View allAll Photos Tagged replace
Removed and Replaced the Driveway and Walkway - Poured With 4000 PSI Concrete -
Cut Swell on Left Side of House With Excavator to Alleviate Flooding Issue Into Garage - Brought in Loads of Fill Dirt to Raise the Land on the Right Side of the House to the Proper Elevation
The sandstone by the front doors has been crumbling after years of salt and snow. Master Mason Jacob Arndt is cutting out the crumbling stones and replacing them with the same type. Arndt is chiseling the new stone to match the existing old stone's lines.
Arndt travels around the country and world doing hisotric restoration. He was in Normandy for the summer and said, "The food was great."
Unfortunately in the process of trying to put it back together, I severed the ribbon cable for the backlight.
In this case it’s actually replacing old Pertronix with new Pertronix, but the procedure is the same.
First, you attach an adapter plate where the old points used to be.
Replacing the drive belt to the alternator of BP No.7 (AB399/1956).
Doon Valley Railway
Waterside, Ayrshire
3 December 2024
Waltham Abbey was a church I'd long wanted to visit, an ancient foundation dating back to the 7th century but in its earliest surviving features a fine Norman structure of the late 11th & 12th centuries, replacing an earlier church built by King Harold who was buried here.
In the Middle Ages the Norman church was vastly expanded eastwards to become perhaps the longest in the country, the old choir being demolished east of the crossing and a whole new Gothic church built in its place, which must have been an impressive sight with its two central towers and two pairs of transepts, a most unusual configuration!
Waltham Abbey was the last of the monasteries to fall to Henry VIII at the Dissolution, as late as 1540, after which time the former nave was retained as the parish church and the remainder demolished. The Norman tower and transepts at the east end of the nave collapsed soon afterwards, following the demolition of the newer church beyond it, so a new tower was built at the west end instead during Queen Mary's reign in 1556-7 (the top stage of which since mostly replaced to a new design in an early 20th century restoration). The east end of the nave was walled up in a fairly plain fashion until the major Victorian restoration by William Burges, which began in 1859 and saw a new rose-window and lancets inserted as the focal point of the interior.
The church we see today is thus a much restored fragment of its former self, at one time a major centre of pilgrimage but now barely even a truncated third of its original great length, the space to the east now an open garden, with vestiges of the former cloister to the north. The nave with its side aisles is still clearly a Norman edifice with later additions, the most prominent of are the large 14th century Lady Chapel on the south side and the aforementioned tower which covers the former facade, and now forms the main entrance porch.
Stepping inside it is impossible not to be impressed by the sturdy Norman columns (some with chevron decoration like those at Durham) but the Victorian additions are a real enhancement that draw the eye, firstly the nave ceiling which was painted in imitation of the authentic one surviving at Peterborough and features the signs of the Zodiac set in the central lozenges, whilst beyond is the magnificent rose-window and lancets filled with gorgeous early glass by Edward Burne Jones, very rich and different in style from his better known later work. Below these windows is a fine Victorian frieze in relief forming a reredos, recently beautifully restored after being damaged by an axe-wielding attacker in 2003.
In the aisles are several monuments and tombs, those in the south-east corner being the most impressive. From there one may ascend to the upper level of the Lady Chapel, a room flooded with light from its large windows and featuring a rare 15th century mural of the Last Judgement on its east wall.
Waltham Abbey church is open on Wednesdays and Fridays to Sundays each week so it is best to visit accordingly to avoid disappointment. Visiting on a Sunday afternoon I was fine in this respect, but my walk over from Waltham Cross in torrential rain was pretty atrocious (a big thanks to Duncan for lending me his umbrella that weekend!). Upon arrival I had to virtually run inside but luckily the weather cleared up just before I left so I was able to appreciate the exterior basking in the sun at the end of my visit.