The Bank Hotel is a very plush establishment, but it is not the place itself, but what lies beneath that is of true interest – a perfectly preserved and very spacious cellar area.
It is appropriate that this should be my smallest post, because it will be followed by my largest, relating to fisheries research. Meanwhile enjoy a photographic tour (none of it using flash) of the cellars of the Bank Hotel…
The combination of the fact that King’s Lynn is not huge and that I live plumb in the centre of it meant that for me at least my sole method of locomotion would be Shanks’ Pony. Some of the things that I saw while walking between official sites could have been seen on any day, others only this day but the picture of the day (pardon the pun) would be incomplete without reference to the in-between bits as the whole town was decked out for the day – and the weather gods lent their support by providing a lovely warm day for the occasion.
In terms of distances of greater than a few yards my itinerary was planned (with scenic routes taking priority at every turn) as follows: Flat – Tuesday Market Place – Great Ouse – Southgates via Hardings Pits – Red Mount Chapel via parkland – Flat and with the addition at the end of a couple of places on King Street which looked interesting that is the route I followed. Not many others opted for scenic routes – I was all but alone for the walk to Southgates.
My next post takes you underground once more, to the cellars of the Bank Hotel, before resurfacing for the rest of the journey – meantime enjoy an eclectic collection of pictures…
The house on Ferry Lane that was opened for the occasion featured a wonderful garden and many interesting features inside. It was well worth making a tiny diversion from my route down to the Great Ouse to take in this fine old building (Ferry Lane does precisely what its name suggests that it should – leads to a ferry pick up point – hence as stands it to reason it is pretty close to the river)
The rest of the story of this part of my day is I believe well told by photographs, while my next post will not be about a specific site, but being out and about in King’s Lynn on the day.
The Masonic Temple, at the heart of Philanthropic Lodge 107, is quite remarkable, all the more so for being housed within another building that serves an altogether different purpose – The Dukes Head which faces the Tuesday Market Place in King’s Lynn.
Masonic regalia frequently goes under the hammer at James and Sons auctions and has been known to do well, but this collection was astonishing.
There are rumours that Mozart joined a Masonic Lodge, while Sherlockians will recall that Jabez Wilson in “The Adventure of the Red Headed League” is a freemason. For fans of more modern literature, Matthew Reilly’s Jack West series features freemasonry.
The next installment of this series features a house on Ferry Lane and in the meantime here are my attempts to do photographic justice to Philanthropic Lodge 107…
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…
The Jetty on the Great Ouse was in use yesterday morning, by research vessels relating to fishing. With the river at high tide there were plenty of opportunities for good photographs. In the afternoon I went apple picking in the orchards at Sandringham. The apples were comfortably up to their usual amazing standard – and they were Cox’s. A hand-picked Cox is the finest of all apples.
Before heading home to King’s Lynn I enjoyed a fine supper at my parents house in East Rudham. After some excellent lamb chops there were raspberry brownies for pudding. My mother had reduced the amount of sugar from the 225g stated in the recipe to 150g so that the pudding while rich was not particularly sweet – and was all the better for this.
Today is Heritage Open Day, so stand by for some good posts about historic buildings and meanwhile enjoy a selection of cracking photos…
I have had a very hectic week imaging for James and Sons, but it is now nearly all done for this auction. On Wednesday evening I got several excellent shots of a hang-glider and I have various other pictures to share with you…
Having taken a couple of photographs for my aunt to use in handouts for heritage open day (King’s Lynn has a vast number of sites – approx 50 – open for the day, which is next Sunday), the afternoon was nice enough to spend sat outside my parents house in East Rudham, and I bagged some more interesting pictures.
Returning to King’s Lynn, the combination of a lovely evening and the Great Ouse at high tide was irresistible and yielded more fine photographs. There were then yet more opportunities for photographs as I made use of the outside space that my “compact” town centre flat possesses. I player provided some good watching, first coverage of the Great North Run, entering the record books this year as the first mass participation event to reach the landmark of 1,000,000 entrants since its inception, then start of a new series of Strictly Come Dancing.
Now for the photographic highlights…
After doing my weekly food shop I listened to some county cricket on the radio – a one day semi-final between Durham and Nottinghamshire. After losing the toss and being put into bat Durham ran up 354 from their 50 overs, with Ben Stokes hitting 164 off 113 balls. Nottinghamshire did their best in response but unsurprisingly were never really in the hunt. Appropriately it fell to Ben Stokes to perform the last act of the game that his innings effectively won for his side.
Between my trip to and from the Hardwick Sainsbury’s and a visit to the library in the break between innings I got plenty of photographs….
I have decided to do two blog posts today because I wanted to devote one exclusively to press releases.
There were som many fantastic results at this auction that I decided to split the press releases into categories: Coins, Medals, Militaria, Stamps and a portmanteau category that I privately dubbed “quirkies”. Thus below thsi you can find links to all five press releases and view any or all as you choose. Also I am including full photo galleries of associated images…
Coins MEDAL SUCCESSES AT FAKENHAM AUCTION 
Militaria Makes Massive Money at Fakenham Auction 
Quirkies 
STAMPS SELL WELL AT FAKENHAM AUCTION 
aspiblog 