Offa's Dyke

 

Offa’s Dyke is an ancient earthwork that roughly follows the border between England and Wales. There were originally about 80 miles of bank and ditch, with natural boundaries covering many of the gaps. The banks were as high as 25 feet and the ditches up to 65 feet wide. Today, some parts of the Dyke are very difficult to discern, but there are still some lengths that are easily seen, such as at Montgomery in Powys. The long distance Offa’s Dyke Path runs close to the original line of the Dyke for much of its length between Chepstow to the south and Prestatyn to the north.

Offa was a powerful king of Mercia during the eighth century, reigning from 757 to 796. By virtue of conquest and arranging strategic marriages for his daughters he eventually controlled all of England south of the River Humber and was the first Anglo-Saxon to earn the title King of the English.

He introduced currency in the form of silver pennies on which his head was adorned with a diadem in the manner of a Roman Emperor.

There are no written records that tell how the Dyke was constructed or even what its true purpose was -whether for defence or merely to mark the boundary between Mercia and the territory of the Welsh princes to the West. One thing that is definitely clear is that Offa was able to muster a considerable workforce to complete the only reason why most people remember his name today.

© John Welford

Market Harborough, Leicestershire

 

Market Harborough is a town in the south-east corner of Leicestershire, just inside the border with Northamptonshire. It has a population of 23,000.

The town was founded around 1170 as one of the new towns established by King Henry II, and a market has been held here since 1204. A cattle market was held in The Square (which is actually a triangle!) until 1903, when it was moved to Springfield Street.

High Street leads away from The Square, being lined with a number of elegant Georgian houses, most of which have been converted to shops. Two buildings of note in High Street are the Parish Church of St Dionysius and the old Grammar School.

The church, built of ironstone, dates from the 14^th century. The spire, which rises to 161 feet above the ground, is a particularly fine example of a “broach spire”, namely one that has eight triangular faces that rise from a square base atop a tower. The church is also unusual, for a parish church, both for its dedication to St Dionysius and for not having a churchyard.

Market Harborough is close to the Civil War battlefield of Naseby, where, on 14^th June 1645, King Charles I was decisively beaten by the Parliamentary forces led by Oliver Cromwell. Charles held a council of war at Market Harborough before the battle, but after his defeat Cromwell occupied the town and announced his victory from the Bell Inn. The church was used to hold 4,500 Royalist prisoners overnight.

The timber-framed Grammar School was built in 1614. It stands on sturdy posts with an open ground floor, which served as a butter market. The school was the gift of Robert Smyth, who was born poor but journeyed to London to seek his fortune and managed so to do. One can still see the Biblical quotations, carved into the arches supporting the upper floor, that Smyth insisted on having made.

The building ceased to be a school in 1892 and it is now used as an exhibition centre.

Other notable buildings in the town include Brooke House, which was built in 1708, and Catherwood House (in The Square) which was built in the Gothic style in 1876 and was lived in at one time by Sir William Bragg (1862-1942) who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915 for his work on X-ray crystallography.

 © John Welford

 

 

Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire

 

Melton Mowbray is a town with a population of around 25,500, lying some 15 miles north-east of Leicester in the County of Leicestershire. It was formerly known as a centre for fox-hunting and also as the home of the Melton Mowbray pork pie, as well as being one of the towns where Stilton cheese is made. Fox-hunting is now banned in the UK, but pork pies and cheese are definitely legal and still very popular products of the area.

It is said that Melton Mowbray is the town that gave rise to the saying “painting the town red”. The story goes that in 1837 the eccentric Marquis of Waterford and his friends rampaged through the streets of the town after a day’s fox-hunting, armed with pots of red paint with which they daubed several of the town’s stone buildings, as well as an unfortunate lock-keeper.

Burton Street leads into the town from the River Eye, which changes its name to the Wreake after leaving the town. On this street may be found the Harboro Hotel, the Georgian front of which has changed little since it was one of the town’s main coaching inns.

Also on Burton Street is Anne of Cleves’ House, which was built in 1384 and given by King Henry VIII to his fourth wife after he divorced her in 1540. However, there is no evidence that she ever lived there.

The Bede Houses, on the opposite side of the street from Anne of Cleves’ House, date from 1640 and were founded by a wealthy townsman who endowed the houses for six elderly men and, in the 18^th century, room was made to accommodate six elderly women as well.

At the top of the street stands the gracious parish church of St Mary. It was built between 1170 and 1532, the oldest part of the church being the lower section of the 100-foot high tower. Inside, the church has a set of pillars and arches down each side of the transepts – a feature it shares with only three other English parish churches – and each transept has a rare brass candelabra dating from 1746. The church has a wealth of stained glass, most of which is Victorian, but some of it dates from the 14^th century.

A previous organist and choirmaster of the church was the conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent (1895-1967), who officiated here between 1914 and 1924.

Many people come to Melton Mowbray to sample and buy its famous pork pies, which were first made here in 1831. The pies are handmade according to a particular method for which the town claims the patent - it is illegal to make and sell a Melton Mowbray pork pie other than in Melton Mowbray!

Stilton cheeses also have protected status, as they are not allowed to be made outside the counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, although they take their name from a village in Cambridgeshire! Melton Mowbray is one of the centres for its manufacture.

© John Welford

Places of worship in Norfolk

 

Norfolk is a large county that contains one modestly-sized city (Norwich), a port town (Great Yarmouth), a number of small seaside resorts (e.g. Cromer and Sheringham), a scattering of market towns (e.g. Kings Lynn and East Dereham), and a huge number of small villages that bear witness to the main industry of the county, which is agriculture of the rich soils that cover much of the terrain.

 Virtually every village has a parish church, and, given the nature of Norfolk’s gently undulating topography, it is the churches that one is aware of first on approaching these villages along the miles of roads and lanes that weave through the countryside. Many of these churches are built from local flint and feature a square tower without a spire, although not every church follows this pattern; there is a significant number of churches with round towers, for example.

 Given that many of these churches, both in villages and towns, date from medieval times, and there are hundreds of them to choose from, any selection of places of worship of historical interest is going to be partial, and a short article cannot hope to do justice to the riches on offer. There are, however, two places in Norfolk that could not possibly be left off any list, namely Norwich Cathedral and Walsingham Shrine. There are also two well-preserved monastic sites that should not be missed.

Norwich Cathedral

The see of Norwich was created by the Normans, and much of what you can see of the Cathedral today, particularly at the lower levels, is the original stonework placed here from 1094. However, various disasters in later years, including the 1463 collapse of the original wooden spire into the nave after being struck by lightning, mean that the cathedral has undergone many changes over time, most of which have been to its advantage. The 15^th century rebuilding was on a grand scale, including a magnificent vaulted stone ceiling that features hundreds of carved stone bosses at the junction points of the vault ribs; there are more than 1,000 in total if the vaulted cloisters are included.

The spire was rebuilt in stone in the 1490s on top of the Norman tower, part of which was re-constructed to exactly the same design as the original. At 315 feet in height the spire is the second tallest in England after that of Salisbury Cathedral.

 

Walsingham Shrine

In medieval times there were three main religious sites in England to which pilgrims flocked in their thousands, namely Canterbury, Bury St Edmunds and Little Walsingham. Although the first two were marked by massive cathedrals, the focus of attention at Little Walsingham (a few miles inland from Wells on the north Norfolk coast) was a simple building that had been erected as a supposed replica of Christ’s childhood home at Nazareth.

The original shrine dated from 1061 (shortly before the Norman Conquest) when the lady of the manor had a vision of the Virgin Mary and was inspired to build the “Santa Casa” (“Holy House”). The fame of the shrine grew, and even kings made the pilgrimage to Walsingham, walking the last mile barefoot.

The last king to make the pilgrimage was Henry VIII in 1511, but he included Walsingham on his list of monastic sites to be destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries when he broke with Rome in the 1530s.

The shrine was only restored in the 1930s, after a high-church Anglican priest, Alfred Hope Patten, had organised a pilgrimage in 1922. A new Santa Casa was built to house a statue of the Virgin Mary and this now forms the heart of the Anglican Shrine.

The Roman Catholics also recognise Walsingham as a place of pilgrimage, their shrine being based on the 14^th century Slipper Chapel which also features a statue of Mary that is based on the medieval image of Our Lady of Walsingham.

A number of hostels and other facilities have been built to cater for pilgrims and visitors, although these do not detract from the generally peaceful atmosphere of the place. The gardens around the shrines provide a welcome respite on a fine day.

Large-scale pilgrimages are organised every year, and it has become a regular custom for these to feature visits to both shrines. However, anyone can visit Walsingham on a private basis, even taking advantage of a narrow-gauge steam railway that runs from Wells-next-the Sea (summer months only).

Binham Priory

This is not far from Walsingham, and is an excellent example of a Benedictine priory, especially as part of it is still in use; the nave of the priory church survived the Dissolution as the parish church of the local community, and did not therefore suffer the ruination of the rest of the site. The church, dating from the 13^th century, is highly impressive, but when one imagines what the whole priory would have looked like in its heyday it shows just how rich these institutions were, and why they excited the jealousy of King Henry VIII!

As well as the cathedral-like interior the church has several features of interest for the visitor. The stone font depicts scenes representing the seven sacraments and the wooden carvings on the bench ends and misericords are worth more than a passing glance.

However, it is the overpainted rood screen panels that are of greatest interest for most people, not only for the images that can be seen on them but for the history that they represent. It was common in medieval times for screen panels to be paid for by donors, and for images to painted on the panels as suggested by the donors. At Binham it looks as though sixteen separate images were painted, most of these being of saints. However, at the Reformation, particularly after the accession of Edward VI, such images were regarded as idolatrous and orders were given for them to be whitewashed over. Under Queen Elizabeth I it was common for Biblical texts to be inscribed on the whitewash, as church interiors had become very bland and uninspiring.

At Binham these processes can be traced very clearly because, over the years, the whitewash has started to wear away and a number of the original paintings can be seen, still with the texts written over them. The panels are now preserved under glass.

Castle Acre Priory

Founded in 1090, this large Cluniac priory, not far from Binham and Walsingham, copied its French original in its love of architectural decoration, such as the intersecting round arches to be seen on the west front of the priory church.

The west range at Castle Acre is still virtually complete. The prior’s lodging includes a chamber that was revamped in Tudor times for one of its last inhabitants, including a painted ceiling and two massive oak chests which can still be seen.

Among the buildings in a reasonable state of preservation is a two-storey toilet block with spaces for 24 monks. A herb garden has been created to represent what the monks would have used for medicinal and culinary purposes.

Other religious sites in Norfolk

Another Cluniac foundation, in south-west Norfolk, is Thetford Priory, which is less well preserved than Castle Acre, although the 14^th-century gatehouse is almost complete. Visitors should also see the ruins of the 14^th century Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Thetford, the only surviving example in England of a church of the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. 

St Olave’s Priory, near Great Yarmouth, was a small Augustinian priory. Visitors can see the complete 14^th-century brick-vaulted refectory undercroft.

As mentioned above, Norfolk is full of interesting smaller churches. One that is well worth a visit is at Cley-next-the Sea, although the sea is now some way off. The name is a clue as to why St Margaret’s Church is so big and splendid for such a tiny village; at one time Cley was a major port for exporting wool, and in the 1320s there were extravagant plans for rebuilding the older, more modest church, to accommodate the growing local population. However, the work had not been finished when the Black Death arrived in the 1340s, hence the splendid nave is not matched by the much smaller chancel and squat tower.

Oxborough Church, near Downham Market, is remarkable for the fact that it is a 14th century building that was partially destroyed when the tower collapsed in 1948. A new wall was built to preserve the chancel that now acts as the parish church while the walls of the nave remain roofless.

Another parish church that is much visited is that of All Saints, Burnham Thorpe. This was the village where Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was born in 1758; however, despite the connection there is not much to be seen in the church that has a Nelson connection. There is a Nelson bust and the lectern was made from timbers taken from HMS Victory, which was Nelson’s flagship. These relics, plus a small exhibition devoted to Nelson’s life and times, hardly made the detour to this remote village worth the journey.

© John Welford

St Govan's Chapel, Pembrokeshire, Wales

 

St Govan’s Chapel is a tiny stone building (20 x 12 feet, 6.1 m × 3.7 m) perched in a ravine in the cliffs overlooking the sea at St Govan’s Head, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is believed to date from the 5^th century.

Nobody is quite sure who St Govan was. Some people believe that he was a disciple of St David, while others that he was a thief who became a convert. There are also theories that he was actually a woman who was the wife of a 5th century chief, and even that he was King Arthur’s knight Sir Gawain who spent the rest of his life as a hermit after Arthur’s death.

There are several legends and strange beliefs associated with the chapel. One of them concerns the stone-cut staircase that leads down to the chapel – this is that the number of steps is different depending on whether you are going up them or down!

Inside the chapel there is a vertical cleft in the rock which, according to legend, first miraculously opened to conceal St Govan from his enemies. The rock closed behind him and did not reopen until the danger had passed. A wish made while standing in the cleft and facing the wall will be granted provided that you do not change your mind before turning round.

Just below the chapel is St Govan’s healing well and the red clay in the cliffs has been credited with the power to heal sore eyes.

Whether or not one believes any of the stories associated with the chapel it is well worth a visit for a view of the dramatic limestone cliffs and the sea crashing against them at their base.

© John Welford

Chiswick House, London

 

Built by 3rd Earl of Burlington in 1725-9, Chiswick House is a magnificent villa modelled on Palladio’s villa rotunda at Vicenza in Italy. It is situated in West London and surrounded by urban areas, but was originally designed as a country villa.

The perfectly formed neo-classical exterior is complemented by spectacular plaster ceilings by William Kent.

The Earl did not actually live in Chiswick House, but in an adjacent Jacobean mansion (demolished in 1758), using the Villa for displaying his works of art and entertaining his friends, who included poets Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, and the composer George Frideric Handel.

The Villa was inherited in 1753 by the fourth Duke of Devonshire and in 1788 the fifth Duke commissioned James Wyatt to add wings to the north and south. These were demolished in 1952.

In 1892 the eighth Duke moved to Chatsworth in Derbyshire and the house became a private mental home.

In 1928 it was bought by Middlesex County Council and is now in the care of English Heritage.

The gardens and grounds, which lead down to the River Thames, were originally adorned with a whole host of follies, statues and other additions. Many of these have disappeared over the years, but what remains include an Ionic temple, a Doric column, statues of Caesar, Pompey and Cicero, two obelisks, a cascade, an avenue of urns and sphinxes, a rustic house, a deer house, a bridge built by James Wyatt in 1788, and a large conservatory attributed to Joseph Paxton.

© John Welford

Herm, Channel Islands

 

Herm is one of the smaller Channel Islands, being just over a mile long from north to south and about half a mile across at its widest point. It lies to the east of Guernsey, from where it can be reached via a 20 minute ferry crossing.

The island has been occupied for at least 5,000 years, as is evidenced by a large number of Neolithic tombs and artefacts such as tools and weapons. It is known that Roman traders visited the island about 2,000 years ago.

During the 6^th century, Herm was a place of meditation for monks from Jersey and Sark, who built a small chapel here. By the 10^th century, Herm was ruled by the Dukes of Normandy and eventually came under the control of the Abbey of Mont St Michel. From 1204 Herm, along with the rest of the Channel Islands, came under the control of the English crown.

In the 19^th century, granite quarries were established on the island and a large community infrastructure was established to support the 400 or so quarrymen and their families. Until the 1880s, Herm granite was very much in demand, and it was exported to England for use in the building of roads and bridges. However, the quarries later fell into disuse.

During World War II, Herm, along with the rest of the Channel Islands, was occupied by German forces. It was liberated in 1945, and from 1949 it was leased to the Wood family, who now manage Herm and seek to preserve the island’s beauty while improving facilities for visitors, of whom thousands visit every year.

Despite its small size, Herm has a variety of natural habitats, including sand dunes, maritime Heath, grassland and woodland, as well as sandy beaches, rock pools and steep granite cliffs.

Herm is very popular with bird lovers. Its resident birds include robins, wrens, blackbirds, thrushes, kestrels and long-eared owls, as well as seabirds. It is also visited by many migrants on their passage from southern Europe and North Africa towards the British Isles in the spring. These include whitethroats, willow warblers and whinchats.

Herm’s many natural habitats support over 450 different plant species. During summer the island is ablaze with bright yellow gorse and clifftop flowers such as sea and red campion, heather and foxglove. The flat northern part of the island is covered in rockrose and many other tiny flowers, while the sand dunes that fringe the shoreline have been planted with marram grass in an attempt to halt erosion.

Herm is traffic-free, apart from a few farm tractors. Walkers can enjoy seeing the island from the tracks that cross the island from north to south and east to west, and the path, about four miles long, that goes round the entire coast.

Visitors can stay at the White House Hotel on the island, or in one of the self-catering cottages and apartments. There is also a campsite.

© John Welford