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: UK
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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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Heathrow T5 – British Airways B Gates Lounge
I’ve realised that despite visiting the B Gates Lounge at Heathrow T5 that I’ve never managed to take any photos of the interior of it. With the exception of the food, which I appear to have taken multiple photos of on numerous occasions. Strange that.
Anyway, this is my favourite BA lounge at Terminal 5 out of the three which I can access. There’s also the First Class lounge for those with gold cards and the Concorde Room for those flying first class, names which don’t quite make sense but are logical for reasons I’ll go into on another occasion.
B Gates Lounge is the quietest of the BA lounges as it’s generally used only by passengers flying from B or C Gates and they usually are only there for a short period of time. There’s a legacy reason for this, as a few years ago there was no way to get back from B or C Gates (or no easy way) and so it would be ridiculous to go there before the gate numbers were announced. However, there are now public tunnels to B Gates, so passengers can walk there at any time, and more importantly, they can walk back.
So, that’s what I do, I usually stay at the main galleries lounge at A Gates (which is the main terminal) for a short while and then wander over to B Gates. Sometimes I get fortunate if my flight subsequently departs from B Gates, but usually it doesn’t so I have to walk back.
This is the breakfast selection, which is bacon rolls, beans, hash browns and pastries.
The salad selection.
Some kind of fruit stuff.
From lunch-time onwards the sandwiches are also brought out. The coronation chicken is in my view the best sandwich offered.
These photos are from two different visits and they show the main food selection which is available from lunch-time into the afternoon period. I like these selections, usually there’s a curry, chilli or casserole option and there’s rice or pasta to go with those. The food has a decent flavour to it and the meat, which is usually chicken, is tender and flavoursome.
There’s a full drinks selection available at the lounge, including wine, champagne, soft drinks and there’s also a coffee machine. Take care if using the coffee machine as I managed to smash one of the plates which were meant to be unbreakable. It was stuck to the base of the milk jug when I picked it up, although the bloody thing managed to unstick itself as soon as it got into the air.
There’s a story about that actually. I went to reception and mentioned in a casual manner that there was now a plate smashed across most of the floor. The staff member told me that I shouldn’t worry (although being honest I wasn’t particularly worried) and that he’d come and have a look. He did do exactly that, he went to have a look and then returned back to his desk as he couldn’t find anyone to clean it up. He wasn’t being lazy, he was the only staff member at the reception desk, and they do need someone there.
The situation for the next fifteen minutes was that I was sitting there with my rather lovely coffee, surveying how far this plate had smashed across the floor. Customers carefully walked by the random shards and I pretended not to know anything about it. Then, eventually, a member of the cleaning staff comes along and does a double take at why there is a smashed plate across a tennis court size space of floor. Out come numerous warning signs, some tutting from the member of cleaning staff and then lots of furtive action at cleaning it up.
I don’t know why I got distracted there recounting that story. I did incidentally mention I could clean it up, but the staff member at reception seemed adamant that neither I, nor indeed he, would need to do that. For anyone interested, my coffee was lovely.
Anyway, I got distracted there. The lounge is spacious and there are plenty of different types of table and seating depending on what the passenger wants. I like the high chairs and tables as I can use my laptop. By high chairs, I don’t means the ones that toddlers use, just that the chairs are high. Unfortunately these are mostly near the kids area of the lounge, but it’s rare that there are any bloody screaming children, so that’s fine. By bloody I’m just randomly swearing, the children don’t have blood on them.
The newspaper selection is reasonable and BA also have the system where you can download magazines and newspapers for free in the lounge. Most of the television screens are on silent, but there are instructions on how you can download an app which lets you listen to them via headphones. I like this, the less noise in an airport lounge the better, and televisions blaring out aren’t conducive to quiet and calm.
There’s also a spa area of the lounge, although I’ve never engaged with that. There are also showers available at this lounge and the queue for these is usually minimal, so there isn’t the wait that there might be in other lounges.
So, that was my quick explanation of why I like the B-Gates lounge. Spacious, quiet, clean and comfortable. Fortunately not many people will actually read this random splurge of text, otherwise they’d all go to B-Gates lounge and then I wouldn’t like it as much.
