Welcome to the fifth and final post in my series on Heritage Open Day, which was a week ago yesterday. The previous four posts give a personal perspective on the places that I and my two companions for the day visited. This one is there to tie things together and sum up the whole experience.
KING’S LYNN AND PUBLIC FESTIVITIES
This day provided further proof of how good King’s Lynn is at putting on a public show. Whether it is water-skiing on the Great Ouse, the Lynn Festival, The Hanseatic Festival or the “Fawkes in the Walks” public firework display (which attracted 15,000 last year) the event seems to work splendidly.
THE DAY AS A WHOLE
By the end of the day I was thoroughly exhausted, but I had greatly enjoyed myself. My cousin Edward and his partner Rachael were excellent company, the weather stayed decent throughout, and it was a joy to see so many people enjoying what King’s Lynn had to offer.
This is the regular tourist map of Lynn, which can be picked up at the bus station among other places.This is what casual visitors can find out about Hampton Court any day of the year.
If you are anywhere close to King’s Lynn for Heritage Open Day 2016 don’t miss it – it is a wonderful thing to be part of!
The fourth in my series of posts about Heritage Open Day, featuring the Red Mount Chapel, The Guildhall, “Cormorant Platform”, the South Gate and the Bandstand.
INTRODUCTION
This is the fourth post in my Heritage Open Day series (there will be one more small post to finish the series) and features several classic sites, starting with…
THE RED MOUNT CHAPEL
I have shown pictures of the outside of this building in many previous posts, so therefore I am concentrating my attentions on the inside, which a little like that of the South Gate contains more than you would believe from looking at the outside. The only windows most of the building possesses are tiny slits, while the uppermost level has fleur-de-lys windows which are not visible from the ground. At various stages of this buildings history its true purpose had to be concealed, because it was not safe to be known to be a centre of Catholic worship (n.b. the danger was never from unbelievers such as me, who also could not declare themselves at the time I am writing about – it was from those whose interpretation of Christianity differed from that of the Catholics). Now for some pictures…
A prettied up fleur-de-lus windowAn original fleur-de-lys window
After this we spent a bit of time outside waiting for signs of the spitfire fly past but none materialised, and we had to buy bread as a contribution to lunch, which thanks to my aunt was a feast. After lunch we started by paying a visit to the…
GUILDHALL
This is the second most iconic building in Lynn (behind the Custom House), due to its possessing this frontage…
This pic was taken yesterday – i got none of the outside on the day itself.
Heritage Open Day however represented an opportunity to check out the inside of the building, including a ceiling that definitely dates from at the latest the early 1420s…
Decorative stonework in the Guildhall.
The 1420s ceiling (maybe even older)
The plan was to visit the South Gate, and then go back to the park to catch some of the live music at the bandstand. A special tour bus (think routemasters of yesteryear!) caught our eyes but it was full, and it definitely was not worth waiting 20 minutes for the next. The walk to the South Gate needed little tweaking to take in one of my favourite minor attractions, which I have dubbed…
CORMORANT PLATFORM
Thankfully, the cormorants did me proud, and I was not required to provide any explanation as to my name for the structure…
There were no further diversions before arriving at the…
SOUTH GATE
No external picture of this – I have shown many in the past, and on this day it was all about the inside of such buildings. Suffice to say that my companions for the day, my cousin Edward and his partner Rachael endorsed my earlier description of this building as a ‘medieval TARDIS’ – there is much more inside than you would believe possible from the outside…
Following a short cut well-known to me to not to that many others (at least when it comes it King’s Lynn I can say echoing Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings that “My cuts, short or long, don’t go wrong”) we arrived in the parkland area via the Seven Sisters gate, walking past the Walks Stadium (home of the mighty Linnets, a.k.a King’s Lynn Town FC – just another five promotions would see them in the premier league!) and the Guanock Gate to arrive at our last attraction of the day…
THE BANDSTAND
The Bandstand dates from 1904 and regularly hosts live music. For Heritage Open Day we had a brass band who produced some excellent music for us…
The third post in my series dedicated to heritage Open Day 2015 in King’s Lynn. This takes in a Napoleonic era militia, a 15th century construction and the present day work of the Eastern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this, the third post in my series on Heritage Open Day, which took place a week ago today. We are covering a lot of ground today, starting with…
A NAPOLEONIC ERA MILITIA STRUTTING THEIR STUFF
As part of the efforts to protect Britain against invasion by Napoleon, militias were organised everywhere coastal ready to act if necessary. Norfolk had two, the West and East Norfolk militias, and although King’s Lynn is on the western edge of Norfolk, it was the East Norfolk Militia we saw in action. There was also someone dressed as a captured Frenchman – note the dark blue jacket. It would be fair to describe this particular militia unit as not being the best drilled you would ever see (actually I would not have been that surprised to see Baldrick or hear someone shouting “Don’t tell him Pike”).
Once we had seen this, we crossed the lower Purfleet on the bridge you can see in the picture above (after a brief diversion so I could show the others the Navigators display) and headed across King’s Staithe Square to the…
BANK HOUSE HOTEL
Who had opened up their cellars for the occasion…
This map was on display in the hotel itself.
Then it was down to the banks of the Great Ouse, not at ultra high tide, but neither with vast areas of mudflat on display, and a chance to learn about the work of the…
EASTERN INSHORE FISHERIES AND CONSERVATION AUTHORITY
and to look around one of their research vessels, which also meant a chance to get down on to the pontoon/jetty where visiting boats have mooring space…
This camera will function at depths of up to 80 metres, comfortably enough for investigating inshore waters around the Norfolk coast.
After finishing here we decided it was time to see how my mother and aunt were faring at the…
SECRET GARDEN
This is the communal back garden of Hampton Court, and unlike the courtyard itself which anyone can look in on at any time it is rarely possible for ordinary members of the public to look at it. By the time we got there my aunt had been temporarily relieved by my mother, and clearly lots of folk had already visited. Part of the garden had been blocked off at the request of one particular resident, but not being able to venture there did not lessen the experience…
Turning the requirement to restrict access one part of the garden into a benefit.
This map and the next picture, even on that day, was not viewable by ordinary members of the public – they adorn the walls of my aunt’s house.
The second post in my series devoted to Heritage Open Day – this one covers King Street, starting from the Tuesday Market Place end and finishing at the Custom House.
INTRODUCTION
This is the second post in my Heritage Open Day series, and takes in King Street, virtually every building alon which had opened its doors for the occasion.
BEHIND THE ARTS CENTRE
There was some remarkable stuff on display between King Street and the river, accessible from two directions.
Rachael, one of my companions for the day looking closely at this curio.
WHEN TWO BECAME ONE
The premises of Kenneth Bush solicitors does indeed consist of two buildings that were joined together to become one. It also had fine garden, in which stall selling homemade cakes and biscuits.
A CONCEALED TREASURE
When you first appoach them, the premises of Metcalfe, Copeman & Pettefar don’t look like they are going to be massively impressive, but you soon discover that on the inside you are looking at a Norman building…
The attic, not accessible, but those beams are very impressive from below.
This mirror was working rather too effectively – you get the photographer as well the photograph!This view is not pretty – I include only because it is Baker Lane car park, and just out of sight to the top right as you look is a set of iron stairs which lead up to an intermediate level outside space up from which a spiral iron staircase leads to my own outside space.
INSIDE THE ICON
The ground floor of the Custom House serves as King’s Lynn’s principal tourist information office, but beyond that there is a mini museum, which was accessible that day, and as our next planned activity was watching a Napoleonic era militia in action nearby we decided to have a look to fill the last few moments before that started. Custom House marks the end of King Street, after crossing the lower Purfleet the road bifurcates, one fork becoming King Staithe Square and then the quayside and the other Queen Street which feeds in to the Saturday Market Place. Here are some final pics from the Custom House…
I had to darken this considerably to get the text to stand out.
It isn’t only Lord’s that has a Long Room! (I concede that this one is not quite so impressive as theirs!)
Walter Dexter’s painting of the Custom House in his day. Later for comparison there is a photograph taken by me on September 6th 2015.
The first of a series of posts about Heritage Open Day 2015, which happened last Sunday. The focus here is on the Tuesday Market Place, an air raid shelter, some classic cars and a masonic lodge.
INTRODUCTION
Sunday was Heritage Open Day, with no fewer than 57 sites open to the public for the day. While my aunt and my mother were both involved in actually running the event – one of the venues being right next to my aunt’s home, I was merely unofficial guide for my cousin Edward and his partner. This post is the first of several which will be devoted to telling you about the day, accompanied by loads of splendid pictures.
This, on the Tuesday Market Place, was the place to find information about the event as a whole.
THE PRELIMINARIES – FEATURING CLASSIC CARS
The event itself ran from 10AM to 4PM, but, remembering from last year, I reckoned that we needed to be early for our first destination, the air raid shelter underneath the Tuesday Market Place. This was confirmed to be the case – even though we were so busy checking out the cars that we missed being at the front of the queue we only had a brief wait. Before moving on here are some early pictures…
THE AIR RAID SHELTER
This air raid shelter made use of pre-existing tunnels, which are known to have been used as storage in the 17th century, and it would probably not have survived a direct hit. Here are some photos of those tunnels we were allowed to see (we were going round in groups of 20, and during the war these tunnels sheltered 200 people at a time)…
One of the smaller ‘wardens’!
THE MASONIC LODGE
Philanthropic Lodge 107 to give it its formal title is housed inside the Duke’s Head Hotel which looks out on to the Tuesday Market Place. The person who told us about freemasonry also told us that there is now a female lodge in Norfolk, though he does not where (apparently the nature of the initiation ceremony is such as to prevent mixed lodges from being a possibility). The only thing I was not allowed to photograph (an even then it was put to me as a request) was a single framed certificate. The masonry part of a freemasonry is a reference to the stone masons who built the pyramids of ancient Egypt although I respectfully beg leave to doubt as to whether the freemasons have actually been around for all that time.
Here are some pictures from this remarkable establishment…
This clock is in the hotel before one gets to the lodge.The doormat at the entrance to the lodge
This is the temple, the heart of the lodge.
Not easy to photograph a ceiling decoration!
An interesting little document.
MOVING ON FROM THE TUESDAY MARKET PLACE
Having seen and enjoyed to Masonic Lodge it was time to move on, and of all the streets leading off the Tuesday Market Place, the best one to follow both in terms of the overall direction we wanted to head in and in terms of finding interesting things to see was King Street, virtually every building along which was open for the occasion. This will be the subject of the next post in this series. I leave you with the last set of pictures from the Tuesday Market Place, going to town on a one hundred year old Ford…
aspiblog 