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…
Category: UK
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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.
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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.
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Fakenham – Aldiss (Heritage Trail 6)
Part of the Fakenham Heritage Trail, this is number 6, the former Aldiss store which unfortunately burnt down in 2014. The fire was caused by an electrical issue and it destroyed the department store which had been built in the early twentieth century. Aldiss had already moved out of the store to another location in Fakenham and the building was being used by The Original Factory Store, who have since moved back into the newly built replacement premises.
I hadn’t previously paid much attention to this arch, which goes through from the market place to Fakenham Church. But, as the signage notes, it was built over at some stage by Stewardson for his printing business.
And the same passageway coming from the direction of the church. Fortunately, the church wasn’t damaged during the fire, although there were some initial fears that the fire might spread.
