

 

Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.

 

We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us.

 

This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

 

I want to download these pictures to my computer or device?

 

You can download the photographic image here direct to your computer or device. This version is the low resolution web-quality image. How to download will vary slight from device to device and from browser to browser. However - look for a symbol with three dots 'ooo' or the link to 'View/Download' all sizes. When you click on either of these you will be presented with the option to download the image. Remember just doing a right-click and "save target as" will not work on Flickr.

 

I want get full resolution, print-quality, copies of these photographs?

 

If you just need these photographs for online usage then they can be used directly once you respect their Creative Commons license and provide a link back to our Flickr set if you use them. For offline usage and printing all of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution.

 

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

 

In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.

 

I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?

Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

 

We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs

We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?

The explaination is very simple.

Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.

ShareAlike – anyone can use these photographs, and make changes if they like, or incorporate them into a bigger project, but they must make those changes available back to the community under the same terms.

 

Creative Commons aims to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

 

I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?

 

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

 

     ►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

     ►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

     ►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

     ►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

  

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.

 

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets

The Lobkowicz Palace[1] (Czech: Lobkowický palác) is a part of the Prague Castle complex in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the only privately owned building in the Prague Castle complex and houses the Lobkowicz Collections and Museum.

The palace was built in the second half of the 16th century by the Czech nobleman Jaroslav of Pernštejn (1528–1569) and completed by his brother, Vratislav of Pernštejn (1530–1582), the chancellor of the Czech Kingdom. It was opened to the public for the first time on 2 April 2007 as the Lobkowicz Palace Museum. Set in 22 galleries, the museum displays a selection of pieces from the Lobkowicz Collections, including works by artists such as Antonio Canaletto, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Diego Velázquez, as well as decorative art, military paraphernalia, musical instruments, and original scores of composers including Beethoven and Mozart.

  

History

Lobkowicz Palace was built in the second half of the 16th century by the Czech nobleman Jaroslav of Pernštejn (1528-1569) and completed by his brother, Vratislav of Pernštejn (1530–1582), the chancellor of the Czech Kingdom. Vratislav's wife, Maria Maximiliana Manrique de Lara y Mendoza, brought the Infant Jesus of Prague statue, thought to have healing powers, from her homeland of Spain to the Palace. The statue was later given by Vratislav and Maria Maximiliana's daughter, Polyxena (1566-1642), to the Church of Our Lady Victorious in Prague, where it remains on display as a popular tourist attraction. A replica of the Infant Jesus of Prague is on permanent display in the Lobkowicz Palace Museum.

  

Martinic, in the Lobkowicz Palace on 23 May 1618, Rudolf Vejrych after Václav Brožík

The Palace came into the Lobkowicz family through the marriage of Polyxena to Zdeněk Vojtěch, 1st Prince Lobkowicz (1568-1628). In 1618, Protestant rebels threw the Catholic Imperial Ministers from the windows of the Royal Palace at Prague Castle, known as the Second Defenestration of Prague. Surviving the fall, the ministers took refuge in Lobkowicz Palace, where they were protected from further assault by Polyxena.

Following the defeat of the Protestant faction at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, the Catholic Lobkowicz family grew in influence and power for the next three centuries. Lobkowicz Palace took on a more formal, imperial role and functioned as the Prague residence when the family needed to be present at the seat of Bohemian power for political and ceremonial purposes. With the exception of the 63 years (1939-2002) during which the property was confiscated and held by Nazi and then Communist authorities, the Palace has belonged to the Lobkowicz family.

After World War I, and the abolition of hereditary titles in 1918, Maximilian Lobkowicz (1888-1967), son of Ferdinand Zdenko, 10th Prince Lobkowicz (1858-1938), demonstrated his support for the fledgling First Republic of Czechoslovakia by making several rooms at the palace available to the government headed by Tomas G. Masaryk. In 1939, the occupying Nazi forces confiscated the Palace, along with all other Lobkowicz family properties. The Palace was returned in 1945, only to be seized again after the Communist takeover in 1948. For the next forty years, the Palace was used for a variety of purposes, including State offices and as a museum of Czech history.

After the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the fall of the Communist government, President Václav Havel enacted a series of laws that allowed for the restitution of confiscated properties. Following a twelve-year restitution process, the palace returned to the ownership of the Lobkowicz family in 2002. On 2 April 2007, after four years of restoration and refurbishment, the palace was opened to the public for the first time as the Lobkowicz Palace Museum, home to one part of The Lobkowicz Collections. The 17th century baroque Concert Hall of the Lobkowicz Palace hosts regular concerts of classical music, and the premises are also used for weddings.

  

Architecture

After the Thirty Years War, the Palace underwent a number of significant changes, particularly under Václav Eusebius, 2nd Prince Lobkowicz. He was responsible for the palace’s significant baroque alterations and some of its more lavishly decorated salons. Václav Eusebius redesigned the palace in the Italianate style. His design influence can be seen today in the Imperial Hall, whose walls are painted in fresco with trompe l'oeil statues of emperors surrounded by geometric designs, floral and other decorative motifs. Additional examples of the Italianate style are the Concert Hall and the Balcony Room, whose ceilings are adorned with elaborate painted stuccowork and frescoes by F.V. Harovník.

In the 18th century, Joseph František Maximilian, 7th Prince Lobkowicz commissioned the reconstruction of the exterior of the Palace in preparation for the coronation at Prague Castle of Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia in 1791. The alterations included the addition of the palace's panoramic balconies. Despite the various alterations made through the years, remnants of original 16th-century murals and graffito work can still be seen in both of the interior courtyards.

  

The Lobkowicz Collection

  

Haymaking, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, oil on panel, The Lobkowicz Collections

The oldest and largest privately owned art collection in the Czech Republic, the Lobkowicz Collection draws its significance from its comprehensive nature, reflecting the cultural, social, political and economic life of Central Europe for over seven centuries. In 1907, Max Dvořák, a prominent member of the Vienna School of Art History, created the first complete catalogue of The Collections.[2] After the restitution laws in the early 1990s, the Lobkowicz family was able to reassemble most of the collection, subsequently making it available to the public for the first time.

 

Paintings

The Lobkowicz Collections comprise approximately 1,500 paintings, including famous works by artists including Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Bellotto,[which?] Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Younger, Diego Velázquez Peter Paul Rubens, Paolo Veronese and Canaletto. The collections also include: an extensive collection of Spanish portraits; Central European portraits by Hans von Aachen and the School of Prague; Dutch, Flemish and German genre paintings; and over 50 paintings and watercolors of Lobkowicz residences by Carl Robert Croll.

 

The three most prestigious artworks in the collection are Haymaking (1565) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and two panoramic views of London by Canaletto. Other notable works include: Hygieia Nourishing the Sacred Serpent (c. 1614) by the Flemish master, Peter Paul Rubens; The Virgin and Child with Saints Barbara and Catherine (c. 1520) by Lucas Cranach the Elder; Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (c. 1530) by Lucas Cranach the Younger; Caritas Romana (early-mid 16th century) by Georg Pencz and smaller paintings such as A Village in Winter (c. 1600) by Pieter Brueghel the Younger and St. Martin Dividing his Cloak (1611) by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Venetian painting of the 16th century is represented by Paolo Veronese's David with the Head of Goliath (1575).

The Italian baroque collection includes a prayerful Madonna by Giovanni Battista Salvi, and paintings by Francesco del Cairo, Antonio Zanchi and Giovanni Paolo Pannini. The principal Lobkowicz residences and estates—Roudnice nad Labem, Nelahozeves, Jezeří and Bílina—are depicted in oils and watercolors, commissioned from the 19th-century German painter Carl Robert Croll.

The portraits contained in The Collections reflect the Lobkowicz family's participation in European political and cultural life. The collection includes full-length Spanish portraits of Pernstejns, Lobkowiczes, Rožmberks and related members of European and ruling Habsburg dynasties by painters such as Alonso Sánchez Coello, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, Jacob Seisenegger and Hans Krell. Among the 17th and the 18th century works in the collection is the Spanish Infanta Margarita Theresa (c. 1655), attributed to Diego Velázquez. Later portraits of members of the Lobkowicz family are by Viennese portraitists of the 19th century such as Franz Schrotzberg and Friedrich von Amerling.

The collection of paintings is accompanied by an extensive collection of graphics and drawings, including a set of engravings of Rome by Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

  

Decorative Arts

While not as well known as the paintings, books and music associated with the Lobkowiczes, decorative and sacred arts objects, dating from the 13th through the 20th centuries, form a significant part of The Collections.

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and the later period of Communist rule, the private chapels in the family’s principal residences were desecrated and their contents dispersed. Important artefacts survived, including a 12th-century reliquary cross of rock crystal and gilded copper. The gold reliquary head of a female saint, possibly St. Ursula, dated c. 1300 and known as the Jezeri Bust, was found in a trunk of theatrical props. It is now on display in the Lobkowicz Palace.

Late-Renaissance and early-baroque ceramics from Italy feature prominently in the collections. Several pieces of colorful Deruta ware are considered to be among the earliest Italian ceramics brought back to Bohemia. Ordered during a trip to Italy in 1551, the pieces are colourfully decorated with an image of a bull, which was the Pernstejn family crest.

By the late 17th century, Chinese hard-paste porcelain had become the great obsession of European rulers and aristocrats. The Dutch workshops at Delft created tin-glazed earthenware that was an early European imitation of the expensive Chinese ware. Around 1680 when he was Imperial Envoy to the Netherlands, Wenzel Ferdinand, Count Lobkowicz of Bilina, commissioned a personalized work, designed with intricate overlapping letters of his initials WL. With 150 pieces, the set is the largest surviving Delft dinner service. A selection of pieces are on display at the Lobkowicz Palace Museum. In the spring of 2000, over sixty pieces from this service were lent to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, to be displayed as part of the "Glory of the Golden Age" exhibition.

The Meissen factory outside Dresden discovered how to produce hard-paste porcelain in the first decade of the 18th century, for the first time outside of Asia. As a result of the factory’s proximity to the Lobkowicz landholdings and castles, 18th and 19th century examples of these porcelain works are prevalent in the collections, ranging from the earlier delicate chinoiserie motifs to the more traditional European elements and designs with fruits and flowers.

Some of the cabinetmaking and marquetry in the Collections come from the Eger craftsmen who worked in Western Bohemia in the 17th century. Several Eger jewelry cabinets are considered among the finest ever produced.[citation needed] Other pieces include caskets, tables and games boards, which are lavishly inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell, depicting landscapes, animals and classical motifs.

  

Music

The Music Archive of the Lobkowicz Collection holds over 5,000 items. Originally housed in The Lobkowicz Library at the principal family seat of Roudnice Castle, the entire archive was confiscated, first by the Nazis in 1941, and again by the Communist regime, which sent it to the Museum of Czech Music. In October 1998, the Music Archive was returned to the family in its entirety and moved to Nelahozeves Castle under the auspices of the Roudnice-Lobkowicz Foundation.

The Music Archive, established by Ferdinand August, 3rd Prince of Lobkowicz, was assembled over three centuries by principal members of the family who were not only enthusiastic collectors, but patrons of the arts and also often talented performers. The Music Archive contains works by over five hundred composers and musicians. These include a rare collection of late 17th- and early 18th-century lute, mandolin and guitar scores. This collection, regarded as the world’s largest private collection of baroque music for plucked instruments, has a particularly extensive collection of works by French composers, including Denis and Ennemond Gaultier, St. Luc, Charles Mouton, and Jacques Gallot. The Music Archive is most noted, however, for its late 18th- and early 19th-century collection, including works by Handel, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, including Beethoven’s Third (Eroica), Fourth and Fifth symphonies, and Mozart’s hand written re-orchestration of Handel’s Messiah.

Philip Hyacinth, 4th Prince of Lobkowicz, and his second wife, Anna Wilhelmina Althan, were both distinguished lutenists and the prince an accomplished composer as well. Both were both taught by some of the finest contemporary lutenists, including Sylvius Leopold Weiss and Andreas Bohr, and their fine period instruments remain part of the collections. Their son, Ferdinand Philip, the sixth prince, played the glass harmonica and championed the son of one of the family's foresters, the opera composer Christoph Willibald Gluck.

The family member who had the greatest impact on the history of Western music, however, was the 7th Prince, Joseph Franz Maximilian. A talented singer, violinist and cellist, the 7th Prince was the major patron of Beethoven, who dedicated his Third (Eroica), Fifth, and Sixth (Pastoral) symphonies to the Prince, as well as other works. It was the annual stipend provided by the Prince (and continued by his son until the composer’s death), supplemented by support from the Archduke Rudolf and Prince Kinsky, that allowed Beethoven the freedom to compose without dependence on commissions and time-consuming teaching.[citation needed]

In addition to the manuscripts and printed music, the Collections include musical instruments from house orchestras that performed in the various family residences at Jezeří and Roudnice nad Labem in Northern Bohemia, as well as in Vienna. Also on display are lutes from the 16th and 17th centuries by Maler, Tieffenbrucker and Unverdorben; a 17th-century guitar; violins of Italian, German and Czech origin (Gasparo da Salo, Jacob Stainer, Eberle, Hellmer, Rauch); contrabasses from Edlinger[disambiguation needed] and Jacob Stainer; Guarneri and Kulik violoncelli; 18th-century Viennese wind instruments and a pair of copper martial kettledrums. A rare item in the collection is a suite of six elaborately decorated silver trumpets made in 1716 by Michael Leichamschneider of Vienna – one of only two documented sets in existence.

The Nelahozeves Castle Music Room displays a spinet, a contrabass by Posch[disambiguation needed] and other string instruments as well as two pairs of copper and bronze kettledrums.

 

Military equipment

Hunting was an important activity for Central European nobility from the late Renaissance period onwards, and all of the major Lobkowicz properties served as venues for hunting. Bearing witness to these hunting parties and their participants are hundreds of mounted trophies in the Lobkowicz Collections, dating from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. The social aspects of the hunt are also reflected in the numerous paintings and graphics by local artists in the collection, among them pictures of favourite horses, dogs and trophies. The central part of the hunting-related exhibitions, however, is the firearms themselves, which are displayed in two armoury rooms at Lobkowicz Palace, while further items from the collection are held at Nelahozeves Castle.

The majority of these rifles and pistols were produced locally for the family between 1650 and 1750, by the 17th-century Prague workshops of Adam Brand, Paul Ignatius Poser, the Neireiter family and Leopold Becher, as well as Roudnice craftsmen such as Johannes Lackner and Adel Friedrich during the mid-18th century. These exhibits reflect the patronage of the Lobkowicz family, who provided the gun makers with large orders for guns for many centuries.

The collection features a group of identical flintlock rifles produced for the Lobkowicz Militia in the 18th century, one of the largest collections of such items. Additional weapons came from Silesia, while the most elaborate 18th-century rifles and pistols (some in the Turkish manner) with mother-of-pearl inlay were produced in Vienna. Goldsmiths and silversmiths specializing in inlay were employed to decorate guns, rifles, crossbows and powder flasks of the finest quality.

The palace housed an exhibition of the work Illustrated geography and history of Bohemia by Bavarian cartographer Mauritius Vogt. The exhibition ran until 31 May 2015.

  

Lobkowicz Collections o.p.s.

In 1994, a non-profit organisation, Lobkowicz Collections o.p.s. (previously the Roudnice Lobkowicz Foundation), was established to curate and maintain the Lobkowicz Collection, recently returned to the family after the Velvet Revolution. The organisation also works to provide access to the art, music and literature contained in the collection to academic researchers and the general public. Lobkowicz Collections o.p.s. has co-ordinated the installation of the collections at both Lobkowicz Palace and Nelahozeves Castle.

The organisation's responsibilities include:

•overseeing the preservation and installation of the objects in The Collections

•developing education programs for students

•promoting and facilitating academic research around The Collections

•administering loans to other cultural institutions

•curating exhibitions of works included in the collections for the public

Significant restoration projects include the restoration of Peter Paul Rubens’ Hygieia Nourishing the Sacred Serpent, restored by Hubert von Sonnenburg of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This project was funded by the American Friends for the Preservation of Czech Culture (AFPCC).

Lobkowicz Collections o.p.s. also administers lending of artworks to exhibitions. Since 1993, over 200 works of art have been lent to museums in the Czech Republic and abroad, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Royal Academy of Art in London and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Ralph was given a massive blood transfusion as he fell and burst his spleen. Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada gave him aids in 1986. His death was horrible and lingering. Over 70 million were and are infected with Aids, 32 million have died so far from Aids, 37 million people on the planet have aids right now. it can be treated, not cured. You can get COVID from a toilet bowl seat or the spit from Trump's mouth.

Central Park South, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America

 

If you want to know more about my walks and photos, check out my blog.

 

Summary

 

The Gainsborough Studios is a rare surviving example of artists' cooperative housing, a building type popular in Manhattan for a brief period in the early twentieth century.- Built during the heyday of its type, in 1907-08, the Gainsborough provided both living and working spaces.

 

The handsome, distinctive design of the building reflects its unusual purpose. Large, double-height windows provide an abundance of northern light to the artists' studios. Designed , managed and inhabited by artists, the building was given artistic connotations via its name and the proliferation of exterior ornament.

 

The latter includes a bust of the artist Thomas Gainsborough in an ornate setting, multi-colored tile embedded in the brick facade, and an inpressive frieze entitled "A Festival Procession of the Arts" by the successful sculptor Isidore Konti. The building was designed by architect Charles Buckham, a promoter of and innovator in apartment design utilizing the duplex plan.

 

Cooperative Apartments

 

Cooperatively owned apartment buildings existed in various European cities frcra the early nineteenth century. Among the earliest examples were those in Edinburgh; by the mid-century others were found in Vienna.1 New York, however, was much slower to accept the idea of apartment living at all, while cooperative apartments came even later. It was not until late in the nineteenth century that apartments became acceptable for the middle and upper income groups. By this time, the advent of spacious, well-designed apartments, together with the rising cost of land for individual hones in the city and a shortage of capable domestic help, brought a wealthier clientele to apartment life.

 

At the the end of the nineteenth century, housing conditions in New York City were undergoing rapid and drastic change. Residential areas were being taken over by businesses, with housing beccming increasingly expensive and single-family home construction being forced into more distant, northern locations. Thus apartments were, by necessity, becoming a more acceptable living solution for those who wanted to remain in the heart of the city.

 

Cooperatively-owned apartments became one way of making this new type of living arrangement more attractive to a wealthy clientele. The idea of being able to choose one's neighbors and thus achieve a certain degree of exclusivity was appealing. In addition, cooperative ownership inspired better architecture than had generally been seen in New York apartments, since the owners would be living in the buildings and not just investing in them in hopes of a large profit.

 

Cooperative owners turned to well-qualified architects and required that they create large spaces with luxurious details.

 

The cooperative idea quickly became accepted for midle class housing as well. Developers, were attracted to the idea because they could realize a quick return on their investment.

 

In 1907 cooperative apartments were declared "a prominent feature of the realty situation in New York." Two years later The Nev York Times reported that fifteen to twenty cooperative apartments had been erected in New York during the last few years.

 

Early New York Co-Operative Ventures

 

The first cooperative apartment house in New York was the Knickerbocker, located on Fifth Avenue at 28th Street; and built in 1882. The Gramercy Park Apartments at 34 Gramercy Park followed the next year.8 The Gramercy Park, developed and promoted by Charles A. Gerlach, was quite successful, returning a large profit for its original investors.

 

At the same time, Hubert, Pirssen & Company, architects and "builders, were developing a similar type of apartment, called the Hubert Home Clubs. One of these, built in 1883, was located at 121 Madison Avenue. In this building each two floors accommodated five duplex apartments.10 Another Hubert Home Club was the Chelsea Apartments (now the Chelsea Hotel, a New York City Landmark) at 222 West 23rd Street, built in 1883.

 

The next cooperative venture, the Navarre Apartments of 1883, (also designed by Hubert, Pirssen & Company) located between 58th and 5Sth Streets, on Seventh Avenue, was a financial disaster. Unlike the usual cooperative organization, the apartment cwners did not have sole control of the building, thus creating a difficult and ultimately unworkable arrangement.

 

Despite this difference, the failure of the Navarre Apartments effectively put a stop to the further developiaant of cooperative apartments until the twentieth century.

 

Artists' Housing and Studios

 

"People have no conception of how difficult it is for one to find a suitable studio in New York," the artist V.V. Sewell was quoted in a 1903 article.12 Artists could find little space adequate for creating and displaying their works, and even less space that supplied the desirable northern light.

 

The possibility of living and working in the same quarters was rare indeed. In 1857 Richard Morris Hunt designed the first New York building specifically for artists. The Tenth Street Studios, located at 15 West 10th Street, was privately owned by art oollector James B. Johnson.

 

It contained twenty-five studios, some with bedrocsns attached. later in the century, sorue artists found working space at the few studios which existed: the Bryant Park Studios (80 West 40th Street), the Sherwood, the Rembrartit or the Carnegie Studios, all on 57th Street. These studios were always fully occupied and did not begin to meet the demand for such spaces.

 

These two factors — the growing need for artists' working and living space, and the increasing popularity of cooperative apartment ownership first came together in the 67th Street Studio Building at 27 West 67th Street, built in 1901-03, to the designs of architects Sturgis & Simonson.

 

It was designed to meet the specific needs of artists, with double-height studios lit by northern light and attached living quarters. When no speculative builder could be interested in this project, the landscape artist Henry W. Ranger organized a group of artists to irate subscriptions to finance the new building.

 

The artists' initial investment provided construction money and entitled each investor to a permanent lease on an apartment, and shares in the corporation which controlled the building. Seme of the apartments were retained as rental units, and the income thus produced provided the capital for the building's maintenance.

 

The venture at 27 West 67th Street proved so successful that as soon as it was completed, Ranger organized another group of artist-investors to build the Atelier Building at 33 West 67th Street, on a similar plan. A third studio building, called the Central Park Studios, followed in 1904-05 at 15 West 67th Street. In 1906, a fourth studio building was built on the same street, the Colonial Studios, at 39 West 67th Street, also containing duplex studio spaces.

 

Thus a secluded and prosperous artists' living and working colony was established on this short block off Central Park.

 

The success of the 67th Street studio buildings led to the development of other similar arrangements in different parts of the city, designed to appeal to both the artist and the layman. The large spaces produced by the duplex arrangements meant that residents could enjoy living spaces comparable to those in a private house, but at much less expense.

 

The double-height rooms, when not used as artists' studio space (and thus restricted to the north side of the building), could be placed anywhere in the plan, creating interesting spaces which were highly prized for entertaining. Examples of this type, intended for general use included, on the east side, 777 Madison Avenue, 863 Park Avenue, 901 Lexington Avenue, 471 Park Avenue, and the Apthorp and the Belnord (both New York City larrimarks) on upper Broadway.

 

Other cooperatives had spaces designed specifically for use by artists, with large working areas lit by northern light. Examples of this type were the National Arts Club Studio Building (19 Gramercy Park West, within the

 

Gramercy Park Historic District), the Rodin Studios (200 West 57th Street), and the building at 131-135 East 66th Street (a New York City Landmark, designed by Charles A. Piatt). The Gainsborough Studies were part of this latter group.

 

The Gainsborough Studios

 

Probably in response to the success of the studio buildings on 67th Street, and a need for more living and working arrangements of a similar type, a corporation was organized in 1907 to plan and oversee the construction of another artists' studio building, on 59th Street.14 Ihus the Gainsborough Studios were begun and the officers for the corporation included three prominent artists, August Franzen, Elliott Dair.gerfield, and Colin C. Cooper, ard a businessman, Barron G. Collier.

 

Planned as a cooperative venture, to include studios, offices and apartments, the Gainsborough's address at 222 Central Park South was an ideal location for such a structure. Central Park South (or 59th Street) was a wide boulevard, with Central Park to the north.

 

Thus the studios which overlooked the street could be assured of a continuous supply of northern light, with no fear that tall buildings might block this important amenity. With the completion, in 1907, of the Plaza Hotel on 59th Street, off Fifth Avenue, and other similar, elegant buildings, the area was a prestigious one also. In addition, located just two blocks south, on 57th Street, was New York's artistic center, including the American Fine Arts Society building (a New York City Landmark) and ether studio buildings mentioned above, the Osborne Apartments (205 West 57th Street) and Carnegie Hall (a New York City landmark).

 

August Franzen, the president of the Gainsborough Corporation, was a portrait painter whose work today is in the collections of the Brooklvn Museum, Yale University and the National* Gallery cf Art, among others. Horn in Sweden in 1863, Franzen studied there and in Paris before coming to the United States in 1890. By February 1891 he had his first exhibition in America, at the Ortgies Gallery on Fifth'Avenue.

 

A member of the National Academy of Art, as well as the Century, Players and lotos Clubs, Franzen became a well-established member of New York's art world. He won numerous prizes and honors for his work including nedals at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, at the Paris Exposition in 1900 and another at the Pan-Arrerican Exposition in Buffalo in 1901.

 

In New York, Franzen lived and worked in a variety of locations. Upon his arrival in the city, he took a studio in the Holbein Building at 146 West 55th Street. By 1894, Franzen had a studio and apartment built atop 1 West 30th Street. In 1900, he moved to a studio in Carnegie Hall. His involvement in the Gainsborough Studios seems to stem, at least in part, from a desire for a more suitable location for his own work space, for he "was one of the first to occupy a studio there."

 

Franzen was deeply involved in the planning of the Gainsborough.18 It is also possible that Franzen was responsible for the name of this building. He admired Thomas Gainsborough's portraits immensely and, in a magazine interview cited the English artist's work as a inooel for his own.^

 

Elliott Daingerfield, the vice-president of the Gainsborough Corporation, was a painter best known for his poetic, mystical landscapes.2 Born in West Virginia in 1859, Daingerfield came to New York to study art while still young.

 

His first exhibition at the National Academy of Design occurred in 1880. In 1902 he painted the murals of the lady Chapel of the Church of Mary the Virgin on West 46th Street in New York. Other works of his are represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Los Angeles Museum.

 

The winner of numerous prizes and awards, Daingerfield was also a member of the many clubs and associations which corprised the New York art world: the National Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, the New York Water Color Club, and the Lotos Club.

 

From the Gainsborough Studios' opening until his death in 1932, Daingerfield maintained his studio and living quarters there.

 

Colin Campbell Cooper, who served as the Gainsborough Corporation treasurer, was a painter of landscapes, figures and portraits. After early training in his native city of Philadelphia, Cooper studied in Paris. His work won prizes at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1904, and the Buenos Aires Exposition in 1910, among many others.

 

His work forms part of the collection of the Dallas Art Association, the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Arts Club. Cooper was also a member of the Lotos and Salmagundi Clubs, the New York Water Color Club and the National Academy of Design.

 

The fourth officer of the original corporation was Barron Collier, who served as secretary. Unlike the others in this organization, Collier was a businessman, involved in numerous ventures throughout the east coast.

 

As head of Barron G. Collier, Inc., he was responsible for placing the first advertising placards in subway cars, and also served as head of numerous hotel, railroad, and real estate development companies in Florida and elsewhere. Collier's public service contribution was also substantial. It may be supposed that Collier supplied" the financial expertise for the Gainsborough Studios building, although the precise link which brought him into this endeavor has not yet been uncovered.

 

The artists of the Gainsborough Corporation had all achieved a certain level of success in their professions and travelled in the sane social and professional circles. They were likely to encounter each other in any number of settings throughout New York and even exhibited their works at the same gallery - the MacBeth Gallery at 450 Fifth Avenue.

 

The building they were planning was meant to house artists of the same stature, those who could afford the spaciousness and status of a location on 59th Street.

 

The Gainsborough Studio Corporation purchased the lot on 59th Street in April 1907 and, after the demolition of an existing building, the studio building was begun November 3, 1907, and completed a year later, on October 31, 1908.24 To design this special type of structure, the members of the corporation chose architect Charles W. Buckham (1869-1951).25 Buckham was educated at the University of Vermont, and later studied architecture at the National Academy of Design and at Columbia University. Further studies were undertaken at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

 

Buckham's early work consisted of residences and public buildings in Vermont, including the Pathological Building in Waterbury and the State Office Building in Montpelier- In 1900, Buckham moved to New York and joined the firm of

 

Warren & Wetmore. Later he worked for Carrere & Hastings, serving as superintendent of construction of several Camegie Branch Libraries- Other examples of his work include the Hicmas Scott Buckham Memorial Library in Faribault, Minnesota, named for his uncle, and the redesign of the Salmagureii Club in New York-

 

Buckham was a very appropriate choice for the Gainsborough Studios- His interest in duplex apartments is reflected in magazine articles which he wrote promoting the type. While the Gainsborough was his first such project, he later designed another duplex cooperative building at 471 Park Avenue (1909), and two other apartment-hotels on Central Park South, including the Plaza Home Club Apartments (1911).

 

Interested in the structural aspect of this building type, Buckham patented (in 1928) an interlocking floor type of construction- He also developed and patented an inclined ramp as a substitute for stairs in school buildings, and a multilevel garage for parking cars.

 

The Gainsborough's Design

 

Buckham's design for the Gainsborough studios incorporated many of the ideas used so successfully in the 67th Street studios, but he also introduced certain changes. Because the only available northern light shone cn the 59th Street facade, only those roars fronting on 59th Street were made double-height and labeled studios, with smaller apartments located to the rear of the building. Thus, each pair of floors contained two duplex and four single apartments.

 

Another change also resulted from the experiences of the earlier 67th Street studios. Those buildings had faced legal problems because they were too tall for the street they faced- According to the tenement house law, such apartment buildings could be no more than one and one-half times as high as the width of the street. Hie Gainsborough organization, in order to forestall such problems, had its building classified as a hotel, with communal kitchen and dining room on the gound floor and minimal kitchen facilities in each of the apartments.

 

On the exterior, Buckham's design and the use of ornament were not only reflective of the building's interior design, but of the building's purpose as well. A contemporary source called the building's exterior "unique" and "a credit to the ingenuity of the designer."

 

The large expanses of glass (included in the design to bring in as much light as possible) indicated the double-height rooms of the artist's studios The use of the name Gainsborough, the bust and artist's palette over the entranceway, ard the frieze with its artistic theme further indicated the artistic leanings of those who lived in the building.

 

The grouping of colorful, glazed tiles inlaid near the top of the building was a motif Buckham also used on other buildings. Buckham, as well as numerous other contemporary designers, used tiles produced by the Moravian Tile Works of Doylestown, Pennsylvannia.

 

This decorative trend was noted in a 1907 newspaper article in which the author remarked upon the increased use of glazed terra cotta, tiles and faience in New York buildings of many types, including the Madison Square Church, buildings at the Bronx Zoo, Manhattan subway stations, and a Bronx police station.

 

All of these examples were favorably regarded by the author for the color and texture they added to the streetscape. The Gainsborough, with its profusion of exterior ornament and multi-colored tiles, fits into this group.

 

The author of the article attributed the presence of this colorful, clay-based ornament to the influence of the fifteenth century artist, Luca Delia Eobbia and his followers, and saw the trend toward this type of decoration to be also on the increase in Europe.

 

The Frieze

 

Perhaps the most striking feature of the building's exterior is the frieze which separates the first story from those above it. This bas-relief was designed by the Austrian-bom artist Isidore Konti, Konti was active in New. York artistic circles, showing his work at the same gallery (the Macbeth) as the other artists involved in planning the Gainsborough. Letters still extant in the Archives of American Art shew that Konti was a friend of August Franzen and of Elliot Daingerfield, who are likely to have been responsible for bringing the the sculptor into this project.

 

Konti was born in 1862 in Vienna but passed most of his childhood in Hungary. His artistic training took place at the Imperial Academy in Vienna, under the tutelage of Edmond Von Hellmer.

 

Two years of study in Rome sharpened his talents so that when he returned to Vienna in 1838, Konti received numerous important sculptual commissions. This prosperity was short lived however, and in 1892, Konti left for America where he hoped to find more abundant work in architectural sculpture. For the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Konti modelled many sculptural pieces and worked with several established sculptors who helped him get started in this country.

 

After the fair, Konti lived in New York where, in 1896, he was elected to the National Sculpture Society. Kbnti's submission of two small pieces to the Society's-1898 exhibition established his reputation as a creator of small ideal figures, while his large-scale work for the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901 reinforced his standing as a sculptor of strong, monumental figures.

 

For the rest of his long career, Konti continued to produce both types of work. Included in his oeuvre are several memorial statues, as well as fountain and garden figures, such as 'The Brook," a nude figure which embodied Konti's ideal of womanhood, the fountains of the Atlantic and the Pacific for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, and a pair of monumental figures for the court house in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as more intimate works such as his "Genius of Immortality," a quiet study of a seated youth which was shown at the International Exposition of Art and History in Rome in 1911.

 

Today, examples of his art can be seen in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and the National Museum of Art, as well as in Trinity Church and in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. During his long career, Konti was a member of the National Arts Club, the Architectural league of New York, the Salmagundi Club, a director of the Municipal Arts Society, and an academician of the National Academy of Design.

 

Konti's "Festival Procession" terra-cotta frieze for the Gainsborough Studios shews people of all ages carrying gifts to the altar of the arts, an appropriate theme for a building for artists. His delicacy of line ard graceful forms add much to the distinctiveness of this building.

 

Description

 

The Gainsborough Studios is a narrow building, fifty feet wide on 59th Street, arri rising eight double-height stories. Its limestone-faced base is enhanced by numerous carved decorative features including the bas-relief at the second story. Above this the facade is divided into two bays by narrow brick piers which rise continuously to the cornice.

 

Between the piers are two series of large window openings subdivided by narrow mull ions and decorative panels. A slight distinction is made between the top and mid-section of the building by a shallow' arch above the sixth story windows. Above this level the decorated brick piers and carved stone cornice terminate the composition.

 

At the ground floor level, two area ways flanking the entrance are marked off by low, curving ceiraent fences topped by wooden planters with hedges. A decorative, wrought-iron lantern crowned by a white glass globe is mounted on each of the fences, near the doorway. The westernmost hedge shields a stairway which leads to the basement of the building.

 

The first floor of the building, faced with ashlar limestone, is three bays wide, with a central entrance flanked by a group of windows to each side.

 

Each set of windows is divided vertically by deep stone mullions into three narrow openings, while the top third of each opening is also set off by a stone muntin. The squared entrance-way is partially enframed by a garlard carved in the stone. The doorway is set within a deep reveal which is adorned by panels of carved foliate designs. Enclosing the entrance is an iron door which replaced the original in a very sympathetic manner.

 

A portico supported on two polished granite Ionic columns extends in front of the entrance. The columns support a lintel on which are engraved the words "Gainsborough Studios." A full entablature with dentils and a Greek key divides the facade at this level, separating the' ground floor from these above.

 

Centered above the portico is a paneled plinth, which is further embellished by a carved painter's palette. This, in turn, is surmounted by a bust of Thomas Gainsborough, the eighteenth century painter for whom the building is named. The bust is set within an aedicular shell niche which rises to the third story level.

 

To either side of the plinth, a wide bas-relief extends across the building, interrupted only by a small wirdew, centered in each half of the building. The frieze, carved in a classical style, is entitled "A Festival Procession of the Arts" ard portrays youths, maidens, children, and old people bringing gifts to the altar of the arts.

 

Both the bust and the frieze were executed by the well-known sculptor, Isidore Konti.

 

Above the level of the bas-relief, the facade is divided into two bays by three narrow brick piers which rise continuously to the top of the building. A narrow frieze in a Greek key motif forms a small base for the two outer piers while the Gainsborough bust ard its surround are located at the bottom of the middle, slightly wider pier. Between the piers at this level are two large windows, recently changed to a single expanse of glass in each.

 

From this level to the top of the building, large window openings are arranged in broad vertical columns between the piers.

 

A narrow stone reveal runs continuously along each side of the windows from the second through the sixth story, joining together in a shallow arch above the sixth floor windows. Above the sixth floor, stone reveals continue until the cornice level. Each double-height story is ccjnposed of a variety of window shapes.

 

Centrally located in the lower half of each window space, is a vertical panel which is filled with stone quatrefoils set in circles. A shallow pediment carried on narrow brackets surmounts each of these panels. Plain, single pane windows have recently been installed to each side of these panels and each is topped by a narrow cornice which separates the two sections of the window.

 

The entire windcw opening above this is subdivided into narrow vertical lights by metal mull ions. A narrow, metal spandrel, subdivided into three sections, fills the lowest part of each floor level, serving as a clear visual break between the floors.

 

The top section of the building starts above the sixth story. Here the piers are enhanced by a variety of multi-colored tiles set in geometric patterns, including diamonds and rectangles, within the brick. The tiles are in shades of red, yellow, green and grey with the more elaborate designs occurring in the central pier. Between the piers, the window arrangement is similar to that on the floors below, with the following diffferences.

 

The central decorative panels are not topped by pediments, and the seventh floor has narrow balconies fronting full length windows to either side of these central panels.

 

Above the eighth floor, the building is finished by a corbel table inset with a series of shells. Three decorative acroteria are placed above the three piers and serve as a finishing element to the facade composition.

 

Conclusion

 

The Gainsborough Studios is an unusual building, well-adapted ard suitably decorated for its specific purpose — cooperatively-owned working and living spaces for artists. Designed by architect Charles W. Buckham, who had a special interest in duplex apartments, the Gainsborough has been a desirable address and an attractive neighbor on Central Park South since its opening in 1908. Its elaborate decorative scheme, with the bust of Gainsborough, the distinctive bas-relief and colorful tiles, distinguishes this building as a fine example of its type.

 

- From the 1988 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

It am the weekend again, but after a week off, so one belnds smoothly into the other.

 

And next week I have a four day trip to the Isle of Wight for work, which will do me good too.

 

Not much planned for the day, once shopping was done. And I do that as Jools is still coughing and so did not want to go round the supermarket coughing like that.

 

So, I d the week's shop, though not much needed as I will be away four days, so I am back with three bags of shopping, and we have the usual Saturday breakfast of fruit followed by bacon sandwiches.

 

Posting shots on other social media showed me many churches had to be revisited. Just about the last one to be thus revisited was Minster-in-Thanet, as the album had 55 shots from two previous visits, and I thought such a large and imposing church deserved more.

 

So, it was a quiet drive over to Sandwich, taking the bypass round Stonar, then turning off at the delightfully named Sevenscore for the drive along the back lanes into Minster, passing by the Abbey, outside of which was an actual nun, all dressed in cowl and long black gown.

 

A little further on is St Mary, and parking is easy just outside the churchyard, and although it looked locked, the west door under the tower was unlocked, and inside there were no others inside, so I had it to myself.

 

I had hoped I had missed whole or fragments of glass, but there was none to be seen, some nice arts and crafts ones of Queen Bertha, which I record. I think I snap everything, so after half an hour we are done.

 

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Minster Abbey on the Isle of Thanet was founded in AD 669 by Domneva, niece of King Erconbert of Kent. The enormous parish church, built some distance to the south-west of the abbey, dates from two distinct periods. The nave is Norman, a magnificent piece of twelfth-century arcading with tall cylindrical pillars. The chancel and transepts are thirteenth century, with a three-light east window, each one double shafted inside. This end of the church has a simple stone vaulted ceiling which adds greatly to the grandeur. The glass is by Thomas Willement and dates from 1861. Ewan Christian restored the church in 1863 and added vaulted ceilings to the transepts. They had been intended by the medieval designers, but were never built. There is a set of eighteen fifteenth-century stalls with misericords and an excellent sixteenth-century font and cover.

 

kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Minster+in+Thanet

 

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MINSTER.

THE next parish to Monkton eastward is Minster, antiently written both Mynstre, and Menstre, being so named from the Saxon word Minstre, signifying a church or monastery. It is divided into two boroughs, viz. Way Borough and Street Borough; the former of which lies on the ascent on the northern side of the street; the latter contains the street and church, with the southern part of the parish.

 

THIS PARISH is about three miles and an half from east to west, and near as much from north to south. The farms in it are perhaps as large as in any other parish in this county; the occupiers of which are, in general, men of considerable ability. The west part of this parish is bounded by a lynch or balk, which goes quite across the island to Westgate, called St. Mildred's Lynch, an account of which has already been given before, and which is the bounds of this manor from that of Monkton, as well as of the parish. This lynch has formerly been much broader than it is now, many of the farmers, who occupy lands bounding on or near it, having through a coveteous humour, not only dug up the mould or top of it, to lay on their land, but in some places have ploughed upon it. Too many instances of this kind are practised in other places, not only of this island, but of the county in general, so that there is scarce a remembrance left where those balks or lynches have been; such has the greedy avarice of the occupiers been, and this is one instance of the ill consequence of the neglect of the courts leet and baron. The village of Minster lies nearly in the centre of it, on low ground at the foot of the high lands, having the church on the south side of it; northward of the village it rises to high land, being a fine open champion country of uninclosed corn land, on which are situated Minster mill, Allan Grange, and Powcies, the latter at the extremity of the parish, close to which was, till lately, a small grove of oaks, the only one in this island. Lower down, about a mile southward, is Thorne manor, and beyond that Sevenscore farm. At the south-eastern extremity of the parish, and partly in St. Laurence, is Cliffsend, or Clyvesend, so called from its being at the end of the cliff, which extends from Ramsgate; it was antieutly a part of the estate of St. Augustine's monastery, and is called by Thorne in his Chronicle, the manor of Clyvesend. Here are now two considerable farms besides cottages.

 

About a mile and an half south-east from Minster church, is Ebbsfleet, formerly called by the various names of Hipwines, Ippeds, and Wipped's fleet; this seems to have been a usual place of landing from the ocean in this island; here it is said Hengist and Horsa, the two Saxon generals, first landed with their forces, about the year 449. Here St. Augustine, often called the Apostle of the English, first landed, in the year 596; and here too St. Mildred, of whom mention has been made likewise before, first landed from France, where she had been for instruction in the monastic life; and not many years ago there was a small rock at this place, called St. Mildred's rock, where, on a great stone, her footstep was said, by the monkish writers, to have remained impressed. (fn. 1) Below the church of Minster, southward, is the large level of marshes, called Minster level, at the southern extremity of which runs the river Stour, formerly the Wantsume, which, as has already been noticed before, was antiently of a much greater depth and width than it is at present, flowing up over the whole space of this level, most probably almost to the church-yard fence, being near a mile and an half distance; but the inning of the salts by the landholders, which had been in some measure deserted by the waters of the Wantsume at different places, so far lessened the force of the tide, and of the river waters mixing with it, that it occasioned the sands to increase greatly near this place, where it was at length entirely choaked up, so that a wall of earth was made by the abbot of St. Augustine, since called the Abbot's wall, to prevent the sea at high water overslowing the lands, which now comprehend this great level of marshes, at present under the direction and management of the commissioners of sewers for the district of East Kent. A part of these marsh lands have been much improved by means of shortening the course of the river Stour to the sea, by the cut at Stonar, which lets off the superfluous water in wet seasons with greater expedition, and a very valuable tract of near two hundred acres has been lately inclosed by a strong wall from the sea near Ebbs-fleet. Between the above-mentioned wall and the river Stour lie a great many acres of land, which the inhabitants call the salts, from their being left without the wall, and subject to the overflowing of the tide, so long as it continued to flow all around this island. Over against the church is a little creek, which seems to have been the place antiently called Mynstrefleet, into which the ships or vessels came, which were bound for this place. As a proof of this, there was found some years ago in a dyke bounding on this place, in digging it somewhat deeper than usual, some fresh coals, which very probably had fallen aside some lighter or boat in taking them out of it. (fn. 2)

 

I ought not to omit mentioning, that on the downs on the north part of this parish, where the old and present windmills were placed, is a prospect, which perhaps is hardly exceeded in this part of the kingdom. From this place may be seen, not only this island and the several churches in it, one only excepted; but there is a view at a distance, of the two spires of Reculver, the island of Sheppy, the Nore, or mouth of the river Thames, the coast of Essex, the Swale, and the British channel; the cliffs of Calais, and the kingdom of France; the Downs, and the town of Deal, the bay and town of Sandwich, the fine champion country of East Kent, the spires of Woodnesborough and Ash, the ruins of Richborough castle, the beautiful green levels of Minister, Ash, &c. with the river Stour winding between them; the fine and stately tower of the cathedral of Canterbury, and a compass of hills of more than one hundred miles in extent, which terminate the sight.

 

In the marshes on the south of this parish, there was found in 1723, an antique gold ring; on the place of the seal, which seemed to represent an open book, was engraved on one side an angel, seemingly kneeling, and on the other side a woman standing with a glory round her head; on the woman's side was engraved in old English characters, bone; on that of the angel, letters of the same character, but illegible. A fair is kept in this village on a Good Friday for pedlary and toys.

 

By the return made to the council's letter, by archbishop Parker's order, in the year 1563, there were then computed to be in this parish fifty-three housholds. By an exact account taken of Minster in 1774, there were found to be in this parish one hundred and forty-nine houses, and six hundred and ninety-six inhabitants; of the houses, sixteen were farm-houses, and one hundred and thirty three were inhabited by tradesmen, labourers, and widows.

 

THE MANOR and ABBEY OF MINSTER was antiently called Thaket manor, and continued so till, from the foundation of the abbey or minster within it, it acquired the name of the manor of Minster, though in the survey of Domesday, taken in the year 1080, it is still called Tanet manor, Kar exoxnv; but I have met with it no where else so late by that name.

 

This manor was in the year 670 in the possession of Egbert, king of Kent, whose two nephews Ethelred and Ethelbright, sons of his father's elder brother Ermenfride, deceased, (who left likewise two daughters, Ermenburga, called also Domneva, married to Merwald, son of Penda, king of Mercia, and Ermengitha, were left to his care, under promise of their succeeding to the kingdom. These princes were kept under the inspection of one Thunnor, a flattering courtier, who persuaded the king to have them murdered, left they should disturb him in the possession of the throne; which Thunnor undertook and perpetrated. To expiate this crime, the king, by the advice of archbishop Theodore, and Adrian, abbot of St. Augustine's, sent to Domneva, who had taken the vow of chastity on her, to offer her any satisfaction for this crime, when, as an atonement, she requested of the king, according to the custom of those times, to grant her a place in Tenet, where she might build a monastery to their memory, with a sufficient maintenance, in which she, with her nuns, might continually pray for the king's forgiveness, who immediately by his charter, which concludes with a singular curse on the infringers of it, (fn. 3) granted her for the endowment of it full one half of this island, being the eastern part of it, comprehended within the bounds of this manor, and since separated from the western part of the island and manor of Monkton, by a broad bank or lynch, made quite across the island, since called St. Mildred's Lynch, and remaining at this day.

 

The story of this grant, as told by Thorn, a native of this parish, and a monk of St. Augustine's monastery, in his chronicle of that abbey, is, that Egbert granting Domneva's petition, demanded of her how much land she desired; who replied, as much as her deer could run over at one course; this being granted, the deer was let loose at Westgate, in Birchington, in the presence of the king, his nobles, and a great concourse of people. Among them was Thunnor, the petrator of the murder, who, ridiculing the king for the lavishness of his gift and the method of its decision, endeavoured by every means to obstruct the deer's course, both by riding across and meeting it; but Heaven, continues the chronicler, being offended at his impiety, whilst he was in the midst of his career, the earth opened and swallowed him up, leaving the name of Tunnor's-leap, or Thunor's hyslepe, to the ground and place where he fell, to perpetuate the memory of his punishment, though it was afterwards called Heghigdale. Meanwhile the deer having made a small circle eastward, directed its course almost in a strait line south-westward across the island from one side to the other, running over in length and breadth forty-eight plough-lands; and the king, immediately afterwards delivered up to Domneva the whole tract of land which the deer had run over.

 

This tract or course of the deer, which included above ten thousand acres of some of the best lands in Kent, is said to have been marked out by the broad bank, or lynch, across the island, since called St. Mildred's Lynch, thrown up in remembrance of it; (fn. 4) but notwithstanding this well-invented story of Thorn, it is more probable that this lynch was made to divide the two capital manors of Minster and Monkton, before this gift to Domneva.

 

Puteus Thunor, (or Thunor's leap) says the annalist of St. Augustine's monastery, apparet prope Cursum Cervi juxta Aldelond; and the place where the king stood to see this course is represented to be by it, where formerly was a beacon, it being some of the highest land hereabouts, where the king might see the course. This Puteus Thunor, or Thunorslep, is very plainly the old chalk pit, called Minster chalk-pit, which its not unlikely was first sunk when the abbey and church here were built, and the bottom of it in process of time, being overgrown with grass, gave occasion for the invention of this sable of Thunor's being swallowed up by the earth at this place. The name of Thunorslep has been long since obliterated, and even the more modern one of Heghigdate has been long forgotten. Weever says, he lieth buried under an heap of stones, which to that day was called Thunniclam.

 

Domneva being thus furnished with wealth and all things necessary, founded, in honor of the B.V. Mary, a monastery, or cloyster of nuns, afterwards called ST. MILDRED'S ABBEY, on part of this land, on the south side of the island near the water, in the same placewhere the present parochial church stands. Archbishop Theodore, at the instance of Domneva, consecrated the church of it, and she afterwards appointed the number of nuns to be seventy, and was appointed by the archbishop, the first abbess of it; she died here and was buried on the glebe of the new monastery. Ermengitha, her sister, was after her death sainted, and lived with Domneva, in the abbey here, where she died, and was buried in a place about a mile eastward of it, where the inhabitants have found numbers of bones, and where it is probable, she built some chapel or oratory. In a field or marsh called the twenty acres, a little more than a quarter of a mile eastward of the church of Minster, are several foundations, as if some chapel or oratory had been built there. (fn. 5)

 

Domneva was succeeded as abbess by her daughter Mildred, who was afterwards sainted. She is said to have been buried in this church. On her death Edburga succeeded in the government of this monastery, who finding it insufficient for so great a number of nuns, built another just by, larger and more stately, which was consecrated by archbishop Cuthbert, and dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul; and to this church she, about the year 750, removed the body of St. Mildred, at whose tomb many miracles were said to be wrought afterwards. Edburga was buried at Minster in her own new church, and was afterwards sainted. She was succeeded as abbess of this monastery by Sigeburga. In her time was the first depredation of the Danes in Thanet; who sell upon the people, laid every thing waste, and pludered the religious in this monastery; from this time they continued their ravages throughout this island almost every year; hence by degrees, this monastery fell to decay, and the nuns decreased in number, being vexed with grief and worn down with poverty, by the continual insults of these merciless pirates, who landed in this island in 978, and entirely destroyed by fire this monastery of St. Mildred, in which the clergy and many of the people were shut up, having fled thither for sanctuary; but they were, together with the nuns, all burnt to death, excepting Leofrune the abbess, who is said to have been carried away prisoner.

 

The Danes, however, spared the two chapels of St. Mary, and of St. Peter and St. Paul, in one of which divine service was afterwards performed, for the inhabitants of this parish and the adjoining neighbourhood. The antient scite of the monastery, together with this manor, and all the rest of the possessions of it remained in the king's hands, and they continued so till king Cnute, in the year 1027, gave the body of St. Mildred, together with the antient scite of the monastery, this manor and all its land within this island and without, and all customs belonging to this church, to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, which gift was confirmed by king Edward the Confessor. (fn. 6)

 

The abbot and convent of St. Augustine becoming thus possessed of this manor, fitted up the remains of the abbey to serve as the court-lodge of it; accordingly it has ever since borne the name of Minstercourt. In the survey of Domesday, taken in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, anno 1080, this manor is thus described, under the general title of Terra æcclæ Sci Augustini, the land of the church of St. Augustine.

 

In Tanet hundred. St. Mildred's.

 

The abbot himself holds Tanet manor, which was taxed at forty-eight sulings. The arable land is sixty-two carucates. In demesne there are two, and one hundred and fifty villeins, with fifty borderers having sixty-three carucates. There is a church and one priest, who gives twenty shillings per annum. There is one salt-pit and two fisheries of three pence, and one mill.

 

In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth four times twenty pounds, when the abbot received it forty pounds, now one hundred pounds.

 

Of this manor three knights hold so much of the land of the villeins as is worth nine pounds, when there is peace in the land, and there they have three carucates.

 

After which king Henry I. granted to the monastery of St. Augustine, about the 4th of his reign, a market, to be yearly held within this their manor of Minster, with all customs, forseitures, and pleas; which was confirmed among other liberties by Edward III. in his 36th year, by inspeximus.

 

King Henry III. in his 54th year, anno 1270, granted to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, free-warren in all their demesne lands of Minster. (fn. 7) King Edward II. in his 6th year, confirmed to the abbot free-warren in this manor among others, and next year anno 1313, in the iter of H. de Stanton and his sociates, justices itinerant, the abbot, upon a quo warranto, claimed and was allowed sundry liberties therein mentioned, in this manor, among others, and likewise free-warren in all his demesne lands of it, view of frank pledge, and wreck of the sea; one market weekly on a Friday, and one fair yearly on the eve and day of St. Mildred the Virgin, and other liberties therein mentioned; as having been granted and confirmed by divers of the king's predecessors, and allowed in the last iter of J. de Berewick and his sociates, justices itinerant; and that king Edward II. by his charter in his 6th year had sully confirmed all of them, and by the register of this monastery, of about this time, it appears that this manor had within its court the same liberties as those of Chistlet and Sturry. King Edward III. in his 5th year, exempted the abbot's homagers and tenants of this, among other of their manors, from their attendance at the sheriff's tourne, and afterwards by his charter of inspeximus in his 36th year, confirmed to this abbey all the manors and possessions given to it by former kings; and by another charter, the several grants of liberties and confirmations made by his predecessors, among which were those abovementioned; and king Henry VI. afterwards confirmed the same.

 

Next year the abbot and his servants taking distresses on their tenants of this manor, the tenants, to the number of six hundred, met and continued together for the space of five weeks, having got with them a greater number of people, who coming armed with bows and arrows, swords and staves, to the court of this manor and that of Salmanstone, belonging likewise to the abbot, laid siege to them, and after several attacks set fire to the gates of them. For fear of these violences, the monks and their servants at Salmanstone kept themselves confined there for fifteen days, so that the people enraged at not being able to encompass their ends in setting fire to the houses, destroyed the abbot's ploughs and husbandry utensils, which were in the fields; and cut down and carried away the trees on both these manors.

 

At the same time they entered into a confederacy and raised money here by tallages and assessments, by means of which they drew to them no small number of others of the cinque ports, who had nothing to lose, so that the abbot dared not sue for justice in the king's courts; but a method it seems was found to punish these rioters, or at least the principal of them, who were fined to the abbot for these damages six hundred pounds, a vast sum in those days, and were imprisoned at Canterbury till the fine was paid. The uneasiness of the tenants under such respective suits and services, seems to have occasioned the abbot and convent to have compounded with them, which they did in the year 1441, anno 20 Henry VI. By this composition the abbot and convent agreed, that the tenants should not in future be distrained for the rents and services they used to pay; but instead of them should pay compositions for every acre of the land called Cornegavel and Pennygavel, (fn. 8) which composition for the Cornegavel and Pennygavel land, continues in force at this time, being sixpence an acre now paid for the Cornegavel land.

 

In the time of king Richard II. this manor, with its rents and other appurtenances, was valued among the temporalities of the abbot and convent, at 232l. 4s. 3d. per annum; and the quantity of land belonging to it was by admeasurement 2149 acres and one rood.

 

In which state this manor continued till the final dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, which happened in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, together with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands; at which time the manor and rents were of the value of 276l. yearly. (fn. 9) After which, the see of this manor, with the antient court-lodge of it, formerly the monastery, and then called Minster-court, with all the lands and appurtenances belonging to it, continued in the crown, till king James I. in his 9th year, by his letters patent, granted to Sir Philip Cary, William Pitt, esq. afterwards knighted; and John Williams, citizen and goldsmith of London, this lordship and manor of Menstre, with its rights, members, and appurtenances, late parcel of St. Augustine's monastery, except and reserved to the king's use, all advowsons and patronages of churches, chapels, &c. belonging to this manor; and he granted likewise all the rents of assize called Cornegavel land, in the parish of St. John, parcel of this manor; and the rents of assize of free tenement called Pennygavel land, in the parishes of St. Peter and St. Laurence, (fn. 10) to hold the manor, with its right, members and appurtenances, of the king, as of his manor of East Greenwich, by sealty only, in free and common socage, and not in capite, nor by knight's service; and to hold the rents of assize of the king in capite, by the service of one knight's fee; which grant and letters patent were conconfirmed by an act specially passed for the purpose, that year.

 

Some years after which, the heirs of the beforementioned Sir Philip Carey and John Williams, then Sir John Williams, bart. of Carmarthenshire, divided this estate; in which division, the manor itself with the court-lodge, part of the demesne lands, royalties, and appurtenances, was allotted to Sir John Williams, bart. (who died in 1668, and was buried in the Temple church, London); whose descendant of the same name, bart. of Carmarthenshire, dying without male issue, his daughter and sole heir, then the widow of the earl of Shelburne, carried it in marriage, at the latter end of king Charles II.'s reign, to Col. Henry Conyngham, afterwards a major-general in king William's reign, who died possessed of it in 1705. He left two sons, William and Henry, and a daughter Mary, married to Francis Burton, esq. of Clare, in Ireland. William, the eldest son of the general, succeeded him in this manor and estate in Minster, but died without surviving issue, upon which this estate descended to Henry Conyngham, esq. his younger brother, second son of the general, who was in 1753, anno 27 George II. created baron Conyngham, of Mount Charles, in Donegall, in Ireland; and afterwards by further letters patent, in 1756, viscount Conyngham, of the same kingdom; and again in 1780, earl Conyngham, and likewise baron Conyngham, of the same kingdom, with remainder of the latter title to his sister's sons. He married Ellen, only daughter of Solomon Merret, esq. of London, by whom he had no issue. He died s.p. in 1781, and was succeeded in his title of baron Conyngham by his nephew Francis Pierpoint Burton Conyngham, eldest son of his sister Mary, by her husband Francis Burton, esq. above-mentioned, which Francis, lord Conyngham, died in 1787, leaving by his wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Nathaniel Clements, esq. and sister of Robert, lord Leitrim, (who survived him) two sons, Henry, who succeeded him in title, and Nathaniel, and three daughters, Catherine married to the Rev. John Shirley Fermor, of Sevenoke; Ellen, to Stewart Weldon, esq. and Henrietta.

 

Henry, so succeeding his father as lord Conyngham, was created in December 1789, viscount Conyngham and baron Conyngham, of Mount Charles, in Donegall, to whom the inheritance of this manor and estate now belongs; but the possession of it for life is vested in the right hon. Ellen, countess dowager Conyngham; widow of Henry, earl Conyngham, above-mentioned. The arms of lord viscount Conyngham are, Argent, a shake-sork, between three mullets, sable. Supporters. The dexter—An horse charged on the breast with an eagle, displayed, or, maned and hoofed of the last. The sinister—A buck proper, charged on the breast with a griffin's head, erased, or, attired and unguled of the last. Crest—Anunicorn's head erased, argent, armed and maned, or. Motto—Over fork over.

 

A court leet and court baron is held for this manor, by the stile of the courtleet, and view of frank pledge, for the manor of Minster, in the hundred of Ringslow, alias Tenet, and the court baron for the said manor.

 

The court-lodge, formerly a part of the nunnery, was, after the dissolution of it, made use of as a farmhouse, in which some of the monks of St. Augustine resided, to manage the estate of it, which they kept in their own hands. On the north side of it, which seems to have been the front or entrance, is a handsome stone portal, on the top of which, in the middle, within a circle, are the arms of the abbey of St. Augustine, viz. Sable, a cross, argent. At a small distance from it stood antiently a very large barn, sufficient to hold the corn growing on all the demesnes, being in length 352 feet, and in breadth 47 feet, and the height of the walls 12 feet, with a roof of chesnut. When the estate was divided, 154 feet in length of this building was carried to Sevenscore farm, where it was burnt, by an accident unknown in 1700, and the remaining part here was burnt by lightning afterwards. On the south side of the house stood a chapel, said to have been built by St. Eadburga, the third abbess here. In it the body of St. Mildred is said to have been placed by her, or rather translated from the other monastery. Some of the walls and foundations of this chapel were remaining within the memory of some not long since deceased, but it is now so entirely demolished, that there is nothing to be seen of it, excepting a small part of the tower, and of the stairs leading up into it. Just by these ruins of the tower is a small piece of ground, in which lately in digging for mould, several human bones were dug up. There is a view of the remains of this nunnery in Lewis's Thanet.

 

THE OTHER PART of this estate, the scite of which lies about a mile eastward from Minster-court, since known by the name of SEVENSCORE, on which is built a substantial farm-house, with large barns and other necessary buildings, was allotted to —Carey, in whose successors viscounts Falkland, this estate continued down to Lucius Ferdinand, viscount Falkland, who not many years since alienated it to Josiah Wordsworth, esq. of London, whose son of the same name died possessed of it about the year 1784, leaving two sisters his coheirs, one of whom married Sir Charles Kent, bart. and the other, Anne, married Henry Verelst, esq. who afterwards, in right of their respective wives, became possessed of this estate in undivided moieties; in which state it still continues, Sir Charles Kent being at this time entitled to one moiety, and Mrs. Verelst, the widow of Henry Verelst, esq. above-mentioned, who died in 1785, and lies buried in this church, being entitled to the other moiety of it.

 

WASCHESTER is an estate lying at a small distance westward from Minster church, part of which was formerly parcel of the demesnes of the manor of Minster, and was included in king James's grant to Sir Philip Carey, William Pitt, esq. and John Williams, goldsmith, as has been mentioned before in the account of that manor; they in the year 1620, joined in the sale of them to Jeffry Sandwell, gent. of Monkton, who purchased other lands of different persons in this parish, Monkton and Birchington, the whole of which he sold in 1658, to John Peters, M. D. Philip le Keuse, and Samuel Vincent, which two latter alienated their shares soon afterwards to Dr. Peters; at which time all these lands together, not only comprehended Waschester farm, but likewise part, if not the whole of another called Acol. From Dr. Peters this estate descended to Peter Peters, M. D. of Canterbury, who died in 1697, upon which the inheritance of it descended to his sole daughter and heir Elizabeth, who in 1722 carried it in marriage to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, whose second wife she was; he died possessed of it in 1757, upon which it descended to their only daughter and heir Elizabeth, who entitled her husband, the Rev. William Dejovas Byrche, to the fee of it. He died in 1792, leaving an only daughter Elizabeth, married to Samuel Egerton Brydges, esq. of the Middle Temple, barrister-atlaw, but now of Denton-court, who in her right possessed it, and afterwards sold it to Mr. Ambrose Maud, who now owns it.

 

SHERIFFS COURT is an estate lying somewhat less than a mile westward from Waschester, in the hamlet of Hoo in this parish; it was formerly called Sheriffs Hope, from the hope, or place of anchorage for ships, which sailed in the river Wantsume, which once ran close by this place. It is said by some to have taken its name from its having been part of the possessions of Reginald de Cornhill, who was so long sheriff of this county that he lost his own name and took that of Le Sheriff, from whence this place gained the name of Sheriffs hope, or court. He was sheriff from the 4th to the 9th years of king Richard I. in the last year of that reign and during the whole reign of king John. His arms are on the stone roof of the cloysters at Canterbury, being Two lions passant, debruised of a bendlet, impaling three piles. After this name was extinct here, the family of Corbie became possessed of this estate; one of whom, Robert de Corbie, died possessed of it in the 39th year of king Edward III. whose son Robert Corbie, esq. of Boughton Malherb, leaving a sole daughter and heir Joane, she carried it in marriage to Sir Nicholas Wotton, who, anno 3 Henry V. was lord mayor of London. His descendant Sir Edward Wotton procured his lands in this county to be disgavelled by the acts both of 31 Henry VIII. and 2 and 3 Edward VI. and from him this manor descended to Thomas, lord Wotton, who dying anno 6 Charles I. without male issue, his four daughters became his coheirs, of whom Catherine the eldest carried this estate in marriage to Henry, lord Stanhope, son and heir of Philip, earl of Chesterfield, whose widow Catherine, lady Stanhope, sold it to Henry Paramor. He was the tenant and occupier of Sheriff's court, being the eldest son of John Paramor, of Preston, the grandson of Thomas Paramor, of Paramor-street, in Ash, near Sandwich. They bore for their arms, Azure, a fess embattled, counter embairled, between three etoils of six points, or. (fn. 11) . He left it to his brother Thomas Paramor, whose grandson of the same name died possessed of it in 1652, and was buried with his ancestors in this church; from his heirs this estate was alienated to Thatcher, in which name it continued, till at length it was sold by one of them, to Mr. Robert Wilkins, gent. of St. Margaret's, Rochester, who possessed it for many years. He died without issue, and it has since become the property of Mrs. Terry, the present owner of it.

 

TO THIS MANOR is appurtenant the small MANOR OF PEGWELL, or COURT STAIRS, in the parish of St. Laurence.

 

ALDELOND GRANGE, usually called Allen Grange, situated about a mile northwardfrom Minster church, on the open high land, was so called in opposition to Newland Grange, in St. Laurence parish. It was antiently part of the possessions of the abbey of St. Augustine, and was in the year 1197, assigned by Roger, the abbot of it, to the sacristy of the abbey, for the purpose of upholding and maintaining the abbey church, as well in the fabric as ornaments, but on the condition that the sacrist for the time being, should perform all such services to the court of Minster as were due, and had been accustomed to be done for the land of it. (fn. 12)

 

The measurement of this land, according to Thorne, amounted to sixty-two acres; and to this Grange belong all the tithes of corn and grain, within the limits of the borough of Wayborough, excepting those which are received by the vicar. On the dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. this estate, then amounting to six score acres, came, with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands, where it did not continue long, for he settled it in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, on his new founded dean and chapter of Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of it continues at this time.

 

It has been demised by the dean and chapter, on a beneficial lease, the rack rent of it being 413l. per annum, for twenty one years, to Mr. Edward Pett, of Cleve-court, the present lessee of it. Messrs. Jessard and Paramor are the under lessees and occupiers of it.

 

POWCIES, which stands about half a mile northeastward from Allan grange, was formerly a gentleman's mansion, a large handsome building standing on much more ground than it does at present, with a gate house at the entrance into the court before it; all which being pulled down, a modern farm-house of brick has been built on the antient scite of it.

 

This seat was once in the possession of the family of Goshall, of Goshall, in Ash, where Sir John Goshall resided in king Edward III.'s reign, and in his descendants it continued till about the reign of king Henry IV. when it was carried in marriage by a female heir to one of the family of St. Nicholas, owners likewise of the adjoining manor of Thorne, in whom it continued down to Roger St. Nicholas, who died in 1484, leaving a sole daughter and heir Elizabeth, who entitled her husband John Dynley, of Charlton, in Worcestershire, to the possession of it. By her he had two sons, Henry and Edward, the eldest of whom succeeded to this estate, which he afterwards alienated, about the middle of queen Elizabeth's reign, to John Roper, esq. of Linsted, afterwards knighted, and anno 14 James I. created baron of Teynham; whose great grandson Christopher, lord Teynham, in king Charles I.'s reign, conveyed it to Sir Edward Monins, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1663, leaving Elizabeth his widow surviving, who held it in jointure at her death in 1703; upon which it devolved to the heirs and trustees of Susan, his eldest daughter and coheir, late wife of Peregrine Bertie, deceased, second son of Montague, earl of Lindsey; and they, in the reign of king William and queen Mary, joined in the sale of it to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1712, as did his son Sir Robert in 1733. After which it became, with his other estates, vested in his three daughters and coheirs, and on a partition of them, anno 9 George II. this estate of Powcies was wholly allotted, among others, to Anne the eldest sister, wife of John, viscount St. John, which partition was confirmed by an act passed next year; after which it descended down to their grandson George, viscount Bolingbroke, who in 1790 alienated it to Mr. Henry and John Harnett, the present possessors of it.

 

THORNE, or as it is vulgarly called, Thourne, is a manor in this parish, situated about a mile southward from Powcies above mentioned, being so named from the quantity of thorny bushes growing on and about it. This manor was antiently the seat of a family which took their name from it, one of them, Henry de Thorne, was owner of it in the year 1300, anno 29 Edward I. and resided here; against whom it seems complaint was made to the abbot of St. Augustine, that he caused mass to be publicly said in his private oratory, or chapel, (the remains of which are still so entire as to be made use of as a granary, &c.) at this his manor of Thorne, (apud spinam) to the prejudice of the mother church, and the ill example of others; and he accordingly was inhibited from so doing in future, by the archbishop's letters to the vicar of Minster, dated that year. And under the cross in this church, in the north wall of it, is an antient tomb or coffin of solid stone, let into the wall under an arch of antient Saxon ornaments. On the stone which covers the tomb is a cross flory, on each side of which are two blank shields, and round the edge of the stone these words in old French letters: Ici gift Edile de Thorne, que fust Dna del Espine. This seems probable to have been one of the family, owners of this manor.

 

After this family of Thorne were become extinct here, that of Goshall, of Goshall, in Ash, appear to have been possessors of this manor; in whom it continued till about the reign of king Henry IV. when it went by marriage by a female heir to one of the family of St. Nicholas, in whose descendants it continued down to Roger St. Nicholas, who died in 1474, and as appears by his will, was buried before the image of St. Nicholas, in the chancel of Thorne, at Minster. Roger St. Nicholas, his son and heir, left an only daughter Elizabeth, who entitled her husband John Dynley, esq. of Charlton, in Worcestershire, to the possession of it. After which it continued down in the same owners as Powcies last above-described, till it came into the possession of George, viscount Bolingbroke, who in 1790 alienated it to Mr. Henry Wooton, the present owner of it.

 

See a custom for the demise of tenements by will within the borough of Menstre, secundum consuetudinem manerii, anno 55 Henry III. Itin. Kanc. rot. 18, in Robinson's Gavelkind, p. 236.

 

Charities.

THE OCCUPIER of Salmeston Grange, in St. John's parish, is bound by his lease to distribute to six poor inhabitants of the parish of Minster, to be nominated by the minister and churchwardens, in the first week, and on the middle Monday of Lent, to each of them, nine loaves and eighteen herrings; and to three poor people of the same, to each of them, two yards of blanket; and every Monday and Friday in each week, from the Invention of the Holy Cross to the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, to every poor person coming to Salmeston Grange, one dishfull of peas dressed.

 

THOMAS APPLETON, of Eastry, yeoman, by his will in 1593, gave to the relief of the poor of this parish, the sum of 5l. to be paid to the churchwardens yearly, for the use of the poor people, inhabitants there, fourteen days before Christmas day, the same to be paid out of certain lands belonging to him, called Hardiles, in the parish of Woodnesborough.

 

RICHARD CLERK, D. D. vicar of Minster, partly by deed in 1625, and partly by will on Nov 6, 1634, gave 120l. to be lent unto four parishioners, born in Minster, whose fathers were deceased, and they not sufficiently stocked, for the term of one, two, or three years, but not exceeding that; the interest arising from it to be divided among the poor of the parish. With this money the trustees purchased houses, which are at present divided into four tenements, besides the parish work-house, called the seoffees houses; and seven other tenements, called Cheap Row, the rent of which is annually distributed in clothing to the poor persons of the parish. They are all at present let to the churchwardens and overseers for the time being, by a lease of 99 years, from 1729, at the rent of 6l. This trust is now vested in Mr. William Fuller, of Doctors Commons, as heir of the last trustee; the trust not having been filled up since the year 1696.

 

JOHN CAREY, esq of Stanwell, in Middlesex, by will in 1685, gave 10l. per annum to be paid yearly to the churchwardens, out of his farm of Sevenscore; to be disposed of to the poor yearly, on St. Thomas's day.

 

THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Westbere.

 

The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is a very handsome structure, consisting of a nave and two side isles, a cross sept, and east chancel; the nave is of Saxon, the transept and chancel of gothic architecture; the last is curiously vaulted with stone, and provision was made for the same in the transept, but it was never completed. In it are eighteen collegiate stalis, in good preservation. At the west end of the church is a tall spire steeple, in which is a clock and five bells.

 

When the Danes plundered and burnt the abbey of Minster, they seem to have spared the two chapels of St. Mary, and of St. Peter and St. Paul, or however the stone work of them was preserved, and not burnt with the roof and other works of timber. The former of these was afterwards made into the present parish church, and has since been considerably enlarged.—The nave or body of the church seems to have been the old building; the pillars of which are thick and short, and the arches all circular, and a low roof was probably upon them, according to the simplicity and plainness of those times; but since the wall has been built higher, as appears by the distance there is, betwixt the top of the arches and the wall plate across; and an handsome chancel added at the east end, and a square tower on the west, with a high spire covered with lead placed on it. The chancel or choir and the middle of the cross are vaulted, and by the footings which are left, it was certainly intended that the whole cross should have been finished in the same manner. The eighteen stalls mentioned before, have very handsome wainscot behind, according to the mode of those times; in these the monks, vicars, and priests used to sit during the performance of divine service. Besides the high altar in this church, there were before the reformation other altars in it, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St. James, and St. Anne. At these, as likewise before the Holy Cross, were lights constantly burning; for the maintenance of which, there were societies or fellowships, who contributed towards the maintenance of them, and those who died left in their last wills constantly small sums of money for that purpose. Under the middle of the cross was the rood-lost, the going up to which out of the chancel is yet to be seen, as are the mortice holes in which the timbers were put, on which the lost was built. On the north wall of it is the antient tomb of Edile de Thorne. On the pavement, as well as in the church porch, are several large flat gravestones, the inscriptions, if any on them, entirely worn away; they seem very antient, and are not improbably, memorials of some of the religious of this place, but they do not seem always to have lain where they do now. On the front of the tower of the steeple is a shield, carved in the stone work, viz. A fess, between three lion's passant. Among other memorials in this church, in the chancel, is one for Francis, son and heir to Edward Saunders, gent. of Norbourne-court, which Edward married the female heir of Francis Pendrick, esq. by his wife, who was nurse to queen Elizabeth. He died anno 1643; arms, A chevron, between three elephants heads, impaling a saltier, ermine, between three leopards faces. In the middle isle a monument for Bartholomew Sanders, gent. and Mary his wife, daughter of Henry Oxenden, esq. of Wingham; arms, Per chevron, sable and argent, three elephants heads, counterchanged, impaling Oxenden. On a mural monument are the effigies of a man and woman. kneeling at a desk, for Thomas Paramor, esq. sometime mayor of Canterbury, and Anne his first wife; arms, Azure, a fess embattled, between three stars of six points, or, impaling or, on a chevron, three stars of six points, sable, between as many dragons heads, quartered. In the north isle are several memorials for the Paramors. On a wooden frame, near the altar, a memorial for Col. James Pettit, obt. 1730. On the south side of the chancel, a mural monument for Mary, youngest daughter of Robert Knowler, gent. of Herne, wife of John Lewis, vicar of this church, obt. 1719. A memorial for John Lewis, formerly vicar of this church, obt. 1746, æt. 72. A memorial for Elizabeth Blome, daughter and coheir of John Blome, gent. of Sevenoke, obt. 1731; arms, in a lozenge, A cross fitchee, and cinquefoil, quartered with a greybound, current. A mural monument for Harry Verelst, esq. of Aston, in Yorkshire, formerly governor of Bengal, obt. 1785; he married Anne, coheir of Josiah Wordsworth, esq. of Wadworth, in Yorkshire, and of Sevenscore, in this parish, and left by her four sons and five daughters. In the south isle memorials for the Harnetts, Kennetts, and Colemans. In the middle isle are memorials for several of the Jenking's. Leland, in his Itinerary, vol. vii. p. 130 says, S. Florentius jacet in Cemiterio S. Mariæ in Thanet, cujus Tumba Crescit signis. (fn. 13)

 

On the top of the spire was formerly a globe, and upon that a great wooden cross, covered with lead, over which was a vane, and above that, an iron cross; but about the year 1647, the noted fanatic Richard Culmer, having got the sequestration of this vicarage, took it into his fancy that these were monuments of superstition and idolatry, and got these crosses demolished by two persons of the parish, whom he had hired, after he had himself before day, by moon light, fixed ladders for them to go up and down, from the square of the tower to the top of the spire. But if all the figures of a cross are monuments of idolatry, and to be removed, the poor caitiff has done his work but by halves, or rather not all, when he took down these from the spire and left the church standing, which is itself built in the form of a cross.

 

The church of Minster was antiently appendant to the manor, and as such was granted with it, first to Domneva, and afterwards became part of the possessions of the abbey founded by her here; and after the destruction of it came with the manor, by king Cnute's grant, to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, to which it became appropriated in the year 1128, anno 29 Henry I. and was at that time assigned, with the chapels of St. John, St. Peter, and St. Laurence, with all rents, tithes, and other things, belonging to them, to the sacristy of that monastery; which regulation was confirmed by archbishop Theobald, and afterwards, in 1168, by pope Alexander, who consigned it to the reparation of the church of the monastery, which had been but just before burnt down. (fn. 14)

 

In the year 1176, anno 23 Henry II. the tenants of the Halimot, or manor court of Minster, agreed, that from thenceforth they would all cop their corn; and that they and their heirs, then and for ever afterwards, should pay all their tithes lawfully by cops, and all other matters of tithes, which they were accustomed to pay, as amply as they had ever paid them from the time of the dedication of the church of St. Mary of Menstre.

 

By an agreement entered into in 1182, between the archbishop and the abbot of St. Augustine's, this church was exempted from the payments of all dues and procurations to the archdeacon; and that year the archbishop confirmed this church to the monastery; which agreement was renewed in 1237, by archbishop Edmund; and further, that the abbot and convent should present to the archbishop, in the chapels of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Laurence, fit perpetual chaplains to the altarages in them, provided those altarages were worth ten marcs, with which the chaplains should be content, on pain of forfeiting the same; the vicar of the mother church of Menstre, having a sufficient vicarage taxed from antient time in the same, taking and receiving in right of his vicarage, the tenths of small tithes, viz. of lambs and pigs, and the obventions arising from marriages and churchings, which were forbid at the chapels, and were solemnized, &c. at the mother church only, and the burials of certain corpses, being those of the tenants or occupiers of lands in these chapelries, who were to be buried at Minster, unless the vicar gave leave to the contrary. At the same time the archbishop, with the consent of the archdeacon, confirmed this church to the abbot and convent, together with the several archiepiscopal confirmations of it, and those of the several kings of England. This part above-mentioned of the revenue of the vicarage of Minster, arising from these chapelries, has long since been lost, except that out of Salmestone Grange, amounting to 10s. a year; which, perhaps, might be a composition for the tenths of the small tithes, &c. in them. The altarages above-mentioned were the customary and voluntary offerings at the altar, for some religious office or service of the priest. To augment these, the regular and secular priests invented many things. For it is to be observed, that only a portion of these offerings, to the value of ten marcs, or 6l. 13s. 4d. was what the chaplains of these three chapels were presented to, and that they were accountable for the residue to the abbot and convent, and that if they presumed to detain any more of these offerings beyond that sum, they were to be deprived even of that. For this reason, they were to swear to the abbot and convent, to give a true account of the offerings made at their several altars, on their respective offering days, and in no shape to detriment their parish of Menstre, as to legacies or obventions, personal or predial, but to conserve all the parochial rights of the same, entire and untouched, to the utmost of their power. Then marcs appear now but a small sum for the maintenance of a parish minster; but when the value of money at the time when this composition was made is considered, it will be found to be a handsome and generous allowance to a chaplain, especially as their stipends were then paid by authority; ten marcs were then equal to more than sixty pounds now, and in a council held at Oxford but fifteen years before, it was decreed, that where the churches had a revenue as far as five marcs per annum, they should be conferred on none but such as should constantly reside in person, on the place, as being a sufficient maintenance. In 1348 H. Kinghton informs us, a chaplain's usual stipend was no more than four or five marcs, or two and his board; as for the chaplains of these three chapels, though they were to receive no more than ten marcs of these altarages, they were not excluded the enjoyment of the manses and glebes, given to these chapels when they were first consecrated, which made some addition to their income, and perhaps enabled them to keep a deacon to assist them. (fn. 15)

 

On the great and principal festivals, the inhabitants of these three chapelries, preceded by their priests and other officers, with their banners, tapers, &c. were used to go in procession to Minster, their mother church, there to join at the solemn mass and other divine service then performed, to make their offerings and pay their accustomed dues, in token of their subjection to their parochial or mother church.

 

The appropriation of the church of Minster, together with the advowson of the vicarage, continued, in manner as has been already mentioned, with the abbot and convent till the dissolution of their monastery in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, together with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands. After the dissolution of the monastery, there could not be said to be any parsonage or appropriation of this church, for the demesne lands of the manor of Minster, which are very extensive in this parish, were subject, as to the tithes of corn, to only a small modus or composition to the vicar, of eighteen shocks or cops of wheat, and eighteen shocks or cops of barley, or thereabouts; and the vicar was intitled, in right of his vicarage, to the corn tithes of the lands in the remaining part of the parish, as will be further noticed hereafter.

 

When the vicarage of this church was endowed and a vicar instituted, is no where found; but certainly it was before the year 1275; for in the act of consecration of the church or chapel-yard of St. Laurence that year, when that chapel was made parochial, mention is made of the vicar of Menstre, &c. and in the year 1384, anno 8 Richard II. this vicarage was valued at thirty marcs. After the dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, the advowson of this vicarage continued in the hands of the crown, till king Edward VI. in his first year, granted it, among other premises, to the archbishop, since which it has continued parcel of the pos sessions of that fee, the archbishop being the present patron of it.

 

This vicarage is valued in the king's books at 33l. 3s. 4d. and the yearly tenths at 3l. 6s. 8d. In 1588 here were three hundred communicants, and it was valued at 1501. It is endowed with a manse and glebe of about twenty-four acres of land, upland and marsh; all the corn tithes, and other tithes of that part of the parish called Street-borough; and of about one hundred acres in the other borough, called Weyborough, except the corn tithes of the demesnes of the manor of Minster, for which the modus or composition above-mentioned is paid.

 

¶The land in Minster level, which is pasture, paying but four-pence an acre for tithes, Dr. Richard Clarke, vicar here in 1597, made a composition with his parishioners, by which they obliged themselves to pay him at the vicarage house, within three days after every quarter, after the rate of twelve-pence an acre for their marsh land, or else to lose the benefit of the composition. (fn. 16) Dr. Meric Casaubon, who succeeded Dr. Clarke, would not abide by this composition, but afterwards compounded with the occupiers, at the rate of twelve-pence an acre for the worst of the land, and of fourteen pence and sixteen pence for that which is better; and in the year 1638 he demanded his tithes of the marsh land in kind, or eighteen pence per acre, which was agreed to by the parishioners, and paid by them till the year 1643; when the civil wars being begun, and this county in the power of the parliament, Dr. Casaubon, being continually threatened to be turned out of his vicarage, was content to receive one shilling per acre for the marsh land; in which manner he received it till the end of the year 1644, when this vicarage was sequestered, and one Richard Culmer was put into possession of this vicarage, (fn. 17) who to ingratiate himself with the parishioners, agreed to take no more than twelve pence an acre of them, as did Dr. Casaubon in 1660, on his being restored to this vicarage; at which rate the tithes were afterwards uniformly taken, till the time of the present vicar; the several vicars not being disposed to quarrel with their neighbours, though the land now lets for as much again as it did in Dr. Casaubon's time, viz. at 28s. an acre and upwards. There have been several litigations and issues at law tried between the present vicar, Mr. Dodsworth, and his parishioners, on account of this modus for the marsh land, all which have been decided in the vicar's favor, who set aside the modus of one shilling per acre by the verdict in his favor, and now takes from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. for the grass land, according to its goodness; yet there are ten acres of grass land late in the possession of Josias Fuller Farrer, esq. which never having paid more than four-pence per acre, remain at that composition. The present value of it is about 350l. per annum.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol10/pp264-294

FGR - Any Given Saturday

TRP - My Love Affair with Music

 

There was a talk in FGR about Loverboy, and I wanted to score the extra point for including him into my picture. This is remake of one of his album covers.

 

Martin gave me a hand (pun intended) here :)

Given the number of bears in the woods arounf Whitehorse right now, we skipped our usual weekend hikes into the boreal and walked the roads at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. It is still a nice way to get out for a couple of hours and the animals you encounter are all safely cordonned off from pesky humans by sturdy fencing. This photo was taken a little past the halfway point in our walk and shows how dark the skies were getting. Fortunately, we made it all the way around without getting soaked.

Mauna Kea Beach Hotel - History

 

George Mason headed the Hawaii Department of Economic Development in the early 1960's (later he founded the Pacific Business News). It was determined that Hawaii's tourism industry had to expand beyond Waikiki to the outer islands. William Quinn, the first Governor of Hawaii, sent Mason to Caneel Bay Plantation in the U.S. Virgin Islands to study Laurence Rockefeller's investment and development of an environmentally friendly resort set on a very remote island, St. John. Mason had several conversations with Lesley Moore, Caneel Bay's hotel manager at the time. As a result an invitation was delivered to Laurence Rockefeller to visit Hawaii with the hope he would develop a similar resort on one of Hawaii's outer islands.

 

In 1960 Rockefeller arrived in Hawaii along with his long-time associate Allston Boyer who was instrumental in the development of Caneel Bay Plantation and Dorado Beach Hotel and Walter Collins representing the firm Belt, Collins & Associates known for providing master planning, landscape architecture and civil engineering. The visitors were given the use of a state airplane to visit possible resort locations. In fact Aloha Airlines donated the plane and crew. When Rockefeller later learned this, he insisted on paying for it. The entourage stayed overnight at the Parker Ranch, Volcano House and Kona Inn on the Big Island, Coco Palms on Kauai and Hotel Hana Maui - where Rockefeller met and visited with Robert Butterfield (then the hotel manager at Hotel Hana Maui and later the second hotel manager at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel). Rockefeller met with Parker Ranch owner Richard Smart. He asked to visit the beach he had seen while flying over the island. From the ranch headquarters in cool misty Waimea the small group descended the bumpy 2600 feet by jeep trail to visit the beach at remote Kauna'oa Bay. It was reported that George Mason, Allston Boyer and Laurence Rockefeller went swimming at Kauna'oa Bay. As Mason had hoped the visitors were awe struck by the crescent shaped beach, the warm Pacific waters and the spectacular view of the snow-capped Mauna Kea. In May, 1961 Rockefeller returned to Kauna'oa Bay with Robert Trent Jones and the governor of Hawaii to announce the plans for a massive investment in a resort and golf course. At that time Kauan'oa Bay's crescent shaped beach was isolated, had no water or electricity and was accessible only by a dirt road and foot paths. Richard Smart leased approximately 500 acres for 99 years to Laurence Rockefeller for building the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Kauna'oa Bay of the Kohala Coast. Smart said it was land too dry for his cattle!

 

Rockefeller first selected the architect John Carl Warnecke, a pioneer of contextual architecture - fitting a building into its environment. Warnecke later designed the Hawaiian State Capitol building. Rockefeller initially conceived the resort to follow the cottage format similar to his design for Caneel Bay Plantation and Little Dix Bay. Rockefeller is quoted “The design should follow the natural contours of the land, incorporate lava rock and in every possible way make the hotel invisible.” Nathaniel A. Owings, a founder of the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was leaning towards designing 100 beach cottages. A model cottage was built, it was later demolished after sustaining damage from tropical storms. The cottage concept was shelved in favor of a single large structure. Later Rockefeller turned to the architect Edward Charles Bassett of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill firm to design the hotel that is part outdoors and part indoors, in fact the hotel has a door-less entry. Bassett also designed in 1962 the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland.

 

Belt Collins prepared for Pioneer Mill sugar plantation the first feasibility study for the Ka'anapali resort area on Maui. Belt Collins work at Mauna Kea included the construction of the hotel, its grounds, sewage plant, golf course, drilling of three wells and building a segment of the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway from Kawaihae to the hotel. The construction of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel was a huge logistical task. All building materials came by ferry. A temporary camp was created to house and feed the 500 construction workers.

 

As the resort neared completion, Rockefeller took a motor launch off shore. He looked back to the bay, the beach and his hotel-to-be with snow-capped Mauna Kea volcano, the backdrop. He determined the building's exterior was too bright. He ordered a repaint to better harmonize with the surroundings. He is quoted as saying "No man can outdo nature; mustn't even try."

 

Another expert of Rockefeller's team was Robert Trent Jones, Sr. He had designed Rockefeller's Dorado Beach golf courses in Puerto Rico. Regarding the third hole, Jones said, "Mr. Rockefeller, if you allow me to build a golf course here, this will be the most beautiful hole in the world." The debate continues if the par 3 third hole with an over-ocean inlet carry from tee to green is the most beautiful golf hole in the world. He seamlessly blended in the 18 fairways and greens to the black lava rock. The golf course was completed before the hotel opened. Jackie Pung, Hawaii's first woman golfing notable, was the initial teaching pro. "Rags" Ragland was the first director of golf at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. The first pro shop was a shack that was originally a recreational facility for Parker Ranch employees who wanted to swim at Mauna Kea's beach.

 

When it opened in July, 1965 the 154-room Mauna Kea was the most expensive hotel ever built at the time, at $15 million. The opening room rates on the Modified American Plan (MAP) started at $43, including breakfast and dinner in the Pavilion, which featured rotating menus of international cuisines. From 1965 to 1995, the Hotel operated contentedly without guestroom televisions. Esquire magazine named the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel one of the "Three greatest hotels in the world."

 

At the 1965 grand opening Rockefeller spoke this prayer. "May we all find inspiration in the majesty of the sea and the beauty of the surrounding mountains. May we learn again the joy of living and that good will is the key to brotherly love. May we recognize anew that material goods are but the means - stepping stone to the spiritual meaning and purpose of life."

 

The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel boasts an impressive art collection that includes priceless Pacific and Asian art pieces, curated for the resort’s opening, and handmade Hawaiian quilts from the 1960’s. These masterpieces elevate the status of Mauna Kea Beach Hotel to a museum in and of itself. Over 1600 pieces of authentic artwork and artifacts make Mauna Kea’s collection one of the most extensive collections of Asian and Oceanic artwork assembled by one individual, Mr. Rockefeller. The Art Collection showcases pieces from India, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Works of art include everything from custom, in-room watercolors, to a seventh-century sandstone Buddha, to elaborate Thai temple guardians. It was Mr. Rockefeller’s intention to informally display the pieces without signs or glass, in order to create the semblance of a noble manor teeming with abundant fine art.

 

Leslie H. Moore Jr., from Caneel Bay Plantation, was the first general manager of Mauna Kea. Allston Boyer hired Moore to manage Caneel Bay in 1956. Moore, a graduate of the Cornell University Hotel School, was previously the manager of the General Electric's Association Island at Henderson Harbor, NY. Moore left Mauna Kea to manage the White Elephant Hotel on Nantucket Island, MA. Executive assistants at opening were Richard Erb and James Reed and Clay James headed the food and beverage department along with executive chef Walter Blum. Mrs. Pi'lani Bell was the first executive housekeeper.

 

Robert H. Butterfield Jr managed the hotel from 1966 to 1982. He and his wife, Charlotte managed the Hotel Hana Maui from 1948 to 1965. Butterfield held a degree in Hotel Administration from the Cornell Hotel School, served wartime in the navy before working with Sugar Plantation owner Paul Fagan, the owner of remote Hotel Hana Maui. Butterfield died in 2011 at age 94 in Waimea, Hawaii. The hotel manager's residence was the "White House" (today the 8 room Jacaranda Inn) at Waimea, formerly the home of the Parker Ranch manager. It is where Rockefeller stayed during his many visits to the construction site and entertained guests.

 

In 1967 Laurence Rockefeller sold portions of his hotel assets to Eastern Airlines. Eastern acquired an 80% interest in the 306 room Dorado Beach resort for about $17 million and acquired a 60% interest in the 154 room Mauna Kea Beach Hotel for $10 million. As part of the deal Eastern also acquired a 40% interest in Rockresorts, Rockefeller's hotel management company.

 

In 1978 Laurence Rockefeller and Eastern Airlines sold the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel to UAL. Inc., the parent company of United Airlines and Western International Hotels for $51.5 million. The sell included 310 room hotel, 18-hole Robert Trent Jones golf course and about 100 acres of land adjacent to the hotel and golf course. Western International (later Westin) would operate the hotel. Western International at that time also owned and operated the Ilikai Hotel in Waikiki. Many repeat guests worried the hotel would lose its Rockefeller lustre. But Bob Butterfield in a 1981 interview is quoted "They (UAL, Inc.) told me, don't cut maintenance, don't cut anything.

 

William F. Mielcke, served as President of the Mauna Kea Resort for 21 years from 1980 to 2001. Previously he served as general manager at the Kona Surf. Mauna Kea Resort consists of the 258 room Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and the 350 room Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, two golf courses and real estate including single family homes, townhomes, condominiums and vacant land.

 

The hotel was purchased in 1989 for $315 million by Yoshiaki Tsutsumi of Seibu Railway. Fortune magazine named Tsutsumi as the world's richest man during the years 1987 to 1990. Seibu purchased the Mauna Kea Beach Resort from the partnership of Aoki Corp of Japan and the Robert M Bass Group of Fort Worth Texas – who had acquired Westin Hotels from UAL, Inc. The hotel moved from the Westin flag and management to Seibu's Prince Resorts Hawaii management in 1990.

 

In 1994, 30 years after opening, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel closed for a 1 year renovation. This happened as the Hapuna Prince Hotel opens. Mauna Kea Beach reopened with Adi Kohler as the Managing Director - and - with TVs in the guest rooms. Kohler retired in June, 2000.

 

Prince Hotels Hawaii embarked on a three-year, $150 million renovation of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel after it closed following major damage from a 2006 earthquake. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel re-opened in 2009, the renovations included larger, redesigned guest rooms, new restaurants, a new spa, a new club house, and new air conditioning and plumbing systems. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel was added to Marriott's Autograph Collection in 2015.

 

Mauna Kea Beach Hotel management through 50 plus years of operation:

 

Leslie Moore - appointed first General Manager in 1965

Bob Butterfield - appointed General Manager in 1966.

Adi Kohler - Mauna Kea Beach Hotel's 3rd Hotel Manager appointed in 1978.

William F Mielcke - named President of Mauna Kea Resort in 1980 (retired in 2001)

Adi Kohler - named Managing Director of Mauna Kea Resort in 1994 (retired in 2000)

Charlie Park - named the hotels fifth Hotel Manager in 1997.

Donn Takahashi - named President of Prince Resorts Hawaii 2004

Jon Gersonde - named General Manager - Mauna Kea Beach Hotel in 2008 (left in 2014 to be Managing Director Turnberry Isle, Miami)

Phyllis Branco - named Hotel Manager in 2010 (left in 2015 to be General Manager at Hilo Doubletree Naniloa Hotel)

Craig Anderson - named Vice President of operations Mauna Kea Resort in 2015 (previously was general manager at the Westin Moana Surfrider)

 

Information compiled by Richard L. Johnson (October, 2016). I was the Beverage Manager at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel from approximately 1973 to 1975. I worked for Roger Bird, the Food and Beverage Manager. Bob Butterfield was the GM and Adi Kohler the Assistant GM. Michael White was the Pavillion Dining Room Manager. Kim Dietrich was the Executive Chef. I was a 1971 graduate from the U of Hawaii School on Travel Industry Management. Upon graduation Caneel Bay Plantation Assistant Manager George Pynn hired me as the night auditor. The telegram confirmation from Pynn was something like "$350 a month plus room and board. Also, a one way ticket from Honolulu to Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands." I worked through several jobs ending as the Assistant Manager at Rockefeller's St. John National Park Cinnamon Bay Campground. Richard Erb, Caneel Bay Plantation's General Manager helped me in securing the Beverage Manager position at Mauna Kea.

 

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

 

Some background:

The Arsenal (de l'Aéronautique) VB 31 was a French naval fighter aircraft developed shortly after World War II. In January 1947 Arsenal were given a contract to develop a powerful naval fighter for the four French aircraft carriers. Since the modernization of the Aéronavale was pressing, the aircraft had to be developed fast. In order to cut time, the initial concept, the VB 30, was based on the unrealized German Messerschmitt Me 155 project.

 

The Me 155 naval fighter had been a naval development of the Messerschmitt Bf 109G, intended for the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, which never saw the light of day. When it was clear that the Me 155 was a dead end, the basic design was developed further into a high altitude interceptor and the project handed over to Blohm & Voss. The resulting, highly modified Bv 155 saw the prototype stage in the late years of WWII, but was never put into service. Years later, though, the Me 155 should surface again: Evolved by Ingenieur-General Vernisse and M. Badie, the VB 30 did not only use many design features of the original Me 155 design, it also heavily drew on the indigenous VB 10 heavy fighter which had been previously under development since WWII.

 

The VB 30 was more compact than the VB 10, though, even though it had similar proportions. IIt was an all-metal single-seat fighter with a low-wing monoplane, a retractable tailwheel undercarriage and of largely orthodox configuration. The wings had an inverted gull wing shape, in order to shorten the main undercarriage as much as possible, and were foldable. The landing gear retracted inwards, and the tail wheel was retractable, too.

 

The VB 30's layout resembled much the smaller North American Mustang. The aircraft was powered by a powerful Arsenal 24 H engine which was theoretically capable of 3.400hp – itself a development based on the cylinder blocks of the German Junkers IV12 213 engine. A huge radiator bath for the liquid-cooled engine was located under the fuselage, at the wings’ trailing edge.

 

The aircraft was heavily armed, with a newly developed, compact 30mm cannon (which would eventually become the famous DEFA cannon), firing through the propeller axis, plus four HS-404 20mm cannons or six 12.7mm machine guns in the wings, outside of the propeller arc. Various ordnance loads, including bombs of up to 500 kg caliber, drop tanks or unguided missiles, could be carried under the fuselage and outer wings.

 

Unlike the huge, tandem-engined VB 10, the VB 30 was (relatively) more successful, but its career started under misfortunate stars: Just one month after the VB 10 contract was cancelled, the prototype VB 30-01 made its maiden flight on 8th of December 1948. Overall, the aircraft behaved well, but its low speed handling was hampered by the immense torque of the Arsenal 24 H engine and the huge, four-bladed propeller. This problem was eventually countered with an enlarged fin, which earned the type its nickname "Requin" (Shark).

With this and many other detail modifications the aircraft was now called VB 31and cleared for series production, even though it was already apparent that the future of the fighter lay with jet power. A second prototype, the VB 30-02, had been started, but its assembly lagged so much behind that it was eventually finished as the first serial VB 31. Anyway, the development of the VB 31 continued as a safety net for France's nascent jet fighter programs, since it was not clear when pure jets would eventually offer the appropriate performance for carrier use, and when they'd be ready for service.

 

The VB 31’s development saw several drawbacks, including constant problems with the complicated, liquid-cooled engine, the radiator system and the landing gear. Serial production and service introduction of the VB 31 started slowly and was delayed until January 1951 – by which the French Air Force already had to rely on surplus British and American fighters to tide it over until domestically-produced jet fighters appeared. Time was already working against the VB 31.

 

Additionally, with the brooding Indochina War since August 1945, the need for a maritime fighter and fighter-bomber became so dire that the Aéronavale had to order the WWII Vought F4U-7 to fill this specific gap and replace several obsolete types. The XF4U-7 prototype did its test flight on 2 July 1952 with a total of 94 F4U-7s built for the French Navy's Aéronavale (79 in 1952, 15 in 1953), with the last of the batch, the final Corsair built, rolled out on 31 January 1953. With this proven (and cheaper) alternative, only a single batch of 40 VB 31 aircraft (instead of the planned 200!) was eventually built and put into service.

 

The VB 31 just came in time for the First Indochina War between France’s French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Emperor Báo Dai’s Vietnamese National Army against the Viet Minh, Led by Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap. During this conflict, the French used many different pre Cold War aircraft of World War Two, as well as the new types.The VB 31 were distrubuted between Flotille 3F and 12F, where they replayced Curtiss SB2C Helldivers and Grumman F6F-3 Hellcats, respectively. Flotille 12F pilots arrived in Asia on board of the aircraft carrier 'Arromanches' in early 1952, equipped with both VB 31 and F4U-7 fighters. Both types were deployed from the carrier and also served from Haiphong for CAS and escort duties in the Tonkin area.

 

The operational era of the VB 31 did not last long, though. The type was powerful, but complicated. The VB 31 also needed much more maintenance than the sturdy Corsair, which could also take more damage and had a considerable larger range. Hence, already in June 1953, all VB 31 were returned to Europe and based at Hyères, where they replaced obsolete F6F-5 Hellcats and were mainly used for training purposes. In the early sixties, with naval jet fighters finally available, the VB 31 were quickly withdrawn and scrapped, being replaced by Sud-Ouest SO-203 'Aquilon' (license-built D.H. Sea Venom) and Dassault Etendard IVM.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: one, pilot

Length: 11.63 m (38 ft 8 in)

Wingspan: 13.07 m (43 ft 6 in)

Height (peopeller at max. elevation): 4,9 m (16 ft 1 in)

 

Powerplant:

1 × Arsenal 24 H, 2.260 kW (3.000 hp), driving a four-bladed propeller

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 665 km/h (413 mph)

Range: 1.191 km (740 miles)

Service ceiling: 11.125 m (37.100 ft)

Rate of climb: 10.2 m/s (2008 ft/min)

 

Armament:

1× 30 mm cannon with 100 RPG, firing through the propeller axis

4× 20 mm HS-404 cannons with 200 RPG or 6×12,7mm machine guns with 250 RPG in the outer wings

1.500kg (3.300 lbs.) of external ordnance, including bombs of of to 454kg (1.000 lbs) calibre, drop tanks or up to eight unguided missiles under the outer wings.

  

The Kit and its assembly:

I wonder if you recognize the basis for this fantasy airplane? It's actually a modified Bv 155 kit from ART Model/Special Hobby from Russia (Both kits are identical; the ART Model contains an injected clear canopy while the Special Hobby kit offers two vacu canopies, though).

 

Inspiration struck when I read about the huge VB 10, which has, in its profile view, much resemblance to the Bv 155 - and the latter actually has some naval-friendly features, e .g .the raised cockpit, placed pretty far forward at the wings' leading edge, or the massive landing gear. Since France used some German aircraft after WWII (e.g. Fw 190 for the Air Force and Ju 188 for the Navy), why not create a naval fighter from the Me 155/Bv 155 concept? Well, here it is... the Arsenal VB 31.

 

For this fantasy conversion, the Bv 155 kit saw major modifications, e. g.:

● The wing span was reduced - from each wing, 4.2cm/1.65" were taken away

● The wings received a new inverted gull wing shape, the cuts came handy

● Outer wings were clipped by 10mm/0,4" each

● Original wing tips were transplanted and re-sculpted to fit

● The rear fuselage was shortened by about 1.3cm/0.5"

● A carburetor intake was added under the nose (from a Hawker Hurricane)

● New horizontal stabilizers from a Grumman Panther (Matchbox)

● Lower position of the horizontal stabilizers

● New landing gear wells had to be cut out, a simple interior was scratch-built

● The landing gear retracts now inwards, original struts and covers were slightly shortened

● New main wheels from a Douglas Skyknight (Matchbox) were used

● New tail wheel (front wheel of a Revell F-16, I guess)

● Modified tail section with an arrestor hook

● The original, extensive exhaust piping between the engine and the turbo charger had to go

● New exhausts at the nose were added (scratch, HO scale roof tiles)

● New propeller from a Matchbox Hawker Tempest was mated with the original spinner

● Cockpit was taken OOB, but a different seat, a pilot and a radio in the rear were added

● Some panel lines had to be re-engraved, due to putty work and/or logical reasons

● Missile hardpoints under the wings come from an F4U

● Antennae were added, accoring to French F4U-7 pictures

 

There actually was no big plan - I had an idea of what to make from the kit, but modifications came step by step, as the parts fell together and looked or looked not right.

 

The 24 cylinder Arsenal 24 H engine was really under development in France, so it was a neat choice for such a relatively large aircraft. The huge turbocharger bath under the fuselage of the Bv 155 could easily be taken as a radiator bath for the large, liquid-cooled engine, so that no additional adaptations had to be made.

Overall, I wanted to save the elegant lines of the Bv 155. With the reduced wing span the aircraft looks even elegant, IMHO. All in all, and with its slender, inverted gull wings, the VB 31 somehow reminds of the Ju 87 and the later paper Ju 187 development. There's also something IL-2ish to it?

 

A side note concerning the kit itself: it has nice engraved details and some fine resin parts for the cockpit or the radiators. But wall strength is high (up to 2mm!), the material is somewhat soft and waxy, and fit is mediocre, so expect serious putty work. Not a bad kit, but something for the experienced modeler. Things surely were worse here, since my modifications to wings and fuselage called for even more sculpting.

  

Painting and markings:

It took some time to settle on a French naval aircraft, since I already have an all dark-blue whif in my collection (the whiffy F1J Sea Mustang). But I had some appropriate decals at hand, and the time frame as well as the potential user offered a good and plausible story behind the VB 31 in Aéronaval service.

 

Overall, the aircraft was painted in Blue Angels Blue (FS 15050, Testors 1718) and weathered with slightly lighter shades of blue and grey, for a sun-bleached look and in order to emphasize the panel lines. One can argue about this tone: many Aéronavale aircraft look much darker, rather like FS 15042, but I have seen pictures of such bright aircraft - I'd assume that the color standard was not very strict, as long as the aircraft was "dark blue"?

After basic painting the VB 31 looked very bright, so I did some major dry painting with darker/duller shades like Humbrol 67, 77 and 104 to tame things down, and the result is O.K. now.

 

The interior surfaces were painted in Mid Stone and dry-painted with Chromate Yellow (Humbrol 225 and 81). AFAIK, this is the typical interior finish for Aéronavel aircraft of that time, and it is a nice contrast to the dark and uniform outside.

 

Most markings come from an F4U-7 decal sheet, some things like the tail rudder Tricolore had to be improvised (comes from a 30 year old Airfix Bristol Blenheim decal sheet!).

 

Beyond the dry-painted blue and grey hues on the upper surfaces, the model was slightly weathered with exhaust and soot stains and some dry-painted silver on the leading edges. This makes the all-blue aircraft look a bit more lively and is IMHO authentic for Aéronavale fighters of the 50ies, esp. under the harsh climate of South East Asia.

 

Finally, everything was sealed under a semi-matt varnish (Tamiya Acryllics, rattle can), and some additional matt varnish was applied on the upper surfaces, also for a dull and sun-bleached look.

  

The kit was built in a week from sprues to pictures, overall a sleek and elegant aircraft with plausible lines - an hommage to the many elegant and innovative aircraft which were developed in France in WWII and later but which are easily overlooked today!

Given my thing for shadows you can probably guess this was a favorite of mine.

Ezra 9:5-9

 

“HE has given us New Life to raise again the house of our God.” (Ezra 9:9)

 

MEDITATION

“What would you say is one of the most important virtues we could have? How about Faith? Faith is more than just believing that God exists. It’s Trusting that HE is with us. It’s Trusting that HE is at work in our lives and that HE has a purpose for us. And it’s moving forward in that Trust, even when it’s difficult. That’s the kind of Faith that Ezra shows in today’s first reading…

 

“…You might wonder, though, how much Faith you really have, especially if you’re facing a hardship. You may wonder, Do I have enough? The answer is, Yes, you do! That’s because Faith is a divine gift given by a loving God. You don’t create Faith; you receive it. You lean on it. You rest in it. Because Faith is believing in Jesus, the Son of God, who loves you and gives Himself to you every day.

 

“So affirm your Faith in the Lord today. HE is the One who gives you New Life.”

 

PRAYER

“Lord, thank you for the gift of Faith! How could I possibly go on without you?”

 

Excerpt #meditation and #prayer from @wordamongus complete reflection @ www.wau.org

 

Archive link - wau.org/meditations/2025/09/24/1388768/

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Filename - “New Life…” Ezra 9:9 late summer in Cascade Lake, Idaho September 2025

 

Following the Son...

Blessings,

Sharon 🌻

 

God's Beauty In Nature is calling us into a deeper relationship with Him...

 

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Bloggers are welcome to use my artwork with, “Image from Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon under Creative Commons license”, and a link back to the images you use.

 

Please let me know in the comment section below, thank you...

 

Art4TheGlryOfGod Photography and Watercolor Paintings by Sharon

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Faith, Hope & Love in daily Art meditations...

 

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Satisfying mount making for storage

 

Bugle given to Nursing Sister Elizabeth (Bessie) Hay, at the end of the Anglo Boer War.

 

During the Anglo Boer War New Zealand Nursing Sister Bessie Rennie Hay served at several hospitals, and for a time worked under the direction of Dr Arthur Conan Doyle at the Langman Field Hospital, Bloemfontein.

 

According to an interview with Elizabeth’s son Bruce MacKenzie, the bugle is the one that sounded the retreat at Paardeburg [February 1900]. Following the battle of Paardeburg, General Cronje surrendered and was imprisoned on St Helena.

 

“Elizabeth Rennie Hay: A New Zealand nurse in the Anglo Boer War, 1899-1902

Born Invercargill 1867, died Te Awamutu 1944, aged 77. Trained at Dunedin Hospital

 

One of a group of seven nurses from Otago-Southland who sailed for South Africa in March 1900.

 

These nurses were outfitted and financed by funds raised by the people of Otago and Southland, and were attached to military hospitals under the authority of the British Government in South Africa.

 

Bessie Hay served in military hospitals at Wynberg and Rondebosch, near Capetown, and in Johannesburg and Middelburgh in the Transvaal, and Kroonstad in what was then Orange River Colony.

 

For some months Sister Hay was attached to the Langman private hospital under Dr Arthur Conan Doyle, which operated under the authority of the British Army Medical Services during the enteric fever epidemic in Bloemfontein, and later in Pretoria. The Union Jack and Red Cross flag presented to Auckland War Memorial Museum by her daughter-in-law, Mrs Bruce Mackenzie, are the flags which flew over the Langman Hospital until it was handed over to the British Government as a gift, in November 1900.

 

Sister Hay also served on the Hospital Ship “Orcana”, accompanying her sick and wounded patients to the military hospitals in England, and in the later stages of the war made several journeys on a Hospital Ship transporting patients to the coast at Lorenco Marques (Portuguese East Africa), for transfer to the Hospital ships carrying the sick and wounded to the Base Hospitals in Capetown.

 

Sister Hay was awarded both the Queen’s and the King’s South Africa Medals.

 

Bessie Hay returned to South Africa to nurse after the war and married Mr Robert Mackenzie. Her home was in Pretoria until she returned to New Zealand in 1913”

 

Information prepared by Sheila Gray for Auckland War Memorial Museum

 

Museum No.: 2016.45.1

[Collections online: www.aucklandmuseum.cocollections-research/collections/rec... ]

 

©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

 

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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 48.439+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Two metres at 20:42pm on Thursday 25th May 2023 around sunset at Patricia Bay , a body of salt water that extends East from the Saanich Inlet and forms part of the North Saanich shoreline in the District of North Saanich in British Columbia. It features a beautiful park which is at the south end of the Scoter Trail. Formerly known as Union Bay, the bay was named after Princess Patricia of Connaught, daughter of the Duke of Connaught who was Governor General in 1912.

  

The park has ties to transportation and the waterfront, and their pivotal role in the development of North Saanich. It is also tied to the development of the Victoria International Airport and military aviation efforts during the Second World War. In 1937, the airport was developed as one of six Royal Canadian Air Force Station training facilities on Vancouver Island.

  

The land was originally settled by the Tseycum First Nation (Union Bay Indian Reserve No.4) , one of four Saanich villages of Southern Vancouver Island in the area and part of the Northern Straits Coast Salish language group.

  

In the Sencoten langauge Tseycum is spelled Wsikem and means Land of Clay. The languages spoken include Lkwungen, Malchosen, Semiahmoo, SENĆOŦEN andT’Sou-ke and in 2023 the Chief is Tanya Jimmy, who was elected in July 2019. The Tseycum people have five reserves located at:

  

Bare Island 9, Goldstream 13, Pender Island 8, Saturna Island 7 and Union Bay 4.

  

Nikon D850 Single-lens reflex digital camera F Mount with FX CMOS 35.9mm x 23.9mm Image sensor 46.89 Million total pixels Focal length: 150mm Shutter speed: 1/60s (Mechanical shutter) Aperture f/11.0 ISO320 Image area Full Frame FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L 45.4 Million pixels (8256 x 5504) 14 Bit uncompressed AF-C Priority Selection: Release Nikon Back button focusing enabled 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1, A1.00, M0.25 (5070k) Colour space: Adobe RGB Picture control: (A) Auto (Sharpening A+1.00/Clarity A+1.00)

  

Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.6 (2 stops) Graduated Neutral density resin filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Manfrotto MT057C3-G Carbon fiber Geared tripod 3 sections. Neewer 9750 Gimbal tripod head with Arca Swiss standard quick release plate. Jessops Tripod bag. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup. Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon EN-EL15a battery.

   

LATITUDE: N 48d 39m 43.8s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 27m 3.1s

ALTITUDE: 2.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 92.9MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 41.70MB

      

PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.21 (8/12/2022) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (16/01/20) LF 1.00 Nikon Codec Full version 1.31.2 (09/11/2021)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with Windows 10 Home edition AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. My Passport USB 3.0 2TB portable desktop hard drive. Nikon NX STUDIO 64bit Version 1.2.2 (08/12/2022). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.16.0 (08/12/2022). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

  

Given we had so much fun with the Captain Karl Spindler photo, we make another visit to the eclectic Joseph McGarrity Photographic Collection. We do not know much about this photo other than we are looking at a Policeman with a cap badge No. 1780. I will be very impressed if you can provide a name or for that matter any other information about him. Good luck!

 

Photographer: Unknown

 

Collection: Joseph McGarrity Photographic Collection

 

Date: 1916-1940

 

NLI Ref.: NPA JMG21

 

You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

 

I was given those black pasta by a friend a while ago and I wanted to make them with a colourful sauce to get a nice contrast. Unfortunately, I realised after cooking them how they were dyed in black and I had to make another batch of spaghetti. The sauce is vegan, though, so go ahead!

 

Creamy chard sauce

 

10ish Swiss chards leaves

1 cup soy cream

1 tbsp almond butter

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

Salt, pepper

 

Separate the chards green parts from the white. Steam them.

Put greens in a blender with the other ingredients and mix until smooth.

 

You can steam (or microwave) the white parts and use them in the pasta dish, like I did.

...when God has given us His Word: "...man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" Deuteronomy 8:3b NIV

Thalidomide Nerve Damage

Thalidomide, the drug which caused an epidemic of deformed babies in the 1960s has a second important side-effect in causing damage to the peripheral nerves which can be permanent. Although the drug was withdrawn in 1961, it was re-introduced in 1965 for the management of a complication of leprosy. Thalidomide is not a cure for this disease, but suppresses an allergy which arises during the course of treatment. While the the effect on the fetus can be avoided by not using the drug in women in the reproductive age group, all patients who take the drug are at risk of developing nerve damage. The frequency of this side-effect was originally in dispute, but according to a recently published book, it is estimated that about 40,000 people suffered from peripheral nerve damage when the drug was used as a sedative in Germany. It would be expected that leprosy patients given the drug would also develop nerve damage. However, despite its use in this disease for over 30 years, not a single case of nerve damage attributable to the drug has been reported. Because of its effectiveness in treating patients with leprosy, Thalidomide was tried out in a number of other diseases. Here the frequency of nerve damage has been at least 21%. It therefore remains a mystery why there are no reports of nerve damage in leprosy patients given the drug. Of course leprosy also affects the peripheral nerves, but there are means of distinguishing nerve damage due to the disease from the neurotoxic effects of thalidomide. The background to this 'mystery' is discussed at www.thalidomide.org

Last September, a research letter was published in the Lancet, the prestigious medical journal. A group of leprosy patients from Bangladesh were described suffering from severe pain in the lower limbs despite finishing their treatment. Although no valid explanation was given for these symptoms and signs, it appeared to me that the patients could have received thalidomide. Accordingly, I wrote to the Lancet, suggesting this might be the case. The Lancet rejected my letter, so I added another paragraph and sent it to the British Medical Journal. the title 'Is thalidomide to blame? is the same as the letter to the British Medical Journal published in 1960. This was the first publication in a medical journal mentioning thalidomide nerve damage, so it seemed appropriate to repeat the title. The letter is reproduced as follows

Is thalidomide to blame?

On December 31, 1960, Dr Leslie Florence, a Scottish General Practitioner wrote a letter to the British Medical Journal(1) entitled 'Is thalodomide to blame?'. Four of his patients had complained of paraesthesia of the hands and feet, coldness of the extremities and nocturnal cramps in leg muscles. He questioned whether these symptoms could be due to thalidomide as all four had recieved the drug. This was the first report of thalidomide neuropathy in the medical literature. Although thalidomide was withdrawn because of its teratogenic effects, it was subsequently re-introduced for the management of erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL), a complication of lepromatous or multibacillary leprosy. Thalidomide has now been used in the management of a variety of non-leprosy disorders where the frequency of neuropathy is at least 21%(2). In leprosy, thalidomide neuropathy has not been reported despite the use of the drug in high doses and for prolonged periods.

On September 23, 2000, Hietaharju and colleagues(3) described the features of chronic pain in leprosy patients after completion of anti-bacterial treatment. No explanation is given for the persistence of these symptoms. As all patients had multibacillary leprosy, it is possible they had episodes of ENL during the course of therapy, in which case they may have been treated with thalidomide. The distribution of sensory loss and in particular, the severe burning pain which Hietaharju et al describe are very characteristic of thalidomide neuropathy(4). The intractable nature of the sensory disturbances are also a feature of this neuropathy(5). Have these patients recieved thalidomide?

References

Florence AL. Is thalidomide to blame? Br Med J 1960; 2: 1954.

Ochonisky S, Verroust J, Bastuji-Garin S Gheradi R, Revuz J. Thalidomide neuropathy incidence and clinicoelectrophysiologic findings in 42 patients. Arch Dermatol 1994; 130: 66-9.

Hietaharju A, Croft R, Alam R, Birch P, Mong A, Haanpaa M. Chronic neuropathic pain in treated leprosy. Lancet 2000; 356: 1080-1.

Thalidomide neuropathy Lancet 1969: 1: 713-4

Fullerton PM, O'Sullivan DJ. Thalidomide neuropathy: a clinicalelectrophysiological and histological follow-up study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1968: 31: 543-51

Once again the letter was rejected. The British Medical Journal also has a web-site but refused to post the letter, so a great opportunity has been lost to warn leprosy workers in developing countries about the dangers of nerve damage following the use of the drug. There is no indication from either journal that attempts have been made to find out whether the patients have been given thalidomide. If the severe disability has been caused by thalidomide, then the patients should be compensated. Moreover, if one in five patients given the drug for non-leprosy disorders develop peripheral nerve damage, thousands of leprosy patients, who over 30 years have received high doses of thalidomide, should also have sustained damage to the peripheral nerves. Even today, new patients who are still being given thalidomide are at great risk of suffering severe pain for the rest of their lives.

By Dr Colin Crawford July 2001

e-mail:clcraw13@hotmail.com

  

www.dw.de/programas/áfrica/s-13918

 

www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/16/thalidomide-apolo...

 

www.avite.org/

 

www.thalidomide.ca/

 

www.avite.org/film.htm

  

www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3043006,00.html

 

www.avite.org/ultimahora.php

A few months ago, I visited St Mary, Brook here in Kent, and found that the north wall had the remains of a squint which used to enable the intern in an anchorite cell to see inside.

 

THe most famous anchorite was St Julian, a woman of 14th century Norwich, whose real name we do not know, but was given the name of the church where she was an anchorite.

 

Looking at the history of the church, I see that the original building was destroyed by bombs in the war, and what we see now is completely post-war, and the remains of the cell I had been hoping to see is now marked by a small chapel on the south wall. Whereas the cell would have been found on the north wall.

 

Many people come now to St JUlian on pilgrimage, and there is an attached centre which offers resource.

 

I arrived here at half eight on a Saturday morning, when the city was yet to wake, and I had the church to myself.

 

-------------------------------------------

 

This small church has an international reputation, as it was here that Dame Julian of Norwich lived in the later 14th century.

 

The building as it now stands dates almost entirely from 1953, when it was rebuilt after suffering a direct hit from a bomb in 1942. The church was also reconsecrated in 1953.

 

There is good reason to believe that a church has stood here since Anglo-Saxon times, although whether the destroyed building was of Saxon date, or Saxon workmanship but post-1066, is difficult to decide.

 

The north wall of the nave is original, and repairs after the bombing revealed a number of circular windows, (oculi) quite high up – a standard method of lighting Anglo-Saxon churches. One has been reopened, and another was turned into a round-headed window. Similar windows were found in the south wall of the chancel, although these were not reopened.

 

The tower, one of four round towers in Norwich, took the hit, and collapsed across the body of the church. It was partly rebuilt, and further heightened by about four feet in 198., to provide a housing for the bell.

 

Almost everything in the church dates from the rebuild of 1953. Three things pre-date it. First, the font, which is c1420, and stood originally in All Saints’ church; it was brought here when that church closed in 1977. It has carvings of the twelve apostles round the bowl, and eight other saints round the stem. The reredos survived the bomb, and was placed here in 1931; it was made in Oberammergau. Finally, the door to the Cell, which is a Norman archway. It was in fact the main door to St Michael-at-Thorn, a nearby church which was also destroyed on the same night in 1942, and never rebuilt.

 

The organ loft was built in 1981. The organ on it is by Henry Jones, of 1860.

Some photographs showing the interior before damage are at the back of the church.

 

All except a couple of floor-slabs were destroyed.

 

There are two windows, one between the Cell and the chancel, showing the Lily Crucifix, and Julian; the other, in the opposite wall, shows the seven sacraments. Both are by the firm of King of Norwich.

 

The Cell

 

This was built on what was thought to be site of Julian’s cell, although there is no evidence to support this. It was more likely to have been on the north side, and may have been detached from the church altogether. (The flint ‘foundations’ are more likely to be those of buttresses.)

 

Dame Julian

 

Despite common perceptions, the church is not dedicated to her, not did she necessarily take her name from the church, as ‘Julian’ (a form of Gillian) was a common name for women in the Middle Ages. Falling ill in 1373, she had a series of visions (‘shewings’) dealing with aspects of Christ’s passion. When she recovered, she became an anchoress at this church, and her musings on her shewings were eventually written down (‘The Revelations of Divine Love’). This is the first known book to be written in English by a woman.

 

www.norwich-churches.org/St Julian/home.shtm

 

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Julian (1342-1413) was a 14th century mystic, an anchoress, or female hermit, who lived in a small cell attached to St Julian's church, next to one of the busiest roads in medieval Norwich. Strangely, we do not know her real name; she is only known by her association with the church of St Julian.

 

In truth we do not know much of anything about her, except that she almost certainly was not a nun, but a lay person who chose a life of contemplation. She was also not the first person to use the anchorite cell attached to St Julian's church; it was used before her time and again after her death.

Julian is remembered at Norwich Cathedral with a statue on the west front and a pair of stained glass windows. One of the windows, in the Bauchon Chapel, portrays her as a Benedictine nun, which she was not. She is often called a saint as well, and she's not that either!

 

Anchoresses could not leave their cells; essentially they were walled in, so the decision to become an anchorite or anchoress was a serious one, and required a lifetime of dedication and commitment.

 

Because of that dedication, people often came to anchoresses for counsel, believing them to be wise or holy people. one visitor to 'Julian' was Margery Kempe (c.1373 – c.1438), who later dictated The Book of Margery Kempe, considered the first autobiography in English. This book detailed Kempe's numerous pilgrimages, and it is partly through this that we know so much about St Julian and her life.

 

On 8 May 1373 the anchoress Julian was struck by a severe illness which left her close to death. During the illness she had 16 visions, visions which she was moved to write down after her recovery. These writings took 20 years to complete, and are recorded in two stages. Immediately after her visions Julian wrote down a brief account. One can imagine her quickly scribbling down details of her impressions before she could forget them.

 

Then, after taking time to meditate on the visions, Julian began to write out a much longer, more detailed account, called The Long Text. This was sometime after 1393. Julian's visions became Revelations of Divine Love, the first book written by a woman in English, and a spiritual classic even today.

 

Unlike many religious teachings of her day, Julian did not write of a vengeful or judgemental God, but a God with an all-enveloping love, like a tender mother or father. This message of Divine Love ran counter to many religious teachings both at that time and since, but the simple, clear way she expressed her ideas continue to find an audience today, and her writings have been published in a multitude of languages and remain in print today.

 

ulian's hermitage was torn down at the Reformation, but after the church was hit by a bomb in WWII, the cell was rebuilt along with the very simple nave and chancel of the main church. Excavations uncovered what was thought to be the original foundations of the sanctuary and St Julian's cell.

 

The church was rebuilt using the original materials, so that it is essentially the 'same' medieval church, just reordered. Norwich did not really need another parish church; it has plenty to spare, but the church was rebuilt in part to act as a focus for the shrine of Lady Julian of Norwich. The north wall of the nave is largely original, with several small round windows suggeting a construction date sometime in the late 11th century.

 

Just one footnote to the rebuilding story; there is actually no firm evidence that the foundations discovered on the south side of the church were those of Julian's cell. It would have been much more commmon fore an anchoress cell to be built on the north side of the church.

 

From the nave a Romanesque doorway leads down a few steps to the hermitage, where you will find a separate altar and a small shrine against the north wall. This is, as closely as we can tell, where the original cell connected with the church. The best historic features inside the church are a 15th century octagonal font, brought here from All Saints church in the city centre after the original 15th century font was destroyed in the bombing.

 

Another historic feature is the Romanesque doorway, which has very nicely carved capitals, though rather worn with age. But most people don't come here for the architecture, though it is interesting, but for the connection with Julian.

 

www.britainexpress.com/counties/norfolk/norwich/st-julian...

 

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St Julian, although almost forgotten today, was a popular figure in medieval legend. He was a nobleman who, out hunting one day, spared the life of a deer which had admonished him. It then went on to make the rather startling prediction that he would kill his parents. By roundabout means, this accidentally happened; Julian resolved to pay penance by establishing a riverside inn for travellers, and a hospital for the poor. So, he was an entirely appropriate choice of patron for the medieval Priory established here in the medieval suburb of Conesford on the banks of the Wensum.

 

he Priory has long gone. In the 18th and 19th century this north bank area of the city was taken over with factories, warehouses and working class housing. They took the place of small artisans' cottages and workshops, some of which survive. In the late middle ages, much of East Anglia's stained glass and memorial brasses had been made here, but over the following centuries you would have been more likely to find tanneries and slaughterhouses. Only now is this area undergoing a full-scale regeneration that may see it become the city's artists quarter. King Street, the main road that ran through Conesford, is being gentrified, but still the urban decay of centuries clings to the old buildings.

But although this church is a small and rebuilt building, tucked away in what is still the anonymous and run down inner city, St Julian is one of the most famous of Norwich's churches because it is associated with the mystical visions of the Blessed Mother Julian of Norwich. Both church and mystic took their name from the adjacent Priory; in a way, it is a coincidence that they share it.

 

When Dame Julian came here, the church looked much as it did in the early 19th century drawing above. By the time George Plunkett took his 1937 photographs on the right, the Victorians had replaced the chancel, but it was still substantially a medieval church.

Incidentally, Dame Julian did not actually receive her visions at this church; some people are disappointed when they discover this. In fact, we don't know who she really was at all. She was a woman, of course, and probably of noble birth; she fell ill in the 1370s, probably in one of the outbreaks of the Black Death which carried off half Norfolk's population between the late 1340s and the end of the century.

 

In her deathbed delirium, she claimed, she received mystical visions, which she termed Revelations of Divine Love. On her unexpected recovery, she was received into holy orders, taking the name Julian, and became an Anchoress.

 

An Anchoress was a kind of female hermit, walled up in a room on the side of a church with a view of the altar. Meals would be passed to her, ablutions passed out, and she would offer advice to visitors; but her existence was largely a contemplative one. Her male equivalent would have been an Anchorite; there is surviving evidence of Anchorite or Anchoress cells at half a dozen East Anglian churches.

 

here was a great craze for Anchorites and Anchoresses in the late 14th century, mainly as a result of the way in which the Black Death had concentrated our minds and made us serious. Dame Julian devoted her time to prayer and contemplation of her visions, which she wrote down in English.

The manuscripts were scattered to the four winds by the Reformation, and it was really only in the 20th century that the importance of her work in both literary and spiritual terms was recognised. The most striking thing about the Revelations is quite simply that, at a time when an obsession with death, doom and gloom would have been entirely reasonable, they are optimistic and uplifting, an affirmation of our relationship with God. They suggest that our ultimate destiny is intended by God to be beautiful and glorious, and that life is not a test which sends its failures to hell.

 

Roger Clarke, a friend of this site, points out this has always been a rundown and poor part of Norwich, even in medieval days. Because even in the fifteenth century the Conesford area had a certain reputation, Roger writes, I have always felt that this adds to the specialness of the place. Mother Julian's Revelations are highly incarnational and stress the reality of Christ sharing in the messes and confusion of human existence - grace is very much earthed and earthy for her. What better place for the Revelations than a church in a run-down, slightly seedy, decayed, red-light district ? The holy is glimpsed, not in the purity of isolation, but in the ordinary - or, as Mother Julian, would call it "the homely". The Revelations are at the forefront of medieval northern European spiritual writing.

 

Although she has never been officially recognised as a Saint, Mother Julian is often treated as one (Blakeney church has a window of 'St Julian of Norwich') and her patronal day of May 8th is included in the Ordo of both the Church of England and of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

A 1905 photograph of the interior above shows us that St Julian was a spectacularly high church at the start of the 20th century. The rood beam inscription reads And Incense shall be offered unto My Name and a Pure Offering received. But during the 1942 air raids on Norwich, St Julian was one of five city churches destroyed by the bombing.

 

2005, looking east: the doorway to the cell is on the right

Thanks to the significance of its most famous resident, it was the only one to be rebuilt, and this was done in the 1950s according to its original plan, except that the presumed site of Mother Julian's cell was added as a transept, accessed through a massive Norman doorway brought here from the bombed out church of St Michael at Thorn. The steeply pitched roof gives it an attractively rustic feel, and the Saxon windows exposed by the bombing have been left as features on the north side. The tower was left at a lower level, and is now less-convincingly Norman than it was before the bombing.

 

George Plunkett's 1946 photograph shows St Julian in ruins at the end of the war, and reminds us quite how complete the destruction was - far greater than at St Paul, for example. By the 1950s, work was in progress; the second photograph shows the state of play in 1952; in the foreground is Mother Julian's cell being constructed on the presumed site of its predecessor. On the same day, the north side is shown below, with the completed church being landscaped in 1962 in the fourth photograph.

 

The twelve-storey council block of Normandie tower looms over the church, and in this challenging area it was fitting that a group of Anglican nuns from the Community of All Hallows at Ditchingham on the outskirts of Bungay should have set up a community beside the church in the 1950s. In the reorganisation of Norwich parishes, this was one of two churches in the new Parmentergate parish to survive as a working church - the other is St John Timberhill.

 

We had just arrived inside St Julian to hear whispered voices coming from the south transept, when all of a sudden a nun came flying out through the Norman doorway into the body of the church. Not literally flying, of course, but she was certainly fleet of foot. "Hello sister, is it all right to have a look around?", I said, because it seemed only polite to ask.

 

"Can you wait a few minutes?" she replied, breathlessly, "we're in the middle of a Eucharist." And then she was gone, out of the north door. Well, what would you do? I thought about it, and began to photograph the font. I had just become engrossed in this when the breathless nun fled back in, carrying a large consecration host. She skipped back into the transept, and a few moments later we heard her voice begin to intone the third eucharistic prayer. I am not a member myself, but I love the Church of England and its funny little ways.

 

The font I was photographing came from All Saints in the city centre, another example of the way in which surviving Norwich churches have been enriched by those that fell to redundancy. It is similar to one that was in St James, but which has now been moved to a church in Norwich's northern suburbs. There is another in the series at Stalham. It was brought here to replace a 15th century font with shields that was destroyed by the bombs - you can see both fonts below, the earlier one photographed in 1937 by George Plunkett.

 

Although I have been fortunate enough to visit this church on a number of occasions, and have usually basked in its peaceful and contemplative atmosphere, we were in a hurry on this particular day, because it was the National Heritage open day 2005, when all of Norwich's medieval churches were open. St Julian is always open daily anyway, but most Norwich churches are not; so we pressed on to St Peter Parmentergate and left St Julian's nuns to their Eucharist. Peter Stephens kindly came to the rescue with the photographs below, which include the cell and the cell itself, which was inaccessible because of that eucharist and its attendant nuns.

 

I do admire Anglican nuns. Over in the Catholic Church there are thousands and thousands of nuns, mostly now in plain clothes, all over the world. They bestride the globe with their sleeves rolled up, teaching, running hospitals, contemplating, suing for peace in war zones, standing up to Bishops; one critic described them as the shock troops of Vatican II. But at least they know they are at the heart of their Church.

 

Not so Anglican nuns. You have to be someone really special to devote your life, quite literally, to a Church where you are in a tiny minority of the clerisy, where half the members of the Church don't even know that you exist, and, worse, some of those who do know about you wish that you didn't. Just imagine; you give up everything, only to watch the worldwide Anglican communion tearing itself apart, and the Church at home preparing to sink the life rafts that kept the Anglo-catholics afloat after the decision to ordain women Priests. Blimey. That'd be a test for your vocation and no mistake.

Perhaps it is a comfort for them to be here, and to sense the echo of Mother Julian's words: All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well...

 

Simon Knott, November 2005

 

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichjulian/norwichjulian.htm

Just finished this quilt top today and thought it has lots of color and would be good for this week,"52.5 of 2010"; theme: color! The pattern name is "Happy Star". I belong to a group from our church and we make quilts, tie them and each tie represents a 'prayer'. Then the quilt is given to someone who is in need of prayer and comfort from friends.

 

Given that the M420 has became the most common unit on my roster a little variety was necessary. With this in mind 3538 was taken out of service and modified to replicate one of the earlier units from the MR20a class. The last few members of this class share the same style of handrails that were used on later models so that eliminated one job. I did have to fabricate a new longer fuel tank though as well as changing the access door on the engineers side of the cab. On the earlier units this was one large door instead of the two piece style of later units.

Believed to date from 1480.

Given as the BLUEBELL 1743 to 1822.

 

An advertisement dated 1725 reads:-

``There will be a great cock match at the Blue Bell at Hog Hill to show 31 cocks a side. For 2 guineas a cock and 20 guineas for the odd battle. Gentlemen will be accommodated with a glass of excellent wine and care will be taken to prevent disturbance by the Mob. ''

23rd November 1804 : Charlotte Parslee offered a Reward of Five Guineas to any person who successfully reported the offender or offenders, responsible for stealing a Mahogany Trunk from an upper room of the BELL INN on the evening of Sunday 18th November 1804. The Trunk contained a black silk spencer (?), a black silk cloak, trimmed with crape, a black shawl of Norwich manufacture, a square Japan muslin shawl and a black silk bonnet.

All had been recovered having been found in the stables of the LAMB INN.

 

5th January 1850 - Mr. F. H. Spanton, late of the KINGS ARMS INN, Timberhill, advised his Friends and the Public in general that he had taken the BELL INN with a determination to merit their continued support.

Burton Ales being on draught and Post Horses available to all parts of the Kingdom.......

 

The Directors of the Eastern Counties Railway appointed Mr. Spanton to provide Omnibuses, Cabs, &c. for conveying Passengers to and from the Stations - November 1851.

On the same date, the Proprietors of the NORFOLK HOTEL and the ROYAL HOTEL informed that, notwithstanding recent arrangements made by the Eastern Counties Railway Company, they would continue to convey passengers at the usual fares. They also stated that although they would no longer be able to stand in the Station Yard, they would await outside the Station Gates and convey to any part of the City, Free of Charge.

 

A fire broke out at 10:00 pm on Tuesday 26th April 1853 in a third storey room used by servants. So fierce was the fire that the room could not be entered, but a hose, fed from a hydrant near Red Lion Street, delivered a plentiful and continuous supply of water through the window. Fires also broke out in adjoining rooms and the bedroom below. The main fire was subdued in about ten minutes and the other fires were swiftly extinguished. There was substantial damage but Mr. Spanton was insured with the Sun office.

 

Mr. Spanton said that, owing to the respectability of the friends of Alfred Baker, errand boy at the Bell, he had no desire to prosecute the lad for having stolen ten shillings and a pistol from him and six shillings from the ostler.

The boy was reprimanded and discharged at the hearing held Saturday 14th May 1853.

Members of the Norwich Glee Club met here Tuesday 11th September 1855 and were reminded of the glorious achievements in the Crimea and the toast `The fall of Sebastopol' was given. Following three hearty cheers, Mr. Love sang `Once more old England's warriors.'

 

The Glee Club met here on the evening of Wednesday 13th October 1858. Glees included "Here in cool grot," "Look on the bright side of life" and "The brave old Teneraire." The Band performed the overture to Figaro and the Excursion Gallop with great spirit and precision.

 

In 1858 John Murnane, proprietor, advertised `The most central and cheapest family and commercial hotel in Norwich'

 

Used as headquarters and billets for the American Women's Army Corps from 1943 to 1945.

 

Reginald Charles Thomas Smith was manager of the premises in September 1943 when accusations were made that black-out curtains in the stock room were not drawn properly and allowing light to show.

The case was dismissed Saturday 11th September 1943.

 

Closed in 1960's to mid 1970's

 

Reopened as a freehouse c1976.

Closed 13.10.1989.

 

Reopened 1994 as the first J. D. Weatherspoons operation in Norwich.

 

Part of the building now used as a Building Society.

 

David Kimbrough

July 12 at 10:29 PM ·

Los Angeles Harbor - 1913

As a colonial city, Los Angeles had long been a small and un-prosperous place. The Spanish, Mexican, and American governments had struggled to get non-indigenous people from afar to move to the area. They all wanted the area to grow economically, and it was a given that such an enterprise depended on bringing in new people. One of the difficulties was that Los Angeles was quite isolated from the world economy (globalization is nothing new). First, there were limited opportunities for investment; the location was dry and hot a good part of the year, so that agricultural activities would be difficult. There were few known local mineral resources. More importantly, overland travel was probably long, arduous, expensive, and dangerous whether one started in Spain, Mexico, or the United States. Sea travel was not much better both because of the tremendous distances and because there was no natural harbor. Los Angeles remained a small, backwater, provincial "Dogtown" for many decades.

It was the cattle and sheep raising that started a change. Local interests produced hides that could be exported. American trading and whaling ships began stopping by the "Bay of Smoke" south of Los Angeles to trade for hides and other goods. Strictly speaking, this was illegal as the Spanish government had outlawed trade with any ships other than Spanish. The first American trading ship to call by Rattle Snake Island by the mouth of what would be the mouth of the Los Angeles River was the Lelia Bryd in 1805. Because of the distance between Madrid and Mexico City and lax enforcement of regulations, trade with foreign ships thrived. In 1822 a newly independent Mexican government removed the Spanish restrictions on trade, and business boomed in the harbor. Many more people began moving to Los Angeles in general but also to the port area between El Rancho Los Palos Verdes and El Rancho San Pedro.

When California was conquered, and Los Angeles became a part of the United States, things began to change. For centuries, the Spanish had operated routes through the Isthmus of Panama, unloading ships on one coast, carrying the cargo across the mountains and jungles by both trails by cones on rivers, and then reloading the cargo on another ship on the other coast. A journey not for the faint of heart. Of course, taking a tail sailing ship "around the cape" was an alternate but deciding which route was more perilous was a complicated calculation. The gold rush of 1849 produced a vast migration of people with money to California. Moving and provisioning those people quickly turned into a big and profitable business. In 1850 a railroad was begun to cross the Isthmus of Panama. With its completion, trade between the United States and its newest state bloomed. Phineas Banning made his way to the small fishing village of San Pedro.

Business boomed in Los Angeles and its southern neighbor San Pedro. Fruits, meat, hides, and other locally produced goods were shipped north to support the gold mines and cities of Northern California at exorbitant prices. Many fortunes were made, and the harbor was vital. The term "harbor" was something of a misnomer for quite some time. There was not much in the way of quays, docks, or warehouses. Ships could stay far out at anchor and have their goods and passengers lightered to shore, a slow and costly process. Alternatively, they could beach themselves in the mud. Neither approach was desirable. Additionally, there was only limited protection from waves and storms. Dead Man Island and Rattlesnake Island provided some protection for leeward ships from winds and waves, but it was small beer.

Phineas Banning developed a stage and trade company, running a fleet of stagecoaches from San Pedro to Los Angeles, Yuma, Salt Lake City, and other locations. He would later build the first railroad in Los Angeles, which ran to San Pedro. The next big change was when Phineas Banning (like the high school my mother attended) dredged the channel in the harbor, allowing deep-water vessels to enter much further inland, where real docks could be built, and greater protection from storms could be found. The combination of a seaport and rail head proved particularly profitable. So much so that others wanted to get into the business. Harry Huntington, of Pacific Electric fame, and the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) decided to build their own port. They built an enormously long wharf at Santa Monica, which ran almost a mile (4,700 feet) out into the Pacific Ocean. SP ran a train from Los Angeles to Santa Monica and then straight out to the Long Wharf. This pier was supposedly the longest wharf in the world. It became something of a tourist attraction in its own right. Nonetheless, it had an enormous disadvantage; it did not protect ships from waves and wind. A ship docked at the Long Wharf could be tossed about as if it were at sea. This situation was a significant problem; there was no protection for ships in anchorage from the elements.

In the 1890s, an intense battle was being fought over the future of the Los Angeles Harbor. The supporters of San Pedro, including the City of Los Angeles, the sons of Phineas Banning, and the Cities of Wilmington and San Pedro, as well as many others, wanted to have the harbors at San Pedro and Wilmington be declared the official "Port of Los Angeles." Harry Huntington and the SP likewise wanted Santa Monica and the Long Wharf to be declared The Port of Los Angeles. Only one could be so declared. Moreover, and perhaps more to the point, only one could get federal funding to expand and modernize. While the SP and PE were both very politically connected and powerful, probably more so than the supporters of San Pedro, the severe technical limitations of the Long Wharf proved fatal.

Further, as well as the fact that the harbor in San Pedro would be publicly owned and operated, while the port at Santa Monica would be very privately owned. In the end, the naked political power of the Santa Monica port supporters could not overcome the technical and organizational superiority of the San Pedro port. The United States Congress declared San Pedro Bay as the official port for Los Angeles in 1897. The official funding for the construction of the port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, with a particular emphasis on the construction of the massive breakwater, was soon to be followed. In short order, the City of Los Angeles annexed the City of San Pedro and Wilmington, as well as the Shoestring Addition, to secure the city's hold on the port.

Once again, events in Panama changed to course of Los Angeles history. There had been talk for decades of building a canal through the Isthmus of Panama. A French company had attempted the effort in the 1890s, but the mountains and mosquitoes prevented their success. However, things began to change once the United States got into the picture, organizing a rebellion amongst Panamanians and securing a treaty to build the canal. Everyone realized that opening the Panama Canal would revolutionize the economics of California. Transport costs would drop dramatically, and exports of goods from California would skyrocket p, to say nothing of the import of people. The expected completion date was 1914. San Francisco was expected to be the biggest winner as it had the most well-developed harbor and transportation infrastructure, but Los Angeles was sure to profit as well. However, in 1906 San Francisco was hit by a colossal earthquake, destroying the business center and ruining its vast infrastructure. While the actual harbor facilities were not damaged, railroad infrastructure was severely damaged. As a result, considerable amounts of shipping traffic had to shift south to San Pedro. The Los Angeles Harbor, which had begun planning for expansion to accommodate new traffic from the Panama Canal, now had to speed up that process to handle the new business following the San Francisco Earthquake.

In 1913, the Los Angeles Harbor Commission produced a report on its modernization efforts. The report contained details and discussions of transportation economics, planning, and construction. The significant advantages of San Pedro over San Francisco travel times to more eastern locations were compared. It was all very dry and technical. However, there was another agenda. The opening of the Panama Canal was also to be a vast boom to tourism. In San Francisco, there was to be a World's Fair of epic proportions to celebrate both the canal's opening and the city's rebirth. In San Diego, there was the California Panama Exposition, a multi-year event comparable to the event in San Francisco. The massive campus at Balboa Park was built for this celebration. Los Angeles, however, hosted only minor events, partly because of the massive investments in the harbor at San Pedro. Los Angeles largely just piggybacked on the events in San Diego. While San Francisco and San Diego received the lion's share of publicity and tourism, Los Angeles secured its new status as the economic and political center of the state and San Pedro as the premier commercial port on the west coast.

Nonetheless, Los Angeles did what it could to benefit its tourism industry at this time. In the 1913 Harbor Commission report, there is a surprising number of photographs from other parts of Los Angeles with a definite eye toward local boosterism. I have copied many pictures from this report here, most of which are focused on the harbor and thus are in the San Pedro and Wilmington areas, but other very nice photographs further afield. There are photographs of DTLA, of course, but also "West Los Angeles" (as the area around USC was called in 1905), and even the "oil district" in Crown Hill and Echo Park. I have also included some photographs from the official program of the California Panama Exposition. Los Angeles' many public parks were prominently displayed, including Echo Park, Lafayette Park, East Lake Park, and Hollenbeck Park.

So enjoy the pictures and stories. There are several links below to the various official reports, programs, and related pages.

July 14, 2022

hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b41693

hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433110124421

www.kcet.org/.../how-santa-monica-almost-became-a...

waterandpower.org/.../Early_City_Views%20%281900...

www.lamag.com/.../citydig-how-los-angeles.../

 

St Martin, New Buckenham, Norfolk

 

New Buckenham is a south Norfolk new town, but this being Norfolk it is a 12th Century new town rather than a 20th Century one. William d'Albini, who we have already met at Wymondham and Castle Acre, was given the manor of Buckenham by the Conqueror. He rebuilt the castle a mile or so to the east, and a new town grew up below it. It appears, from the street grid which survives, to have been a planned town, although it is possible to drive through and not realise this, because the Attleborough road tears through mercilessly. But on foot you get a better sense of it, and it really deserves to be better known.

 

Much of what survives in the village is late medieval, and the best example of this period is St Martin. Externally this is a grand, urban building, easily the equal of most of the churches of Norwich and Ipswich, from the pinnacles on the tower to the crisp array of clerestory windows. There are minor remnants of an earlier 13th century building, but this might as well have been a complete rebuild. The narrowness of the graveyard only accentuates the way it rises like a rocket above the roof tops.

 

The Victorians seem to have taken this urban triumphalism as their motif for the inside. The interior is spacious, with a sense of height and width, but it has been pretty well scoured of any former character. It might just as well be anywhere. But it feels well used and looked after, and there are a number of interesting and unusual survivals.

 

The most interesting is the font. The stem is that of a typical East Anglian font of the 15th Century, guarded by wild men and lions, but placed on top of it now is an early 17th century bowl. Fonts of this kind are often considered 'Laudian', but in fact this predates Laud's reign as Archbishop of Canterbury by 13 years. There are several of these interesting fonts in Norfolk, but this one has the added detail of the churchwardens' names, Thomas Colman and Christopher Sudbury, and a very precise date, February 1st 1619. The stem has been recut, more likely by the Victorians than the Jacobeans.

 

At the west end of the nave there are several curious carved bargeboards that probably date from the 16th Century. They came from the market cross on the village green, and one of them has a carved relief of the town as it was before the Civil War.

 

The best glass here is 20th Century, designed by AL Wilkinson for King and Son. WWII memorial glass depicts St George, while a later window of the Adoration includes medieval Norfolk shepherds who would have been quite at home in this parish when the church was rebuilt.

 

In the south-east corner of the nave a Madonna and Child sits on a windowsill, and the inscription below reads Remember here Hugh Whitwham, Priest Vicar of this parish 1959-1977 who restored this chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary for worship after 400 years of disuse. That's all, nothing fancy, just a cool white space, and it suits well the simplicity of modern Anglican spirituality as well as being a memory of a recent Anglo-catholic tradition here at New Buckenham.

 

Finally, outside in the churchyard, a headstone with a carved relief of a lamb on a globe, bottle, glass, haunch and bell between open books above the inscription Life is short. The inscription below it tells us that Near to this place lies Honest John, Was a friend but to few, a foe to none...

Crucifixion. Window erected 1929 by Daniel Thomas Kenny & his wife Mary Teresa nee Cash in memory of their parents Michael & Bridget Kenny and Patrick & Mary Cash, created by Brooks, Robinson & Co, Melbourne. Church foundation stone 18 Feb 1912 by William Edward Roberts of “Oakvale”, architect Conrad & Conrad, opened 1 Sep 1912 on land given by T & C Nugent, hall built 1984.

 

“a beautiful set of stained glass windows, presented to St. Canute's Church by Mr. and Mrs Daniel T. Kenny, of Lisdoonvarna, Streaky Bay, and erected during last week by Mr. O. M. Willcock. The windows, given in memory of the parents of the donors, are richly colored and toned. . . The scenes depicted on the windows . . . the Birth of Christ, the crucifixion, and Christ amongst the doctors in the temple. . . The design and execution of the windows is the work of Australian artists of the Australian firm of Messrs. Brooks, Robinson & Co., Melbourne.” [West Coast Sentinel 26 Jul 1929]

 

“KENNY.—On May 11, 1892, at Balla McKenny, Colton, Michael Kenny, eldest son of the late John Daniel Kenny, in the 83rd year of his age; a colonist of fifty years. R.I.P.” [Southern Cross 20 May 1892]

 

“Mr. Kenny had reached the ripe old age of eighty-three, having been born at Six-Mile Bridge, County Clare, Ireland, on December 24, 1809. Mr. Kenny was the son of a tenant farmer, whose descendants had resided there as far back as there is any traditional account. Mr. Kenny was well known in connection with every movement in favor of the right of the tenant farmers in Ireland. . . [He] sailed out of Cork Harbor on November 5, 1841, in the ship Branken Moor, of London, commanded by Captain David Smith, Dr. Hughy, surgeon, and a full complement of immigrants, and landed in Launceston on April 6, 1842. After a short stay in Tasmania Mr. Kenny came to South Australia, and settled at Morphett Vale, when he married the widow of Daniel Herreen, who survives him. There are also four sons and one daughter living. One son is one of the leading hotel keepers in Broken Hill, the other three are farmers and graziers in this district, and the daughter is married to Mr. Thos. P. Cash. . . Mr. Kenny resided in Morphet Vale for several years, when he and the late Mr. Ignatius O'Sullivan were the chief movers in building the Catholic Church there. . . Mr Kenny removed to Sheaoak Log in 1855, where he was closely connected with Church matters at Gawler and Greenock. When he moved to Yorke's Peninsula he strongly advocated building a church at Yorketown and Warooka, and he saw both successfully built. It was chiefly through his exertion that the church was built and opened free of debt in Colton. . . On May 17, 1865, he and other well-known farmers formed the Light Farmers' Club at Freeling. . . When the Areas came out he was one of the first to leave for Southern Yorke's Peninsula, where he selected land in May, 1870. He was a member of the first District Council in Southern Yorke's Peninsula, and after the lapse of a few years his farm became too small for his grown-up family, so, when the Hundred of Colton was first offered, he and his sons, selected land there in September, 1876.” [Southern Cross 20 May 1892]

 

“Mrs. Michael Kenny died at 5 o clock this morning at her residence Bally McKenny, Colton, in her eighty-sixth year, and a colonist of sixty years, having arrived in the 'Mary Dugdale,' 1st October, 1840.” [Southern Cross 22 Jun 1900]

 

Patrick Cash of St John’s died 11 Aug 1867 following a horse & cart accident near Kapunda. Inquest reported in newspapers.

 

“CASH.— On February 9, at her son's residence, Calca Station, Mary, relict of Patrick Cash, late of Kapunda, aged 76 years; a colonist of 69 years. Rest in peace.” [Southern Cross 19 Feb 1909]

 

“Mrs. Mary Cash, a native of Co. Kerry, Ireland. . . arrived in the colony with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ignatius O'Sullivan and family by the ship Mary Dugdale, on November 1, 1840. . . In the year 1852 she married Mr. Patrick Cash, who had purchased land at St. Johns, near Kapunda, and they went to reside there. Her husband died in 1867, but she continued to carry on the farm until 1876, when her son-in-law (Mr. D. T. Kenny) advised her to take up land in the Hundred of Colton, West Coast. This she did, and with her two sons started farming. Here she remained until 1886, when she came with her son (J. G. Cash) to Calca. . . she endeared herself to everybody, especially children. She has left two sons, Mr. T. R. Cash (of Calca Station), and Mr. J. G. Cash (of Tyringa); four daughters, Mrs. D. T. Kenny (Coolgrana, Streaky Bay), Mrs. H. Sheehan (Oaklands, Yorke's Peninsula), Mrs. L Boylan (of Spring Shore, Colton), and Mrs. P. Boylan, Cordalie Park, Talia); fifty-seven grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.” [Southern Cross 26 Feb 1909]

 

“KENNY— CASH.— On the 18th inst., at his father's residence, Cratloe, Yorke's Peninsula, by the Rev. Father McCabe, Daniel Thomas, third son of Mr. Michael Kenny, and grandson to the late Mr. John Daniel Kenny, Six Mile Bridge, County Clare, to Mary Tereza, eldest daughter of widow Cash, St. John's, and grand-daughter of the late Mr. Ignatius O' Sullivan, of Morphet Vale, and formerly of Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland.” [Harp & Southern Cross 26 Nov 1875]

 

“KENNY.—On June 28, at his residence, ‘Lisdoonvarna’, Streaky , Bay, Daniel Thomas Kenny, aged 84 years 11 months, leaving a sorrowing wife, three sons, six daughters, and 46 grandchildren. His eldest daughter and two sons predeceased him. Requiescat in pace.” [Southern Cross 10 Aug 1934]

 

Daniel Kenny’s detailed reminiscences are in West Coast Sentinel 6 Jul 1934 page 1.

 

“The eldest son of the late Mr. Michael Kenny, one of the first settlers in the Colton district, Mr. Daniel Kenny was born at Morphett Vale in 1849. Five years later he went with his parents to Sheoak Log, and lived there for 21 years. From that district Mr. Kenny moved to Yorke Peninsula. . . He came with his parents and brothers and sisters to Colton in 1879. . . When the pastoral country around Streaky Bay and Calca was opened up for farming, Mr. Kenny selected the well-known property, Coolgrana. . . Mr. Kenny married Miss Cash, of Kapunda, who, with three sons and six daughters, survives him. The eldest daughter was buried in Piednippie Cemetery over 30 years ago. The children are: — Messrs. Michael D. Kenny, Glenkenny, near Talia; Ignatius T. Kenny, J.P., Maryvale station, Streaky Bay; Austin Kenny, Coolgrana, Streaky Bay; Mrs. Steve Fitzgerald, Quorn . . ; Nurse Mary Kenny . . .; Mrs. A. V. Roberts, Warrachie; Mrs. James Mcinherney, Laura Bay; Mrs. Albert Cotton, Coolie, Streaky Bay; Mrs. George Maher, Bookabie.” [Port Lincoln Times 6 Jul 1934]

 

“KENNY.— On November 29, at her residence, Lisdoonvarna, Streaky Bay, Mary Teresa, beloved wife of the late Daniel T. Kenny, aged 38 years and 4 months, leaving .3 sons, 6 daughters, 46 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren. R.I.P.” [Southern Cross 12 Dec 1941]

 

“The late Mrs. Kenny was born at St. John's, Kapunda, in 1853, and was in her 89th year. She was the eldest daughter of Patrick and Mary Cash, of that town. In 1875 she married the late Daniel T. Kenny at ‘Cratlow’, Yorke Peninsula, and a year later came with her husband and infant daughter to Port Lincoln, then by long trek from Port Lincoln to Colton in bullock dray during the month of October. . . She and her husband were among the first farmers in the Colton district, and went through all the hardships of pioneering. Sixteen years later, when the district was cut up for farming, she went with her husband and family to ‘Coolgranna’, Streaky Bay, where she lived until 1923, when she and her husband and daughter Mary retired and made their home at ‘Lisdoonvarna’, Streaky Bay.” [Southern Cross 19 Dec 1941]

 

"In loving memory of Thomas husband of Emma Thompson of Airedale, Linthorpe died March 19th 1948 aged 84 years. Also the above Emma died August 2nd 1950 aged 86 years. Also Tom eldest son of the above of Cleveden, Linthorpe died September 17th 1911 aged 20 years."

 

Thomas Thompson Snr was a native of Hartlepool and a cinema proprietor.

 

from www,bugandflea.com

 

"Cinemas

 

In any consideration of Thompson’s career it is important to look at the cinemas he had in his base of Middlesbrough. His acquisition or construction of cinemas in Middlesbrough having started in 1908 with the Cleveland Hall, continued both in the town and its surroundings through to and beyond the sale of the bulk of his venues in 1928. Thompson was also involved in the purchase of three more rural venues just outside Middlesbrough, two with local managers.

 

Thompson’s commercial activity in 1910 shows just how quickly he had made a success of the Cleveland Hall. In February 1910 he bought the Hippodrome in Wilson Street, Middlesbrough. The Hippodrome had only been opened as a theatre in 1908 at a cost of £23,000 but had only lasted for eighteen months before being in serious financial difficulties. The cost of purchase as stated by Thompson4 was £13,000, around £800,000 in modern money. Given that he had started from nothing in 1908, it is remarkable that within two years he could buy the freehold of the Cleveland Hall and now buy the Hippodrome. Of course we do not know how much, if anything, he had to borrow but obviously if he needed to borrow he was regarded as a good risk. Compared with the cost of construction, he acquired the Hippodrome at a knockdown price. Since he wrote his diary entry on the day the Hippodrome reopened, the “cost” is most likely to include significant extra expenditure to comply with the new stringent safety requirements recently imposed under the Cinematograph Act 1908 which required, inter alia, sealed projection booths and extra exits because of the flammable and unstable nature of nitrate film stock. The Hippodrome had a seating capacity of 3,000, which was particularly high for the time. Indeed there were only one hundred and fifty cinemas in the country at the time with a capacity of over 2,000.

 

An article in the North-Eastern Daily Gazette on the day of the Hippodrome’s opening describes its construction and fit out:

 

Externally it is a building of brick, faced with buff terracotta, handsomely carved. The entrance is sheltered by a porch of glass. One great advantage possessed by the hall lies in the fact that waiting rooms have been provided for gathering audiences for every part of the house … … … The whole hall has a light and cheerful appearance, and general admiration is expressed at the effective plastic decorations which have been done in the style of Louis XV., in gold, white, and cream, relieved with grey and blue. 6

It was the complete opposite of the Cleveland Hall with its benches and bare boards and while both were located in the centre of Middlesbrough, albeit near to different areas of housing, they were clearly designed to appeal to very different audiences. Further differentiation is shown from the fact that the musical accompaniment at the Cleveland Hall was provided by a pianist while the Hippodrome came with a full-time eighteen piece orchestra.

 

The low-cost no-frills formula obviously appealed to those who could afford nothing better, but because they were from the poorest parts of Middlesbrough society with associated bad housing and sanitary conditions it is, perhaps, no surprise that the Cleveland Hall became affectionately known as “the Bug and Flea”.

 

Thompson’s next project was the building of Middlesbrough’s first purpose-built cinema, the Pavilion Picture Palace. It was opened in July 1913. It followed Thompson’s plan to bring cinemas to the people, but long-term was not his biggest success among the local population, largely because it was pretty much a rectangular box, with a capacity of 900, built before the bravery and confidence in the industry allowed it to create extravagant and plush surroundings.

 

In terms of acquisitions or disposals in Middlesbrough, Thompson appears to have been content with his dominant market position for the next few years, or perhaps was simply accepting the grim economic situation of the time. However in 1924 he bought the Grand Opera House and installed his surviving son, Billy, as manager. It dated from the early 1900s and had been built at a cost of £38,000 (some £2.3m in modern money) indicating its size and lavish fit out. It was a large venue and even though it had a cinematographic licence in 1914, it provided a programme of mainly opera and theatre before its sale. That does not seem to have been enough for financial success.

 

A factor in its failure may well have been the economic depression and so for the same reason it was brave of Thompson to take on another venue at that time, but he must have seen the price as a bargain and have known his local market so well that he knew what he was doing.

 

In view of the depression it is perhaps even more surprising that only a year later he went on to buy the Theatre Royal, also in difficulties, bringing the number of venues he owned in Middlesbrough up to five, out of a total of eleven cinemas in the town, some of which were very small or not permanent. He was truly the dominant exhibitor.

 

Although he sold all five of his Middlesbrough cinemas to Denman in 1928, he had already started the construction of a new venue in Middlesbrough before the sale had been completed. The Palladium was to be a new 780 seat cinema set in a parade of shops in a major new expansion of 700 homes to the south of Middlesbrough to be known as Grove Hill. Once again Thompson was taking cinema to the people and in this case he may even have got there before them. It was also the first of his cinemas to have on-site car parking, It is not known whether Thompson always wanted to keep this venue or whether Denman simply did not want to be involved in a construction project already started, given that they were probably taking on enough in acquiring so many cinemas in such a short time. The Palladium was only a short drive from Thompson’s home so maybe that played a part in its retention.

 

Programmes

 

No look at Thompson’s different sites within Middlesbrough would be complete without a look at what the programmes offered to the public. Information on what was shown at his cinemas, or what else they were used for, is sketchy but some information is available from newspaper advertisements and reviews.

 

Advert for the first show at Cleveland Hall

The advertisement for the first show at the Cleveland Hall shows what was on offer:

 

The following week what must have been an amazing spectacle and novelty for the audience was “FOOTBALL FINAL FOR ASSOCIATION CUP Newcastle United v Wolves. At the Crystal Palace, 25th April 1908”.

Apart from occasional early advertisements, it seems that Thompson relied solely on word of mouth or repeat business for the Cleveland Hall so we have no insight into what was shown there. Contemporary accounts confirm that the cinema was always busy and had a loyal clientele who could probably not afford to go to a more expensive location. For a venue such as the Cleveland Hall at that time one would have expected the programme to be continuous10, but the advertisement shows that two programmes a night were on offer at the start. This was very unusual as, at the time, films were never more than a few minutes long and profits were made by, say, showing the same one hour programme up to eight times a day and charging 2d to 3d for tickets. However as we have seen, in the early days Thompson just needed customers, so may have felt that a two show programme with fixed start times would be the most appealing to his target audience. We know that the Cleveland Hall was quickly a success and also that in January 1909 he was still offering two shows a night, so it looks as though it was more than an initial practice.Two shows a night became the norm in the industry as films became longer and it is once again clear that by 1922 Thompson was definitely operating on such as basis with matinees on Monday and Saturday at the Cleveland Hall.

 

We do not know if, in the early days, he showed the same films at more than one of his venues in Middlesbrough either at the same time or consecutively. As a good businessman he knew one of the advantages of having a number of venues was the ability to share films, to make the most of the rental paid. It may particularly have helped in the early days in Middlesbrough, when he just owned the Cleveland Hall and the Hippodrome. Although the prices at the Cleveland Hall were lower than at the Hippodrome, given the different facilities there would have been little likelihood of its customers being attracted by the lower prices at the “Bug and Flea”.

 

The Hippodrome, or “Hip” as it was popularly known, provided a more up-market show combining variety with films. However with its huge capacity it had to attract a wide audience and according to the reminiscences of one of Thompson’s employees, there were always queues to get in.

 

Film, variety and theatre were not the only uses for cinema buildings. Thompson was an active Liberal so it is no surprise that he should offer the use of the big capacity Hippodrome to Lloyd George for a public meeting to be held on the weekend of 7th – 9th November 1913.

 

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 10th November 1913 - Reproduced with the kind permission of the Evening Gazette (Gazette Media Company) Middlesbrough

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 10th November 1913 – Reproduced with the kind permission of the Evening Gazette (Gazette Media Company) Middlesbrough

 

We have already seen that the Pavilion Picture Palace was a basic venue. It is therefore revealing to note the similarity in films offered between it and the more up-market Hippodrome. The What Happened to Mary? series was being shown at the Hippodrome in September 191315 and only three months later a linked series, Who Will Marry Mary? was on show at the Pavilion Picture Palace.16 It is interesting to see what the accompanying programme was at each venue, in case this enables us to differentiate between the venues and their audiences. The Hippodrome offered “Edna Latonne, the popular dashing male impersonator” and “Harry Edson, with his droll musical dog comedian, ‘Doc.’” The Pavilion had “The 9 Quicks, in exquisite singing, harmony, and dancing”. Perhaps unsurprisingly these could probably both be described as music hall entertainment aimed at similar audiences.

 

The suspected link between what was shown at Thompson’s Middlesbrough cinemas is proved in January 1920 with the Hippodrome showing When Woman Wars, and Hell Morgan’s Girl on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Fight for Millions and Arizona on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. At the Pavilion the programme was the same except that the films were shown in the opposite order.19 The films were being shown at two venues a night and Thompson was clearly maximising the use of films rented for the week. There is every likelihood that he also did this with his other venues.

 

Being the leading local exhibitor, it is not surprising that Thompson could secure the best or most popular films. 28th August 1916 saw the Hippodrome showing what was a most significant film in a number of ways.The Battle of the Somme (1916) is widely credited with starting a change in the class profile of cinema audiences. Up to two thirds of the population of the country are said to have seen the film and for many of the middle class it was the first time they had been to the cinema. Looking at the papers of the day it is easy to see why. For months every paper had daily news from the Somme. In Middlesbrough, Thompson advertised it enthusiastically:

 

• “An exact depiction of the greatest battle in the history of the world”

 

• “Absolutely the Greatest War Picture Ever Shown”

 

While it did include re-enacted scenes, it was largely real soldiers and action that was shown, so people saw this as an opportunity to find out what their family members, loved ones and friends were experiencing. While there had been film of the Boer War, that had been almost exclusively re-enacted, but this claimed to be, and largely was, the real thing.

 

The local paper was both patriotic and effusive in its coverage of the film.

 

In the pictures of the British participation in the battle of the Somme, part one opens with the preparatory action, and very soon we were watching the scenes at Bray ….

 

The handling of the ammunition is shown in practically all its forms, and the vast supplies indicate how tremendous has been the response of the munitions workers to the appeals of our brave lads at the front.

 

Having experienced cinema, the middle class gradually made up an increasing proportion of audiences nationally and there is no reason why the same would not have happened in Middlesbrough. We know that the film was popular there because it was back again at the Hippodrome in the middle of October.21

 

Thompson’s bravery in taking on two big new venues in Middlesbrough, the Grand Opera House and the Theatre Royal, at the height of the depression has already been mentioned but he may have regarded them as being opportunities he could not refuse, and having twenty five cinemas already he must have had a good idea what venues would work in what locations and what programmes they should offer. Presumably also these venues appealed to people slightly further up the social ladder, now making up an increasing proportion of the audience, rather than to those most directly affected by the depression.

 

Shortly after its acquisition by Thompson, the Grand Opera House’s programme still consisted substantially of plays and light and classical opera but now included films.22 While there is little information on what films were shown there, advertisements for their theatrical shows reveal that the programme included serious plays and comedies but none of the “turns” popular at the other venues.

 

Management

 

Being a pioneer, Thompson had no model of management to follow but he obviously learnt a lot very quickly. Initially at the Cleveland Hall he simply used a black bag as the “box office” and the show was delivered by a hand-cranked projector, sometimes operated by himself, with accompaniment from a piano.23 He later recalled the early difficulties:

 

I did not make any money out of the place for the first 13 weeks and I can remember how, after each performance, I used to go in front of the screen and ask those present if they enjoyed themselves – if so to send their friends along.24

 

The flammability of the nitrate stock used at the time meant that fires were not an uncommon event. Thompson’s own diary records in 1908 “Film fired at Cleveland Hall, Mbro’ Audience stampeded”.25 The local paper gave a fuller account and mentioned that the audience could make a rapid exit because of the wide staircase.26 This safety advantage of the hall was in many other ways a disadvantage, as there were thirty-nine steps to climb to enter the building. It was therefore at the bottom of the stairs that Thompson attracted his audience. Reminiscing in the local paper years later he recalled how “helpful” the fire had been.

 

It was a fire I had shortly after I had opened that marked the turning point in the success of my venture….Remarkably enough, from then onwards the hall became very popular…27

 

However there was a serious side to the ever-present risk of fire. A description of the purpose-built Pavilion in 1913 made it clear that safety was a serious issue:

 

Adequate arrangements have been made for dealing with fire, and there are eight exits.28

 

An interview with “Mrs D”, who had worked for Thompson, is useful in that it provides some information about how Thompson ran his circuit:

 

We got films from a distributor in Newcastle, that was full of distributors, and then we would book them out to all these little places with a variety act.29

 

Another essential management issue was the cost of entry. Charges will have reflected, inter alia, the programme on offer, the facilities of the venue, its location, its size and staff costs. The earliest date that we can compare the costs charged at Thompson’s Middlesbrough sites is 1926.30 The cheapest seats at the Cleveland Hall, the Hippodrome, the Pavilion Picture Palace, the Grand Opera House and the Theatre Royal were, respectively, 3d, 4d, 3d, 4d and 3d. If one considers the likely differences between the facilities and comfort of the venues, one might have expected a bigger price differentiation. Were the cheapest parts of the Theatre Royal really not worth more than the cheapest, probably standing space in the “Bug and Flea” (the Cleveland Hall)? A more marked, but not unexpected, difference was with the most expensive seats, where the rates were respectively, 6d, 1s 3d, 9d, 1s 8d and 1s 6d. There simply was not the variety of seats available at the Cleveland Hall and the Pavilion Picture Palace as there was at the other cinemas with their balconies and boxes. Presumably the theatrical kudos and more up-market programmes attaching to the Grand Opera House and the Theatre Royal explains the highest prices at those venues.

 

Footnotes

 

Robert Carson, A Short History of Middlesbrough (Middlesbrough: Middlesbrough Borough Council, 1977). ↩

Lady Bell, “At the Works (1907)” quoted in Robert Carson, A Short History of Middlesbrough, p. 43. ↩

J W Saunders, Cinema in Middlesbrough, p. 4. ↩

Thomas Thompson’s Diary entry for Monday 5th December 1910. ↩

Nick Hiley, ‘Let’s go to the pictures’, p. 41. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 17th August 1908, p. 3. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 1st April 1924, p. 4. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 6 May 1908, p. 2 ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 11th May 1908, p. 2. ↩

Nick Hiley, “ ‘At the Picture Palace’: The British Cinema Audience, 1895-1920”, from John Fullerton, ed., Celebrating 1895 (London: John Libbey, 1998) pp. 98-99. ↩

Nick Hiley, “The British Cinema Auditorium”, p. 166. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 21st January 1909, p. 2. ↩

Ann Pyle, Cinema in Middlesbrough, p 116. ↩

Given Thompson’s support for the Liberals it seems inevitable that he would have met Lloyd-George on this occasion, at least. This gives credence to family recollection that Lloyd-George offered Thompson an earldom, a famous way of Lloyd-George raising money, but that Thompson declined to pay the required sum of £10,000. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 20th September 1913, p. 4. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 22nd December 1913, p.4. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 20th September 1913, p. 4. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 22nd December 1913, p. 4. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 6th January 1920, p. 4. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 28th August 1916, p. 1. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 14th October 1916, p. 4. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 3rd June 1924, p. 5. ↩

J W Saunders Cinema in Middlesbrough, p. 4. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 7th April 1920. ↩

Thomas Thompson’s Diary entry for Tuesday 14th July 1908. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 15th July 1908, p. 5. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 7th April 1920. ↩

North-Eastern Daily Gazette, 4th March 1913, p. 5. ↩

Ann Pyle, Cinema in Middlesbrough, p 115. ↩

For the Pavilion the nearest figures are for 1921. These are used, as prices in the depressed 1920s were unlikely to have changed or if they did, the cheapest seats might have gone down in price following the removal of Entertainment Tax on seats under 6d in 1924. "

Paul Given, First Minister of Northern Ireland meets world leaders and others influentials in intragovernmental relationships at the Welcome to Glasgow Breakfast event at the Clydesdale Distillery for COP26. Photograph: Will Crowne/ UK Government

Wikipedia says:

 

Kuntur Wasi (Quechua kuntur condor, wasi house, "condor house") is the name given to the ruins of a religious center with complex architecture and stone sculptures, located in the Andean highlands of Peru.

 

It is believed the inhabitants had a link with the Chavín culture.

 

Kuntur Wasi is located in the Northern Mountain Range of Peru, specifically at the headwaters of the Jequetepeque River, in the region of the city of Cajamarca near the small town of San Pablo. The Jequetepeque valley provided a transportation corridor between the coastal region and the highlands.

 

Kuntur Wasi was a center where people congregated.

 

It is thought to have been constructed around 1000-700 BCE, during the Initial Period. The architecture consists of a hill-top temple, quadrangular platforms, a sunken courtyard, and series of rooms.

 

In the floor of one room there is an anthropomorphic figure made of clay, about 30 inches (75 cm) in height. It is painted with cinnabar red, malachite green, and black, yellow, and pink. Its face has big square eyes and a wide mouth with prominent canine teeth. There are also stepped platforms and funeral structures.

 

Lithosculptures have been found, similar to the Chavín style.

 

Kuntur Wasi was occupied between the years 1200-50 BC.

 

It was first discovered in 1945 by Julio C. Tello. In 1989, scientists from the University of Tokyo excavated four tombs at Kuntur Wasi. Valuable items, such as pectoral necklaces (decorative breastplates), gold crowns, ornamental stone beads, earrings, sets of dishes and iconographies of people were discovered in the burial area.

 

Since the beginning of the University of Tokyo's archaeological mission, eight tombs have been found in the area.

 

The Kuntur Wasi Museum, managed by local citizens, opened in 1994.

---------------

Según Wikipedia:

 

Kuntur Wasi es un sitio arqueológico que data del Formativo Inferior, se encuentra ubicado en el centro poblado del mismo nombre, en la provincia de San Pablo, en el departamento de Cajamarca, en el Perú.

 

En la lengua quechua Kuntur Wasi significa "Casa del Cóndor". Según el arqueológo japonés, Yoshio Onuki, estudioso principal de este sitio arqueológico, Kuntur Wasi es una expresión prechavín pero que posteriormente posee una gran influencia no solo de Chavín sino también de Cupisnique especialmente en la orfebrería y la cerámica.

  

Kuntur Wasi pasó por los siguientes periodos:

 

Fase Ídolo: Construcción del centro ceremonial con pisos enlucidos con cal de color blanco. En esta fase hay una cierta relación con Huacaloma y Pacopampa.

 

Fase Kuntur: Construcción de un nuevo complejo ceremonial en forma de U. Se desarrolla la cerámica fina y la orfebrería.

 

Fase Copa: Modificación del complejo arquitectónico ceremonial y la renovación del sistema de canales de drenaje.

 

Fase Sotera: Existe una relación con la Fase Layzón del valle de Cajamarca. Corresponde a la decadencia de Kuntur Wasi.