Here’s one of my token efforts to acknowledge Christmas…. A rather blue tree in front of Peterborough Cathedral…..
Category: Peterborough
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Peterborough – Peterborough Cathedral (1762 Sundial)
And another in my series of posts about Peterborough Cathedral, this is the sundial on the western frontage of the building. It is dated 1762 and is painted onto the stonework, with a further three dates of 1914, 1968 and 2009 below it, which is when it was restored. This sundial can only be used to tell the time in the afternoon and early evening, although there are other sundials on other sides of the building.
When it was repainted in 2009 it had become almost impossible to see because of pollution having faded it away, so I can only imagine that it was effectively impossible to notice during the entire nineteenth century. Unless that is there was some repainting, but they never noted on the wall the date of the restoration. The monks in the cathedral had been using sundials before the reformation, so perhaps this is even older than it appears.
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Peterborough – Peterborough Cathedral (Boulder)
I’m not sure many people will find this particularly interesting, although I did. It’s a huge lump of stone that was taken out of the north west pier of the cathedral tower when it was reconstructed in the 1880s. The central tower was falling down at that time and since great lumps of stone like this were thirty feet up in the pillar, that’s perhaps not entirely a surprise. Nearly of the stone frontage was put back, but they didn’t replace the inner core. Instead, this lump of stone is now located outside of the cathedral in the graveyard.
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Peterborough – Bewiched
On my voyage of discovery I thought that I’d visit a few of the coffee shops in Peterborough. This was especially challenging in this case, as look at the little piece of utopia to the right of this coffee shop. I did very well to resist accidentally going to Greggs……
Not particularly busy, although the service was engaging and the team members seemed to know most of the customers who did come in. It was all quite homely and warm, with a Christmas tree adding a festive edge to the proceedings.
The coffee was decent, with a pleasant and rich flavour, and there was an attempt at some coffee art. There didn’t seem to be any exciting cakes or sausage rolls at the counter though, so I managed to resist the temptation there. I was still slightly in shock that I wasn’t in Greggs to be honest though.
The prices were reasonable and I was given a loyalty card, although I’m not sure that I’ll ever hit the twelve required drinks to get my free coffee. Twelve does seem rather high and not that I’m thinking about Greggs, but they only need you to get to six….
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Peterborough – Peterborough Cathedral (Lady Chapel)
The ghostly traces of the Lady Chapel, which was once attached to Peterborough Cathedral, can still be seen in the stonework where the former roof-line was. It was built in the late thirteenth century and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Abbot William Parys oversaw the construction of the chapel which would later contain numerous tombs.
Unfortunately the chapel was demolished in 1650 and the money raised was used to pay for repairs to the cathedral following the destruction caused by the Parliamentary troops during the Civil War.
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Peterborough – Peterborough Museum
I tried to go to the city’s museum earlier in the year but there was a special event and it all looked a bit busy so I decided to come back. Today, on my return, I was the only visitor in the museum, which doesn’t bode entirely well for their finances.
I hadn’t realised that the building was for a long period used as a hospital and there were useful signs throughout the museum showing what used to take place in many of the rooms. This was the entrance hall where patients would come in and wait to be seen.
A little piece of history on the stairs, these are the original wooden steps which are designed to be anti-slip.
This is a Roman milestone which was located on Ermine Street, dating to around 271AD.
A heavy oak door which come from the abbot’s prison, with the power of imprisonment given to the abbey in the thirteenth century.
The Upton lead coffin which dates to around the third century and was used to bury a nine-year old boy. It isn’t known who the boy is, but it’s clear that the family had some significant wealth.
When Peterborough’s guildhall opened in 1671 there was a large meal provided for the dignitaries, which shows how little has changed over the centuries. They killed a turtle to make soup and in honour of the now dead animal, they served the soup in its shell and then painted it with the coat of arms of the MP, Sir Humphrey Orme. Orme died soon after, so I hope it wasn’t the turtle.
A fox for visitors to stroke should they so wish.
In the early twentieth century an “evil disposed person” stole some flowers from the cemetery. This certainly seemed to cause a lot of anger and the reward of £2 would have been a very tempting sum of money for anyone who could identify the culprit.
I appear to have reached the stage in life where toys I remember as a child are now in a museum.
This is the only remaining late-Victorian operating theatre which is still in place in the UK. It was laid out in 1897 and at the time was cutting edge (excuse the pun) and even now it looks rather terrifying.
This was a much bigger museum than I had expected and there was also a special exhibition on the ground floor entitled “Treasures”. This sadly runs only until 9 January 2019 and one of the highlights of the display is the Becket Casket dating to 1180. However, my highlight was the Peterborough Chronicle, a document written on vellum between 1120 and 1154, which also contains the first recorded mention of the word ‘she’. No photos could be taken in this exhibition and it was a little unfortunate that this had three staff, I assume for security reasons, and no visitors.
Overall, this is definitely a museum which is worth visiting and I spent around an hour here. The museum is laid out in an interesting manner, although there’s quite a wide coverage of different subjects and not much depth, but space is inevitably limited. I do appreciate how the museum has marked out how the building was used as a hospital, such as the former nurses’ rooms, the main ward and the surgeon’s room.
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Peterborough – Draper’s Arms
I’ve visited this Wetherspoons before as it’s near the railway station and I’ve sometimes had enough time to visit. One thing that I hadn’t previously realised is that it wasn’t Wetherspoons who transformed the interior from a draper’s shop into a pub, it had been the “Old Monk” for a few years before they took it over. It was though a drapery for over 100 years and it today has the honour of having made it into the Good Beer Guide.
Another thing I hadn’t really noticed is that the exterior doesn’t have any Wetherspoons branding. And there’s a reason for this, which Wetherspoons said in a statement over a decade ago, saying:
“We have decided not to not put the Wetherspoon logo on this pub and just stick with its name, which is a first for the company. We want the new pub to be a little bit different from other Wetherspoons, to cater for a slightly different, perhaps slightly more up market or professional crowd. For example, there will be 14 world beers to choose from and there will be no smoking or music”.
It seems that it was the first pub in the city to go entirely smoke free, although I’m not sure it can any longer claim to have a more upmarket clientele as it just seems like any Wetherspoons outlet.
The interior of the pub, which is long and relatively spacious. The pub is in need of a renovation though, there are some maintenance issues and it has some of the worst toilets I’ve seen in a Wetherspoons. They’re clean, but they’re not well maintained and they’re rather small for the outlet.
A random photo of some of the interior glass dividers between the booths. I only had a coffee (well, five) in the pub as another customer was busy complaining their breakfast was cold, and that was sufficient reason for me not to bother ordering food.
The staff didn’t really engage, but they were also perfectly polite. There were around eight real ales available, but I was visiting too early in the day to start on those.
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Peterborough – Ostrich Inn
Nearly knocked down a few years ago, this pub was saved only by city councillors who ignore the council planners. They were right to do so in my opinion, this pub was once frequented by Charlie Chaplin when he was performing nearby and Peterborough should be respectful of its heritage.
For a while the pub lost its historic name of the Ostrich, but fortunately it has been restored. It was a little ridiculous to have changed the name since it had been known as the Ostrich since at least the 1840s, and during the Victorian period it also appears to have been used as a hotel.
This is a brave piece of lighting to be located in the middle of a pub, but it does strangely fit in, I like it.
I hadn’t seen the blackboard with the beers on when I went to order, but seeing this pump-clip was enough to know that I wanted it. The beer was sweeter than I expected, but there was a flavour of rum and chocolate, an intriguing combination. Reading some reviews on-line this beer isn’t quite as popular as I think it should be though….
And the beer list which I noticed after having ordered… The clear division between craft beer and cask beer is helpful, it’s often not obvious in pubs. Although I’m becoming more and more interested in craft beer, so I’m more than happy with both.
The service was efficient and although there were no staff members visible when I entered, a customer helpfully went off to find her for me. All friendly and helpful, the atmosphere was clean and comfortable as well.
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Peterborough – Peterborough Cathedral (Haydn Keeton)
This memorial tablet is a little different with its musical score, marking the burial of Haydn Keeton, the cathedral’s former organist. He was born on 26 October 1847 in Sheffield and served as the cathedral’s organist from 1870 until 1921. He died at the age of 73 and during his time in Peterborough he lived at 4 Park Road and on Thorpe Road, doing well enough to have three servants during his time at the latter address.
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Peterborough – Charters
Featured in the Good Beer Guide, Charters is located on the lower deck of this boat moored on the River Nene and it has been trading since 1991. Upstairs is the Thai restaurant of East and it all looks well maintained. So I thought I’d better have a little boating adventure on this barge, which was built in 1907.
The beer selection is chalked up on the board, it’s a wider choice than I had expected. I also liked how it was clear where to go on the boat when boarding, I feared it might all be a little bit complex.
I went for this as it looked like the best dark option and I was pleased to see that there was a CAMRA discount of 20p off. Every little helps…. The beer is from Oakham Brewery, which isn’t a brewery I’ve really ever taken to, and this stout was quite bland in flavour. There were some notes of malt, but it wasn’t exciting or rich in taste.
Other than the slight lean to the whole proceedings, it was easy to forget that I was on a boat. The surroundings were pleasant although it wasn’t as busy as I had expected.
I didn’t eat during my visit, but if I came again I think that I might go for the burger and a pint offer for £10. The service was polite and helpful, with the only slight negative about my visit being just how warm it was on the boat. I decided to go and sit by the door in the hope that people would keep coming in and out, thus also bringing in the cold air. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really busy enough for that plan to work out.
