Richard spotted this as we left St. Andrew’s Church in Bacton and all I can say is that I might not have meandered quite as much around the churchyard if I had seen the sign on the way in…..
Category: UK
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London – Amen Corner
The beautifully named Amen Corner is located near to St. Paul’s Cathedral, in the bottom-right of the above map from the end of the nineteenth century.
Although the buildings along Amen Corner are modern (and rather unimpressive), the street-line is original and is unchanged. The street takes its name from when monks used to walk along Paternoster Row chanting the Lord’s Prayer and they would reach the “Amen” section just as they walked down this street, before entering St. Paul’s Cathedral. That’s the story on Wikipedia and the one that’s repeated the most often on-line.
However, a different reason was given in the nineteenth century, which was that this was where monks would find a corner to repeat their prayers privately, in the hope that they would be fortunate for a whole year. There’s probably more to this story than the perceived origin quoted today, but, I have no idea…..
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Bacton – Name Origin
After visiting the church in Bacton, I felt the need to check where the village’s name comes from. I’m like that…. Anyway, The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Placenames notes:
Bacton, Norfolk. Baketuna in Domesday Book, Baketun in 1150 and Baketon in 1185. From Bacca’s Tun.
The name in the Domesday Book is a little unfortunate as it sounds like a dish from Ready Steady Cook, but not much has changed in its pronunciation over the last millennium. The ‘tun’ is a settlement, usually one which has a farming element, but I don’t know who Bacca was, probably just an Anglo-Saxon farm owner.
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London – Central London (Cordwainer Statue)
This statue is located on Watling Street in the ward known as Cordwainer, named after the shoemakers who worked in this area. There’s a difference between a cordwainer and a cobbler, as the former makes shoes and the latter fixes shoes. The word is from the French ‘cordewaner’, meaning shoemaker, which is derived from the Spanish town of Córdoba in Andalusia whether the leather used in shoemaking was often from.
The statue was commissioned in 2002 by the Ward of Cordwainer Club to mark their centenary. Initially, the statue was placed in the churchyard of St Mary le Bow, but was moved to its current location a couple of years later. The statue is located near to the site of the Livery Hall of the Cordwainers’ Company, where there were six successive halls from 1440 until 1941. When the hall was destroyed in the London Blitz, a decision was made by the company that they wouldn’t construct another. The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers still exists, but they’re primarily a charitable organisation, with some members being descendants of shoe-makers and some working in the industry today. One of their charitable efforts in recent years was a bike ride from Córdoba, where their name began, to London.
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Bacton – Bromholm Priory (Gateway)
The gatehouse of Bromholm Priory remains standing, unlike much of the rest of the monastery. More on other sections of the monastery in other posts, but this was a prestigious priory which was shut down during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The above photo is from within the priory grounds looking outwards.
The above photo is taken from around the same place, and there’s not much change other than some bricks added, a little unsympathetically, to the right-hand side of the arch.
This is another photo taken from the same location, but is likely from a couple of decades before the 1955 date quoted by Francis Frith. This looks more like the photo taken in 1937 by George Plunkett.
A photo of the gatehouse from the outside.
This photo is also from the outside, showing that the gatehouse was formerly quite a substantial structure with two floors and two bays. Anyone coming to the priory for the first time would have likely got a positive first impression. This is a Cluniac priory and it reminds me of the gatehouses at Castle Acle and Thetford, also both Cluniac.
One of the rooms inside the gatehouse.
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Bacton – St. Andrew’s Church
Overlooking the sea and Bacton Gas Terminal, this church was originally constructed in the fourteenth century, although was remodelled in the fifteenth century.
The church was heavily restored and faffed about with in 1847 and it was partly reroofed in 1895. What was discovered during the Victorian restoration were numerous wall paintings, some half an inch thick, which displayed stories relating to St. Christopher. Some of these wall paintings, thought to be from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries, are still visible inside the church. And, as a reminder that crime has always been a problem for churches, in the 1840s someone pinched lead from the roof.
The sign said that the church was open. The church was shut.
The four-stage tower is from the mid to late fourteenth-century.
I understand that sometimes creativity is needed with historic buildings when elements such as air conditioning, heating or ventilation are added. But this is bloody ridiculous.
I’m not sure that we were entirely aware when we were at the church how dark it had become.
Below is a photo of the church in 1955, those neat bush things leading to the porch have now gone.
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Matlock – St. Giles’s Church (Wooden Grave Markers)
I don’t have any background information to these graves, but I thought that they were interesting as wooden markers would have once been commonplace in churches. They seem to be bearing up well at the moment, but I still suspect many churchyards would have once been full of these, part of the reason there are in some places an absence of gravestones from before 1800.
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London – Christ Church Greyfriars
I haven’t paid much attention to these ruins before, but they have a considerable heritage as they are from a monastic church built in the thirteenth century on what is now Newgate Street. The monastery was dissolved during the Reformation and was turned into a parish church which was given by King Henry VIII to the Mayor of London for the use of the city’s population. This church building was though lost, along with most others in the heart of the city, during the Great Fire of London in 1666. The replacement building was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, but this in turn was unfortunately destroyed in 1940 during the London Blitz.
The few sections of the remaining church still standing were demolished following the end of the Second World War, with the site turned into public gardens. There are some important people who have been buried at this site over the centuries, including Isabella of France (also the Queen of England), Marguerite of France (another Queen of England) and Joan of England (who was the Queen of Scotland). I’m equally confused as to who was Queen of where, but it’s evidence of the importance of the church.
Some of the surviving arches and it’s positive that it was decided to keep this as a public park, rather than shoving up another office block on the site.
The former door into the nave.
The gardens are impressive and before this health scare meant fewer people came into London, I imagine that this was a busy place for those wanting to eat their lunch.
The tower, which was completed in 1704, survived the London Blitz and was restored in 1960.
There are many more photos of how the church used to look at https://thecitizensmemorial.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/11/.
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London – Chinatown
Some photos from Chinatown in London on Monday evening. Although London had felt quiet all day, there was a bit more vibrancy with people taking part in the Eat Out to Help Out scheme and most restaurants looked pretty full. Within a short distance of Chinatown and Soho though it remained a different matter, numerous restaurants and takeaways not even opening at all this month.
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London – Quiet on the Underground
OK, so Chancery Lane isn’t ever the busiest of London underground stations, but nonetheless, it was eerily quiet this afternoon.
The packed platform.
Endless amounts of warnings about social distancing.
Mind the Gap…. Still quiet at Oxford Street.
It was a little busier on the Oxford Street platform to get onto the Bakerloo line, but it’s still all rather quiet.
As for TFL, they’re not doing particularly well at keeping people safe. The first two hand-sanitiser dispensers I tried were empty. So, on a quest to discover how bothered TFL really are, I tried another six more during my journey into Oxford Street. Two worked, another four were empty. I won’t veer into politics, but this really isn’t a particularly good look for TFL and pretty much every other transport operator seems to manage.
Anyway, I quite enjoyed the quiet network and there was a very high percentage of people wearing masks and lots of social distancing. I did note one man cough and this alarmed a woman who fled the scene but, otherwise, all uneventful.
