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The Romantics - Talking In Your Sleep
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A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran
Little angel go away, come again some other day. The devil has my ear today, I'll never hear a word you say. He promised I would find a little solace and some piece of mind. Whatever, just as long as I don't feel so... - A Perfect Circle
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One of my two museum visits in Dublin was The Long Room at the library at Trinity College. I've been deeply keen to see the Book of Kells for some 20 years (when I took a wonderful calligraphy course at Reed College). I was, however, deeply disappointed in how Trinity presents and displays the wee bits of their tremendous collection that they in fact share. The Book of Kells itself wasn't on display the day I was there, but based on the miserably lit and weakly labelled texts that were on display, I'm not sure I missed much.
All that said, The Long Room was visually remarkable. For a book junkie, and especially an old book junkie, all that wood and leather was absolutely delicious. A pretty crap display space, however.
My second museum visit that day was to the Chester Beatty Library, which was a vastly better museum. They have a phenomenal collection of early, early manuscripts, and their display of the material was much, much better.
He was weak, and I was strong -- then --
So He let me lead him in --
I was weak, and He was strong then --
So I let him lead me -- Home.
'Twasn't far -- the door was near --
'Twasn't dark -- for He went -- too --
'Twasn't loud, for He said nought --
That was all I cared to know.
Day knocked -- and we must part --
Neither -- was strongest -- now --
He strove -- and I strove -- too --
We didn't do it -- tho'!
[[ Emily Dickinson ]]
Wrap dress, Merona (shortened). Tank, swap. Scarf, import store. Earrings, Into The Fray. Cuff, Pangaea. Bag, MCI (thrifted). Studded pumps, Oh Deer!
It doesn’t look like I’m wearing a ton of eye makeup in the photos, but it was definitely heavier than my norm. I tend to go for a strong lip and subtle eyes most of the time. My eyes are large and hooded, so heavy makeup can look harsh. Every once in a while, though, I go for a made-up eye. And I pair it with a weak lip.
formed off a line of thunderstorms over the Black Hills of SD. It ended up producing large hail south of Rapid City.
Unexpected storms, no matter how chaotic, teach me a drifting drive to love losing control. There's plans to make, provisions to gather, steady salvation from anything too destructive – and that leaves the rest for loving. I've never faced tornadoes, volcanoes, landslides, firestorms, or tsunamis – and when hurricanes get this far north, they're relatively weak beasts. Despite the jagged edge of weather that sometimes comes cutting through, we've got it easier than most places on the planet. There's a goodness in and about it, despite the apparent harshness. I never complain about the wildness of nature, it's only placid days that really get me down. If it's desperately cold or howling snow, then I always come around. Just don't give me too many days of dirty, old snow and flat, grey skies. The less things change, the quicker I'm sinking. But it only takes a little bad weather to make me good again.
January 23, 2021
Smith's Cove, Nova Scotia
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Substantial metapodium (1), dorsal rim of the foot (2), eye areas (3) and head-crests (4) are all translucent whitish, flecked with opaque white. There are random light spots and a few flecks of green on the dark areas.
Full SPECIES DESCRIPTION BELOW
Sets of OTHER SPECIES: www.flickr.com/photos/56388191@N08/collections/
Limapontia capitata (O. F. Müller, 1774)
Revised July 2021.
Current taxonomy; World Register of Marine Species www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=140229
Synonyms: Fasciola capitata O. F. Müller, 1774; Pontolimax capitatus (O. F. Müller, 1774); Limapontia nigra G. Johnston, 1835.
GLOSSARY below.
Description
Usually up to 4 mm long, rarely 8 mm (Thompson, 1976). The smooth body has no tubercles, gills or appendages. It is dark brown (fig. 1 flic.kr/p/2m1yssd ) or black (fig. 2 flic.kr/p/2m1C9ti ) except for the dorsal rim of the foot, metapodium, eye areas and head crests which are all translucent whitish, flecked with opaque white. There are often random light spots on the dark areas and, sometimes, small greenish patches and flecks. Usually, there is a large pale patch, often approximating to a heart shape, (fig. 3 flic.kr/p/2m1DbBw ) on the dorsum. Part of the patch is often translucent allowing sight of the heart beating within the translucent pericardium (Jensen, 1977).
The anus is a short distance behind and to the right of the midpoint of the body, but it is often difficult to see when it is not defecating.
The head has a truncated anterior edge and usually extends beyond the foot (fig. 4 flic.kr/p/2m1G6Nd ). There are no digitiform rhinophores but, above and in front of each eye, adults have a strong (fig. 5 flic.kr/p/2m1C9sG ) or weak (fig. 3 flic.kr/p/2m1DbBw ) head crest which is absent from some juveniles.
The foot has a translucent whitish sole spotted with white pigment. The yellow ovotestes of adults and/or green contents of the digestive gland may be visible through the sole (fig. 4 flic.kr/p/2m1G6Nd ). The anterior of the foot is often slightly expanded but there are no propodial tentacles.
The substantial pale metapodium is c. 19-25% of the body length.
Key identification features
Limapontia capitata
1) Curved head crest above and in front of each eye (figs. 3 flic.kr/p/2m1DbBw & 5 flic.kr/p/2m1C9sG ), no ridge below eye. At some angles of view, crests can be mistaken for digitiform rhinophores (fig. 6 flic.kr/p/2m1C9s1 ).
2) Substantial pale metapodium is c. 19-25% of body length.
3) Usually a large pale mark on the dorsum (fig. 3 flic.kr/p/2m1DbBw ).
4) Eye areas and head-crests whitish (fig. 2 flic.kr/p/2m1C9ti )
5) Anus a short distance behind midpoint of body.
6) Sublittoral and all levels of the shore in pools and moist positions. Usually on Cladophora attached to hard substrate. Optimum salinity 30‰, can survive 5‰ to over 40‰, but sustainable population improbable below 10‰, the lower limit for spawning.
Similar species
Limapontia depressa Alder & Hancock, 1862 (fig. 7 flic.kr/p/2m1HAoU )
1) No digitiform rhinophores but most have a raised rim around the pale eye patches which Alder & Hancock (1862) in their original species description refer to as ‘lateral crests’, and which Hancock clearly illustrated (item 4 on fig. 7). Most subsequent authors omit or deny the existence of the rim/crests on L. depressa (Barrett & Yonge, 1958; Gascoigne, 1975; Thompson, 1976; Hayward & Ryland, 1998; Kluijver et al.). Consequently, the rim is often mistaken for head crests of L. capitata. The rim varies in how much it is erected, being low when a specimen is not in good condition, and it may be difficult to discern in dorsal view of very dark specimens.
2) Pale metapodium (‘tail’) absent or negligible when viewed dorsally.
3) No large, pale, pigment mark on dorsum (occasionally a faded area).
4) Pale eye patches.
5) Dorsal anus close to posterior.
6) On tidal saltings in Britain in brackish or full marine salinity. Individuals adapt slowly and with difficulty to salinity change, but local populations are found adjusted to a wide range of salinities, to below 3‰ on the tidal River Dee, Wales. It lives sublittorally in the inner Baltic Sea, where the mean sea surface salinity is below 7‰ (Bendtsen et al.); a specimen near Helsinki, misidentified (when accessed in June 2021) as L. capitata, is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TBqOdGHmmI .
Limapontia senestra (Quatrefages, 1844) (fig. 8 flic.kr/p/2m1C9pL )
1) Pair of digitiform rhinophores on head only when full grown. Earlier growth stages with rhinophores not fully developed can resemble head crests of L. capitata; rear in captivity when in doubt; rearing details in Smith (2014).
2) Pale metapodium is 13-18.5% of body length , smaller than on L. capitata but more noticeable than on L. depressa.
3) Often a small pale dorsal spot and lateral spots form a quincunx or similar; missing on translucent specimens with visible pale viscera which can be mistaken for the dorsal mark of L. capitata.
4) Eye patches and tentacles whitish.
5) Anus a short distance behind midpoint of body.
6) Full salinity, lagoons perhaps with salinity c. 20‰, and rock pools up to MHW on exposed coasts.
Habits and ecology
L. capitata tolerates a wide range of salinities; in the Kieler Bucht, Germany, 5‰ to 40‰ at 14°C, but spawning only occurs at over 10‰ (Seelemann, 1968 in Jensen 1977). The optimum salinity in the Kattegat, Denmark, for growth and spawning is 30‰ at 15°C, though spawn is abundant at over 15‰.
Coma occurs from heat at 38-40°C and from cold at about 1°C (Jensen, 1977). Formation of ice on a shore is usually accompanied by local temporary extinction of littoral L. capitata (Jensen, 1976).
It lives sublittorally and at all levels of the shore in pools and moist situations on its food algae, primarily Cladophora rupestris (figs. 9 flic.kr/p/2m1G6Jq & 10 flic.kr/p/2m1ysh3 ) but also Chaetomorpha linum, Bryopsis plumosa (fig. 11 flic.kr/p/2m1ys8L ) and other Cladophora spp. (Jensen, 1975). These algal species are coenocytic with few or no internal cell walls subdividing the cytoplasm, which is consequently easily extracted by suction. Enteromorpha (currently genus Ulva) is sometimes mentioned as a food alga (Miller, 1962) but this is unlikely as all species in the order Ulvales, having uninucleate cells (Wichard et al. 2015), are not coenocytic, so unsuitable for suctorial feeding. Jensen (1975) observed a L. capitata grasping filaments of Enteromorpha in a feeding position, but it was unable to extract any cytoplasm. Cladophora. spp., Chaetomorpha linum and Bryopsis plumosa were equally favoured in experiments (Jensen, 1975), though in the wild most are found on Cladophora spp. as the other algae are less common. Individual L. capitata could change food in experiments, but were conservative, tending to remain on the first species encountered until all consumed. Cladophora glomerata, a freshwater species which grows well in the very low salinity of the inner Baltic (GBIF map) and forms large algal blooms in the Gulf of Finland (Berezina et al., 2007) was studied by A.-M. Jansson (1966, 1967 and 1970, in Jensen, 1975) on the island of Asko, south of Stockholm, but she found no L. capitata on it. However, L. depressa does feed on it and has been widely misidentified in the inner Baltic as L. capitata (misidentified L. depressa on probable C. glomerata at www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TBqOdGHmmI )
In L. capitata, the single row of radular teeth, adapted to only slitting and cutting (fig. 12 flic.kr/p/2m1C98J ), confines it to suctorial feeding. The leading tooth is used to puncture algal cell walls whereas the newer, unused teeth function as a spear shaft. Recently worn out older teeth are retained in an ascus sac (Thompson, 1976). Further restrictions on which algal species can be utilized may be due to the chemical structure of the algal polysaccharides and to the algal filament diameters (Jensen, 1975).
The related L. depressa feeds by holding an algal filament vertically in the groove at the front of its head while it punctures it and sucks out the cytoplasm, leaving a colourless filament. There is an apparent upper limit on the diameter of filaments that can fit into the groove, as it was observed in captivity to exhaust all available narrow filaments but to leave the thicker ones unaffected (IFS pers. obs.). The groove in front of the mouth of L. capitata (fig. 13 flic.kr/p/2m1ys1b ) is similar to that of L. depressa . The filaments of a coenocytic species of Trailiella were too thin for adult L. capitata to grip in their groove firmly enough for feeding (Jensen, 1975).
In 1973, at Hellebaek, Denmark, the intertidal population density of L. capitata peaked at 2370-2960 per litre of Cladophora in June, August and October just after settlement of newly metamorphosed juveniles less than 1.25 mm long from what seems to be three breeding events. The recorded population was zero in January to April, when water and air temperatures were below 10°C, and gradually increased in May, presumably originating from larval settlement from deeper water. The large population of L. capitata in summer was estimated to consume 1-10% of the total standing crop of Cladophora at Hellebaek (Jensen, 1975).
Copulation is by penetration by the stylet on the hypodermic penis into the body of the partner which lacks an aperture to receive it. The spawn mass, containing up to 800 ova, is deposited between June and November by two or more generations in Britain (Miller, 1962 in Thompson, 1976). The planktonic, veliger, larval stage lasts about a week at 16-17°C (Thompson, 1976). In Isefjord, Denmark, large numbers of planktonic veligers were recorded in April, August and December (Rasmussen, 1973), corresponding with hatching from the three spawning periods observed by Jensen (1975).
Distribution and status
L. capitata occurs from the Arctic to the Mediterranean and Black Sea. It extends into the Baltic to Rügen, Germany and the Øresund, Sweden further east than which the mean sea surface salinity (msss) is below 10‰ (Bendtsen et al, 2007). It may be over recorded because of incompletely developed rhinophores on juvenile L. senestra being mistaken for the crests of L. capitata. For details of misidentification and misrecording of Limapontia spp. in the inner Baltic, see the appendix below.
Common and widespread around Britain and Ireland. UK distribution map, NBN species.nbnatlas.org/species/NHMSYS0021056302 .
Appendix: Distribution of L. capitata in the Baltic Sea.
The first description of L. capitata, by Müller in 1774, was in the Baltic, ‘in Mari Balthico’. It is still present, sometimes abundantly (Jensen, 1975), in the outer Baltic to about 30° E. at Rügen, Germany (Schultze, 1849) and Øresund, Sweden. Working in the Kieler Bucht, Seelemann (1968 in Jensen 1977), found that the lower salinity limit for spawning is 10‰. The mean sea surface salinity (msss) of the inner Baltic east of Rügen-Øresund is below 10‰ (Bendtsen, 2007) and would be expected to prevent the establishment of sustainable populations of L. capitata. A study on the shores of Asko Island, south of Stockholm, (Jansson, 1966, 1967 and 1970, in Jensen, 1975), which conforms to expectations, found no L. capitata on Cladophora glomerata, a freshwater alga which grows well in the very low salinity of the inner Baltic and forms large algal blooms in the Gulf of Finland (Berezina et al., 2007).
Contrary to expectations, there are several reports of it east of Rügen-Øresund at,
1) Bornholm in 1863, current msss circa 7.5‰ (Meyer & Möbius, 1865–1872).
2) North of Stockholm at 61.1N, 17.2E, msss circa 5‰, in 1980 by Swedish Ocean Archive database (GBIF map, L. capitata).
3) Estonia, over 170 records, msss circa 5-6‰, 2008-2017 by Estonian Naturalists’ Society (GBIF map, L. capitata).
4) Finland, 450 records, msss circa 5-6‰, mainly 1990-2020, by Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility.
The Bornholm record has several reasons for reserve, apart from the low salinity. While the illustrations from Kieler Bucht (fig. 14 flic.kr/p/2m54gkU ) show that Meyer and Möbius (1865–1872) recognised correctly the features of L. capitata, the Bornholm specimens were found in 1863 when it is unlikely that M&M were familiar with Limapontia depressa, first described by Alder and Hancock only in the previous year and without published image. The specimens were collected for M&M by a fisherman who said that he found them abundantly under littoral stones. This is not the usual habitat of L. capitata, which lives on filamentous algae, mainly Cladophora spp.; one wonders how reliable the reported location is. It is desirable that this record be checked with fieldwork and photography.
The other localities have salinities well below the level suitable for spawning of L. capitata so its presence needs substantiation with detailed images. The only Baltic images labelled L. capitata found by IFS on the web are a video and two photographs from Finnish waters by K. Könönen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TBqOdGHmmI and laji.fi/en/taxon/MX.212476/images , which are all misidentified L. depressa lacking the substantial pale metapodium, large pale dorsal mark and distinct head crests of L. capitata. In 2012, on a blog by an artist for the Marine Research Centre at Stockholm University, there was a detailed painting labelled ’L. capitata’ from north of Stockholm, which was a perfect match for Hancock’s image of P. depressa (fig. 7 flic.kr/p/2m1HAoU ). See the ‘Key identification features’ and ‘Similar species’ sections of the main account above for detail of the historical confusion of the two spp.
Pruvot-Fol (1954) aggregated P. depressa with L. capitata as L. nigra as she could find no distinctive features to characterize them. In her description she used poor copies of 110 year old images of Limapontia spp. from Quatrefages (1844) and followed his omission of L. depressa which was not described by Alder and Hancock until 18 years after he wrote. Gascoigne (1975) and Thompson (1976) showed clear, anatomical differences which counter Pruvot-Fol’s opinion.
At the same time (June 2021) as showing multiple records of presumed L. capitata in Estonian and Finnish waters, the GBIF map for L. depressa and the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility website have a complete absence in the same waters of records for L. depressa which has populations that can breed at the salinities found there, while L. capitata cannot. A video and two photographs from Finland and a painting from north of Stockholm, all mislabelled ‘L. capitata’, show that L. depressa does live in the inner Baltic. Over 30 records (1998-2012) on the GBIF map of L. depressa by the Swedish Ocean Archive database (SHARK) show that L. depressa lives on the coast of the inner Baltic in the Swedish counties of Kalmar and Blekinge.
Jonne Kotta of the Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu, agrees that all the Estonian records of L. capitata shown on GBIF are misidentified L. depressa and should be renamed on the database (J. Kotta, 2021, pers. comm., 14 June).
It is desirable that more photographs are obtained of Limapontia in the inner Baltic to substantiate or alter the evidence, reasoning and opinions presented above. This account will be amended if new evidence requires it.
Acknowledgements
I am most grateful to Kathe Jensen, Jonne Kotta and Vollrath Wiese for their help and advice with this account, but any errors or omissions are my (IFS) responsibility. I thank David Fenwick www.aphotomarine.com/index.html and Malcolm Storey www.bioimages.org.uk/ for use of their images.
References and links
Alder, J. and Hancock, A. 1862. Descriptions of a new genus and some new species of naked mollusc. Ann. mag. nat. hist. vol. 10, Third series, number LVIII: 261-265. [Original description of L. depressa on p. 264].
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/22162433#page/282/mode/1up
Barrett, J. and Yonge, C.M. 1958 Collins pocket guide to the sea shore. London, Collins.
Bendtsen, J., Söderkvist, J., Dahl, K., Hansen, J.L.S. and Reker, J. 2007. Model simulations of blue corridors in the Baltic Sea. BALANCE Interim Report No. 9.. Copenhagen. balance-eu.org/xpdf/balance-interim-report-no-9.pdf
Berezina, N. A., Tsiplenkina, I. G., Pankova, E. S. and Gubelit J. I. 2007. Dynamics of invertebrate communities in stony littoral of the Neva Estuary (Baltic Sea) under macroalgal blooms and bioinvasions. Transitional Waters Bulletin 1: 65-76. www.researchgate.net/publication/215447660_Dynamics_of_in...
Eliot, C.N.E. 1910. A monograph of the British nudibranchiate mollusca. London, Ray Society. Supplementary Volume. p. 141 [as L. nigra] archive.org/details/british_nudibranchiate_mollusca_pt8_l... (p. 151 of PDF).
Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility, Limapontia capitata overview page. laji.fi/en/taxon/MX.212476 images laji.fi/en/taxon/MX.212476/images [misidentified L. depressa]. Accessed 17 July 2021.
Gascoigne, T. 1975. A field guide to the British Limapontidae and Alderia modesta. J. Conch. Lond. 28: 359 – 364.
GBIF Distribution map of Limapontia capitata (O.F. Müller) Accessed 25 June, 2021. www.gbif.org/species/2298915
GBIF. Distribution map of Limapontia depressa Accessed 23 July, 2021. www.gbif.org/species/2298918
GBIF Distribution map of Cladophora glomerata (L.) Kütz. Accessed 14 June, 2021. www.gbif.org/species/5272770
Hayward, P.J. & Ryland, J.S. 1996. Handbook of the marine fauna of North-west Europe. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Jeffreys, J. G. 1869. British conchology. vol. 5 (1869). London, van Voorst. [As L. nigra] archive.org/details/britishconcholog05jeffr/page/28/mode/1up
Jensen, K. R. 1975. Food preference and food consumption in relation to growth of Limapontia capitata (Opisthobranchia, Sacoglossa). Ophelia 14(1-2): 1-14. abstract
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00785236.1975.10421967
Jensen, K. R. 1976. The importance of Limapontia capitata (Mueller) (Opisthobranchia, Sacoglossa) as a primary consumer in the Cladophora-belt. 10th Europ. Symp. mar. Biol. 2: 339-350.
Jensen, K. R. 1977. Optimal salinity and temperature intervals of Limapontia capitata (Opisthobranchia, Sacoglossa) determined by growth and heart rate measurements. Ophelia, 16 (2): 175 – 185.
Kluijver, M.J. de, Ingalsuo S.S. & Bruyne, R.H. de. Mollusca of the North Sea, Limapontia depressa. Marine Species Identification Portal. (accessed 20 June 2021) species-identification.org/species.php?species_group=moll...
Meyer, H. A. & Möbius, K. 1865 - 1872. Fauna der Kieler Bucht. Band 1: Die Hinterkiemer oder Opisthobranchia. Leipzig, W. Engelmann. [As Pontolimax capitatus]
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47329#page/57/mode/1up [images]
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47329#page/55/mode/1up [text]
Miller, M.C. 1962. Annual cycles of some Manx nudibranchs, with a discussion of the problem of the migration. J. Anim. Ecol. 31(3): 545-569 www.jstor.org/stable/2053?seq=1
Müller, O. F. 1774. Vermium terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu animalium infusoriorum, helminthicorum, et testaceorum, non marinorum, succincta historia. Vol. 1, Pars Altera: p. 70. [1774]. Havniæ (Copenhagen) & Lipsiæ (Leipzig), Heineck & Faber. [original description as Fasciola capitata] www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/50344#page/236/mode/1up
Pruvot-Fol, A. 1954. Faune de France. Mollusques opisthobranches. Paris, P. Lechevalier. faunedefrance.org/bibliotheque/docs/A.PRUVOT-FOL(FdeFr58)Mollusques.pdf
Quatrefages J.L.A. de. 1844. Sur les Gastéropodes Phlébentérés (Phlebenterata Nob.), ordre nouveau de la classe des Gastéropodes, proposé d'après l'examen anatomique et physiologique des genres Zéphyrine (Zephyrina Nob.), Actéon (Acteon Oken), Actéonie (Acteoniæ Nob.), Amphorine (Amphorina Nob.), Pavois (Pelta Nob.), Chalide (Chalidis Nob.). Annales des Sciences Naturelles. ser. 3, 1: 129-183, pls 3-6. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13407269
Rasmussen, E. 1973. Systematics and ecology of the Isefjord marine fauna (Denmark). Ophelia, 11, 1-495.
Schultze, M.S. 1849. Ueber die Entwickelung des Tergipes lacinulatus. Archiv für Naturgeschicht. 15: 270. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/48696#page/670/mode/1up
Seelemann, U. 1968. Zur Überwindung der biologischen Grenze Meer-Land durch Mollusken. II. Untersuchungen an Limaponita capitata, Limapontia depressa und Assiminea grayana. Oekologia. 1: 356-368 www.jstor.org/stable/4214499
Smith, I.F. 2014. Rearing and breeding the sacoglossan sea slug, Limapontia senestra (Quatrefages, 1844). Mollusc World 34: 16-18. Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. www.researchgate.net/publication/352982521_Limapontia_sen...
Thompson, T.E. 1976. Biology of opisthobranch molluscs 1. London, Ray Society.
Wichard, T., Charrier, B., Mineur, F., Bothwell, J. H., De Clerck, O. and Coates, J. C. 2015. The green seaweed Ulva: a model system to study morphogenesis. Frontiers in plant science. www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2015.00072/full
Current taxonomy; World Register of Marine Species www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=140229
GLOSSARY
coenocytic = (of algae) with parts made up of multinucleate, large masses of cytoplasm enclosed by the wall of each large cell.
cytoplasm = gelatinous liquid that fills the inside of a cell; ‘cell sap’.
digitiform = shaped like a finger.
dorsum = upper outer surface of an organism.
metapodium = hind part of the foot.
MHW = mean high water level.
multinucleate = (of cells) having more than one nucleus per cell, i.e., multiple nuclei share one common cytoplasm.
ovotestes = (plural) hermaphrodite organs serving as both ovary and testes.
pericardium = sac containing the heart.
plankton = animals and plants that drift in pelagic zone (main body of water).
polysaccharides = (in algae) molecular structural components of cell walls.
propodial = (adj.) at the front of the foot.
radula = usually a chitinous ribbon with rows of teeth to rasp food, but on Sacoglossa a line of single, fused teeth used like a scalpel to pierce algal cells.
quincunx = pattern of five as on dominoes or dice.
radular = of the radula.
rhinophore = chemo-receptor tentacle; nudibranch and most sacoglossan sea slugs have a pair on top of the head.
salting = salt tolerant vascular vegetation at MHW to EHWS; preferred synonym for “saltmarsh” as much of a salting is not marshy.
siphonaceous = (of algae) entire thallus (‘plant’) is coenocytic with no internal cell walls subdividing the cytoplasm.
stylet = hard, sharp, slender piercing structure.
suctorial = (adj.) sucking
uninucleate = (of cells) having one nucleus per cell.
veliger = shelled larva of marine gastropod or bivalve mollusc which moves by action cilia on a velum (bilobed flap).
The days drag and the weeks fly by.
It has been a grim week at work, and yet the weekend is here once again.
The cold snap is still here; thick frosts and icy patches, but Sunday afternoon storms will sweep in from the west and temperatures will soar by day to 13 degrees.
But for now it is cold, and colder at nights, the wood burner makes the living room toasty warm, though the rest of the house seems like a fridge in comparison.
Even though we went to bed at nine, we slept to nearly half seven, which meant we were already later than usual going to Tesco.
We had a coffee first, then got dressed and went out into the winter wonderland.
Tesco was more crowded mainly because we were an hour later. There were no crackers for cheese, a whole aisle empty of cream crackers and butter wafers.
There is only so much food you can eat even over Christmas, so the cracker-shortage won't affect us, we have two Dundee cakes, filling for two lots of mince pies and pastry for five lots of sausage rolls.
We won't starve.
We buy another bag of stuff for the food bank, try to get two weeks of stuff so we wont need to go next weekend, just to a farm shop for vegetables, and the butcher for the Christmas order, though on the 25th we are going out for dinner to the Lantern.
Back home for fruit, then bacon butties and another huge brew. Yes, smoked bacon is again in short supply, with just the basic streaky smoked available, but we're not fussy, so that does the trick.
Also, Jools picked up her inhalers for her cough, and so, we hope, the road to recovery begins.
What to do with the day?
Although a walk would have been good, Jools can do no more than ten minutes in freezing conditions before a coughing fits starts, so a couple of churches to revisit and take more shots of.
First on the list was St Leonard in Upper Deal. A church I have only have been inside once. As it was just half ten, there should have been a chance it was open, but no. We parked up and I walked over the road to try the porch door, but it was locked.
No worries, as the next two would certainly be open.
Just up the road towards Canterbury is Ash.
Ash is a large village that the main roads now bypass its narrow streets, and buses call not so frequently.
The church towers over the village, its spire piercing the grey sky. We park beside the old curry hours than burned down a decade ago, is now a house and no sign of damage.
indeed the church was open, though the porch door was closed, it opened with use of the latch, and the inner glass door swung inwards, revealing an interior I had forgotten about, rich Victorian glass let in the weak sunlight, allowing me to take detailed shots. It was far better and more enjoyable than I remembered.
Once I took 200 or so shots, we went back to the car, drove back to the main road, and on to Wingham, where the church there, a twin of Wingham, would also be open too.
And it was.
The wardens were just finishing trimming the church up, and putting out new flowers, it was a bustle of activity, then one by one they left.
got my shots, and we left, back to the car and to home, though we did stop at he farm shop at Aylsham, and all we wanted was some sweet peppers for hash.
We went in and there was the bakery: I bought two sausage rolls, four small pork pies and two Cajun flavours scotch eggs. We got cider, beer, healthy snacks (we told ourselves) and finally found the peppers.
Three peppers cost £50!
Then back home, along the A2.
And arriving back home at one. We feasted on the scotch eggs and two of the pork pies.
Yummy.
There was the third place play off game to watch on the tellybox, the Football league to follow on the radio. We lit the woodburner and it was soon toasty warm.
At half five, Norwich kicked off, and hopes were high as Blackburn had not beaten us in over a decade.
And, yes you guessed it, Norwich lost. Played poorly, and in Dad's words, were lucky to get nil.
Oh dear.
Oh dear indeed.
We have Christmas cake for supper, and apart from the football, as was well with the world.
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A large and impressive church of mainly thirteenth century date over restored in 1847 by the irrepressible William Butterfield. The scale of the interior is amazing - particularly in the tower crossing arches which support the enormous spire. They are an obvious insertion into an earlier structure. The best furnishing at Ash is the eighteenth century font which stands on an inscribed base. For the visitor interested in memorials, Ash ahs more than most ranging from the fourteenth century effigy of a knight to two excellent alabaster memorials to Sir Thomas Harfleet (d 1612) and Christopher Toldervy (d 1618). Mrs Toldervy appears twice in the church for she accompanies her husband on his memorial and may also be seen as a `weeper` on her parents` memorial! On that she is one of two survivors of what was once a group of seven daughters - all her weeping brothers have long since disappeared.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Ash+2
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ASH
LIES adjoining to the last-described parish of Staple northward. It is written in Domesday, Ece, and in other antient records, Aisse, and is usually called Ash, near Sandwich, to distinguish it from Ash, near Wrotham.
The parish of Ash is very large, extending over a variety of soil and country, of hill, dale, and marsh lands, near four miles across each way, and containing more than six thousand acres of land, of which about one half is marsh, the river Stour being its northern bounday, where it is very wet and unwholesone, but the southern or upland part of the parish is very dary, pleasant and healthy. The soil in general is fertile, and lets on an average at about one pound an acre; notwithstanding, there is a part of it about Ash-street and Gilton town, where it is a deep sand. The village of Ash, commonly called Ash-street, situated in this part of it, on high ground, mostly on the western declivity of a hill, having the church on the brow of it, is built on each side of the road from Canterbury to Sandwich, and contains about fifty houses. On the south side of this road, about half a mile westward, is a Roman burial ground, of which further mention will be taken hereaster, and adjoining to it the hamlet of Gilton town, formerly written Guildanton, in which is Gilton parsonage, a neat stuccoed house, lately inhabited by Mr. Robert Legrand, and now by Mrs. Becker. In the valley southward stands Mote farm, alias Brooke house, formerly the habitation of the Stoughtons, then of the Ptoroude's and now the property of Edward Solly, esq. of London.
There are dispersed throughout this large parish many small hamlets and farms, which have been formerly of more consequence, from the respective owners and in habitants of them, all which, excepting East and New Street, and Great Pedding, (the latter of which was the antient residence of the family of solly, who lie buried in Ash church-yard, and bore for their arms, Vert, a chevron, per pale, or, and gules, between three soles naiant, argent, and being sold by one of them to dean Lynch, is now in the possession of lady Lynch, the widow of Sir William Lynch, K. B.) are situated in the northern part of the parish, and contain together about two hundred and fifty houses, among them is Hoden, formerly the residence of the family of St. Nicholas; Paramour-street, which for many years was the residence of those of that name, and Brook-street, in which is Brook-house, the residence of the Brooke's, one of whom John Brooke, esq. in queen Elizabeth's reign, resided here, and bore for his arms, Per bend, vert and sable, two eagles, counterchanged.
William, lord Latimer, anno 38 Edward III. obtained a market to be held at Ash, on a Thursday; and a fair yearly on Lady-day, and the two following ones. A fair is now held in Ash-street on Lady and Michaelmas days yearly.
In 1473 there was a lazar house for the infirm of the leprosy, at Eche, near Sandwich.
¶The manor of Wingham claims paramount over this parish, subordinate to which there were several manors in it, held of the archbishop, to whom that manor belonged, the mansions of which, being inhabited by families of reputation and of good rank in life, made this parish of much greater account than it has been for many years past, the mansions of them having been converted for a length of time into farmhouses to the lands to which they belong.
f this manor, (viz. Wingham) William de Acris holds one suling in Fletes, and there he has in demesne one carucate and four villeins, and one knight with one carucate, and one fisbery, with a saltpit of thirty pence. The whole is worth forty shillings.
This district or manor was granted by archbishop Lanfranc, soon after this, to one Osberne, (fn. 7) of whom I find no further mention, nor of this place, till king Henry III.'s reign, when it seems to have been separated into two manors, one of which, now known by the name of the manor of Gurson Fleet, though till of late time by that of Fleet only, was held afterwards of the archbishop by knight's service, by the family of Sandwich, and afterwards by the Veres, earls of Oxford, one of whom, Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, who died anno 3 Edward III. was found by the escheat-rolls of that year, to have died possessed of this manor of Fleet, which continued in his descendants down to John de Vere, earl of Oxford, who for his attachment to the house of Lancaster, was attainted in the first year of king Edward IV. upon which this manor came into the hands of the crown, and was granted the next year to Richard, duke of Gloucester, the king's brother, with whom it staid after his succession to the crown, as king Richard III. on whose death, and the accession of king Henry VII. this manor returned to the possession of John, earl of Oxford, who had been attainted, but was by parliament anno I Henry VII. restored in blood, titles and possessions. After which this manor continued in his name and family till about the middle of queen Elizabeth's reign, when Edward Vere, earl of Oxford, alienated it to Hammond, in whose descendants it continued till one of them, in the middle of king Charles II.'s reign, sold it to Thomas Turner, D. D. who died possessed of it in 1672, and in his name and descendants it continued till the year 1748, when it was sold to John Lynch, D. D. dean of Canterbury, whose son Sir William Lynch, K. B. died possessed of it in 1785, and by his will devised it, with the rest of his estates, to his widow lady Lynch, who is the present possessor of it. A court baron is held for this manor.
Archbishop Lanfranc, on his founding the priory of St. Gregory, in the reign of the Conqueror, gave to it the tithe of the manor of Fleet; which gift was confirmed by archbishop Hubert in Richard I.'s reign. This portion of tithes, which arose principally from Gurson Fleet manor, remained with the priory at its dissolution, and is now part of Goldston parsonage, parcel of the see of Canterbury, of which further mention has been made before.
The other part of the district of Fleet was called, to distinguish it, and from the possessors of it, the manor of Nevills Fleet, though now known by the name of Fleet only, is situated between Gurson and Richborough, adjoining to the former. This manor was held in king John's reign of the archbishop, by knight's service, by Thomas Pincerna, so called probably from his office of chief butler to that prince, whence his successors assumed the name of Butler, or Boteler. His descendant was Robert le Boteler, who possessed this manor in king Ed ward I.'s reign, and from their possession of it, this manor acquired for some time the name of Butlers Fleet; but in the 20th year of king Edward III. William, lord Latimer of Corbie, appears to have been in the possession of it, and from him it acquired the name of Latimers Fleet. He bore for his arms, Gules, a cross flory, or. After having had summons to parliament, (fn. 8) he died in the begening of king Richard II.'s reign, leaving Elizabeth his sole daughter and heir, married to John, lord Nevill, of Raby, whose son John bore the title of lord Latimer, and was summoned to parliament as lord Latimer, till the 9th year of king Henry VI. in which he died, so that the greatest part of his inheritance, among which was this manor, came by an entail made, to Ralph, lord Nevill, and first earl of Westmoreland, his eldest, but half brother, to whom he had sold, after his life, the barony of Latimer, and he, by seoffment, vested it, with this manor and much of the inheritance above-mentioned, in his younger son Sir George Nevill, who was accordingly summoned to parliament as lord Latimer, anno 10 Henry VI. and his grandson Richard, lord Latimer, in the next regin of Edward IV. alienated this manor, which from their length of possession of it, had acquired the name of Nevill's Fleet, to Sir James Cromer, and his son Sir William Cromer, in the 11th year of king Henry VII, sold it to John Isaak, who passed it away to Kendall, and he, in the beginning of king Henry VIII.'s reign, sold it to Sir John Fogge, of Repton, in Ashford, who died possessed of it in 1533, and his son, of the same name, before the end of it, passed it away to Mr. Thomas Rolfe, and he sold it, within a few years afterwards, to Stephen Hougham, gent. of this parish, who by his will in 1555, devised it to his youngest son Rich. Hougham, of Eastry, from one of whose descendants it was alienated to Sir Adam Spracklin, who sold it to one of the family of Septvans, alias Harflete, in which name it continued till within a few years after the death of king Charles I. when by a female heir Elizabeth it went in marriage to Thomas Kitchell, esq. in whose heirs it continued till it was at length, about the year 1720, alienated by one of them to Mr. Thomas Bambridge, warden of the Fleet prison, upon whose death it became vested in his heirs-at-law, Mr. James Bambridge, of the Temple, attorney at-law, and Thomas Bambridge, and they divided this estate, and that part of it allotted to the latter was soon afterwards alienated by him to Mr. Peter Moulson, of London, whose only daughter and heir carried it in marriage to Mr. Geo. Vaughan, of London, and he and the assignees of Mr. James Bambridge last mentioned, have lately joined in the conveyance of the whole fee of this manor to Mr. Joseph Solly, gent. of Sandwich, the present owner of it. There is not any court held for this manor.
In this district, and within this manor of Fleet lastmentioned, there was formerly a chapel of cose to the church of Ash, as that was to the church of Wingham, to which college, on its foundation by archbishop Peckham in 1286, the tithes, rents, obventions, &c of this chapel and district was granted by him, for the support in common of the provost and canons of it, with whom it remained till the suppression of it, anno I king Edward VI. The tithes, arising from this manor of Fleet, and the hamlet of Richborough, are now a part of the rectory of Ash, and of that particular part of it called Gilton parsonage, parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, of which further mention will be made hereafter. There have not been any remains left of it for a long time part.
Richborough is a hamlet and district of land, in the south-east part of this parish, rendered famous from the Roman fort and town built there, and more so formerly, from the port or haven close adjoining to it.
It was in general called by the Romans by the plural name of Rutupiæ; for it must be observed that the æstuary, which at that time separated the Isle of Thanet from the main land of Kent, and was the general passage for shipping,had at each mouth of it, towards the sea, a fort and haven, called jointly Rutupiæ. That at the northern part and of it being now called Reculver, and that at the eastern, being the principal one, this of Richborough.
The name of it is variously spelt in different authors. By Ptolemy it is written [Patapiaia (?)] urbem; by Tacitus, according to the best reading, Portus, Rutupensis; by Antonine, in his Itinerary, Ritupas, and Ritupis Portum; by Ammianus, Ritupiæ statio; afterwards by the Saxons, Reptacester, and now Richborough.
The haven, or Portus Rutupinus, or Richborough, was very eminent in the time of the Romans, and much celebrated in antient history, being a safe and commodious harbour, stationem ex adverso tranquillam, as Ammianus calls it, situated at the entrance of the passage towards then Thamas, and becoming the general place of setting sail from Britain to the continent, and where the Roman fleets arrived, and so large and extensive was the bay of it, that it is supposed to have extended far beyond Sandwich on the one side, almost to Ramsgate cliffs on the other, near five miles in width, covering the whole of that flat of land on which Stonar and Sandwich were afterwards built, and extending from thence up the æstuary between the Isle of Thanet and the main land. So that Antonine might well name it the Port, in his Itinerary, [Kat exochin], from there being no other of like consequence, and from this circumstance the shore for some distance on each side acquired the general name of Littus Rutupinum, the Rutupian shore. (fn. 9) Some have contended that Julius Cæsar landed at Richborough, in his expeditions into Britain; but this opinion is refuted by Dr. Hasley in Phil, Trans. No. 193, who plainly proves his place of landing to have been in the Downs. The fort of Richborough, from the similarity of the remains of it to those of Reculver, seems to have been built about the same time, and by the same emperer, Serveris, about the year 205. It stands on the high hill, close to a deep precipice eastward, at the soot of which was the haven. In this fortress, so peculiarly strengthened by its situation, the Romans had afterwards a stationary garrison, and here they had likewise a pharos, of watch tower, the like as at Reculver and other places on this coast, as well to guide the shipping into the haven, as to give notice of the approach of enemies. It is by most supposed that there was, in the time of the Romans, near the fort, in like manner as at Reculver, a city or town, on the decline of the hill, south-westward from it, according to custom, at which a colony was settled by them. Prolemy, in his geography, reckons the city Rutpia as one of the three principal cities of Kent. (fn. 10) Orosius. and Bede too, expressly mention it as such; but when the haven decayed, and there was no longer a traffic and resort to this place, the town decayed likewise, and there have not been, for many ages since, any remains whatever of it left; though quantities of coins and Roman antiquities have been sound on the spot where it is supposed to have once stood.
During the latter part of the Roman empire, when the Saxons prevented all trade by sea, and insefted these coasts by frequent robberies, the second Roman legion, called Augusta, and likewise Britannica, which had been brought out of Germany by the emperor Claudius, and had resided for many years at the Isca Silurum, in Wales, was removed and stationed here, under a president or commander, præpositus, of its own, who was subordinate to the count of the Saxon shore, and continued so till the final departure of the Romans from Britain, in the year 410, when this fortress was left in the hands of the Britons, who were afterwards dispossessed of it by the Saxons, during whose time the harbour seems to have began to decay and to swerve up, the sea by degrees entirely deserting it at this place, but still leaving one large and commodious at Sandwich, which in process of time became the usual resort for shipping, and arose a flourishing harbour in its stead, as plainly appears by the histories of those times, by all of which, both the royal Saxon fleets, as well as those of the Danes, are said to sail for the port of Sandwich, and there to lie at different times; (fn. 11) and no further mention is made by any of them of this of Rutupiæ, Reptachester, or Richborough; so that the port being thus destroyed, the town became neglected and desolate, and with the castle sunk into a heap of ruins. Leland's description of it in king Henry VIII.'s reign, is very accurate, and gives an exceeding good idea of the progressive state of its decay to that time. He says, "Ratesburg otherwyse Richeboro was, of ever the ryver of Sture dyd turn his botom or old canale, withyn the Isle of the Thanet, and by Iykelyhod the mayn se came to the very foote of the castel. The mayn se ys now of yt a myle by reason of wose, that has there swollen up. The scite of the town or castel ys wonderful fair apon an hille. The walles the wich remayn ther yet be in cumpase almost as much as the tower of London. They have bene very hye thykke stronge and wel embateled. The mater of them is flynt mervelus and long brykes both white and redde after the Britons fascion. The sement was made of se sand and smaul pible. Ther is a great lykelyhod that the goodly hil abowte the castel and especially to Sandwich ward hath bene wel inhabited. Corne groweth on the hille yn bene mervelous plenty and yn going to plowgh ther hath owt of mynde fownd and now is mo antiquities of Romayne money than yn any place els of England surely reason speketh that this should be Rutupinum. For byside that the name sumwhat toucheth, the very near passage fro Cales Clyves or Cales was to Ratesburgh and now is to Sandwich, the which is about a myle of; though now Sandwich be not celebrated by cawse of Goodwine sandes and the decay of the haven. Ther is a good flyte shot of fro Ratesburg toward Sandwich a great dyke caste in a rownd cumpas as yt had bene for sens of menne of warre. The cumpase of the grownd withyn is not much above an acre and yt is very holo by casting up the yerth. They cawle the place there Lytleborough. Withyn the castel is a lytle paroche chirch of St. Augustine and an heremitage. I had antiquities of the heremite the which is an industrious man. Not far fro the hermitage is a cave wher men have sowt and digged for treasure. I saw it by candel withyn, and ther were conys. Yt was so straite that I had no mynd to crepe far yn. In the north side of the castel ys a hedde yn the walle, now fore defaced with wether. They call it queen Bertha hedde. Nere to that place hard by the wal was a pot of Romayne mony sownd."
The ruins of this antient castle stand upon the point of a hill or promontory, about a mile north-west from Sandwich, overlooking on each side, excepting towards the west, a great flat which appears by the lowness of it, and the banks of beach still shewing themselves in different places, to have been all once covered by the sea. The east side of this hill is great part of it so high and perpendicular from the flat at the foot of it, where the river Stour now runs, that ships with the greatest burthen might have lain close to it, and there are no signs of any wall having been there; but at the north end, where the ground rises into a natural terrace, so as to render one necessary, there is about 190 feet of wall left. Those on the other three sides are for the most part standing, and much more entire than could be expected, considering the number of years since they were built, and the most so of any in the kingdom, except Silchester. It is in shape an oblong square, containing within it a space of somewhat less than five acres. They are in general about ten feet high within, but their broken tops shew them to have been still higher. The north wall, on the outside, is about twice as high as it is within, or the other two, having been carried up from the very bottom of the hill, and it seems to have been somewhat longer than it is at present, by some pieces of it sallen down at the east end. The walls are about eleven feet thick. In the middle of the west side is the aperture of an entrance, which probably led to the city or town, and on the north side is another, being an entrance obliquely into the castle. Near the middle of the area are the ruins of some walls, full of bushes and briars, which seem as if some one had dug under ground among them, probably where once stood the prætorium of the Roman general, and where a church or chapel was afterwards erected, dedicated to St. Augustine, and taken notice of by Leland as such in his time. It appears to have been a chapel of ease to the church of Ash, for the few remaining inhabitants of this district, and is mentioned as such in the grant of the rectory of that church, anno 3 Edward VI. at which time it appears to have existed. About a furlong to the south, in a ploughed field, is a large circular work, with a hollow in the middle, the banks of unequal heights, which is supposed to have been an amphitheatre, built of turf, for the use of the garrison, the different heights of the banks having been occasioned by cultivation, and the usual decay, which must have happened from so great a length of time. These stations of the Romans, of which Richborough was one, were strong fortifications, for the most part of no great compass or extent, wherein were barracks for the loding of the soldiers, who had their usual winter quarters in them. Adjoining, or at no great distance from them, there were usually other, buildings forming a town; and such a one was here at Richborough, as has been already mentioned before, to which the station or fort was in the nature of a citadel, where the soldiers kept garrison. To this Tacitus seems to allude, when he says, "the works that in time of peace had been built, like a free town, not far from the camp, were destroyed, left they should be of any service to the enemy." (fn. 12) Which in great measure accounts for there being no kind of trace or remains left, to point out where this town once stood, which had not only the Romans, according to the above observation, but the Saxons and Danes afterwards, to carry forward at different æras the total destruction of it.
The burial ground for this Roman colony and station of Richborough, appears to have been on the hill at the end of Gilton town, in this parish, about two miles south-west from the castle, and the many graves which have been continually dug up there, in different parts of it, shew it to have been of general use for that purpose for several ages.
The scite of the castle at Richborough was part of the antient inheritance of the family of the Veres, earls of Oxford, from which it was alienated in queen Elizabeth's reign to Gaunt; after which it passed, in like manner as Wingham Barton before-described, to Thurbarne, and thence by marriage to Rivett, who sold it to Farrer, from whom it was alienated to Peter Fector, esq. of Dover, the present possessor of it. In the deed of conveyance it is thus described: And also all those the walls and ruins of the antient castle of Rutupium, now known by the name of Richborough castle, with the scite of the antient port and city of Rutupinum, being on and near the lands before-mentioned. About the walls of Richborough grows Fæniculum valgare, common fennel, in great plenty.
It may be learned from the second iter of Antonine's Itinerary, that there was once a Roman road, or highway from Canterbury to the port of Richborough, in which iter the two laft stations are, from Durovernum, Canterbury, to Richborough, ad portum Rutupis, xii miles; in which distance all the different copies of the Itinerary agree. Some parts of this road can be tracted at places at this time with certainty; and by the Roman burial-ground, usually placed near the side of a high road, at Gilton town, and several other Roman vestigia thereabouts, it may well be supposed to have led from Canterbury through that place to Richborough, and there is at this time from Goldston, in Ash, across the low-grounds to it, a road much harder and broader than usual for the apparent use of it, which might perhaps be some part of it.
Charities.
A person unknown gave four acres and an half of land, in Chapman-street, of the annual produce of 5l. towards the church assessments.
Thomas St. Nicholas, esq. of this parish, by deed about the year 1626, gave an annuity of 11. 5s. to be paid from his estate of Hoden, now belonging to the heirs of Nathaniel Elgar, esq. to be distributed yearly, 10s. to the repairing and keeping clean the Toldervey monument in this church, and 15s. on Christmas-day to the poor.
John Proude, the elder, of Ash, yeoman, by his will in 1626, ordered that his executor should erect upon his land adjoining to the church-yard, a house, which should be disposed of in future by the churchwardens and overseers, for a school-house, and for a storehouse, to lay in provision for the church and poor. This house is now let at 1l. per annum, and the produce applied to the use of the poor.
Richard Camden, in 1642, gave by will forty perches of land, for the use of the poor, and of the annual produce of 15s. now vested in the minister and churchwardens.
Gervas Cartwright, esq. and his two sisters, in 1710 and 1721, gave by deed an estate, now of the yearly value of 50l. for teaching fifty poor children to read, write, &c. vested in the minister, churchwardens, and other trustees.
The above two sisters, Eleanor and Anne Cartwright, gave besides 100l. for beautifying the chancel, and for providing two large pieces of plate for the communion service; and Mrs. Susan Robetts added two other pieces of plate for the same purpose.
There is a large and commodious workhouse lately built, for the use of the poor, to discharge the expence of which, 100l. is taken yearly out of the poor's rate, till the whole is discharged. In 1604, the charges of the poor were 29l. 15s. 11d. In 1779. 1000l.
There is a charity school for boys and girls, who are educated, but not cloathed.
The poor constantly relieved are about seventy-five, casually fifty-five.
This parish is within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the dioceseof Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a handsome building, of the form of a cross, consisting of two isles and two chancels, and a cross sept, having a tall spire steeple in the middle, in which are eight bells and a clock. It is very neat and handsome in the inside. In the high or south chancel is a monument for the Roberts's, arms, Argent, three pheons, sable, on a chief of the second, a greybound current of the first; another for the Cartwrights, arms, Or, a fess embattled, between three catherine wheels, sable. In the north wall is a monument for one of the family of Leverick, with his effigies, in armour, lying cross-legged on it; and in the same wall, westward, is another like monument for Sir John Goshall, with his effigies on it, in like manner, and in a hollow underneath, the effigies of his wife, in her head-dress, and wimple under her chin. A gravestone, with an inscription, and figure of a woman with a remarkable high high-dress, the middle part like a horseshoe inverted, for Jane Keriell, daughter of Roger Clitherow. A stone for Benjamin Longley, LL. B. minister of Ash twenty-nine years, vicar of Eynsford and Tonge, obt. 1783. A monument for William Brett, esq. and Frances his wife. The north chancel, dedicated to St. Nicholas, belongs to the manor of Molland. Against the north wall is a tomb, having on it the effigies of a man and woman, lying at full length, the former in armour, and sword by his side, but his head bare, a collar of SS about his neck, both seemingly under the middle age, but neither arms nor inscription, but it was for one of the family of Harflete, alias Septvans; and there are monuments and several memorials and brasses likewise for that family. A memorial for Thomas Singleton, M. D. of Molland, obt. 1710. One for John Brooke, of Brookestreet, obt. 1582, s. p. arms, Per bend, two eagles.—Several memorials for the Pekes, of Hills-court, and for Masters, of Goldstone. A monument for Christopher Toldervy, of Chartham, obt. 1618. A memorial for Daniel Hole, who, as well as his ancestors, had lived upwards of one hundred years at Goshall, as occupiers of it. In the north cross, which was called the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr, was buried the family of St. Nicholas. The brass plates of whom, with their arms, are still to be seen. A tablet for Whittingham Wood, gent. obt. 1656. In the south cross, a monument for Richard Hougham, gent. of Weddington, and Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Edward Sanders, gent. of Norborne. An elegant monument for Mary, wife of Henry Lowman, esq. of Dortnued, in Germany. She died in 1737, and he died in 1743. And for lieutenant colonel Christopher Ernest Kien, obt. 1744, and Jane his wife, their sole daughter and heir, obt. 1762, and for Evert George Cousemaker, esq. obt. 1763, all buried in a vault underneath, arms, Or, on a mount vert, a naked man, bolding a branch in his hand, proper, impaling per bend sinister, argent and gules, a knight armed on borjeback, holding a tilting spear erect, the point downwards, all counterchanged. On the font is inscribed, Robert Minchard, arms, A crescent, between the points of it a mullet. Several of the Harfletes lie buried in the church-yard, near the porch, but their tombs are gone. On each side of the porch are two compartments of stone work, which were once ornamented with brasses, most probably in remembrance of the Harfleets, buried near them. At the corner of the church-yard are two old tombs, supposed for the family of Alday.
In the windows of the church were formerly several coats of arms, and among others, of Septvans, alias Harflete, Notbeame, who married Constance, widow of John Septvans; Brooke, Ellis, Clitherow, Oldcastle, Keriell, and Hougham; and the figures of St. Nicholas, Keriell, and Hougham, kneeling, in their respective surcoats of arms, but there is not any painted glass left in any part of the church or chancels.
John Septvans, about king Henry VII.'s reign, founded a chantry, called the chantry of the upper Hall, as appears by the will of Katherine Martin, of Faversham, sometime his wife, in 1497. There was a chantry of our blessed Lady, and another of St. Stephen likewise, in it; both suppressed in the 1st year of king Edward VI. when the former of them was returned to be of the clear yearly certified value of 15l. 11s. 1½d. (fn. 13)
The church of Ash was antiently a chapel of east to that of Wingham, and was, on the foundation of the college there in 1286, separated from it, and made a distinct parish church of itself, and then given to the college, with the chapels likewise of Overland and Fleet, in this parish, appurtenant to this church; which becoming thus appropriated to the college, continued with it till the suppression of it in king Edward VI.'s reign, when this part of the rectory or parsonage appropriate, called Overland parsonage, with the advowson of the church, came, with the rest of the possessions of the college, into the hands of the crown, where the advowson of the vicarage, or perpetual curacy of it did not remain long, for in the year 1558, queen Mary granted it, among others, to the archbishop. But the above-mentioned part of the rectory, or parsonage appropriate of Ash, with those chapels, remained in the crown, till queen Elizabeth, in her 3d year, granted it in exchange to archbishop Parker, who was before possessed of that part called Goldston parsonage, parcel of the late dissolved priory of St. Gregory, by grant from king Henry VIII. so that now this parish is divided into two distinct parsonages, viz. of Overland and of Goldston, which are demised on separate beneficial leases by the archbishop, the former to the heirs of Parker, and the latter, called Gilton parsonage, from the house and barns of it being situated in that hamlet, to George Gipps, esq. M. P. for Canterbury. The patronage of the perpetual curacy remains parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury.
¶At the time this church was appropriated to the college of Wingham, a vicarage was endowed in it, which after the suppression of the college came to be esteemed as a perpetual curacy. It is not valued in the king's books. The antient stipend paid by the provost, &c. to the curate being 16l. 13s. 4d. was in 1660, augmented by archbishop Juxon with the addition of 33l. 6s. 8d. per annum; and it was afterwards further augmented by archbishop Sheldon, anno 28 Charles II. with twenty pounds per annum more, the whole to be paid by the several lessees of these parsonages. Which sum of seventy pounds is now the clear yearly certified value of it. In 1588 here were communicants five hundred; in 1640, eight hundred and fifty. So far as appears by the registers, the increase of births in this parish is almost double to what they were two hundred years ago.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The DAP “Bunyip” fighter was an indigenous development as a successor for the successful CA-12 “Boomerang” fighter, which had been designed in late 1941. The main challenge to this ambition was the fact that fighter aircraft had never been manufactured before in Australia, and that the country’s aircraft industry was relatively young and only had acquired experience through license production.
The CA-12 proved to be successful, even though it had several weak spots. While the CA-12 was lively at low level, its performance fell away rapidly above altitudes of 15,000 ft (4,600 m), and its maximum speed of 265 knots (490 km/h) was not sufficient to make it an effective counter to Japanese fighters like the Zero and the Japanese Army's Nakajima Ki 43 ("Oscar"). Similarly, the best European fighters were reaching almost 350 knots (650 km/h), and even relatively sluggish contemporary fighters – like the Grumman F4F Wildcat and the Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk I – were substantially faster than the Boomerang.
As a consequence, CAC already commenced work upon a new variant which featured performance improvements in terms of speed, climb and ceiling during the CA-12’s flight testing phase. Designated CA-14, this aircraft was designed around an order for 145 U.S.-built, 1,700 hp (1,268 kW) Wright Cyclone R-2600 engines or, alternatively, by the even more powerful 1,850 hp (1,380 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2800. In parallel, a design team around the Australian Department of Aircraft Production (DAP)’s chief engineer Robert Harford at Melbourne was also ordered to produce an independent, competitive design for a potential CA-12 successor with better overall performance characteristics, but using a different engine.
This was an unusual move, since DAP was an Aircraft Construction Branch of the Department of Supply and Development, an entity that had so far been primarily tasked with the license production of the Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber, but it was per se not a design or engineering center.
However, the DAP team accepted the challenge and produced the DAP “Bunyip” in record time. This aircraft was a compact single seat fighter aircraft, powered by the British Hercules engine, which was already in RAAF use through the Bristol Beaufighter – a lucky move, since CAC’s proposal for their upgraded CA-12 turned out to be a dud: the intended R-2800 was not available for export from the USA when serial production would have started, since any R-2800 production was allocated to US companies. Even though the Australian government favored CAC’s proposal, the Bunyip was ushered into production after a mere year of development and testing.
The Bunyip was an all-metal construction with a low wing and a fully retractable landing gear. While it roughly shared the CA-12’s outline, it was a completely new construction and aerodynamically much more refined than the Boomerang. The widespread use of light metal alloys instead of wood resulted in a lighter and stiffer structure, and, together with a much higher surface quality and the more powerful engine, many small innovations resulted in a significant improvement in speed and climb. Standard armament consisted of six 0.5” machine guns in the outer wings, firing outside of the propeller arc, and two underwing hardpoints allowed bombs of up to 250 lb (113 kg) caliber to be carried.
The first production variant, the Bunyip Mk. I, was introduced into service in summer 1943. RAAF 79 squadron began combat trials of the new type in late 1943 in support of the unit’s first sweep over Japanese-held territory from Gasmata on New Britain, together with Spitfires and Boomerangs as benchmarks. During this time, the new fighters made 102 individual sorties and claimed 15 aerial victories while losing only four aircraft in combat – a very successful start, even though these initial hot operations revealed several flaws. Another problem was the type’s similarity to the Japanese Nakajima Ki-44 fighter – in order to distinguish the RAAF Bunyips, practically all machines soon received prominent, ID markings in the form of white wing leading edges and tails.
Four Bunyips of this initial batch were lost to non-combat causes, mostly related to engine problems: Initially, the Hercules had the tendency to overheat in the hot and humid climate, this problem was traced back to an undersized oil cooler. The carburetor intakes in the wing roots caused reliability problems, too, due to dust ingestion, and there were problems with the stabilizers that tended to flutter at high speed, too.
After only forty Mk. I aircraft, production quickly changed to the Bunyip Mk. II, which incorporated several detail improvements like an enlarged oil cooler (which had, due to its size, to be re-located under the cockpit), dust filters, a stiffened landing gear and a reinforced tail structure. This variant also introduced an alternative armament of four 20mm Hispano cannon in the outer wings (called Mk. IIB, while the IIA retained the original machine gun armament) as well as the option to carry up to four unguided 60 lb missiles under its wings instead of bombs, what made the Bunyip a formidable ground attack aircraft. This role eventually became the type’s primary role, since, by the time of the Bunyip Mk. II’s introduction, the Spitfire had successfully filled the interceptor role and CAC was on the verge of commencing the manufacture of Mustangs under license to meet the sought bomber escort and air superiority roles. There was also an order for 250 of the new P-51H fighters for the RAAF, which was soon changed into a license production agreement at CAC as the Commonwealth CA-21 Mustang Mk. 24.
The DAP Bunyip’s active career was short and intense, and the aircraft was exclusively operated by the RAAF. In service, the operating units worked closely together with the Royal New Zealand Air Force, undertaking reconnaissance, artillery observation, ground attack, and aerial resupply missions in support of Australian ground troops fighting against the Japanese on Bougainville, New Britain and New Guinea. Until August 1945 a total of 351 Bunyips were produced at DAP’s Melbourne factory. After the end of WWII, the type was quickly phased out, though. Only a handful remained in RAAF service as advanced trainers and as ground instruction airframes until 1949.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 8.6 m (28 ft 3 in)
Wingspan: 9.8 m (32 ft 2 in)
Height: 2.54 m (8 ft 4 in)
Wing area: 17.59 m2 (189.3 sq ft)
Empty weight: 2,638 kg (5,816 lb)
Gross weight: 3,315 kg (7,308 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Hercules XVII 14-cylinder, two-row, air-cooled radial, delivering 1,735 hp (1,294 kW),
driving a 3-bladed Hamilton Standard, 11 ft 7 in (3.53 m) diameter constant-speed fully-feathering propeller
Performance:
Maximum speed: 632 km/h (392 mph)
Cruise speed: 400 km/h (249 mph; 216 kn) at 4,000 m (13,123 ft)
Stall speed: 150 km/h (93 mph; 81 kn)
Range: 765 km (475 miles)
Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,089 ft)
Rate of climb: 16.7 m/s (3,280 ft/min)
Time to altitude: 5.3 minutes to 5,000 meters (16,404 ft)
Armament:
4× 20 mm (0.787 in) Hispano or CAC cannons with 200 RPG
Two underwing hardpoints for a total ordnance of 500 lb (227 kg),
or four launch rails for unguided 60 lb missiles
The kit and its assembly:
This is my submission to the 2019 “One Week Group Build” at whatifmodelers.com, and it’s actually a personal interpretation of a fantasy profile drawing created by fellow user PantherG who combined a La-5FN with an all-green RAAF livery. The result looked very convincing, and since the GB was coming up, I decided to turn the drawing into model hardware.
However, my build just stuck loosely to the drawing – the kit basis is an Eduard La-7, and I also wanted to get more away from the aircraft’s Soviet (and very characteristic) origins, primarily through a different, Western engine. A search in the spares box revealed the cowling from a Matchbox Bristol Beaufighter: an appropriate choice, since the engine was actually in RAAF use, and the cowling’s diameter fits well onto the La-7 fuselage. A suitable engine dummy had to be found, too, and I decided to add a spinner-less propeller for an even more different look. The latter was improvised from a B-24 propeller hub (Quickboost) and the La-7’s OOB propeller blades. It was mounted on a metal axis and a styrene tube was added behind the engine block as an adapter.
As a gimmick and a reminder of the CA-12’s characteristic “porcupine” exhaust, I added a similar installation to the engine, even though the flame damper had to be shortened considerably. IIRC, the exhaust stub also comes from a Matchbox Beaufighter.
Other changes concern the armament; all guns were moved into the outer wings, using a set of resin 20mm Hispano cannon (Pavla) for a Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC. Additionally, I mounted four 60 lb missiles and their respective launch rails under the outer wings – also resin aftermarket parts (Pavla again).
Painting and markings:
PantherG’s original profile drawing showed an all-green La-5FN with Australian markings and characteristic white quick ID markings. Since I already had an RAAF Hurricane in my collection with such a livery, I rather went for a different paint scheme and went for another RAAF “classic”: upper surfaces in foliage green and earth brown, paired with sky blue undersides – plus the white markings.
PantherG was so kind to draw up a matching profile, based on my plans, and I stuck to it as good as possible. The real challenge became the colors, though. RAAF tones, esp. foliage green, are under heavy debate among modelers, and it is hard to find good evidence. Moreover, the RAAF seems to have been very pragmatic when it came to (re-)painting the flying equipment, there must have been a lot of variance and tolerance concerning the paints’ tones.
The most frequent recommendation for foliage green is FS 34092, but while this bluish green tone goes into the right direction, I find it (after having seen trustworthy WWII pictures of RAAF aircraft) to be much too light, lacking chroma. Furthermore, the recommendation of simply using RAF Dark Earth for the RAAF’s Earth Brown appears fishy to me, too. Again, the RAAF tone appears to be much deeper and richer, and less reddish.
As a consequence I decided to mix my own colors and eventually settled on a 3:1 mix of IJN Green (Modelmaster 2116) plus Humbrol 30 (Dark Green) and a 3:1 mix of Humbrol 10 (Brown) with Modelmaster 2108 (French Earth Brown) – both became relatively dark tones, but this would only make the white ID markings and the grey tactical codes better stand out. The Sky Blue underneath was also a light but rich tone and I found in Modelmaster 2131 (Medium Su-27 Blue) a suitable approximation.
The white tail was painted with a mix of Humbrol 34 and some 147 (White and Light Grey FS 36495), while the wings’ white leading edges were created with white water slide decal sheet material (TL Modellbau) and some touch-ups with white enamel paint. A convenient but somewhat tricky solution that saved time and masking hazards – I guess that painting would have been the more hazardous alternative.
The kit received a standard black ink wash and panels were post-shaded with lightened basic tones, visually adding surface structures that are actually not there.
The interior of cockpit and landing gear were painted with RAF Interior Green (Humbrol 78) – I checked several sources and pictures of museum pics, and this seems to have been the typical tone for RAAF aircraft (or at least those that had been built in Australia).
The decals were puzzled together from various sources. The roundels belong to an RAAF Spitfire (from a Carpena sheet), and this aircraft’s serial number was cut into pieces and re-arranged for the Bunyip. The tactical codes were created with single RAF font letters in medium sea grey from Xtradecal.
Some soot stains around the exhaust and the cannon nozzles was added with grinded graphite, and some signs of wear added on the leading edges and around the cockpit as well as the engine with dry-brushed light grey and silver. Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), and some oils stains (Tamiya Smoke) as well as small details (wire antenna, position lights) were added. Voilà.
Not a complex build, but the time frame of just nine days made this one, also due to the engine surgery, a tough build. Nevertheless, I am quite happy with the result – the La-7/RAAF combo just looks right, like a natural successor to the stubby CAC Boomerang.
Thursday morning, and all I had to do was get back to Kent. Hopefully before five so I could hand the hire car back, but getting back safe and sound would do, really.
I woke at six so I could be dressed for breakfast at half six when it started, and as usual when in a hotel, I had fruit followed by sausage and bacon sarnies. And lots of coffee.
Outside it had snowed. OK, it might only be an inch of the stuff, but that's more than an inch needed to cause chaos on the roads.
Back to the room to pack, one last look round and back to reception to check out, then out into the dawn to find that about a quarter of the cars were having snow and ice cleared off them before being able to be driven.
I joined them, scraping the soft snow then the ice. Bracing stuff at seven in the morning.
Now able to see out, I inched out of the car park and out to the exit and onto the untreated roads.
It was a picturesque scene, but not one I wanted to stop to snap. My first road south had only been gritted on one side, thankfully the side I was travelling down, but was still just compacted snow.
After negotiating two roundabouts, I was on the on ramp to the M6, and a 60 mile or so drive south. The motorway was clear of snow, but huge amounts of spray was thrown up, and the traffic was only doing 45mph, or the inside lane was, and that was quite fast and safe enough for me.
More snow fell as I neared Stoke, just to add to the danger of the journey, and then the rising sun glinted off the road, something which I had most of the drive home.
I went down the toll road, it costs eight quid, but is quick and easy. And safe too with so little traffic on it. I think for the first time, I didn't stop at the services, as it was only about half nine, and only three hours since breakfast.
And by the time I was on the old M6, there was just about no snow on the ground, and the road was beginning to dry out.
My phone played the tunes from my apple music store. Loudly. So the miles slipped by.
After posting some shots from Fotheringhay online, a friend, Simon, suggested others nearby that were worth a visit, and I also realised that I hadn't taken wide angle shots looking east and west, so I could drop in there, then go to the others suggested.
And stopping here was about the half way point in the journey so was a good break in the drive, and by then the clouds had thinned and a weak sin shone down.
Fotheringhay is as wonderful as always, it really is a fine church, easy to stop there first, where I had it to myself, and this time even climbed into the richly decorated pulpit to snap the details.
A short drive away was Apethorpe, where there was no monkey business. The village was built of all the same buttery yellow sandstone, looking fine in the weak sunshine.
Churches in this part of Northamptonshire are always open, Simon said.
Not at Apethorpe. So I made do with snapping the church and the village stocks and whipping post opposite.
A short drive up the hill was King's Cliffe. Another buttery yellow village and a fine church, which I guessed would be open.
Though it took some finding, as driving up the narrow high street I failed to find the church. I checked the sat nav and I had driven right past it, but being down a short lane it was partially hidden behind a row of houses.
The church was open, and was surrounded by hundreds of fine stone gravestones, some of designs I have not seen before, but it was the huge numbers of them that was impressive.
Inside the church was fine, if cold. I record what I could, but my compact camera's batter had died the day before, and I had no charger, so just with the nifty fifty and the wide angle, still did a good job of recording it.
There was time for one more church. Just.
For those of us who remember the seventies, Warmington means Dad's Army, or rather Warmington on Sea did. THat there is a real Warmington was a surprise to me, and it lay just a couple of miles the other side of Fotheringhay.
The church is large, mostly Victorian after it fell out of use and became derelict, if the leaflet I read inside was accurate. But the renovation was excellent, none more so than the wooden vaulted roof with bosses dating to either the 15th or 16th centuries.
Another stunning item was the pulpit, which looks as though it is decorated with panels taken from the Rood Screen. Very effective.
Back to the car, I program the sat nav for home, and set off back to Fotheringhay and the A14 beyond.
No messing around now, just press on trying to make good time so to be home before dark, and time to go home, drop my bags, feed the cats before returning the car.
No real pleasure, but I made good time, despite encountering several bad drivers, who were clearly out only to ruin my mood.
Even the M25 was clear, I raced to the bridge, over the river and into Kent.
Nearly home.
I drive back down the A2, stopping at Medway services for a sandwich and a huge coffee on the company's credit card.
And that was that, just a blast down to Faversham, round onto the A2 and past Canterbury and to home, getting back at just after three, time to fill up the bird feeders, feed the cats, unpack and have a brew before going out at just gone four to return the car.
Jools would rescue me from the White Horse on her way home, so after being told the car was fine, walked to the pub and ordered two pints of Harvey's Best.
There was a guy from Essex and his American girlfriend, who were asking about all sorts of questions about Dover's history, and I was the right person to answer them.
I was told by a guide from the Castle I did a good job.
Yay me.
Jools arrived, so I went out and she took me home. Where the cats insisted they had not been fed.
Lies, all lies.
Dinner was teriyaki coated salmon, roasted sprouts and back, defrosted from before Christmas, and noodles.
Yummy.
Not much else to tell, just lighting the fire, so Scully and I would be toast warm watch the exciting Citeh v Spurs game, where Spurs were very Spursy indeed.
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I was exploring the churches of north-east Northamptonshire, and on my way back to Peterborough station how could I resist a visit to lovely Warmington church? The village is rather a suburban one but, the solid little entirely Early English church sits at its heart. Entirely a Huntingdonshire church in style, with a stubby spire and big dormer-style lucarnes.
I had previously visited almost exactly a year ago, and as before I left my bike in the Early English porch, which is vaulted in blocks of stone, handsome yet familiar. I remembered in 2015 stepping into what turned out to be then the most interesting interior of the day, although rather overshadowed by Apethorpe and Blatherwycke on my current trip. The most striking feature, and rather a surprising one, is that the roof of the nave is vaulted in wood. This was done in the 13th Century, and the bosses survive from that time - even more surprising, they all depict green men, nine of them. Why was this not done elsewhere?
The rood screen is one of the best in the area, and the medieval pulpit appears to be constructed of rood screen panels (can that be right? Did they come from the rood loft? Surely it is pre-Reformation, in which case perhaps they came from somewhere else). Lots to think about. A good church, it would be considered so in any county.
So I got back on my bike and headed on towards Peterborough, but not without a memory of the last time I had done the same thing, because in 2015, as I was about to leave the church, three young women came in. They were walking the Nene Way, and were attired as you might expect attractive young women to be on such a sunny day. I didn't want them to be made nervous by the presence of a middle-aged man with a camera, so I nodded a greeting as I left, but in the event they engaged me in conversation, asking me where I'd come from, telling me what they were doing, where they were going, and so on.
In the end I had to make my apologies and leave as they didn't seem to want to let me go, not an experience I have very often these days, I can tell you. It rather put me in mind of the Sirens episode in the Odyssey.
And so I headed on, wary now of any wandering rocks and one-eyed giants.
www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/27033140016/in/photo...
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St Michael’s Parish Church, Warmington
Warmington was already an established farming community when its assets were recorded in Domesday Book. Shortly afterwards, its Norman owner, the Earl of Warwick, gave the manor of Warmington to the Benedictine Abbey which his father had endowed in Normandy, St.Peter’s at Preaux. Warmington was to remain in monastic hands, with one short break, for about 450 years. Monks were sent over from Preaux who built a small Priory. Its foundations were discovered when houses were built in Court Close in the 1950s. The Priory has disappeared, but the splendid church built under the monks’ supervision, mainly in the early medieval period, remains.
The church stands high above the village, close to the summit of Warmington Hill. Tradition tells us that the stone for building it was dug close by, in the area known as Catpits, or Churchpits. The stone for the tower was brought from a field known as Turpits, or Towerpits, a quarter of a mile away along the Hornton road. The churchyard is entered either by the lych-gate from the main road, or from the village by two long flights of steps. A diagonal line of pine trees marks the former boundary of the churchyard which was extended in the 1850s. In the older part, and especially near the south porch, are gravestones of exceptionally fine workmanship dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. About eighty of these are ‘listed’ by the Department of the Environment. All the inscribed memorials were recorded in 1981.
An admirable and detailed architectural description of the church is available in the Victoria County History. These notes are intended rather as a ‘layman’s conducted tour’. The church was purpose-built and used for the first half of its long life for forms of worship very different from our own. It was also the village meeting place for many secular purposes The church comprises north and south porches, nave with north and south aisles, a west tower and chancel with two-storey vestry adjoining.
As you enter the church by the south porch you walk forward into the nave. This area, with the first three pillars on each side, is where Warmington people have met and worshipped since the twelfth century. The area was extended by the addition of the aisles a century later. Today the overwhelming impression is a sense of simplicity, of space and of strength. Imagine the scene in the medieval period: no pews but white-washed walls covered with paintings, images of the saints in stone, on wood and painted cloths, the whole lit by the sunlight through stained glass and by candles and lamps burning before every image. On Sundays before Mass, at special festivals and for some fifty saints’ days in the year, a procession would form, with banners and hand bells, winding its way around the church and churchyard, and stopping at various points for particular acts of worship. The north and west doors, so rarely used today, had significance in these processions.
Before leaving this area of the church, notice the variety of windows, almost all of early date, but now mostly with clear glass. The ones at the east ends of the aisles, where the stone plate is pierced with roundels and a five-pointed star, are unusual. Considerable work has been undertaken in recent years in renewing the stone mullions, worn by the weather over time. The early Norman tub font of simple design is large enough for infant immersion. The aisles both taper by a foot, one to the east, and one to the west. The nave and chancel are slightly out of alignment, perhaps symbolic of Christ’s drooping head on the cross.
Before stepping down into the chancel, run your hand along the wooden screen under the chancel arch. This is all that remains of the great rood-screen which would have dominated the medieval church. The screen was hacked through quite roughly when the church was stripped of its ‘idolatrous’ treasures at the Reformation. Just to the right of the chancel arch is the doorway and stair which used to lead to the rood-screen loft.
The stained glass and memorial tablets in the chancel all commemorate the family of the Victorian rector during whose incumbency the church was restored. On the south wall are a richly decorated triple sedilia and piscina, dating from the fifteenth century when Warmington manor had newly passed to the Carthusian monks of Wytham in Somerset.
A door from the chancel leads into the vestry, built about 1340. The lower room was a chapel, dedicated to St Thomas. The stone altar shows four of its five original crosses cut in the top. An altar would have a piscina nearby for washing the vessels used at Mass. The piscina here has a trefoiled ogee-head and quartrefoil basin. On the opposite wall is a blocked fireplace.
The oak doors and stairway are delightful and a testament to the skills of local carpenters, smiths and masons. The upper room was the priest’s home complete with windows, commanding extensive views, fireplace, lavatory and a shuttered opening for keeping watch over the main alter. The exterior walls of the vestry are extraordinarily thick. One Warmington tradition was that it was used as a prison for recalcitrant monks!
A more credible and interesting suggestion is that the walls were so constructed to carry the weight of a tower. If this was indeed the plan, it was quickly abandoned, for soon after the vestry was built work started on the tower in the usual Warwickshire position at the west end of the nave.
The slightly different stonework on the exterior indicates the stages of its building. The tower is recessed slightly into the nave, presumably to accommodate it in the very limited land there was available for extending the church at the west end. A stair within the thickness of the wall gives access to the bell chamber and the roof. The flight is steep and the treads are worn down to the bottom of the risers. The present bells are dated 1602, 1613 and 1811.
There are many interesting gravestones in the churchyard, which were recorded by members of Warmington WI in a 1981 survey.
VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY
WARMINGTON
This extract from the Victoria County History gives a very detailed description of the parish church.
The church stands directly on the east side of the main road from Banbury to Warwick at the top of a steep gradient and the village lies mostly to the northeast of it at a lower level. The parish church of ST. MICHAEL, or ST. NICHOLAS, consists of a chancel, north chapel with a priest’s chamber above it, nave, north and south aisles and porches and a west tower.
The nave dates from the 12th century; no detail is left to indicate its original date but it was of the proportion of two squares, common in the early 12th century. A north aisle was added first, about the middle of the 12th century, with an arcade of three bays; a south aisle followed, near the end of the 12th century, also with a three-bay arcade. After about a century a considerable enlargement was begun and continued over a period of half a century or more; the nave was lengthened eastwards about 10 ft. and a new chancel built. The extra length of the side walls added to the nave perhaps remained unpierced at first.
Although there is a general sameness in the Hornton stone ashlar walling throughout, all the various parts—chancel, chapel, aisles, and tower—have different plinths, &c., and there is a great variation in the elevations and details of the windows, showing constant changes from the 14th century, when there was much activity, onwards, probably because of decay and need for repair caused by the church’s exposed position on the brow of a hill.
The south aisle was widened to its present limits about 1290, on the evidence of the wide splays and other details of its windows; but an early-13th-century doorway was re-used. It is possible that the east part of the north aisle followed soon afterwards, c. 1300, as a kind of transeptal chapel, on the evidence of its east window, which differs from the other aisle windows. From c. 1330–40 much was done. The chancel arch was widened, new bays to match were inserted in the east lengths of the nave walls, making both arcades now of four bays, the widening of the whole of the north aisle was completed with the addition of the north porch. The 12th-century north arcade, which seems to have lost its inner order, was probably rebuilt. There is a curious distortion about both aisles, perhaps only explained by the widenings being made in more than one period; the north aisle tapers from west to east and the south aisle tapers from east to west, about a foot each, as compared with the lines of the arcades. The south porch was probably added about 1330.
About 1340 came also the addition of the chapel with the priest’s chamber above it. The north wall of the chancel, probably of the 13th century and thinner than any of the other walls, was kept to form the south wall of the chapel, but the other walls were made unusually thick, as though it was at first intended to raise a higher superstructure than was actually carried out, perhaps even a tower. If such was the intention it was quickly abandoned and the west tower was begun about 1340–5 and carried up to some two-thirds of its present height. There was not much room above the road-side and it had to encroach 2 or 3 ft. into the west end of the nave. The top stage was added or completed in the 15th century.
With the addition of the chapel, alterations were made to the chancel windows, but its south wall had to be rebuilt in the 15th century, when new and larger windows were inserted and the piscina and sedilia constructed.
There have been many repairs and renovations, notably in 1867 to the chancel and 1871 for the rest of the church, and others since then. The roofs have been entirely renewed, though probably more or less of the original forms of the 14th or 15th centuries.
The chancel (about 30½ft. by 16½ft.) has an east window of four trefoiled pointed lights and modern tracery of 14th-century character in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having head-stops. The jambs and arch, of two moulded orders, and the hood-mould are early-14th-century. In the north wall is a 14th-century doorway into the chapel with jambs and ogee head of three moulded orders and a hoodmould with head-stops, the eastern a cowled man’s, the western a woman’s. It contains an ancient oak door, with stout diagonal framing at the back and hung with plain strap-hinges. At the west end of the wall are two windows close together; the eastern, of c. 1340, of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and cusped piercings in a square head with an external label having decayed head-stops. It has a shouldered internal lintel which is carved with grotesque faces. The western is a narrower and earlier 14th-century window of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil, &c., in a square head with an external label.
The window at the west end of the south wall is similar. The other two are 15th-century insertions, each of two wide cinquefoiled three-centred lights under a square head with head-stops, one a cowled human head, the other beast-heads. The jambs and lintel of two sunk-chamfered orders are old, the rest restored. The rear lintel is also sunk-chamfered and is supported in the middle by a shaped stone bracket from the mullion.
The 14th-century priest’s doorway has jambs and two-centred ogee head of two ovolo-moulded orders and a cambered internal lintel; it has no hood-mould.
Below the south-east window is a 15th-century piscina with small side pilasters that have embattled heads, and a trefoiled ogee head enriched with crockets. The sill, which projects partly as a moulded corbel, has a round basin. West of it are three sedilia of the same character with cinquefoiled ogee heads also crocketed and with finials. At the springing level are carved human-head corbels: the cusp-points are variously carved, an acorn, a snake’s head, a skull, and foliage. The two outer are surmounted by crocketed and finialled gables and all are flanked and divided by pilasters with embattled heads and crocketed pinnacles.
The east wall is built of yellow-grey ashlar with a projecting splayed plinth; the gable-head has been rebuilt. At the south-east angle is a pair of square buttresses of two stages, probably later additions, as the plinth is not carried round them. Another at the former north-east angle has been restored. The south wall is of yellow ashlar but has a moulded plinth of the 15th century. The eaves have a hollow-moulded course with which the uprights of the 15th-century window-labels are mitred.
The 14th-century chancel arch has responds and pointed head of two ovolo-moulded orders interrupted at the springing line by the abacus.
The roof with arched trusses is modern and is covered with tiles.
The north chapel (about 12 ft. east to west by 17 ft. deep) is now used as the vestry, and dates from c. 1340. In its south wall, the thin north wall of the chancel, is a straight joint 3¼ft. from the east wall probably marking the east jamb of a former 13th-century window, and below it is the remnant of an early stringcourse that is chamfered on its upper edge. The east wall is 3 ft. 10 in. thick and the north wall 4 ft. 6 in. In the middle of each is a rectangular one-light window with moulded jambs and head of two orders and an external label; the internal reveals are half splayed and part squared at the inner edges and have a flat stone lintel. The lights were probably cusped originally. In the west wall is a filled-in square-headed fire-place, perhaps original. Partly in the recess of the east window and partly projecting is an ancient thick stone altarslab showing four of the original five crosses cut in the top. It has a hollow-chamfered lower edge and is supported by moulded stone corbels. South of it in the east wall is a piscina with a trefoiled ogee-head and hood-mould and a quatrefoil basin.
The stair-vice that leads up to the story above is in the south-west angle, its doorway being splayed westwards to avoid the doorway to the chancel. In it is an ancient oak door with one-way diagonal framing on the back. The turret projects externally to the west in the angle with the chancel wall; it is square in the lower part but higher is broadened northwards with a splay that is corbelled out below in three courses, the lowest corbel having a trefoiled ogee or blind arch cut in it. The top is tabled back up to the eaves of the chapel west wall. A moulded string-course passes round the projection and there is another half-way up the tabling. The doorway at the top of the spiral stair leading into the upper chamber has an ancient oak door hung with three strap-hinges.
The upper priest’s chamber has an east window of two plain square-headed lights, probably altered. In the north wall is a rectangular window that was of two lights but has lost its mullion. Outside it has a false pointed head of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and leaf tracery, all of it blank, and a hood-mould with human-head stops, one cowled. Apparently this treatment was purely for decorative purposes, like the square-headed windows at Shotteswell and elsewhere. The south wall is pierced by a watching-hole into the chancel, which is fitted with an iron grill and oak shutter: it has been reduced from a larger opening that had an ogee head and hood-mould. There is a square-headed fire-place in the west wall and in the splayed north-west angle is the entrance to a garderobe or latrine, which is lighted by a north loop.
The walls are of yellow ashlar and have a plinth of two courses, the upper moulded, a moulded stringcourse at first-floor level, and moulded eaves-courses at the sides. The north wall is gabled and has a parapet with string-course and coping. At the angles are diagonal buttresses of two stages; the lower stage is 2½ft. broad up to the first-floor level, above this the upper stage is reduced to about half the breadth. They support square diagonal pinnacles with restored crocketed finials. The west wall is unpierced but above it is a plain square chimney-shaft with an open-side hood on top. Internally the walls are faced with whitish-brown ashlar. The gabled roof is modern and of two bays.
The nave (about 41½ft. by 16½ft.) has north and south arcades of four bays. The easternmost bay on each side, with the first pillar, is of the same detail and date as the chancel arch. They vary in span, the north being about 9 ft. and the south about 10 ft., and in both cases the span is less than those of the older bays. Those on the north side are of 11–12 ft. span and date from the middle of the 12th century. The pillars are circular, the west respond a half-circle, with scalloped capitals, 6 in. high and square in the deep-browed upper part and with a 4½in. grooved and hollowchamfered abacus. The bases are chamfered and stand on square sub-bases. The arches are pointed and of one square order with a plain square hood-mould, The voussoirs are small. The middle parts of the soffits are plastered between the flush inner ends of the voussoirs, suggesting a former inner order, abolished perhaps in a rebuilding of the heads.
The same three bays of the south side are of 11 ft. span and of late-12th-century date. The round pillars are rather more slender than the northern, and the capitals are taller, 12 in. high, with long and shallow scallops, and have 4 in. abaci like the northern. The bases are taller and moulded in forms approaching those of the 13th century, on chamfered square sub-bases.
The pointed arches are of one chamfered order and their hood-moulds are now flush with the plastered wall-faces above.
The half-round west responds of both arcades have been overlapped on the nave side by the east wall of the tower.
High above the 14th-century south-east respond is a 15th-century four-centred doorway to the former rood-loft. The stair-vice leading up to it is entered by a four-centred doorway in the east wall of the south aisle.
The north aisle (11½ft. wide at the east end and 12½ft. at the west) has an uncommon east window of c. 1300. It is of three plain-pointed rather narrow lights; above the middle light, which has a shorter pointed head than the others, is a circle enclosing a pierced five-pointed star, all in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having defaced head-stops, and with a chamfered rear-arch.
Set fairly close together at the east end of the north wall are two tall windows of c. 1340, each of two trefoiled round-headed lights and foiled leaf-tracery below a segmental-pointed head with an ogee apex, the tracery coming well below the arch. The jambs are of two orders, the outer sunk-chamfered. The lights are wider and the splays of ashlar are more acute than those of the east window.
The third window near the west end is narrower and shorter and of two plain-pointed lights and an uncusped spandrel in a two-centred head: it is of much the same date as the east window. The jambs and head are of two hollow-chamfered orders and the fairly obtuse plastered splays have old angle-dressings. The segmental-pointed rear-arch is chamfered.
The north doorway, also of c. 1340, has jambs and two-centred head without a hood-mould; the segmental rear-arch is of square section. In it is an 18th-century oak door.
The three-light window in the west wall has jambs and splays like those of the north-west but its head has been altered; it is now of three trefoiled ogee-headed lights below a four-centred arch. The chamfered reararch is elliptical.
The walls are yellow ashlar with a chamfered plinth and parapets with moulded string-courses and copings that are continued over the east and west gables. Below the sills of the two north-east windows is a plain stringcourse. At the east angle is a pair of shallow square buttresses and a diagonal buttress at the west, all ancient. White ashlar facing is exposed inside between the two north-east windows only, the remainder being plastered. The gabled roof of trussed-rafter type is modern and covered with tiles.
The south aisle (13 ft. wide at the east end and 12 ft. at the west) has an east window of three plain-pointed lights, and three plain circles in plate tracery form, in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having mask stops. The yellow stone jambs and head of two chamfered orders and the wide ashlar splays are probably of the late 13th century; the grey stone mullions and tracery are apparently old restorations but are probably reproductions of the original forms.
There are two south windows: the eastern is of two wide cinquefoiled elliptical-headed lights under a square main head with an external label with return stops. The jambs are of two moulded orders, the inner (and the mullion) with small roll-moulds, probably of the 13th century re-used when the window was refashioned in the 15th century. The wide splays are of rubble-work and there is a chamfered segmental reararch. The western is a narrower opening of two trefoiled-pointed lights, with the early form of soffit cusping, and early-14th-century tracery in a twocentred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders and the wide splays are plastered, with ashlar dressings: the chamfered rear-arch is segmental pointed.
The reset south doorway has jambs and pointed head of two moulded orders with filleted rolls and undercut hollows of the early 13th century, divided by a three-quarter hollow more typical of a later period, and all are stopped on a single splayed base. The hoodmould has defaced shield-shaped head-stops. There are four steps down into the church through this doorway.
The window in the west wall is like that in the east but the three lights are trefoiled and the three circles in the two-centred head are quatrefoiled: the head is all restored work. The jambs are ancient and precisely like those of the square-headed south window, and the wide splays are of rubble-work.
The walls are of yellow fine-jointed ashlar and have plinths of two splayed courses, the upper projecting like that of the east chancel-wall, and plain parapets with restored copings. At the angles are old and rather shallow diagonal buttresses. There are three scratched sundials on the south wall, one, a complete circle, being on a west jambstone of the south-east window.
The gabled roof is modern like that of the north aisle.
The south porch is built of ashlar like that of the aisle but the courses do not tally and it has a different plinth, a plain hollow-chamfer. The gabled south wall has a parapet with a restored coping. The pointed entrance is of two orders, the inner ovolo-moulded, the outer hollow-chamfered, and has a hood-mould of 13thcentury form. There are side benches. The roof is modern but on the wall of the aisle are cemented lines marking the position of an earlier high-pitched roof at a lower level than the present one.
The north porch is of shallower projection. It has a gabled front with diagonal buttresses and coped parapet and a pointed entrance with jambs and head of two chamfered orders, the inner hollow, and a hood-mould with head-stops.
The west tower (about 9½ft. square) is of three stages divided by projecting splayed string-courses: it has a high plinth, with a moulded upper member and chamfered lower course, and a plain parapet. The walls are of yellow ashlar, that of the two upper stages being of rather rougher facing and in smaller courses than the lowest stage. At the west angles are diagonal buttresses reaching to the top of the second stage. There are no east buttresses but in the angle of the north wall with the end of the nave is a shallow buttress against the nave-wall. In the south-west angle, but not projecting, is a stair-vice with a pointed doorway in a splay, and lighted by a west loop. The archway to the nave has a two-centred head of two chamfered orders, the inner dying on the reveals, the outer mitring with the single chamfered order of the responds. It has large voussoirs. The wall on either side of the archway is of squared rough-tooled ashlar.
The 14th-century west doorway has jambs and pointed head of two wave-moulded orders divided by a three-quarter hollow, and a hood-mould with return stops. The head of the tall and narrow 14th-century west window is carried up into the second stage, its hood-mould springing from the string-course. It is of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil in a two-centred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders.
There are no piercings in the second stage, but on the north side is a modern clock face.
The bell-chamber has 15th-century windows, each of two lights with depressed trefoiled ogee heads and uncusped tracery in which the mullion line is continued up to the apex of the two-centred head. The jambs are of two chamfered orders and there is no hood-mould.
The font is circular and dates probably from the 13th century. It has a plain tapering bowl, a short stem with a comparatively large 13th-century moulding at the top: a short base is also moulded.
In the vestry is an ancient iron-bound chest.
There are three bells, the first of 1811, the second of 1616, and the tenor of 1602 by Edward Newcombe.
The registers begin in 1636.
Advowson
The church was valued at £8 6s. 8d. in 1291, and at £16 3s. 10d., in addition to a pension of 13s. 4d. payable to Witham Priory, in 1535. The advowson passed with the manor until 1602, when the patron was Richard Cooper. In 1628 William Hall and Edward Wotton, by concession of — Hill, the patron, presented Richard Wotton, who at the time of his wife’s death in 1637 was ‘rector and patron, of the church’. In 1681 and 1694 presentations were made by Thomas Farrer, and from 1726 till his death in 1764 the patronage was held by his son Thomas Farrer. His widow Alice held it in 1766, but by 1773 it had been divided between their two daughters, Mary wife of John Adams, and Elizabeth Farrer (1782) who afterwards married Hamlyn Harris. In 1802 Henry Bagshaw Harrison was patron and rector. He died in 1830, and by 1850 the advowson had been acquired by Hulme’s Trustees, in whose hands it has continued, so that they now present on two out of three turns to the combined living of Warmington and Shotteswell, which was annexed to it in 1927.
For a list of rectors and clergy of Warmington see the ‘trades and occupations’ section of the site.
www.warmingtonheritage.com/village-history/significant-bu....
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