Tag: Classic Cars

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…

The old bus on which I took a tour.
The furthermost point of the tour – Castle Rising castle
The paperwork at the Bank House.
Some pictures from the cellars.

Heritage Open Day 1: The Tuesday Market Place and its Environs

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.

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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…

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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)…

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One of the smaller 'wardens'!
One of the smaller ‘wardens’!

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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.
This clock is in the hotel before one gets to the lodge.

The doormat at the entrance to the lodge
The doormat at the entrance to the lodge

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This is the temple, the heart of the lodge.
This is the temple, the heart of the lodge.

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Not easy to photograph a ceiling decoration!
Not easy to photograph a ceiling decoration!

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An interesting little document.
An interesting little document.

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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…

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Heritage Open Day 1: Start of Play

Yesterday was Heritage Open Day, and King’s Lynn was magnificently en fete for the occasion. It is unfortunate that almost every mode of arrival into King’s Lynn exposes one to ghastly rubbish because once you get beyond the products of 1960s architectural vandalism King’s Lynn still has more historic and interesting sites than almost any other town of comparable size that I can think of.

There were so many wonderful things to see that a) I barely scratched the surface and b) I have so many fine photographs that the only way to present this is as a series of posts.

I arrived at the Tuesday Market Place just about dead on 10AM start time, and took some photos of classic cars which were on display there as part of the occasion before and during queueing for my first target of the day, a World War II air raid shelter directly beneath the market place.

My nest post will feature the air-raid shelter as captured by Nikon P520 Coolpix but meantime to get an early feel for the kind of day it was enjoy these photos…

Racing Car Cooper ??????????

This early Ford is a fine vehicle
This early Ford is a fine vehicle

Cooper
This 1909 Cooper was the star of the classic cars, but plenty of other fine specimens were also on display.

Cooper
This 1909 Cooper was the star of the classic cars, but plenty of other fine specimens were also on display.

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Later in the day music would blare forth from this shelter
Later in the day music would blare forth from this shelter

Twin Atlantas
These two Atlantas made a fine photo

?????????? ?????????? Tuesday Market Place

Cooper Poster
This poster explains the significance of the Cooper

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This vehicle gives an idea of why cars were once termed "horseless carriages"
This vehicle gives an idea of why cars were once termed “horseless carriages”

Tuesday Market Place Mascot - close up

A Festive Saturday

I was needed in East Rudham yesterday to do some imaging for my father, and took the opportunity to visit the Rudham Village Fete that was running at the same time, and got some good photos. Then for an encore I went down to the east bank of the Great Ouse to watch the fireworks display that is a regular feature of Festival too. I have some fine pictures for you, especially of the fireworks…

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