Heritage Open Day 2023

A brief account of Heritage Open Day 2023, with a large photo gallery.

Yesterday was King’s Lynn Heritage Open Day 2023. The fixed element of my day was my stewarding commitment at The Bank House, where I was scheduled to be between 12 and 2. I opted to go in early, soak up some of the atmosphere of the occasion, do my stewarding and then seen how I felt at 2PM.

THE PRELIMINARIES

I started at the Tuesday Market Place, where there is always a classic car display. It was while planning the next stage of my day that I realized that I had failed to bring any water with me, so I found a shop where I could buy some. In King Staithe Square, very close to the Bank House I spotted a very old London Transport bus and noted that it was running 35 minute tours with the first at 11. I decided this would be an interesting experience, and did a bit of walking around looking at things to fill in the time. I then planned on arrival back from the tour to go to The Bankhouse, reacquaint myself with the cellars which are the main feature there, and then do my stewarding duties.

STEWARDING

I ended up with the outside duties – keeping tally of how many visitors the site got, giving people directions, answering questions, keeping eyes on things that people sensibly deemed inappropriate to take inside, and occasionally taking rudimentary crowd control measures – if a lot of people had gone in and not many had come out in a particular period I would make people wait until more people had come out – overcrowding was definitely a potential problem, especially since in the fierce heat (Cambridge, an hour south by train, recorded 32.5 Celsius and I suspect the temperature in Lynn was not much if any less) a building whose main feature of interest is a cellar complex was naturally an even more popular port of call than usual (and even in ordinary years it is quite popular). I also had to make sure the paperwork, which was laid out on a sloping roof of what had once been a coal store was all present and correct, which was not entirely a trivial matter, since the nature of the surface on which it was displayed meant that so much as a breath of wind resulted in stuff ending up on the ground. At 2PM I was duly relieved, and offered the new steward some advice. I decided to head home at this point. I enjoyed my stewarding, but it was draining in such heat.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures I took on the day…

All Time XIs – Match Ups 24

Continuing my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I selected for each letter of the alphabet fare against one another. Pictures from Heritage Open Day.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I selected for each letter of the alphabet fare against one another. The Fs take their place in the spotlight today, with 16.5 of a possible 25 points already banked. This post also comes with a two part picture gallery.

THE Fs V THE Gs

The Gs have the better opening pair, but not by as =much as raw figures make it look: Fredericks was left handed whereas both Gs openers are right handed, and also Fry’s average of 32 on early 20th century pitches is would equate to considerably more on modern pitches. Conversely Flower at number three outranks Grace the batter by a lot less than the figures suggest, and Grace also offers a genuine bowling option. Gower outranks Fletcher, but the difference in batting averages between Faulkner and Graveney is more than made up for by the different pitches they played on and the fact that Faulkner provides a bowling option. Gilchrist hugely outbats Foakes, though Foakes wins the keeping side of their match up. Fender and Grace were two of the greatest captains to feature in this series, and I just award Fender the laurels in this epic match up. The Fs have the better pace attack – of the Gs three pacers only Garner would merit a place in the Fs XI. George Freeman retired in 1875, to concentrate on his auctioneering business, and although he would undoubtedly have paid more per wicket on modern surfaces he would still have been utterly outstanding. Ferris’ test bowling average of 12.70 converts on my rough and ready scheme for Victorian to modern to someone averaging 19.05 today, while Foster the third seamer clearly outranks Gregory as a bowler. While Grimmett and Gibbs rank as the two best spinners in this contest, Flowers, Fender and Faulkner are a trio of genuinely front line options. The Gs do of course have Grace as their own extra bowling option. This is an epic contest, but I think the pace bowling resources of the Fs plus Fender’s captaincy tip the scales their way: Fs 3, Gs 2.

THE Fs V THE Hs

The Hs dominate the batting, winning every match up down to number eight in the order. However, the Fs have a massive advantage in the bowling department, with Hammond the H’s only back up bowler behind the front four. Holding and Hadlee might be a fair match for Freeman and Ferris, although Ferris’ left arm gives the Fs an extra point of difference, but Hammond the bowler is miles behind Foster. While I would give Harmer the verdict over Flowers, Fender and Faulkner both probably outrank Herath. Bowlers win more than batters, so I score this one Fs 3.5, Hs 1.5.

THE Fs V THE Is

This is a non-contest with the Fs dominating the batting, having the better skipper, the better keeper, far the better pace attack, being outpointed only in the spin department, and that not by nearly enough to affect the outcome: Fs 5, Is 0.

THE Fs V THE Js

The Fs have a clear advantage in this one as well, but less so than in the previous case. No team with the mercurial talents of Jayasuriya, Jessop and Mitchell Johnson available can be completely dismissed, so I score this Fs 4, Js 1.

THE Fs V THE Ks

The Ks have the edge in batting, and they like the Fs have six authentic bowling options. The Fs are ahead in spin bowling with R Khan and Kumble both being leg spinners, whereas the Fs have an off spinner as well as their two leggies. The front line pace trios are very hard to separate, although all three of the Ks speedsters bowl right handed, so they lose on lack of variation. Kallis is his side’s sixth bowler, and I rate him less valuable to the cause in that department than Faulkner, his equivalent. There is very little between the captains, two of the best ever in that role. I think the slightly more varied bowling attack will just be enough for the Fs – Fs 3, Ks 2.

THE Fs PROGRESS REPORT

The Fs scored 18.5 of a possible 25 points today, putting them on 35 out of 50 so far, 70%.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Part one of today’s photographic selection features pictures taken while stewarding at Greenland Fishery during yesterday’s rescheduled Heritage Open Day (should have been the 11th, but the death of a ludicrously over privileged old lady necessitated a postponement and yesterday was the new day chosen. A number of stewards were not available for the new date, hence some of us being relocated (I was originally due to be at the Red Mount Chapel).

One of the upstairs rooms still has remains of the original 17th century artworks on show.

Part two of the photo gallery is some of my more typical photography….

All Time XIs – The Letter L

A couple of pieces of news and a continuation of my exploration of the All Time XIs theme with a team whose surnames all begin with L.

Before I get to the main meat of this blog post – another variation on the all time XIs theme I have a couple of pieces of news to share.

HERITAGE OPEN DAY

Yesterday I got the news of my stewarding commitment for Heritage Open Day (Sunday 11th September), and I regard it as a plum posting: the Red Mount Chapel, between 10AM and noon. I have visited this remarkable place a number of times, including during last year’s Heritage Open Day.

PRESS COVERAGE OF WNAG

Your Local Paper have produced an article about the Beer Festival at Stewart House raising funds for the West Norfolk Autism Group.

Now we move on to the main meat of the post, a look at the greatest cricketers to have surnames beginning with the letter L.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

Bill Lawry (Australia). A dour left handed opener, his test record speaks for itself.
Marnus Labuschagne (Glamorgan, Australia). One of the best contemporary test match batters in the world. He generally bats at three, but I am moving up one place to open due to the number high quality batters I have to accommodate and the fact that there are not many regular openers of quality who had surnames beginning with L.
Brian Lara (Warwickshire, West Indies). The only person to twice hold the world record individual score in test cricket and one of only two (Bradman being the other) to simultaneously hold the world FC and test record individual scores.
VVS Laxman (India). A monumental 281 vs Australia in 2001 helped set up only the third instance of a team coming back from being made to follow on to win a test match. He was part of a massively strong middle order, playing alongside Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly in their prime.
*Clive Lloyd (Lancashire, West Indies). A shoo-in for the captaincy of this side, as one of the two greatest West Indian skippers ever (Frank Worrell being the other). 110 test matches yielded him 7,515 runs, and he quite often only had to bat once because of the immense strength of his West Indies side.
James Langridge (Sussex, England). A left arm spin bowling all rounder, his international opportunities were limited by him being a contemporary of Hedley Verity who had first dibs on the left arm spinner’s spot. Nonetheless his test averages were the right way round, while in the course of his long first class career he averaged 35 with the bat and 21 with the ball.
+Gil Langley (Australia). One of the many great wicket keepers produced by Australia over the years. He was the first keeper to make as many as nine dismissals in a single test match, a feat later equalled by Rodney Marsh and bettered by Jack Russell.
Ray Lindwall (Australia). One of the greatest of all fast bowlers and a handy enough lower order batter to have scored two test centuries.
George Lohmann (Surrey, England). The cheapest wicket taking average of anyone to have claimed 100+ test wickets – 110 at 10.75 each, also by far the quickest strike rate of any taker of 100+ wickets at that level – one every 34 balls.
Jim Laker (Surrey, Essex, England). For my money the greatest off spinner ever to play the game. 193 wickets in 46 test matches, at 21 a piece. His absolute peak was the 1956 Ashes when he took 46 wickets at 9.60 a piece in the series, including a test AND FC record match analysis of 19-90 at Old Trafford. In the tour match for Surrey v Australia he took 10-88 in the first innings of the match, bowling 46 overs on that occasion. His most shattering single piece of bowling came at Bradford in 1950 when playing for England against The Rest he took 8-2 (one of the singles being a gift to Eric Bedser) as The Rest collapsed to 27 all out.
Dennis Lillee (Northamptonshire, Australia). A former holder of the record for most career test wickets – 355 in 71 test matches. He was at least two great bowlers – a fire and brimstone quick in his younger days, and a superbly accurate fast-medium bowler late in his career.

This team has a strong top five, albeit one of them batting out of position, a great all rounder, a great keeper and four great and well varied bowlers. Two genuine quicks in Lindwall and Lillee, a very crafty medium pacer in Lohmann, Laker’s off spin and Langridge’s left arm spin represents a strong and superbly balanced bowling attack.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I considered two specialist openers in addition to Lawry. John Langridge, brother of James, scored 76 first class hundreds and tallied over 34,000 FC runs but never gained an England cap. The other possibility, as a rebuke to Cricket South Africa for their treatment of her, was Lizelle Lee, hounded into international retirement by her board. However, although I recognize that there is an element of a gamble in playing a regular number three as an opener I would challenge any who insist on selecting one of these openers to say who out of Lara, Laxman and Lloyd you will drop to accommodate Labuschagne in his preferred number three slot.

Another fine middle order batter who had to miss out was the little West Indian battler Gus Logie.

The choice of James Langridge as all rounder meant that two high quality left arm spinners missed out: Tony Lock and Jack Leach. Left arm wrist spinner Jake Lintott may well merit consideration for this XI in a few years time, but he has played very little long form cricket as yet.

The best quick bowlers to miss out were Bill Lockwood and Harold Larwood. Lockwood was one of the pioneers of the slower ball, but as fine a cricketer as he was he could not dislodge Lindwall. Harold Larwood had one great test series (the 1932-3 Ashes when he claimed 33 wickets), but otherwise a fairly ordinary international career, and could hardly therefore be seen as a challenger to the consistent excellence of Lindwall and Lillee. Brett Lee was quick but somewhat erratic, reflected in his slightly high test bowling average. Geoff Lawson had a patchy career and was not worth serious consideration.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Our look at the letter L is at an end and it remains only to produce my usual sign off…

Heritage Open Day and Post Ashes

An account of Heritage Open Day, details of some events involving my role as branch secretary of NAS West Norfolk, and a look back at The Ashes,

INTRODUCTION

This post looks back at the Ashes and Heritage Open Day, and forward to some other events. I have plenty of photos to share as usual (calendar will be finalized later this week). I start with…

HERITAGE OPEN DAY

I was due to steward at Lath Mansion from 2PM to 4PM, and was well aware that I would not be able to keep going for the whole six hours of Heritage Open Day, so I decided to have an early lunch at home and then head for the town, aiming to have an hour in town before my stewarding stint began. Thus I arrived at the Tuesday Market Place at about 12:40, picked up a brochure for the event and proceeded from there.

P1270290 (2) — This is the place where I stewarded.

I took time to look at two of the oldest cars the classic car display first of all…

I decided that the only places I would visit prior to heading to Lath Mansion were the Norman house which these days houses a firm of solicitors and the Ouse Amateur Sailing Club, at the latter of which I consumed a pint of Ghost Ship. I then headed by way of The Lower Purfleet, the river front and St Margaret’s Lane to Nelson Street, and familiarized myself with Lath Mansion before starting my stewarding stint. Stewarding done it was time to head home. I am looking forward to be being involved again next year.

P1270306 (2) — Lath Mansion starts here picture wise.

P1270326 (2) — Not quite Faberge (!), but an ornamental egg.

THE ASHES – THE MOST UNDESERVED 2-2 SCORELINE IN HISTORY

I got back from Heritage Open Day just in time to listen to the last knockings of the fifth Ashes test match at The Oval. Jack Leach finished with 4-49, while Broad had 4-62 as Eng;and completed victory by 135 runs. Leach has surely ended any argument about who is first choice spinner for England in red ball cricket – Matt Parkinson, Dominic Bess and Amar Virdi would all merit consideration should England opt for two front line spinners, while Liam Patterson-White of Nottinghamshire warrants consideration for the future (in a few years time he may well be ready to step in Jack Leach’s shoes, although at present there is of course no vacancy for a slow left armer). Sam Curran, whose left handedness gives the pace attack an extra element of variation was also a big plus, and Archer’s man of the match winning first innings bowling confirmed his stellar status. The batting remains problematic, with Denly seemingly able only to score runs in the second innings, Bairstow unable to buy a run against the red ball and Buttler not doing enough to warrant a place as a specialist batter. The only reason England’s lack of a decent opening pair was not even more cruelly exposed than it was in this series is that Australia fared even worse in that department, with Warner setting a new record low aggregate for an opener who has played 10 innings in a test series (surely that means a final “good riddance” from test cricket for him). At a minimum Sibley needs to be brought into the top three, enabling Root to go back to four, Pope to come in for Buttler and Foakes to get the gloves in place of Bairstow (his batting has always been much more of a selling point than his keeping, so consistent failure in that department should not be tolerated).

In truth England were thrashed at Edgbaston, outplayed for most of Headingley and thrashed at Old Trafford, while having just the better of Lord’s and managing to beat an Australia who basically did not turn up at The Oval. In terms of the next Ashes series, in 2021-2, whoever is England captain for that will need to achieve something last achieved by Ray Illingworth in 1970-1 (Brearley in 1978-9, Gatting in 1986-7 and Strauss in 2010-11 were all retaining, not regaining, the Ashes), and only achieved prior to that by Stoddart (1894-5), Warner (1903-4), Douglas (with some important advice from a sick Warner, 1911-2) and Jardine (1932-3). One can only hope that whatever he might say in public Ed Smith does not con himself into believing that England actually merited the 2-2 scoreline – they certainly did not. Propagandizing may be acceptable, buying into one’s own propaganda is invariably disastrous.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The “Yes I Can” event takes place at The Corn Exchange on Tuesday. Following the success of their Autism Friendly Youth Group, the library will be holding an Autism Friendly Adult’s Group, with the first session 5PM to 6:45PM on September 30th, and sessions being twice monthly, on a Monday near the end of the month and on a mid month Wednesday. NAS West Norfolk will be continuing to run a ‘drop in’ group at the Scout Hall on Portland Place every Wednesday.

Adult Social Group — An Infographic I created about the new adult social group at the Library

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

P1270212 (2) — Not quite the last butterfly of the year (I have a red admiral on my camera from today), but this comma cannot be far short.

Cricket and Other Stuff

Cricket, in the course of which I make a very radical suggestion for dealing with England’s top order woes, and a few other things, including Maths and Public TGransport.

INTRODUCTION

As well as some stuff about the state of play in the current England vs India series I have a couple of mathematical problems for you and some of my own photographs at the end.

ENGLAND’S DREADFUL START

England won the toss yesterday morning before the fourth test match of the five match series against India at the Ageas Bowl, ~~Botley~~ Southampton. This was the last thing they managed to do right for some considerable time. At last, with the scoreboard reading a barely credible 86-6, Sam Curran, inexplicably dropped from the last test match and now returning to the fray, emerged from the pavilion. Much of the carnage was more due to good Indian bowling than bad batting, although Jennings (already on borrowed time for my money) will not want to see replays of his LBW (however good a piece of bowling it may have been padding up to one which would have uprooted the middle stump otherwise never looks good). Fortunately England’s tail managed to produce a diplodocid (see picture at end of this paragraph) proportion of the innings. Curran, making the ridiculous decision to drop him from the previous game look positively ludicrous, racked up 78 before he was last out, the total hvaing reached a semi-respectable 246.

Diplodocus — This is why I described the contribution of the England tail as being of diplodocid proportions.

India are currently 135-2 in response. Only once in test match history has a side come back from 0-2 down to take a five match series, in 1936-7 when Australia’s comeback was fuelled by scores of 270, 212 and 169 from Don Bradman in the course of those last three matches. In 1894-5 Australia levelled the series at 2-2 after being 0-2 down but Andrew Stoddart’s England rallied to win the decider.

England’s continuing top-order woes need to be addressed if they are to avoid surrendering a series on which they seemed nto so long ago to have a vice-like grip. Rory Burns must come into the side in place of Jennings. I would also bring Pope back but place him lower in the order. brief interjection – BIG NEWS – Kohli Is Out! Also, thinking about the need for top order runs I now tender a suggestion far more radical than Rory Burns – there is one England opener who has making stacks of runs all over the place of late – the one and only Tammy Beaumont! The way they have performed thus far none of the current top order are entitled to object to that suggestion.

Yes going with two new openers would be a colossal gamble, but they could scarcely fare much worse than Cook and Jennings have in this series.

A COUPLE OF MATHEMATICAL TEASERS

Both of these, from my usual source, are very easy problems which have tripped a number of solvers up. I give them in the reverse order to which they appeared:

And

HERITAGE OPEN DAY

Heritage Open Day this year is Sunday September 16th. There will be some 60 sites open in the King’s Lynn area, and if you there on the day do make sure you visit. If you happen to visit the cellars at the Bank House between 12 noon and 2PM I will be one of the volunteers you encounter.

TWO STORIES OF BRITISH PUBLIC TRANSPORT DAFTNESS

I start this section with the more minor but also more personal of these stories. Today I made my travel arrangements to Sheffield for a cousin’s wedding. I checked bookings from King’s Lynn to Sheffield, and the cheapest ticket would have cost me £68.20. Knowing that a ‘plan B’ was available I then checked out bookings from Peterborough to Sheffield and lo and behold up came a ticket for just £38.50, which when the two bus tickets on the ExCel are added in amounts to £51 all up. In other words to have travelled by train from King’s Lynn all the way to Sheffield would have cost me 33% more than the combined bus/ train route I am actually taking. Now of course not everyone booking this journey would have known of the alternative, and I wonder how many people have been swindled in this.

My second story of public transport daftness is that The Elizabeth Line (aka Crossrail) will not now be coming into service until nearly a whole year later than planned (more here).

PHOTOGRAPHS

The pictures here are of items I purchased at our auction on Wednesday (it was reasonably successful, with a few big sales, and a lot of items finding buyers).

Lot 121 – I scanned these items rather than photographing of them.

Under a viaduct and over a bridge — A photograph of the item taken this morning

360 — Two of the four items in this lot were of sufficient interest for me to consider bidding, the Nobel Prize cover, and the one that really settled it, the Classic Locomotives.

Classic Locomotives FDC — The main cover photographed this morning.

Classic Lcomotives stamps II — The first of two close-ups of the stamps (the reflectivity of the protective covering makes this a challenge).

Classic Locomotives other side — The ‘cover’ part of this item contains a lot of information when opened up (see also next picture for the other side).

The Ouse Amateur Sailing Club

The final post in my account of Heritage Open Day – dealing with the Ouse Amateur Sailing Club.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the final part of my account of Heritage Open Day 2017. Once I have published this post I will be creating a page to make this series of posts more accessible, but for the present my account of the day consists of:

Overview – covering the whole day and indicating which aspects of it would receive dedicated posts.
27 King Street – Focussing specifically on the building where I did my stint as a volunteer steward.
2 Hampton Court – A mainly photographic account of a unique experience at a property that is currently being renovated.
The IFCA Boat – My visit to the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority research vessel moored at the pontoon jetty.

SETTING THE SCENE

After two hours volunteering at 27 King Street I was feeling drained because of the level of interaction involved in the process. I therefore decided to head to the Ouse Amateur Sailing Club on Ferry Lane, which opens it doors to non-members on Heritage Open Day, and where I could spend a bit of time on their river view terrace and decide whether to call it a day or to head home.

AT THE CLUB

My pint purchased I duly headed for the terrace. The weather was too chilly to permit staying outside for too long, so I made periodic trips back inside to warm up. I resolved the decision of what to do next in favour of calling it a day, and headed for home having had a good day.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The one picture here not directly associated with the club, but since it kis at the top end of Ferry Lane it belongs here.

The IFCA Boat

Continuing my account of Heritage Open Day 2017 with a detailed look at IFCA and their research vessel.

INTRODUCTION

Continuing my account of Heritage Open Day 2017, we now turn our attention to the IFCA Boat, moored at the pontoon jetty for the occasion. This post follows on from:

ABOUT IFCA

The Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority are responsible for balancing the needs of the fisheries industry with conservation, within six nautical miles of the shore. As well as the website to which I have linked they also have presences on facebook and twitter for those of you who are social media users. Here are photographs of their general leaflet:

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ON THE BOAT

The boat that was open to us was a research vessel (moored at the end of the jetty was an enforcement vessel, but we could only look at that, not board it). On board was all kind of equipment, a number of maps and charts and some free leaflets of which more later. The boat has a main deck area where you join it from the jetty, a couple of cabins that are open for access, a control unit, and area below decks which is not accessible and an upper deck which is accessible by way of a short but very steep staircase (so steep that I was just one of many to deem it necessary to descend facing backwards rather than forwards). Here are the photographs I took while aboard:

View from the top deck — This was the view from the upper deck.

SOME PUBLICITY SAMPLES

Near the start of this post I showed the general leaflet produced by IFCA, and I finish with samples of the rest of their publicity materials that were available on the boat:

CLOSING COMMENTS

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the IFCA research vessel and learning about IFCA and the important work that they do. I close this post with a message from an earlier post of mine, “Marxism 2017 – Day 3: Outline“:

2 Hampton Court

Continuing my account of Heritage Open Day 2017 with an account of the unique opportunity presented by the fact that 2 Hampton Court is currently being renovated.

INTRODUCTION

This post continues my account of Heritage Open Day 2017, which started with an overview and continued with a post about my experience volunteering at 27 King Street. This post deals with an opportunity that was available for the first and probably last time this year. Having anticipated the effect that my two-hour volunteering stint was likely to have on me I had decided this warranted being seen before that.

SOME HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

A double sided A4 information sheet about some of the history of the place had been put together by Hendrina Ellis:

There is no connection between this Hampton Court and the famous Hampton Court in Surrey (there are in fact at least three places with this name, the other being in Herefordshire, and the one in Surrey is the newest of the three, being a touch under 500 years old).

2 HAMPTON COURT IN PICTURES

As well as the building itself there was a small exhibition about the history surrounding it. For the rest of this post my camera takes centre stage, giving you the chance to see what I managed to capture of this unique experience:

Elaborate lettering — I was so impressed by this display that…

Renaud de Bar — …I took close up shots of each individual sheet

CONCLUSION

This was an excellent start to Heritage Open Day. The King’s Lynn Preservation Trust did a splendid job of presenting this building to best effect.

27 King Street

An account of my stewarding stint on heritage open day.

INTRODUCTION

This post is the first of the detailed Heritage Open Day 2017 posts following on from the series opener. I visited the building that this post is dedicated to twice – first to familiarise myself with it, and then to spend two hours stewarding there.

THE STEWARDING EXPERIENCE

As I mentioned in the overview piece as I was stewarding alongside councillor Lesley Bambridge. All we knew when we started was that there were no visitor forms left for people to fill in, and that the basic rule was that if a door was open the room was accessible, otherwise not. Additionally, although it was possible to climb the staircase from ground to first floor there were no open doors on that floor, and above the first floor were private flats. We were three-quarters of the way through our stint when we discovered that we were supposed to be keeping count of visitors. From the moment we started keeping count we recorded 61 people coming in, which multiplied by four gives 244 people, which I rounded down on our tally sheet to approximately 240. Multiplied by three for the whole day this gives about 720 people coming in, and this was one of the more minor attractions.

That number of visitors also serves to explain why those two hours took quite a lot out of me – that scale of personal interaction is no joke for an autistic person.

I have put myself down to volunteer again next year, and look forward to doing it again.

27 KING STREET IN PHOTOGRAPHS

I took some photographs on my preliminary visit and had occasional opportunities while stewarding as well.

Blurb — The official info sheet (there were three copies strategically positioned within the building).

Ellipsoid skylight 1 — This was the first of four internal and two external shots I took of this feature. Does this feature have a name other than my own “Ellipsoid Skylight”.

Ellipsoid skylight external 1 — Externally it looks like a greenhouse roof.

Boss desk 2 — The little white rectangle on the front centre of the desktop is the A4 size info sheet.

Heritage Open Day 2017 – Overview

An overview of Heritage Open Day 2017 and the solution to a mathematical problem.

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday was Heritage Open Day in KIng’s Lynn, and as readers of this blog will know I was one of the volunteers helping to run the event. This post is a scene setter, giving an overview and indicating which parts of the day I will be giving individual posts to later on. At the end of this post I will include the answer the puzzle I posed at the end of my previous post.

STARTING THE DAY

I was going be stewarding at 27 King Street from 12 until 2, and knowing that I would find that experience a draining one I decided to see a handful of places before 12. The first place I visited was the one I had marked down as “must see”, because it was probably the only time the opportunity would be there do so –

NO 2 HAMPTON COURT

This property being currently vacant and of considerable historic interest it was open, and within was a little local history exhibition as well as the place itself. I will be giving this a dedicated post, so here for the moment is a single picture to whet your appetite:

I decided to head for King Street by way of the river front, and between this property and the river front is…

THE SECRET GARDEN

I knew that my aunt would be running things in this garden, so a quick visit seemed in order.

SG2 — When this was first built those arches fronted directly on to the river.

The main attraction (especially as the cockling boat Baden Powell was absent) down at the river front was, as on previous occasions…

THE IFCA RESEARCH VESSEL

IFCA stands for Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, and their remit is to insure that population levels of sea creatures living within six nautical miles of the shore do not decrease too dramatically. I will be creating a dedicated post about this, so I offer this picture as bait…

My plan on leaving this vessel was to…

PAY A PRELIMINARY VISIT TO 27 KING STREET

I deemed it sensible to familiarise myself with the building that I would be stewarding, so that was my next port of call. As I was at the river front I decided to go by way of the Lower Purfleet, where there was sure to be something interesting happening…

Queen Street — The first three pictures were taken on my out from my flat, before we get to stuff from the section between the river and King Street.

THE TUESDAY MARKET PLACE AND ENVIRONS

After my preliminary look around No 27 King Street I had half an hour to spare, so headed in the direction of the Tuesday Market Place. I paid calls at three buildings in that area, Bishop’s Lynn House, St Ann’s House and St Nicholas Chapel before heading back to no 27…

VOLUNTEERING AT 27 KING STREET

I arrived back at no 27 a few minutes early. My fellow steward for the 12PM to 2PM slot turned out to be veteran councillor Lesley Bambridge. As I will be writing a dedicated post about this I will say no more here. For a picture, here is a quirky architectural feature:

Ellipsoid skylight 4 — I have never seen a skylight shaped like this – for the moment until I get more information I will call it the Ellipsoid Skylight.

A CLUB ON FERRY LANE

After finishing at 27 King Street I made my next port of call the Ouse Amateur Sailing Club, where I consumed a pint. After that I decided it was time to call it a day as I was unsurprisingly feeling ‘peopled out’ – 27 King Street attracted a lot of visitors while I was there. Here is a picture taken while at the club:

View from the terrace — This is the view looking downriver from the club’s terrace.

THE 101 PROBLEM

In “Anderson Joins the 500 Club and Other Stuff” I included the following problem from brilliant:

First of all the answer:

There at least three areas of mathematical knowledge that would give you an ‘in’ to this one – logarithms, compound interest and Pascal’s triangle. Since I have some knowledge of all three this problem barely brought a crease to my brow. Here are a couple of good solutions from others:

The second solution I am sharing here had a particular appeal to me:

Just to finish, the exact power (in terms of positive integers) of 101 that is the the first to begin with a number other than 1 is 70, and 101 ^ 70 runs to 140 digits.

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