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Nikon D700 + 85mm f1.4
iso 200
shot at 1/1250 f4
Done by throwing the blackberry to the air (and let it fall to the ground, which is grass so it's ok)
Taken by my sister. Shot was done 40 times continuous shooting to get the perfect composition. I taught her to lock the focus and exposure but she didnt really get it so she did it in normal way.
Taken in east perth at 12.15 noon. The weather was bright and cloudy that day. There was a middle aged couple sitting not far from us watching and wondering what we were trying to do.
Last weekend while my daughter was riding I was snooping around for that cool shot of the day...Somehow I thought this was it. This painted pony likes to tease and this day was no exception. All I could think of was "how appropriate so close to Valentines Day" I imagined the dialog being "How about a little kiss, It's Valentines Baby"
View in Black
I have a lot of shots to post. I have been very busy, and then there are the photos I helped escape the house-clearance people from Mum's.
So, back to the matter in hand: Ospringe.
Ospringe is one of the most easily identifiable churches in Kent, with its unusual saddleback tower, but it is well seen, as you can see the tower before the turn off to Faversham. It looks fabulous.
Ospringe was a small village, but now is part of the urban sprawl of Faversham as it spreads to the south of the old A2.
You turn down a tight junction, then along a narrow road with cars parked on either side, until you break into open country, and the church is on a bend in the road.
I was last here on winter about a decade ago, it was a bitterly cold day and the planned Christmas Tree festival had been delayed a week due to bad weather the weekend before.
I cam here on the off-chance, and I was met by a volunteer come to clean the church, but no one with a key.
The vicar arrived, and after explaining again about the project, he reluctantly let me in, but warned he would not be here long.
Last time here, i took 7 shots, and none of details, so I made busy with the nifty fifty.....
John Vigar says this is a church hard to gain access too, maybe I have been lucky, but worth seeking out if you're passing.
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A pretty church whose thirteenth century origins seem lost beneath a Victorian veneer – yet inside all become clear. The north wall is thickened to take the rood loft staircase (see also Challock) but there is a medieval stair in the south side too, just to confuse. The font is a lovely twelfth century piece supported by the familiar five columns. Much of the glass is by Thomas Willement and displays his signature TW, which can also be seen in the Alpha emblem in the top of the striking east window. The chancel is a riot of Victoriana of grand design – constructed in several campaigns, the reredos and flooring definitely by different hands. Old photos show that the whole church was once stencilled, but now that the nave is relatively plain, the chancel is once more the focus of attention. The south chapel has a rather nice 19th century roof structure and must once have been a grand family chapel. All in all a lovely church full of interest and one which should be more accessible and better known.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Ospringe
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OSPRINGE
LIES the next parish north westward from Sheldwich. It is usually written in antient records Ospringes, and takes its name from the spring or fresh stream which rises in it.
The town of Ospringe, as it is called, is a franchise separate from the hundred of Faversham, having a constable of its own, but the rest of the parish is within the jurisdiction of that hundred.
The borough of Chetham, in this parish, was given to the abbey of Faversham by Richard de Lucy, and confirmed to it by king Henry II. king John, and king Henry III. (fn. 1) It still continues an appendage to the manor of Faversham, at which a borsholder is chosen yearly for this borough, and extends over Beacon farm on the south side of the London road, at the 45th mile stone in Ospringe and Stone, and very little besides. There is another small borough in this parish, called the borough of Brimstone, for which a borsholder is elected annually at the same manor. It extends over the Red Lion inn, in Ospringe-street, and some land, an house and oast behind the bowling-green, northward of it.
The parish of Ospringe is of large extent, being near five miles from north to south, though it is not much more than two miles in breadth. The village, or town of Ospringe, as it was formerly called, and now usually Ospringe-street, stands on the high London road, between the 46th and 47th mile-stone, but the north side of the street, as well as of that road, from the summit of Judde hill, as far eastward as the 47th mile stone, is within Faversham parish, the liberties of which town begin from the rivulet in Ospringe, and extend eastward, including the late Mr. Lypeatt's new-built house. Thus that parish intervenes, and entirely separates from the rest of it that part of Ospringe parish, at the northern boundaries of it, in which are the storekeeper's house, part of the offices, &c. and some of the royal powder mills, and in the town of Faversham, that parish again intervening, there is a small part of Weststreet within this parish. The grand valley, called Newnham bottom, through which the high road leads to Maidstone, lies at the western boundary of the parish, on the summit of the hill eastward of it is Juddehouse, built after a design of Inigo Jones, a fine situation, having a most beautiful prospect eastward, over a most fertile extent of country, to the Boughton hills, and the channel north eastward of it, but the large tract of woodland, of many hundred acres, which reach up close to the gardens at the back of it, render it rather an unhealthy situation. About a quarter of a mile eastward of Ospringe-street is a good house, called from the antient oratory or chapel formerly adjoining to it, but pulled down within these few years, chapelhouse. This oratory was dedicated to St. Nicholas, and erected for a priest to say mass in it, for the safety and good success of passengers, who left their acknowledgments for his pains in it. It belonged lately to Mr. John Simmons, whose son sold it to Isaac Rutton, esq. and he alienated the house to Mr. Neame, the present owner; but on a part of the land adjoining he built an elegant villa, naming it Ospringe Place, in which he now resides.
In Ospringe-street there is a tolerable inn, and the remains of the Maison Dieu on each side of the high road close to the small rivulet which crosses the street. This stream rises at Westbrook, at a small distance southward of the hamlet of Whitehill, at the back of which it runs, and at about a mile and an half distance, passing by Ospringe church, and the mansion of Queen-court, now a respectable farm-house, it turns a mill, erected some years ago for the manufacturing of madder, though now used for the grinding corn, and having crossed Ospringe-street, it turns a gunpowder mill not far from it, occupied by government, but belonging to St. John's college, in Cambridge, and having supplied the storekeeper's gardens, it afterwards turns a corn-mill, close to the west side of Faversham town, after which it supplies the rest of the government mills and works, and runs from thence into Faversham creek, to which it is a very necessary and beneficial back water. There is a nailbourne, or temporary land spring, such as are not unusual in the parts of this county eastward of Sittingborne, which run but once perhaps in several years, their failing and continuance having no certain periods, the breaking forth of them being held by the common people to be a forerunner of scarcity and dearness of corn and victuals. This at Ospringe, when it breaks out, rises about half a mile southward of Whitehill, near Kennaways, in the road to Stalisfield, and joining the above-mentioned rivulet, which it considerably increases, flows with it into Faversham creek. In February, 1674, it began to run, but stopped before Michaelmas. It broke forth in February, 1712, and run with such violence along the high road, that trenches were cut through the lands adjoining to carry the water off, but it stopped again before Michaelmas. It had continued dry till it broke out afresh in 1753, and continued to run till summer 1778, when it stopped, and has continued dry ever since.
About a mile southward of Ospringe-street is the hamlet of Whitehill, mentioned before, situated in the vale through which the rivulet takes its course. There are two houses of some account in it, formerly owned by the family of Drayton, who had resided in this parish for many years. Robert Drayton resided here anno 7 Edward IV. in which year he died, and was buried in the church-yard of Ospringe, being then possessed, as appears by his will, of a house called Smythes, with its lands and appurtenances, at Whitehill. After this family had become extinct here, one of these houses came into the possession of Ruck, and escheated, for want of lawful heirs, to the lord of the manor, and now as such belongs to the earl of Guildford, but Mr. James Foord resides in it. The other, after the Draytons were become extinct here, came into the name of Wreight, one of whom, Henry Wreight, gent. died possessed of it in 1695, and was buried in Faversham church. His son of the same name resided here, and died in 1773, and his grandson Henry Wreight, gent. of Faversham, sold it to John Montresor of Belmont, esq. who now owns it, but John Smith esq. resides in it. About a mile westward on the hill, near Hanslets Fostall and the parsonage, is a new-erected house, called the Oaks, built not many years since, on the scite of an antient one, called Nicholas, formerly belonging to the Draytons, by Mr. John Toker, who resides in it; the woodgrounds in the upland parts of this parish are very extensive, and contain many hundred acres. The soil of this parish, from its large extent, is various, to the north and north-east of the church the lands are level and very fertile, being a fine rich loam, but as they extend southward to the uplands, the soil becomes more and more barren, much of it chalky, and the rest a cludgy red earth, stiff tillage land, and very stony. A fair is held in Ospringe-street on the 29th of May.
¶Much has already been said in the former parts of these volumes, of the different opinions of learned men where the Roman station, called in the second iter of Antonine Durolevum, ought to be placed. Most of the copies of Antonine make the distance from the last station Durobrovis, which is allowed by all to be Rochester, to the station of Durolevum, to be xiii or xvi miles, though the Peutongerian tables make it only vii. If the number xvi is right, no place bids so fair for it as Judde-hill, in this parish, which then would have every probable circumstance in favor of it. The Romans undoubtedly had some strong military post on this hill, on the summit of which there are the remains of a very deep and broad ditch, the south and east sides are still entire, as is a small part of the north side at the eastern corners of it, the remaining part of the north side was filled up not many years since. The west side has nothing left of it; close within the southern part of it is a high mount of earth thrown up to a considerable height above the ground round it, the scite of Judde house, and the gardens are contained within it. The form of it seems to have been a square, with the corners rounded, and to have contained between three and four acres of ground within its area, the common people call it king Stephen's castle, but it is certainly of a much older date. At a small distance from it, on the opposite, or north side of the high road, there are several breast works cast up across the field facing the west. At the bottom of the hill, in the next field to this, are the ruins of Stone chapel, in which numbers of Roman bricks are interspersed among the flints, and in the midst of the south wall of it, there is a separate piece of a Roman building, about a rod in length, and near three feet high, composed of two rows of Roman tiles, of about fourteen inches square each, and on them are laid small stones hewed, but of no regular size or shape, for about a foot high, and then tiles again, and so on alternately.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Ospringe
The church stands within the jurisdiction of the town of Ospringe, about half a mile southward from Ospringe-street. It is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. It is an antient building, consisting of three isles and a chancel. The steeple was formerly at the west end, and was built circular of flints, supposed to be Danish, with a shingled spire on it, of upwards of fifty feet high, in which were four bells; but in ringing them on Oct. 11, 1695, on king William's return from Flanders, it suddenly fell to the ground, providentially no one was hurt by it. There are no remains left of any painted glass in the windows of this church, though there was formerly much in most of them; particularly, in the window of the north isle was once the figure of a mitred bishop, on the rack, with a knife on the table by him, and of another person tied to a tree, and wounded with arrows. In another was a label to the memory of Robert Seton, and of a woman kneeling; and there was not many years ago remaining in the east window, at the end of the south isle, forming a kind of chancel, the effigies of a knight in his tabard of arms, with spurs on his heels, in a kneeling posture, looking up to a crucisix, painted just above him, of which there remained only the lower part. The knight's arms, Azure, three harts heads, caboshed, or, were thrown under him, and at a little distance some part of his crest, An hart's head, attired full, or, with a crown about his neck, azure, and underneath, Pray for the soul of Thomas Hart. This Sir Thomas Hart was possessed of an estate in this parish, which he purchased of Norwood. The Greenstreets, of Selling, lately claimed this chancel, and several of them lie buried in it. There was a chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas, in this church.
In the east part of the church-yard there was once a chapel, said to have been built by Sir John Denton, of Denton, in this parish and Easling, the foundations of which are still visible.
It appears by the Testa de Nevil, taken in the reign of king Henry III. that the church of Ospringe was in the king's gift, and was afterwards given by king John to John de Burgo, who then held it, and that it was worth forty marcs. After which, in the 8th year of Richard II. anno 1384, it was become appropriated to the abbot of Pontiniac, and was valued at 13l. 6s. 8d. at which time there was a vicarage here of his patronage likewise. It afterwards became part of the possessions of the hospital or Maison Dieu, in Ospringestreet, but by what means, or when, I have not found, and it continued so till the escheat of the hospital anno 20 Edward IV. after which, the parsonage appropriate of this church of Ospringe, together with the advowson of the vicarage, was by means of Fisher, bishop of Rochester, obtained of Henry VIII. in manner as has been already mentioned, for St. John's college, in Cambridge, the master and fellows of which are at this time entitled to them, the parsonage being let by them on a beneficial lease; but the advowson of the vicarage they retain in their own hands.
The lessee of this parsonage, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was Robert Streynsham, esq. who rebuilt the house and offices belonging to it, and afterwards resided in it. He had been fellow of All Souls college, LL. B. and secretary to the earl of Pembroke. He lies buried in this church, and bore for his arms, Or, a pale dancette, gules. He left two daughters and coheirs, of whom, Audrey, the eldest, carried her interest in it in marriage to Edward Master, esq. eldest son of James Master, esq. of East Langdon, who was first of Sandwich, and afterwards built a seat for himself and his posterity at East Langdon. He was twice married, and had fourteen children; at length worn out with age, he betook himself hither to his eldest son Edward, and dying in 1631, æt. 84, was buried in this church. Edward Master, the son, resided here, and was afterwards knighted, and on his father's death in 1631 removed to that seat, in whose descendants it continued till it was at length alienated to Buller, of Cornwall, whose son sold his interest in to Markham, as he did to Mr. Robert Lyddel, merchant, of London, brother of Sir Henry Lyddel, who in 1751 assigned his interest in it to Ralph Terrey, yeoman, of Knolton, whose son Mr. Michael Terrey, of Ospringe, devised it to his only daughter and heir Olive, who married Nathaniel Marsh, esq. of Boughton Blean, and the heirs of his son Terrey Marsh, esq. late of that parish, are the present lessees of it.
The vicarage of Ospringe is valued in the king's books at ten pounds, and the yearly tenths at one pound.
In 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds, when there were communicants here 226.
The vicarage is endowed with all vicarial tithes, woad only excepted, and also with those of hay, saintfoin, clover, and coppice woods. There are about twenty-seven acres of glebe-land belonging to it. The vicarage-house is situated in the valley, at a small distance eastward from the church, and the parsonagehouse near a mile southward of that.
Ospringe was formerly the head of a rural deanry, of which institution it will be necessary to give some account here.
The office of rural dean was not unknown to our Saxon ancestors, as appears by the laws of king Edward the Confessor; they were called both Archipresbiteri and Decani Temporarii, to distinguish them from the deans of cathedrals, who were Decani Perpetui. Besides these, there were in the greater monasteries, especially those of the Benedictine order, such officers called deans, and there are deans still remaining in several of the colleges of the universities, who take care of the studies and exercises of the youth, and are a check on the morals and behaviour of such as are members under them.
¶The antient exercise of jurisdiction in the church seems to have been instituted in conformity to like subordinations in the state. Thus the dioceses within this realm seem to have been divided into archdeaconries and rural deanries, to make them correspond to the like division of the kingdom into counties and hundreds; hence the former, whose courts were to answer those of the county, had the county usually for their district, and took their title from thence, and the names of the latter from the hundred, or chief place of it, wherein they acted; and as in the state every hundred was at first divided into ten tithings or fribourghs, and every tithing was made up of ten families, both which kept their original names, notwithstanding the increase of villages and people; so in the church the name of deanry continued, notwithstanding the increase of persons and churches, and the districts of them were contracted and enlarged from time to time, at the discretion of the bishop, the rural dean of Ospringe having jurisdiction over the whole deanry of it, consisting of twenty-six parishes. He had a seal of office, which being temporary, it had only the name of the office, and not, as other seals of jurisdiction, the name of the person also, engraved on it. The seal belonging to this deanry had on it, the Virgin Mary crowned, with the sceptre in her left hand, and her child, with a glory round his head, in her right, and round the margin, Sigillu Decani Decanatus de Ospreng. He was in antient times called the dean of the bishop, because appointed by him, and had alone the inspection of the lives and manners of the clergy and people within the district under him, and was to report the same to the bishop; to which end, that he might have a thorough knowledge of the state and condition of his respective deanry, he had a power to convene rural chapters, which were made up of the instituted clergy, or their curates as proxies of them, and the dean as president of them, where the clergy brought information of all irregularities committed within their respective parishes. Those upon ordinary occasions were held at first every three weeks, in imitation of the courts of manors, held from three weeks to three weeks, and afterwards each month, and from thence were called Kalendæ, but their more solemn and principal chapters were assembled once a quarter, where maters of greater import were transacted, and a fuller attendance given. They were at first held in any one church within the district, where the minister of the place was to procure and provide entertainment and procurations for the dean and his immediate officers, and they were afterwards held only in the larger or more eminent parishes. The part of their office of inspecting and reporting the manners of the clergy and people, rendered them necessary attendants on the episcopal synod or general visitation, in which they were the standing representatives of the rest of the clergy within their division, and they were there to deliver information of abuses committed within their knowledge, and consult for the reformation of them; for which they were to have their expences, called from hence synodals, allowed them by those whom they represented, according to the time of their attendance. That part of their office, of being convened to provincial and episcopal synods, was transferred to two proctors, or representatives of the parochial clergy in each diocese; and that of information of scandals and offences, has devolved on the churchwardens of the respective parishes. Besides this another principal part of the duty of a rural dean was to execute all processes of the bishop, or of the officers and ministers under his authority; but by the constitution of the pope's legate, Otho, the archdeacon, in the reign of Henry III. was required to be frequently present at them, who being superior to the rural dean, did in effect take the presidency out of his hands; and these chapters were afterwards often held by the archdeacon's officials, from which may be dated the decay of rural deanries, for the rural dean was not only discouraged by this, but the archdeacon and his official, as might naturally be supposed he would, drew the business usually transacted there to his own visitation, or chapter, as it might be termed. By which intersering of the archdeacon and his officials, it happened that in the age next before the reformation, the jurisdiction of rural deans declined almost to nothing, and at the reformation nothing was done for their restoration by the legislative power, so that they became extinct in most deanries, nor did this of Ospringe survive the earliest decline of them. (fn. 16) Where they still continue, they have only the name and shadow left, and what little remains of this dignity and jurisdiction, de pends greatly on the custom of places, and the pleasure of diocesans.
In the 31st year of Edward I. Richard Christian, dean of Ospringe, being sent to execute some citations of the archbishop at Selling, was set upon by the people there, who placed him with his face to his horse's tail, which they made him hold in his hand for a bridle, in which posture they led him through the village, with songs, shouts, and dances, and afterwards having cut off the tail, ears, and lips of the beast, they threw the dean into the dirt, to his great disgrace; for which, the king directed his writ to the sheriff, to make enquiry by inquisition of a jury concerning it.
Mrs Beale means business
It's only the infant's cane, it won't hurt that much.
There are limits to ones naughty things, after that the cane comes out.
If your under eight, its normally only one or two hits, just enough to make you cry and to think about not doing naughty things.
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At the age of seven whilst I was in the infant school, I was hit on the hand with the junior school cane by the headmistress.
She normally didn't cane infants, as I was quite tall, she thought I was in the juniors.
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In the children's home I was in during the 1960s the Sister that looked after me just used the slipper if I was naughty. When she joined in the 1940s, several of the Sisters use to use the cane on boys.
Controlled by DBSO 9707 at its front, 37423 propels 2C40, Northern's 0842 Carlisle - Barrow-in-Furness around the curves at Parton on 8 August 2015.
I can't remember why i decided to to Ufford; I think it was because it is in Simon's top ten of Suffolk churches. Of course everything is down to taste and perspective and what the day, light, or other factors at play when you visited.
I drove through the village three times looking for the church, but this was Upper Ufford; all golf clubs and easy access to the A12.
I tried to find the church on the sat nav, but that wanted me to go to Ipswich or Woodbridge, I then tried to find Church Lane, and hit the jackpot. Down through a modern housing estate, then down a narrow lane, left at the bottom and there at the end of a lane stood St Mary, or the tower of the church anyway.
In the house opposite, a young man paused doing physical jerks to stare at me as ai parked, but my eyes were on the church. What delights would I find inside?
The south wall of the church inside the porch is lined with some very nice tiles; I take a few pictures. Inside, your eye is taken to the wonderful font cover, several metres high, disappearing into the wooden beams high above. A fine rood beam stretched across the chancel arch, and is still decorated.
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Upper Ufford is a pleasant place, and known well enough in Suffolk. Pretty much an extension northwards of Woodbridge and Melton, it is a prosperous community, convenient without being suburban. Ufford Park Hotel is an enjoyable venue in to attend professional courses and conferences, and the former St Audrey's mental hospital grounds across the road are now picturesque with luxury flats and houses. And I am told that the Ufford Park golf course is good, too, for those who like that kind of thing.
But as I say, that Ufford is really just an extension of Melton. In fact, there is another Ufford. It is in the valley below, more than a mile away along narrow lanes and set in deep countryside beside the Deben, sits Lower Ufford. To reach it, you follow ways so rarely used that grass grows up the middle.
You pass old Melton church, redundant since the 19th century, but still in use for occasional exhibitions and performances, and once home to the seven sacrament font that is now in the plain 19th century building up in the main village. Eventually, the lane widens, and you come into the single street of a pretty, tiny hamlet, the church tower hidden from you by old cottages and houses.
In one direction, the lane to Bromeswell takes you past Lower Ufford's delicious little pub, the White Lion. A stalwart survivor among fast disappearing English country pubs, the beer still comes out of barrels and the bar is like a kitchen. I cannot think that a visit to Ufford should be undertaken without at least a pint there. And, at the other end of the street, set back in a close between cottages, sits the Assumption, its 14th century tower facing the street, a classic Suffolk moment.
The dedication was once that of hundreds of East Anglian churches, transformed to 'St Mary' by the Reformation and centuries of disuse before the 19th century revival, but revived both here and at Haughley near Stowmarket. In late medieval times, it coincided with the height of the harvest, and in those days East Anglia was Our Lady's Dowry, intensely Catholic, intimately Marian.
The Assumption was almost certainly not the original dedication of this church. There was a church here for centuries before the late middle ages, and although there are no traces of any pre-Conquest building, the apse of an early-Norman church has been discovered under the floor of the north side of the chancel. The current chancel has a late Norman doorway, although it has been substantially rebuilt since, and in any case the great glories of Ufford are all 15th century. Perhaps the most dramatic is the porch, one of Suffolk's best, covered in flushwork and intriguing carvings.
Ufford's graveyard is beautiful; wild and ancient. I wandered around for a while, spotting the curious blue crucifix to the east of the church, and reading old gravestones. One, to an early 19th century gardener at Ufford Hall, has his gardening equipment carved at the top. The church is secretive, hidden on all sides by venerable trees, difficult to photograph but lovely anyway. I stopped to look at it from the unfamiliar north-east; the Victorian schoolroom, now a vestry, juts out like a small cottage.
I walked back around to the south side, where the gorgeous porch is like a small palace against the body of the church. I knew the church would be open, because it is every day. And then, through the porch, and down into the north aisle, into the cool, dim, creamy light.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, 21st August 1644, Ufford had a famous visitor, a man who entered the church in exactly the same way, a man who recorded the events of that day in his journal. There were several differences between his visit and the one that I was making, one of them crucial; he found the church locked. He was the Commissioner to the Earl of Manchester for the Imposition in the Eastern Association of the Parliamentary Ordinance for the Demolishing of Monuments of Idolatry, and his name was William Dowsing.
Dowsing was a kind of 17th century political commissar, travelling the eastern counties and enforcing government legislation. He was checking that local officials had carried out what they were meant to do, and that they believed in what they were doing. In effect, he was getting them to work and think in the new ways that the central government required. It wasn't really a witch hunt, although God knows such things did exist in abundance at that time. It was more as if an arm of the state extended and worked its fingers into even the tiniest and most remote parishes. Anyone working in the public sector in Britain in the early years of the 21st century will have come across people like Dowsing.
As a part of his job, Dowsing was an iconoclast, charged with ensuring that idolatrous images were excised from the churches of the region. He is a man blamed for a lot. In fact, virtually all the Catholic imagery in English churches had been destroyed by the Anglican reformers almost a hundred years before Dowsing came along. All that survived was that which was difficult to destroy - angels in the roofs, gable crosses, and the like - and that which was inconvenient to replace - primarily, stained glass. Otherwise, in the late 1540s the statues had been burnt, the bench ends smashed, the wallpaintings whitewashed, the roods hauled down and the fonts plastered over. I have lost count of the times I have been told by churchwardens, or read in church guides, that the hatchet job on the bench ends or the font in their church was the work of 'William Dowsing' or 'Oliver Cromwell'. In fact, this destruction was from a century earlier than William Dowsing. Sometimes, I have even been told this at churches which Dowsing demonstrably did not visit.
Dowsing's main targets included stained glass, which the pragmatic Anglican reformers had left alone because of the expense of replacing it, and crosses and angels, and chancel steps. We can deduce from Dowsing's journal which medieval imagery had survived for him to see, and that which had already been hidden - not, I hasten to add, because people wanted to 'save' Catholic images, but rather because this was an expedient way of getting rid of them.
So, for example, Dowsing visited three churches during his progress through Suffolk which today have seven sacrament fonts, but Dowsing does not mention a single one of them in his journal; they had all been plastered over long ago.
In fact, Dowsing was not worried so much about medieval survivals. What concerned him more was overturning the reforms put in place by the ritualist Archbishop Laud in the 1630s. Laud had tried to restore the sacramental nature of the Church, primarily by putting the altar back in the chancel and building it up on raised steps. Laud had since been beheaded thanks to puritan popular opinion, but the evidence of his wickedness still filled the parish churches of England. The single order that Dowsing gave during his progress more than any other was that chancel steps should be levelled.
The 21st of August was a hot day, and Dowsing had much work to do. He had already visited the two Trimley churches, as well as Brightwell and Levington, that morning, and he had plans to reach Baylham on the other side of Ipswich before nightfall. Much to his frustration, he was delayed at Ufford for two hours by a dispute between the church wardens over whether or not to allow him access.
The thing was, he had been here before. Eight months earlier, as part of a routine visit, he had destroyed some Catholic images that were in stained glass, and prayer clauses in brass inscriptions, but had trusted the churchwardens to deal with a multitude of other sins, images that were beyond his reach without a ladder, or which would be too time-consuming. This was common practice - after all, the churchwardens of Suffolk were generally equally as puritan as Dowsing. It was assumed that people in such a position were supporters of the New Puritan project, especially in East Anglia. Dowsing rarely revisited churches. But, for some reason, he felt he had to come back here to make sure that his orders had been carried out.
Why was this? In retrospect, we can see that Ufford was one of less than half a dozen churches where the churchwardens were uncooperative. Elsewhere, at hundreds of other churches, the wardens welcomed Dowsing with open arms. And Dowsing only visited churches in the first place if it was thought there might be a problem, parishes with notorious 'scandalous ministers' - which is to say, theological liberals. Richard Lovekin, the Rector of Ufford, had been turned out of his living the previous year, although he survived to return when the Church of England was restored in 1660. But that was in the future. Something about his January visit told Dowsing that he needed to come back to Ufford.
Standing in the nave of the Assumption today, you can still see something that Dowsing saw, something which he must have seen in January, but which he doesn't mention until his second visit, in the entry in his journal for August 21st, which appears to be written in a passion. This is Ufford's most famous treasure, the great 15th century font cover.
It rises, six metres high, magnificent and stately, into the clerestory, enormous in its scale and presence. In all England, only the font cover at Southwold is taller. The cover is telescopic, and crocketting and arcading dances around it like waterfalls and forests. There are tiny niches, filled today with 19th century statues. At the top is a gilt pelican, plucking its breast.
Dowsing describes the font cover as glorious... like a pope's triple crown... but this is just anti-Catholic innuendo. The word glorious in the 17th century meant about the same as the word 'pretentious' means to us now - Dowsing was scoffing.
But that was no reason for him to be offended by it. The Anglicans had destroyed all the statues in the niches a century before, and all that remained was the pelican at the top, pecking its breast to feed its chicks. Dowsing would have known that this was a Catholic image of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and would have disapproved. But he did not order the font cover to be destroyed. After all, the rest of the cover was harmless enough, apart from being a waste of good firewood, and the awkwardness of the Ufford churchwardens seems to have put him off following through. He never went back.
Certainly, there can have been no theological reason for the churchwardens to protect their font cover. I like to think that they looked after it simply because they knew it to be beautiful, and that they also knew it had been constructed by ordinary workmen of their parish two hundred years before, under the direction of some European master designer. They protected it because of local pride, and amen to that. The contemporary font beneath is of a type more familiar in Norfolk than Suffolk, with quatrefoils alternating with shields, and heads beneath the bowl.
While the font cover is extraordinary, and of national importance, it is one of just several medieval survivals in the nave of the Assumption. All around it are 15th century benches, with superbly characterful and imaginative images on their ends. The best is the bench with St Margaret and St Catherine on it. This was recently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Gothic exhibition. Other bench end figures include a long haired, haloed woman seated on a throne, which may well be a representation of the Mother of God Enthroned, and another which may be the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven. There is also a praying woman in a butterfly headdress, once one of a pair, and a man wearing what appears to be a bowler hat, although I expect it is a helmet of some kind. His beard is magnificent. There are also a number of finely carved animals, both mythical and real.
High up in the chancel arch is an unusual survival, the crocketted rood beam that once supported the crucifix, flanked by the grieving Mary and John, with perhaps a tympanum behind depicting the last judgement. These are now all gone, of course, as is the rood loft that once stood in front of the beam and allowed access to it. But below, the dado of the screen survives, with twelve panels. Figures survive on the south side. They have not worn well. They are six female Saints: St Agnes, St Cecilia, St Agatha, St Faith, St Bridget and, uniquely in England, St Florence. Curiously, the head of this last has been, in recent years, surrounded by stars, in imitation of the later Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Presumably this was done in a fit of Anglo-catholic enthusiasm about a century ago. The arrangement is similar to the south side of the screen at Westhall, and it may even be that the artist was the same. While there is no liturgical reason for having the female Saints on one side and, presumably, male Saints on the other, a similar arrangement exists on several Norfolk screens in the Dereham area.
Much of the character of the church today comes from it embracing, in the early years of the 20th century, Anglo-catholicism in full flood. It is true to say that, the later a parish took on the tradition, the more militant and intensely expressed it was, and the more evidence there is likely to be surviving. As at Great Ryburgh in Norfolk, patronage here ensured that this work was carried out to the very highest specification under the eye of the young Ninian Comper. Comper is an enthusiast's enthusiast, but I think he is at his best on a small scale in East Anglia like here and Ryburgh. His is the extraordinary war memorial window and reredos in the south aisle chapel, dedicated to St Leonard.
The window depicts Christ carrying his cross on the via dolorosa, but he is aided by a soldier in WWI uniform and, behind him, a sailor. The use of blues is very striking, as is the grain on the wood of the cross which, incidentally, can also be seen to the same effect on Comper's reredos at Ryburgh. The elegant, gilt reredos here profides a lovely foil to the tremendous window above it.
Comper's other major window here is on the north side of the nave. This is a depiction of the Annunciationextraordinary. from 1901, although it is the figures above which are most They are two of the Ancient Greek sibyls, Erythrea and Cumana, who are associated with the foretelling of Christ. At the top is a stunning Holy Trinity in the East Anglian style. There are angels at the bottom, and all in all this window shows Comper at the height of his powers.
Stepping into the chancel, there is older glass - or, at least, what at first sight appears to be. Certainly, there are some curious roundels which are probably continental 17th century work, ironically from about the same time that Dowsing was here. They were probably acquired by collectors in the 19th century, and installed here by Victorians. The image of a woman seated among goats is curious, as though she might represent the season of spring or be an allegory of fertility, but she is usually identified as St Agnes. It is a pity this roundel has been spoiled by dripping cement or plaster. Another roundel depicts St Sebastian shot with arrows, and a third St Anthony praying to a cross in the desert.
The two angels in the glass on the opposite side of the chancel are perhaps more interesting. They are English, probably early 16th Century, and represent two of the nine Orders of Angels, Dominions and Powers. They carry banners written in English declaring their relationship to eartly kings (Dominions) and priests and religious (Virtues). They would have been just two of a set of nine, but as with the glass opposite it seems likely that they did not come from this church originally.
However, the images in 'medieval' glass in the east window are entirely modern, though done so well you might not know. A clue, of course, is that the main figures, St Mary Salome with the infants St James and St John on the left, and St Anne with the infant Virgin on the right, are wholly un-East Anglian in style. In fact, they are 19th century copies by Clayton & Bell of images at All Souls College, Oxford, installed here in the 1970s. I think that the images of heads below may also be modern, but the angel below St Anne is 15th century, and obviously East Anglian, as is St Stephen to the north.
High above, the ancient roofs with their sacred monograms are the ones that Dowsing saw, the ones that the 15th century builders gilt and painted to be beautiful to the glory of God - and, of course, to the glory of their patrons. Rich patronage survived the Reformation, and at the west end of the south aisle is the massive memorial to Sir Henry Wood, who died in 1671, eleven years after the end of the Commonwealth. It is monumental, the wreathed ox heads a severely classical motif. Wood, Mortlock tells us, was Treasurer to the Household of Queen Henrietta Maria.
There is so much to see in this wonderful church that, even visiting time and time again, there is always something new to see, or something old to see in a new way. It is, above all, a beautiful space, and, still maintaining a reasonably High worship tradition, it is is still kept in High liturgical style. It is at once a beautiful art object and a hallowed space, an organic touchstone, precious and powerful.
Simon Knott, June 2006, updated July 2010 and January 2017
Liz: When you healed me you risked all of this getting out didn't you?
Max:Yeah
Liz:Why?
Max: It was you
~ Quote from Roswell. Pilot
After the shooting we spent time on my couch watching Roswell. A TV show we both loved when we were teenagers.
"It was you breathless and tall
I could feel my eyes turning into dust
And two strangers turning into dust
Turning into dust"
~ Mazzy Star. Into Dust.
_________________________________________
Copyright Melanie Eichenauer Photography 2009.
No use in any way without written permission!
It's Noa's first autumn in Norway, and she keeps insisting that a tshirt is enough to keep her warm. We'll see, that's all I have to say about that.
How can someone do what he did, lie about it, and THEN RUN FOR PRESIDENT? How can anyone think that he could get away with it, given the intense, and sometimes unscrupulous, media coverage 24/7?
This is not about a personal human drama, it is about a selfish public lie which could have destroyed the chances for change in our country at a time when we need it most.
And, by the way, another "good religious man" gone hypocrite.
Ugh!
John Edwards in New Hampshire, the evening he finished third in the New Hampshire primary.......this used to be one of my favorite photos.......now he looks like a buffoon!
Makes me appreciate Barack Obama even more.
It's getting harder and harder to find farms with texture like this and not have any newish metal sheds in it.
It is spring in the Sonoran Desert, and the wildflowers are popping up. This was taken in Sabino Canyon, Coronado National Forest outside Tucson, AZ. This was a macro, the entire scene about 3 cm by 1 cm.
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae – Pea family
Genus: Dalea L. – prairie clover
Species: Dalea pringlei A. Gray – Pringle's prairie clover
Cue instrumental version of 'Stand By Me' by Ben E King at half speed:
1990 was the year that I turned 18. At that point I was living with my parents in a flat which at that time was described as luxury. The flat was great and it suited my needs and my pocket although my Father always wanted me to sit down and watch a War/Western with him. At 18 it was the last thing I wanted to do. I would put on my neatly creased Chino's and my polka-dot shirt and then walk up to Glynvale bus stop to catch the 49 to town.
On the way I would pass through Bedminster, East Street (where I had my first pub beer in the Bell) and then on past Redcliffe. I would then get off the bus in Queens Square (at that point it was a through fare).
I would then make my way to the Volly or Navel Volunteer as it was correctly termed and meet up with various semi-friends to talk about the latest Depeche Mode single and drink Grolsch which was the most popular lager at the time. We would stay there for a while and then toss up whether it would be best to got to Boulevards (The Boulevard) or Studios in Frogmore Street.
Inevitably it could swing either way and you could queue for around 30 minutes for both.
I found this to be a tad tiresome and with my Father quitting his Taxi job I stole his ID and with a bit of sticky back plastic and ingenuity created a new identity with a simple passport photograph of myself.
A whole new World opened up to me. I could get into clubs for free with a simple flash of the badge and a grunt of "Got a pickup boss".
After a night of partying I would attempt to walk home and therefore arrive at Yellow Cabs, Bedminster. Here I would sway in the office with a piece of cremated chicken leg until a Taxi was available. To this day it's still the only Taxi number I remember.
Upon arriving home and realising that i had either forgotten or mislaid my keys I attempted to improvise. I went to a neighbours house (Dot Baggs) who had a ladder outside her house. I took said ladder and noticing my Mothers open window used it to climb in. Gaining entry to my house I then opened the front door and replaced the ladder. This would have been the end of the night but on returning to the front door I realised that I had (as always) closed it upon exiting.
I had to repeat the excercise and this time left the front door open hoping that my Father wouldn't hear the commotion. Having put the ladder back I shut the front door very quietly and made for my bedroom.
Curses! My Father was emerging from his bedroom (separate from my Mothers?) so I quickly ducked into my bedroom, got undressed and hid under the Eiderdown.
"What are you doing Son?" my Mother asked to my horror realising that I had drunkenly stumbled into the wrong bedroom. "I'm hiding from Dad cos it's 2am" I said. Without a blink she replied "Okay". After my Father had gone back to bed I (holding my tackle and clothes in hand) retreated to my real bedroom in shame.
I miss my Mother as she always stood up for me and covered for me in times of need. I was a normal boy and didn't really get in trouble with the Police much but I still feel that I may have been a burden.
I don't know when I changed from Chino's to snow wash bleached jeans but I am glad that I now wear normal attire without a need to be fashion conscious.
Oh yeah, I woke up the next morning with my front door key in my pocket, where it always was.
It's so tiny next to JorJor the cat.
My SIL really, really digs monkeys. Apes, especially. The more human, the better.
They scare me though (apes enter my uncanny valley en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley) so I decided to make her the monkey from the Zoomigurumi 1 book. :) I like it.
NOW Celebrating 33000 views. yahooo
Remember the United Colors of Benneton? This shot was kinda in the same spirit.
black background with the girls lying on the floor. shot from the top of a set of stepladders.
canon 50D+ EF50mm f1.4 @f3.2+ 1/32 power Speedlite580EXII with catchlight.
Post processed in picnik: cross processed faded to 30% orton 70%.
Sepia deguerrotype curves preset. The pp sounds very glib but I have played around with the levels for ages. still not 100% happy but it's the best version yet.
Everywhere it will let you know that you are in Calcutta. i haven't, in my experience, seen any other city ( Indian) having such an unavoidable avian company.
This comes from our article on how computer networks work.
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We turned our heads and there was a mess of shredded papers on the den floor.
It was Noah. Always is with the shredding.
it's a shame that after all the money I spent getting a design degree, my qualified opinion is still worth JACK
Kirtland Public Schools 1 - 2006 IC FE - Retired; Boardman Local Schools Bus Yard - Boardman, Ohio. Bus was bought used in August of 2015 from Kirtland Public Schools in Lake County. Was their bus 1. Bus replaced bus 31 and will be a spare bus for Boardman. Taken a few days after this bus was bought from Myers Equipment Corp. It is now numbered as bus 35.