King’s Lynn Minster was, until the Reformation, once a Benedictine priory, and this chapel at the rear was part of that building. This section dates from around 1433 and it’s now used as an area for private prayer.
Category: Norfolk
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Fakenham – Heritage Trail (Vandalism Update)
I posted about the Fakenham Heritage Trail a few weeks ago, which is something new to the town to encourage locals and visitors to find out more about the town’s history. It is in my opinion an undeniably good idea, but unfortunately the trail has already been damaged.
One trail number plaque was stolen last week Gogg’s Mill, with a local councillor offering a reward for its return.
The above photos were posted on Facebook by Norfolk Orbital Railway, showing vandalism to their signage and also to the new plaque which was part of the trail.
What’s particularly sad is that the trail hasn’t even been formally launched yet. I hope that the council commit to replacing them and the police are able to do something about it.
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King’s Lynn – King’s Lynn Minster (Tide Clock)
The Minster’s tide clock, with the lettering around the dial spelling out ‘Lynn High Tide’. When it’s high tide, which it wasn’t on my visit, the man in the moon will appear on the right hand side of the clock. It’s all rather clever, especially given that the original dates to around the seventeenth century. The original clock, which had been donated by Thomas Tue, was damaged during the tower’s collapse in the eighteenth century and then wasn’t looked after particularly well.
The history of this tide clock seems confused, as some authors are claiming that this is the original clock, others that it’s a later replacement. It was certainly worked on during the 1990s by Colin Shewring, but it does appear to me to be the original clock restored rather than something entirely new. However, I’m not a tide clock expert to be able to know for sure……
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King’s Lynn – King’s Lynn Minster (Unknown Gravestone)
This one defeated me, I can’t read the name on the gravestone. Answers on a postcard (well, messages through the contact page of this blog) welcomed…
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King’s Lynn – King’s Lynn Minster (Pillar Foundations)
King’s Lynn Minster had to be reconstructed when there was a little incident in 1741 when part of it collapsed. The structure was rebuilt internally by Matthew Brettingham and the supporting columns of the church were reconstructed. The original larger column footprint is still visible, showing how substantial the foundations originally were, although since the building collapsed I wonder about the quality of the original civil engineering team….
Anyway, as I understand, Brettingham changed the floor level by making it a little higher, which was later undone in the mid-nineteenth century during another reconstruction. This meant that the original floor level was restored, making these foundations visible once again. And, this looks better to me, it tells a clearer story about the architectural history of the church.
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King’s Lynn – King’s Lynn Minster (Rows of Gravestones)
I’m not sure that I’ve seen gravestones placed in neat rows around the edge of the churchyard quite like this before. I imagine it was something done in the 1970s or 1980s when they were moved here from around the churchyard. Not that much can be done about it now, but this still always feels like a sad decision to me as moving the stones means that they site of the original burial is potentially lost if no clear records have been kept.
However, there was likely a reason behind it at some point in the past, sometimes it’s to make the churchyard easier to keep maintained, sometimes it’s to stop gravestones falling on people, although in this case, the flooding to King’s Lynn may have caused some damage.
Fortunately, some gravestones have remained in situ in the churchyard and a number of these are particularly interesting (more of these in another post).
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King’s Lynn – King’s Lynn Minster (Flood Level Markings)
I’m not sure that I’ve been to a church which has these high water and flood level markings by the front entrance, but it’s a reminder of the impact that the North Sea has had on the town over the decades.
The highest of the flood level stones remembers the North Sea floods of 11 to 12 January 1978. Flood warnings failed and so little notice was given of the impending disaster, with the River Ouse reaching dangerous levels before finally flooding the town of King’s Lynn. Damage was also down to other towns along the coastline, including at Wisbech, Wells, Cleethorpes and Boston. It also marked the end of Hunstanton Pier, which succumbed to the floods after 100 years of history.
As an additional note to this post, I’ve now read that the flooding on 5 December 2013 reached a higher level than in 1978, but the extensive new flood defence system in the town fortunately held.
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King’s Lynn – King’s Lynn Minster (Hanseatic Chest)
This rather glorious chest, made from pine, dates from the fifteenth century and is known as a Danzig Chest. It’s perhaps surprising that it survives, although of all places this isn’t an unexpected location for it, as these chests were imported into the country via King’s Lynn, Boston and Ipswich.
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Norwich Library – Book Sale
Perhaps a sign of an over resourced library is when it dumps out hundreds of books in generally excellent condition to be flogged off cheaply. Why on earth are these, and boxes and boxes more, being removed from stock from Norwich library?
I managed to resist the urge to buy hundreds of them, just buying one book about beer.
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Norfolk Broads – Albion Wherry
For the last three years I’ve organised the Hike Norfolk trip to the Norfolk Broads, which has included hiring a Broads cruiser from Wroxham. Last year we were walking around Ranworth for our lunch break and we saw the Albion wherry and the volunteer on board mentioned about it being available for hire. So, I decided that was a marvellous idea and that’s what twelve of us did for this year’s maritime expedition.
The Albion wherry was first built in 1898 and remained in use carrying cargo around the Norfolk Broads until the middle of the twentieth century.
The Norfolk Wherry Trust took the boat over in 1949 and initially continued with carrying cargo, but it had a couple of little incidents when it sank twice and it was agreed that this wasn’t ideal. So from 1961 it was decided never to carry cargo again, just carrying passengers around the Broads.
Our boat is ready to sail.
This photo was taken out when we were taken out in small groups using the wherry’s dinghy to get photos of the wherry itself.
A swan.
The sail, which is 1,200 square feet in size.
This subtle little thing is the Quant Pole, which lets the crew punt the boat along. We had three crew aboard the Albion and they were all helpful and enthusiastic.
The downstairs quarters of the boat, which can be used for overnight hire, so hence the bunks.
Getting the food ready. Susanna and I had heated the water up for coffees and teas, a process that took considerably longer than we had expected. There is an oven and basic cooking facilities on board, all fuelled by gas.
Our picnic on board.
The view of the Norfolk Broads, we went from Oulton Broad to nearly into Beccles.
Part of the wherry, I don’t know the technical term….
A dragonfly.
All told, it was a warm day and the twelve of us from Hike Norfolk were very fortunate with the weather. Although I thought that it was too hot…. Sitting downstairs was though much cooler, so it was handy to have the option of where to sit and there were plenty of spaces around the wherry.
It was only when I went on the dinghy to circle the wherry that it was clear just how beautiful the Albion is, and many people had taken photos of the wherry during the day as we went past.
For any group or so, a charter for the day is recommended, especially as it isn’t that much more expensive than taking out a Broads cruiser for the day. And this is certainly more of an experience.
