Uncategorized – fraggle ~ rocking a camera across the Universe

Barnard Castle ~ February 2023

March 12, 2023March 12, 2023Posted in Adventures, architecture, castles & ruins, Fuji, Fujifilm X100F, History, medieval, Middle Ages, photography, UncategorizedTagged adventure, Barnard Castle, cinestill400, contax aria, fraggle, Fuji XT1, photography, ruins, UK41 Comments

You all will know, of course, of Barnard Castle, the place where a certain government advisor riddled with Covid, during lockdown, had a day out with his family and when caught said he was testing his eyesight for driving. But Barnard Castle is much more than a substitute optician, as you will find out in

The History Bit ☕️ 🍪 *Long post alert*

We’re going way back in time now, just after the the Norman Conquest (the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and Pesky French troops—all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror, or Willy the Conk as he is known to this blog) so there are a fair few “probably” ‘s in this potted history.

As with many medieval castles, it occupies a site that had been strategically important for a few thousand years. The plateau on which the castle stands commands the crossing point over the river Tees of a major Roman road across the Pennines, and is still an important communications route today. The castle was probably first established by a Pesky Frenchman from Picardy called Guy de Balliol. He had supported King William II (Willy the Conk’s son) in the suppression of a rebellion in Normandy in the 1090s, and received estates in north-eastern England as a reward. This early castle, whose site is now occupied by the inner ward, contained a stone gatehouse, but was otherwise a timber structure.

Guy died in 1133 and it was his nephew Bernard de Balliol who succeeded him, and enlarged the castle to its present extent. He began to rebuild it in stone, and founded the town that surrounds the castle on its south and east sides ~. Castrum Bernardi, or Bernard’s Castle. Berny died somewhere between 1154 and 1159, and was succeeded by his son, another Guy, and almost immediately afterwards by his second son, Bernard II. Berny 2 oversaw the construction of most of the important buildings and may have over-reached himself financially as at the end of the 12th century the castle briefly passed into the hands of the Bishop of Durham as security for debt.

In 1205 Hugh de Balliol inherited the castle, being the son of a cousin of Berny 2. It was Hugh that continued the modernisation of the castle and probably from this period came the rebuilding in stone of the hall in the inner ward, and the addition of the great chamber and round tower at its northern end.

1216 was a busy year for the castle. We’ve come across King John the lecherous (as he’s known to this blog) many times in our History Bits and he makes an appearance at Barnard Castle in January 1216, after leading a military campaign against northern rebels. He died in October the same year and though his son Henry 3rd succeeded him he was only 9 years old at the time so many of the barons of the land were in open rebellion. Much of southern England had been invaded and occupied by the pesky French Army whilst at the other end of the country King Alexander II of pesky Scotland moved into northern England, supported by northern barons. A veritable Pesky sandwich!

Now, do you remember our lesson from Alnmouth a few weeks back when we learned about Eustace de Vesci, who thwarted King Johnny the Lech’s attempt to kidnap Eustace’s Missis by substituting a lady of the night for her? If not HERE is a reminder for you. Anyhoo, Eustace, being the brother-in-law of King Alex 2 was part of Alex’s incursion into the North. At Barnard Castle he sadly met his end when he got too close to the castle walls where he was shot by a crossbowman from the garrison, and died of his wounds. The loss of this champion at Barnard Castle set back the cause of the northern rebels. In the following year, the various invaders and rebels were routed by armies loyal to the new king, Henry III.

Throughout the 13th century the castle remained in the Balliol family which included John, 5th Baron de Balliol. He married Devorguilla of Galloway a pesky Scottish lady, who obviously went native and depeskified when she married John in 1223 aged 13, and moved into Barnard Castle. Gilly, as she is known to this blog, became very wealthy through family inheritances which allowed Balliol to play a prominent public role. On Henry III’s instructions he served as joint protector of the young king of the pesky Scots, Alexander III. He also served as one of Henry III’s leading counsellors between 1258 and 1265. Following a dispute with the Bishop of Durham, he agreed to provide funds for scholars studying at Oxford. Support for a house of students began in around 1263 with further endowments after his death by Gilly, resulting in the establishment of Balliol College. She established a permanent endowment for the College in 1282, as well as its first formal Statutes. The college still retains the name Balliol College where the history students’ society is called the Dervorguilla Society and an annual seminar series featuring women in academia is called the Dervorguilla Seminar Series.

A small digression.
Gilly was one of the three daughters and heiresses of the Gaelic prince Alan, Lord of Galloway, and through her mother’s line was descended from the Kings of Scotland, including David I. On the death of her Dad she inherited lands which she bequeathed to her descendants, the Balliol and the Comyns. Her son, John of Scotland briefly became King of Scotland 1292-96. He was known as Toom Tabard which is how pesky Scots refer to a ‘puppet king’ as it’s literal translation is ’empty coat’. This is not surprising as he was chosen to be King by a bunch of noblemen lead by King Edward 1 ~’The Hammer of the Scots’.
Eddy 1 managed to take the position of Lord Paramount of Scotland which made him the feudal superior of the realm and he used this position to steadily undermine Johnny’s authority, demanding homage to be paid towards himself, legal authority over the Scottish King in any disputes brought against him by his own subjects, contribution towards the costs for the defence of England, and military support was expected in his war against the Pesky French. He treated Scotland as a feudal vassal state and repeatedly humiliated the new king. Naturally the pesky Scots were not happy with this set up one bit, so the direction of affairs was taken out of Johnny’s hands by the leading men of the kingdom, who appointed a Council of Twelve—in practice, a new panel of Guardians—at Stirling in July 1295. They went on to conclude a treaty of mutual assistance with Pesky France—known in later years as the Auld Alliance. (Auld is how pesky Scottish people spell ‘old’. )

Now Eddy was not happy one bit and retaliated by invading Scotland, which kicked off the Scottish Wars of Independence, resulting in Johnny abdicating in July 1296 and where the arms of Scotland were formally torn from Johnny’s surcoat, resulting in the ’empty coat’ Toom Tabard moniker. Initially imprisoned in the Tower of London, he was allowed to go to France in July 1299. When they checked his baggage, they found he’d snaffled away the Royal Golden Crown and Seal of the Kingdom of Scotland, many vessels of gold and silver, and a considerable sum of money 🤣. They let him keep the money for his journey. They gave Johnny into the custody of Pope Boniface VIII and around the summer of 1301 he was released and lived the rest of his life on his family’s ancestral estates at Hélicourt in Picardy where he died in late 1314.

Back to the castle!
With Johnny’s fall from power, Barnard Castle was seized first by Bishop Antony Bek of Durham, and in 1306 by King Eddy I. The following year, the dying king bequeathed the castle to Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, whose descendants held it for the next 164 years.

In 1315 the heir to to the Earldom was just a baby, so King Eddy 2 gave the castle to a pesky Irishman, John le Irreys to look after. John promptly raided the nearby Bowes Castle where Lady Matilda Clifford, a widowed and wealthy lady lived. He abducted her, took her to Barnard Castle and raped her. Eddy sent an army to rescue her and relieve le Irreys of his command. Matilda fell in love with one of her rescuers and married him. Sir Robert de Welle from Worcestershire was a knight but not necessarily a suitable husband for someone who held important political connections, lands and was a wealthy woman in her own right so Eddy was none too pleased and took Matilda’s dower lands and all the goods in them. They were returned following payment of a large fine (£100).

In 1329 Thomas de Beauchamp came of age to inherit the castle, and he held it for 40 years, modernising the great hall, which was by then over a century old, and improving the kitchens and other service buildings in the inner ward. But in 1446 the Beauchamp line had no males available to inherit the castle, so it passed into the hands of the Nevilles, namely Richard through the Beauchamp heiress Anne, to whomst he was married. Richard was known as ‘Warwick the King-maker’ because he swapped about his support of the Yorkist Edward IV and the Lancastrian Henry VI during the Wars of the Roses. Richard died at The Battle of Barnet in 1471 fighting for the Lancastrian side and his two daughters, Anne and Isabel inherited his estates. Anne then married the younger brother of King Eddy 4, Richard Plantaganet, who became Duke of Gloucester and then, in 1483, King Richard III. Dicky P owned the castle from From 1471 and undertook several repairs and alterations during his period of lordship until his death in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, which marked the end of the Middle Ages in England.

Barnard Castle was given to the new Tudor king, Henry VII and was henceforth placed in the hands of keepers, notably members of the Bowes family. In 1536 whilst Sir Robert Bowes had the castle, there was a popular uprising against Henry VIII and ostensibly a protest against the Suppression of the Monasteries. Sir Bobby managed to support both sides by surrendering the castle to the rebels without a fight, becoming one of their leaders, after which he reverted to the king’s service and restored royal control in the neighbourhood.

We’ll move on 30 years now to 1596 when The Rising of the North happened. This was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Pesky Scots. It concerned an 11-day siege of Barnard Castle in December, and was the last significant action in the castle’s history as a fortress. Sir George Bowes (1527–80) was keeper of the castle and resolved to hold it in support of Lizzy. His garrison held 7-800 men but the Catholic rebels sent 5000 to attack them. The rebels captured the outer bailey after six days, soon followed by the Town Ward, leaving the defenders confined to the inner ward. Sir George saw increasing numbers of his own men defect to the rebels, and risked running out of water after the rebels destroyed the pipes from a reservoir, so had to negotiate his surrender. He died in 1580 and was commemorated as ‘the surest pillar Her Majesty had in these parts’.

Another 30 years later the damage caused by the conflict still had not been repaired and in 1603, the castle passed out of the Crown’s control when James I granted it to his favourite, Robert Carr, later Earl of Somerset who doesn’t seem to have had much to do with it being too busy with intrigues and power struggles at court and an affaire de coeur with a married lady.

So now we get to Sir Henry Vane the Elder, Member of Parliament and important member of Charles I household, at first as his Governor and later his Treasurer. He purchased Raby Castle, and Barnard Castle with it’s Estate for £18,000 round about 1640. He chose to make Raby his principal home and de-roofed and removed stone from Barnard Castle to repair and maintain Raby.

In October 1896, the ruins were badly damaged in a severe gale, prompting the latest owner Lord Barnard to organise repairs.

Finally, Between 1841 and 1845 a man called Frank Shields, who was short and with a bushy beard and had been an ostler (a person hired to look after horses) moved in to the round tower and declared himself a ‘recluse, antiquary and artist in painting’. He’d been inspired by the castle’s history and romantic associations and dressed up in a monk’s habit and guided visitors around the castle. He was evicted in 1859 after having a barney with a neighbour and took up at Egglestone Abbey ruins (which we’ll be visiting next time) instead. Sadly he became more and more obsessed with ghosts and was put in a lunatic assylum in 1874, where he died in 1881.

In 1952, Lord Barnard placed the ruins in the guardianship of the Ministry of Works, the predecessor of the Department of the Environment, and since 1984, English Heritage has run the site.

Well done if you made it through all that! And now some pictures.
Sophie and I visited in February, the weather wasn’t too bad, and I had my Contax Aria loaded with Cinestill 400 and also my FujiX100F loaded with pixels. 😃

all pictures embiggenable with a click.

refs:
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/barnard-castle/history/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1179/007817201790180739?needAccess=true
https://www.wikipedia.org/ ~ various pages

for wherever next! 📷 🎞️ 😊

York 2015 remastered ~ part 3 ~going medieval & beyond

March 5, 2023March 4, 2023Posted in Adventures, architecture, Fuji, fujiXT1, History, Late Middle Ages, medieval, photography, Uncategorized, urbanTagged adventure, architecture, fraggle, Fuji XT-1, history, Middle Ages, photography, UK, York46 Comments

Part 1 HERE Part 2 HERE

It is amazing wandering around York and seeing all the medieval old shops and churches. It’s quite staggering they remain standing, some of their walls are so wonky, I guess there’s an invisible army of restoration people who manage the upkeep of them.

St. Sampsons Centre for the over 60’s. St. Sampson’s is an ancient church in the heart of York City Centre. It’s not know exactly when it was built, records show that it was in use in 1154 A.D. It is built on the South-east wall of the Roman defences of Eboracum (the Roman name for York).
The Church has been rebuilt many times over it’s 850 year history. The North and South Isles were rebuilt in 1400 and 1445 respectively. The tower was first rebuilt in 1485 but was damaged by gunshot in the civil war in 1644. By 1844 the church building was so dilapidated that the church was forced to close. Only half the tower was intact! The church was most recently rebuilt in 1848 and later the upper stage of the tower was added in 1907. York Civic Trust was able to arrange for its conversion in to an Old People’s Centre in the 1960’s. Over 60’s = old people. Sigh.

Gert & Henry’s. The older part of the building was constructed in the 14th-century, at the end of Jubbergate, where it met Newgate and Little Shambles. This part is of two bays, timber framed, a jettied upper floor, and brick infill on the ground floor. In the early-17th century, another timber-framed building was constructed next to it, in two parts: a two bay, two storied section with an original attic and cellar, and a smaller three storey section. Over time, the two have become interconnected and are now a single property. Sadly it is the only remaining 14thC building in that area as the rest were demolished in the 1950’s along with the whole street of Little Shambles in order to make Shambles Market. Now of course the demolition of the historic buildings that originally stood in the place of the market is seen as insensitive, since a great deal of historic fabric was destroyed.

The Little Shambles Tearoom and coffee house. Can’t find anything about this one.

Herbert House. In the mid-16th century, the Company of Merchant Adventurers of York owned a house on Marketshire, a street which was becoming known as Pavement. They let out the house to Christopher Herbert, a merchant who later became Lord Mayor of York. He purchased the property in 1557, and later passed it on to his son, Thomas. In 1606, Thomas’ grandson was born in the house. He later became Sir Thomas Herbert, 1st Baronet, and the house is now named after him. The house has been through a lot of alteration and renovations. When we were there it was operated by Jones the Bootmaker but since 2019, it has been occupied by York Gin. You can see the buildings either side of it are more modern, and straight and true, not sure how it’s not collapsing in on itself.

Externally of 1893 when the black-and-white front was added but early 1700’s origins inside. This one you might think is a sad reflection on our times, but our ancestors gambled just as much as people do today. There were many different sorts of dice games. Among the favorites were raffle, where the winner had to throw all three dice alike or the highest pair, and hazard, which seems to have been aptly named because it had the worst reputation. It was most often played in taverns, and it attracted cheaters, who if caught could be led to the pillory and made to wear their false dice around their necks. And in my searches have also found out medieval recipes cover a wide range of possible pastry uses, from wide, flat open tarts to the great raised meat and fruit pies with a pastry lid. “Flat tarts and flans may well have been meant for complete consumption, cut in slices in very much the modern fashion,the more substantial pies, on the other hand, often have a fairly liquid filling, and it is perfectly possible that the pies were designed to have the lid lifted so that diners could spoon out the stew-like innards. In addition, elaborate subtleties such as Chastletes require free-standing pastry as castle walls, to which use a tender pastry will not really be appropriate”. So all in all I think Betfred and Greggs are strangely appropriate.

30 and 32 Goodramgate lies on the corner of Goodramgate and College Street. The part facing College Street was constructed in the early-14th century, while the part facing Goodramgate was constructed in the 1380s or 1390s as part of a terrace of houses, replacing a large stone house which belonged to John le Romeyn. The structure also includes a gatehouse which is believed to represent an entrance to the Mediaeval Minster Close, but which was completely rebuilt about 1600. The main parts of the building were altered in the 18th- and 19th-centuries, when much of the timber was replaced with brickwork. By 1752, part of the building was in use as the Angel Inn. The Goodramgate façade is of 2 stories and 4 bays, and includes a double-storey gatehouse built in the 18th-century. The ground floor of the entire building is currently in use as shops and cafes, with part occupied by the National Trust. It was listed at grade II* in 1954.

The gates of York are known as ‘bars’ this is Monk Bar, it is the largest and most ornate of the bars, it dates from the early 14th century. It was a self-contained fortress, with each floor capable of being defended. On the front of the bar is an arch supporting a gallery, including ‘murder-holes’ through which missiles and boiling water could be rained down upon attackers. A formidable structure even now.

Not sure what this building was, but we were just awestruck by the skill of the guy who made the window frames for this place.

St William’s College was built in 1465 for York Minster’s Chantry Priests, a community of around 24, known as fellows, who received advance payments for praying for the souls of their deceased benefactors. The fellows’ behaviour, which often included drunkenness, had previously brought embarrassment for the Archbishop of York and he deemed they should have their own residence. Over the centuries the building changed ownership and usage many times; it became home to the Royal Printing Press during the Civil War, a private house – having several changes and rebuilds, windows were added to the street frontage in the 1800s and finally the beautiful medieval building contained nothing more than slum dwellings resulting in its disrepair. In the late 19^th century Francis Green, owner of the nearby Treasurer’s House,(which you’re going to get a whole blog post on) rescued St William’s from ruin, buying it and subsequently selling it back to the City Council at no personal profit thereby allowing the council to restore it to its former glory around 1902. It then came under the care of the Dean and Chapter of York Minster.

And finally, here is Phil looking at the menu in this 17th century inn, which Phil had been to before and rated really good, so we were planning on dining here, but the place has changed hands, and the menu didn’t impress Phil, so I never got to dine in a medieval building. Next time though 🙂 The building was a pub by 1772, when it was known as the Blue Pigg. It later became known as the Blue Boar, and has been the Royal Oak since 1819. From 1894, it was owned by the local John J. Hunt Brewery, while in the mid-20th century, it was acquired by Camerons Brewery.

and that’s a wrap for this week, but

for wherever next!

📷 😊

York 2015 ~ remastered ~ part 2 ~ not just medieval

February 26, 2023February 25, 2023Posted in architecture, photography, UncategorizedTagged architecture, fraggle, photography, York49 Comments

Part 1 HERE

Although I love York’s Olde Worlde streets it’s worth noting some of the more modern, but still architecturally delightful, buildings in York. One of the first buildings we saw was The York Art Museum. Created for second Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition of 1879 within the grounds of the medieval St Mary’s Abbey known as Bearparks Garden and designed by York architect Edward Taylor. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go in, but is definitely on the list for a return visit.

I liked the water feature in front of it

Another striking building belongs to Barclays Bank! The bank was built in 1901 to a design by Edmund Kirby (though subsequently altered) and is now Grade II Listed. The decorative brick work is amazing, click on it to see it bigger, it’s worth it. 🙂

Betty’s Tea rooms looked cool, and I like the little history about it-

In 1936 the founder of Bettys, Frederick Beaumont travelled on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary. He was so enthralled by the splendour of the ship that he commissioned the Queen Mary’s designers and craftsmen to turn a dilapidated furniture store into his most sophisticated branch yet – an elegant café in the land-locked location of St Helen’s Square. Today, as you sit in Bettys, surrounded by huge curved windows, elegant wood panelling and ornate mirrors, you can almost imagine yourself aboard a luxury liner.

The art deco elegance of the Queen Mary is particularly evident in the first floor Belmont Room which was inspired by one of the cruise liner’s state rooms. A few years after Betty’s opened its doors in York war broke out, and Betty’s – in particular the basement ‘Betty’s Bar’ – became a favourite haunt of thousands of airmen stationed around York. ‘Betty’s Mirror’, on which many of them engraved their signatures with a diamond pen, remains on display today as a fitting tribute to their bravery. Would have loved to go in but there was a long long queue to get in. And I don’t do queues. That’s all the people in the bottom of the picture!

We had a walk down to the river and see the central bridge, which is called The Ouse Bridge (over the River Ouse surprisingly 😉 ) There has been a crossing of sorts here since the founding of the city by the Romans. By the medieval period, the bridge was very crowded with buildings. A flood in 1564 caused the central span to collapse; along with the bridge, 12 buildings were also destroyed. The replacement bridge was built 2 years later, with 5 spans, including one large central span, which was one of the longest in Europe at the time. The current bridge was built in 1821, and was a lot flatter in profile than it’s predecessor. And probably boring in comparison.

St. Wilfrid’s is a Roman Catholic church located in the centre of York, in the shadows of York Minster. A Church dedicated to St.Wilfrid has stood in York since medieval times. Catholics call it the “Mother Church of the city of York.” It is in Gothic Revival style. The Arch over the main door has the most detailed Victorian carving in the city. The present Church was completed in 1864 and it was considered to be one of the most perfectly finished Catholic Churches in England, rich in sculptures, paintings and stained glass.

A sneaky History Bit 🙂
Considered one of the greatest and most controversial English Saints, Wilfrid (634-709) directly influenced the move away from Celtic to the more orderly Roman church practices and is best known for championing and winning the case for the Roman, as opposed to the Celtic method of calculating the date of Easter at the famous Synod of Whitby in 664.
He became Bishop of York with a See covering the whole of Northumbria, built magnificent stone churches at Ripon and Hexham. He acquired vast landholdings and established monasteries in Northumbria, Mercia, Sussex and the Isle of Wight and converted Sussex, the last vestige of paganism, to Christianity.
He was the confidant of kings and queens but made many powerful enemies and was twice banished from Northumbria. He made three journeys on foot and horseback through Europe to Rome and was not afraid to seek papal jurisdiction over both crown and church where he felt badly treated. His life was threatened many times being shipwrecked and nearly killed by natives off the coast of Sussex, they’re a feisty lot down there, imprisoned in Northumbria by the king and twice nearly murdered whilst travelling abroad. He was a bit of a lad, they should make a movie!

Not all the shops and cafe’s etc are medieval, we had our lunch in the square..

Phil knows how to show a girl a good time 🙄

We had a better dinner though. Ish.

can’t really recommend either, but as my hubby says, ‘it filled a hole’. 🙂
Back to medieval times next time so

📷 😊

North East Art Trail 3 ~ Ray Lonsdale edition

February 19, 2023February 19, 2023Posted in Adventures, art, contax aria, film, Fuji, Fujifilm X100F, photography, UncategorizedTagged art, contax aria, fraggle, Fujifilm X100F, photography, Ray Lonsdale, sculptures, UK44 Comments

Ray Lonsdale is a steel fabricator from Durham, and in 2002 began using steel for his sculptures. There are many of these sculptures dotted around the North East, I think at least 20. They are quite emotionally engaging, and fascinating to see up close and in their environment. I plotted a fair few on Google maps, and a couple of weeks ago Sophie and I set off to find some of them. I took the Contax with rolls of Cinestill 400T and Dubble Treat (which I didn’t much like the results of so converted them to Black and White mostly), and also my Fuji X100F, so there’s a combination of film and digital shots.

We started out with ‘Not Much to Ask’ a sculpt of a 1st World War soldier, situated in front of Aged Miners Homes in West Cornforth. The plinth he is standing on has all the names of the chaps from Cornforth who died in the war engraved on it.

Next on our list was ‘The Last Shift’, set in Wheatley Hill Cemetary in County Durham, and alluding to the closure of the Wheatley Hill Colliery.

Also at Wheatley Hill is the ‘Bonny Pit Lad’, a tribute to the young men who worked in the colliery.

Our next sculpture is The Durham Angel, one of Mr.Lonsdale’s earliest works,and could be found overlooking a pond in Horn’s Garden Centre in Shotton where it arrived in 2004. This was also where we had a very nice lunch of cheese & ham panini’s! Most of the statues come with a little poignant poem attached, but I couldn’t see it here to photograph. This one reads:-

‘Horns’ ( Durham Angel)
Do you live a good life that’s Hard to bear, for wings?
Or take the easy route and get a monkey for your sins?
The dilemma of what to wear on your back.

After Lunch we went to see ‘Relative Treats’ a life size sculpture of grandmother and granddaughter in South Hetton welfare park in Horden.

We then toddled off to see ‘Da said ”men don’t cry” ‘ at Hetton-le-Hole. There’s a plaque on the plinth that reads ‘Hetton Mining Heritage Statue. Remember where we came from. Life was very hard for this young child sent off by his father for his first shift at the pit. This statue is a tribute and a reminder of the hard life and sacrifice of all the men, women and children who built our coal mining community’.

Mr. Lonsdale’s workshop is just up the road from that statue in South Hetton and though it wasn’t open being a Sunday, we got a shot through the fence of this chap stood in the yard, which I think maybe is a work in progress, but am not sure.

Our last one for the day is also in South Hetton and called ‘And the Village Remains:The Last Tub’ and it stands next to a huge Mural on the wall of the Council offices.

And here is a map I made with all the locations that are in travelling distance for Sophie and I. There are some in Yorkshire too but too far for a day trip for us. We’ll be doing another set at some point though!

Ray’s website HERE

Ray’s Facebook HERE

So that’s it for this week, but

for wherever we go next time.

📷 🎞️ 😊

Prudhoe Castle remastered June 2015 part 2

February 5, 2023February 3, 2023Posted in Adventures, castles & ruins, History, medieval, Nikon, photography, UncategorizedTagged adventure, fraggle, history, photography, Prudhoe Castle, UK39 Comments

Last week we looked at the history of the castle between sometime in the mid eleventh century up to 1398, when the castle changed hands. Out with the Umfravilles and in with the Percy’s. So on with the next

History ~ Bit ☕️ 🍪

Firstly though, there are several Henry Percys Earls of Northumberland in this post, we will begin with HP1 for Henry Percy 1st Earl of Northumberland then onwards from there.

And so, in 1398 Prudhoe Castle came into the hands of Henry Percy, the 4th Baron Percy and the 1st Earl of Northumberland. He added a great hall to the castle as soon as he took possession of it. A bit of yoyo~ing then occurred as HP1 rebelled against the King, at the time Henry IV, at the Battle of Shrewsbury. This resulted in him being attainted, which meant losing the castle and his lands in forfeit to the Crown in 1405. The King gave the castle and lands to his son John, the future Duke of Bedford, who hung on to it until he died in 1435.

The Percys were not happy about losing it, and after a prolongued legal battle, in 1440, they got it back. By this time HP3 was head honcho but then he went and fought in the Wars of the Roses for the Lancastrians and was killed at the Battle of Towton in 1461 which we learned about at Lanercost Priory the other week. Edward IV was King by then and in 1462 and he gave Prudhoe Castle to George, Duke of Clarence, who was his younger brother. That didn’t last long though and Eddy then gave it to John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu, the Nevilles being the Percy’s major regional rivals.

By 1470 the castle was yet again in the custody of the Percy’s this time HP4. The Percy’s principle gaff was and still is, (the 12th Duke lives there now) Alnwick Castle, so they rented Prudhoe out to tenants. However in 1528, HP6 was resident at the castle with his bro Sir Thomas Percy. These two were heavily involved in the rebellion of the North against Henery the Eighth’s break with the catholic church along with the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, and the policies of the King’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, as well as other specific political, social, and economic grievances. The revolt began in Yorkshire in 1536 and was known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. The upshot was that HP6 and Tommy were convicted of treason and executed. Yet again the castle was forfeited to the crown. At this point the castle was reported in August 1537 to have habitable houses and towers within its walls, although they were said to be somewhat decayed and in need of repairs estimated at £20, about £12,421.91 in today’s money.

Moving on to 1557 and yet again the Percys held the castle and this time HP7 was the one to go off cock and he took part in the Rising of The North, a rebellion of the Northern Catholic nobles to depose Queen Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary, Queen of Pesky Scots. That went well didn’t it? HP7 was captured, escaped, recaptured and executed in 1572. The castle was let out then to many and various tenants, but not used as a residence after 1660. A hundred and so years down the line in 1776 it was reported to be a ruin.

But then, another Percy to the rescue, this time Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland. He carried out substantial repairs to the ancient fabric and replaced the old dwellings within the walls with a Georgian mansion adjoining the keep. In 1996 the castle was returned to the Crown, and now English Heritage are the custodians.

The Percys eh? A feisty lot to say the least. Let’s have a look at the First of the Feisties, Henry Percy 1st Earl of Northumberland, and his number one son, Henry ‘Hotspur’.

HP1 started out a follower of King Edward III and did well for position at a young age. He was made Warden of the March in 1362 with authority to negotiate with the Pesky Scottish Government and in February 1367 he was entrusted with the supervision of all castles and fortified places in the Scottish marches, where peskiness abounded. He got the Earlship (possibly earldom?) from Richard II on his coronation in 1337 and had the very important title Marshal of England which is a whole other thing which we won’t go into because he only had that for a short time. Between 1383 and 1384, he was appointed Admiral of the Northern Seas. But then he got miffed when King Dicky promoted HP’s rival Ralph Neville to be Earl of Westmoreland in 1397. So he and his son, another Henry who was known as Hotspur, joined a chap called (yet another 🙄) Henry Bolingbroke, the grandkid of King Eddy III, in his rebellion and usurption of the throne in 1399. He was crowned Henry IV. So many Henrys, 😮‍💨.

Henry IV was so chuffed with HP1 that on his coronation day he made him Constable of England, an even more important position than Marshal of England. Though I think Marshal sounds better than Constable, well I’d rather wear a stetson than a British bobby helmet anyhoo. HP was also given the Lordship of the Isle of Man. At this point the Pesky Welsh were doing the rebellion thingy, led by a chap called Owain Glyndŵr, who sounds like he should have been in Lord of the Rings, and King HIV ( 🙄 not the best initialism I’ve ever come up with) asked HP1 and Hotspur to go and sort it out. He wasn’t best pleased with their attempts to make peace though.

In 1402 HP1 and Hotspur took part in the Battle of Homildon Hill. Now that’s a whole nother post so we’ll just say the battle was against the Pesky Scots and resulted in the capture of very many Pesky Scottish Nobles. The policy back then was to ransom the nobles for money, but Henry IV was very worried that releasing all these captives back to Scotland would cause him future trouble so just wanted them kept imprisoned. Plus he was a bit broke. The Percy’s were not happy about this so they joined forces with Owain Glyndŵr and went into open rebellion. Hotspur defied the King and released all his prisoners anyway as he wasn’t going to get remuneration for them, and many of them joined him in the rebellion. A Pesky Scottish & Feisty English fusion no less! Happy Days!

Unfortunately it all fell apart at the Battle of Shrewsbury. Hotspur died whilst doing a charge to kill the king, reputedly shot in the face with an arrow when he opened his visor. Stupid boy. Anyhoo this battle was a bit all over the shop, no-one really won it, the King’s forces sustained greater losses than the rebels, and Henry IV very nearly lost both his life and his throne. But, that was that and King Henry prevailed.

Henry Hotspur was initially buried next to his maternal first cousin,with honours, but rumours soon spread that he was not really dead. In response the King had him disinterred. His body was salted, set up in Shrewsbury impaled on a spear between two millstones in the marketplace pillory, with an armed guard. Later it was quartered and put on display in Chester, London, Bristol and Newcastle Upon Tyne. His head was sent to York and impaled on the north gate, looking toward his own lands. In November his grisly remains were returned to his widow Elizabeth.

HP1 had not been directly involved with that rebellion so wasn’t tried for treason, though he did lose the Constable of England position. He did rebel though in 1405, signing The Tripartite Indenture which was an agreement made in February 1405 among Owain Glyndŵr, Edmund Mortimer VI, and himself, agreeing to divide England and Wales up among them at the expense of Henry IV. And again in 1405 he supported the Archbishop of York – Richard Scrope in the Northern Rising after which HP1 fled to Scotland, and his estates were confiscated by the king.

He still didn’t give up, our HP was nothing if not tenacious. In 1408 attempting one last time to seize the throne, he gathered together an army of lowland Scots and loyal Northumbrians and marched south once more toward York. At Bramham Moor, south of Wetherby, (which has an excellent service station on the A1 motorway), HP1’s army was met by a force of local Yorkshire levies and noble retinues which had been hastily assembled, led by the High Sheriff of Yorkshire Sir Thomas Rokeby. HP1was defeated, and he died fighting a furious rearguard action as his army was routed. Very few of his soldiers escaped the pursuit and returned to Scotland and surprise surprrise, HP1’s body was hanged, drawn, and quartered; his head was placed on London Bridge, with other parts of his anatomy displayed elsewhere.

Gone but not forgotten, you can find him in Shakespeare’s Richard II, Henry IV, part 1, and Henry IV, part 2 and he inspired the character of Lord Percy Percy, heir to the duchy of Northumberland in the historical sitcom The Black Adder.

Phew! Well done if you actually read all through that, and I forgive you skimmers. 😊

Some Photos then! Last time we looked at the Castle itself and this time we’ll look at a few details

The castle had it’s own mill which was rebuilt a few times, the 18th century saw the last one and is now a ruin. The mill was the only one available to the villagers for grinding flour.

Medieval carved heads we saw in the Keep.

Not sure what this is, it was in the church part of the keep, maybe a font stand? 🤷‍♀️

Also near the site of the castle this prehistoric stone was found with cup and ring carvings, during the restoration of the castle. The carvings were made by Neolithic and Early Bronze Age people between 3500 and 6000 years ago, Northumberland has quite a few dotted about, amazing to see one.

The outside of the castle is woodland and a little tributary of the Tyne, but it’s hemmed in by urban sprawl as you can see in the top picture. (I need a drone!)

So that’s it for this time, but

for wherever next!

📷 😊

No apostrophies were harmed in the making of this post, but some may have gone out to play, and others could be playing somewhere they’re not supposed to be.

All pictures embiggenable with a click.

Prudhoe Castle remastered ~ May 2015 part 1.

January 29, 2023January 29, 2023Posted in Adventures, castles & ruins, History, landscape, photography, UncategorizedTagged adventure, fraggle, Fuji XT1, history, photography, Prudhoe Castle43 Comments

Another delve into the archives, and this time I’m revamping a post that no-one who follows this blog has seen before, except Francis. Another outing with Sophie and the erstwhile Mike.

The castle is a ruined medieval English castle situated on the south bank of the River Tyne at Prudhoe, Northumberland, England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building. That’s its credentials so let’s get on with

The History Bit ☕️ 🍪

The castle started life as a Norman motte and bailey built somewhere about the middle of the 11th Century.

Small digression ~ Back in the medieval Duchy of Normandy, Pesky French, Pesky Gallic-Romans and Pesky Norse Vikings got all jiggy together and intermingley which resulted in an ethnic and cultural “Pesky Norman” identity in the first half of the 10th century, an identity which continued to evolve over the centuries.

The Norman Conquest, led by the Duke of Normandy who then became William the Conqueror (a man far beyond pesky) happened, and after all that malarkey the wonderfully named Umfraville family took control of the Castle. Robert d’Umfraville was formally granted the barony of Prudhoe by Henry I, but had probably been granted Prudhoe in the closing years of the 11th century. The Umfravilles (probably Bob) initially replaced the wooden palisade with a massive rampart of clay and stones and subsequently constructed a stone curtain wall and gatehouse.

Now Bob, whilst holding the lordships of Prudhoe and Redesdale for King Henry I, also acquired interests in Scotland. He seems to have been pals with King David I and his son Henry, and was granted lands in Stirlingshire. Bob died around 1145 and his son Odinel I succeeded him, also being active in Scotland and being all pally with King David and his grandson who went on to be King Malcolm IV.

We’ll skip a couple of unimportant Umfs and move along to 1173 which is when William the Lion of Scotland, (a Pesky lion at that) invaded the North East to claim the earldom of Northumbria. Sigh. By this time Odinell II is head honcho of the Umfs.

I feel we should digress here, and have a quick look at William the Lion, who was actually a bloke. Willy became King of Scotland in December 1165 aged 25 and reigned for 48 years until 1214, the second longest reign in Scottish history. On the whole it seems he was a conscientious and good King, but, and this is a big but, he was stupidly obsessed with Northumbria. And he was an argumentative sort of chap to boot. We have to turn the clock back a bit here, to 1113 when King Henry I gave a defunct Earldom, that of Northumbria, to David I, Willy’s grandfather. More on that shortly. Ish. Willy spent time at King Henry II’s court, but quarrelled with him and in 1168 arranged a treaty of Scottish alliance with France, the first ever between the Main Peskies. In 1173/4 a revolt against Henry kicked off with Henry’s three sons and their mother against him with short lived assistance from Le Pesky Louis VII. That went on for 18 months, to no avail, but our Willy was a key player in the revolt. At the Battle of Alnwick the daft bugger recklessly charged the English troops by himself, shouting, “Now we shall see which of us are good knights!” As you do. Anyway at that point Ranulf de Glanvill and his troops unhorsed and captured him, took him in chains to Newcastle, then Northampton, and then to Falais in Normandy. Henry then sent an army into Scotland and occupied it. As ransom and to regain his kingdom, Willy had to acknowledge Henry as his feudal superior and agree to pay for the cost of the English army’s occupation of Scotland by taxing the Scots. The cost was equal to 40,000 Scottish marks (£26,000). I can’t find out how much that is in todays money, but it’s quite a sum as it is! The church of Scotland was also subjected to that of England. William acknowledged this by signing the Treaty of Falaise, and was then allowed to return to Scotland. In 1175 he swore fealty to Henry II at York Castle. If only he’d just stayed in the line…🤷‍♀️

Back to Prudhoe and back to 1173, I presume prior to joining or during the revolt, Willy decided to invade Northumberland and reclaim the Earldom. He was a busy chap. Odinell II refused to support him and so Willy and his Scottish Army attacked Prudhoe Castle, but failed to take it as they were not prepared for a lengthy siege. The following year he tried again, but Ody was a canny chap and had strengthened his garrison. The Pesky Scots tried a siege, but gave up after 3 days, and Ody further improved the defences of the castle by adding a stone keep and a great hall. I mean, what was Willy thinking? I can vouch for Northumbrians not wanting to be Scottish, they don’t even want to be English! They have their own flag and everything! Ody died in 1182 and was succeeded by his son Richard. By this time King John the lecherous was in charge of everything and he wasn’t well liked. Dicky came under suspicion of treachery, and in 1212 had to hand over to the king his sons and his castle of Prudhoe.The Baronial revolt kicked off in 1215-17,and in 1216 our Dicky joined the rebels fighting John and so then his lands were forfeit as well. They remained forfeited until 1217, the year after King John’s death. He later made peace with the government of King Henry III and died in 1226. He was succeeded by his son Gilbert II,and he in turn was succeded by his son Gilbert III in 1245. Gill 3 inherited the title of Earl of Angus with vast estates in Scotland, but he continued to spend some of his time at Prudhoe. It is believed that he carried out further improvements to the castle.

We are back to the Scottish Wars of Independence now, which we left behind in Lanercost Castle a couple of weeks ago, and though Gill 3 was Earl of Angus, he actually fought on the English side in the first war until his death in 1308. His heir and second son Robert de Umfraville IV came next and he also sided with the English but ended up surrendering to the pesky King Bobby the Bruce during the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. King Bobby did release Bob 4th who then treated with the Scots for peace with England. He was ultimately disinherited of his titles, no surprises there! In 1316 King Edward granted Bob 4th 700 marks to maintain a garrison of 40 men-at-arms and 80 light horsemen at Prudhoe. In 1325, Bob 4th died and his son another bliddy Gilbert IV took over the Barony, and was the last of the Umfravilles to do so. He’d married twice and had a son guess what they called him? hint- begins with R ends in T and has OBER in the middle. 🙄 Anyway, that Bob died, Gill didn’t have any more kids, and when he died in 1381 his 2nd wife remarried into the mighty Percy family, to Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, (will definitely be digressing him!)and when she died in 1398 Prudhoe Castle went to him. So we will say goodbye to the Umfravilles, whose dynasty continued, but without our castle.

Oh My Days! how bliddy confusing all the Gilberts and Roberts and Odinells I had to make sense of. More Umfravilles than you can shake an Englebert at! What a nightmare. Any hoo, I’m going to leave you hanging in 1398 now, until next week, because there’s still a few hundred years until we get to the end, and you’ll need another cup of tea and more biscuits for that! Bet you can’t wait!! 😃

On with the pictures!!

The view from the road as you walk up to the castle.

Prudhoe Castle & Mill pond, iPhone 6 panorama

Built in 1150, the Gatehouse also incorporated the chapel.

The Outer Bailey where lower service buildings and the great hall stood. The East Tower is to the right. People lived in it until the 1990’s!

The Inner Bailey was enclosed by the first stone curtain wall of the mid 12th century but had to be rebuilt in the 14th century after subsidence.

The Keep. The west wall of the keep shows the scar of the gable end of the Norman roof, indicating the great height of the open-roofed upper hall. Within the west wall a flight of stairs goes up to the battlement level walk. The south and east walls are no longer there so no other Norman features remain.

The remains of the base of the south drum tower (home to a huge conservatory in the early 1900s); and the north-west drum tower, which still dominates this end of the castle. The open grassy area to the south-west of the castle formed the pele yard, a service area for the castle which was also the site of St Mary’s Chapel, built in the 1200s but long gone.

north west & south drum tower (iphone6 panorama)

So that’s it for this time, but we’ve more yet to see so

📷 😊

No apostrophies were harmed in the making of this post, but some may have gone out to play, and others could be playing somewhere they’re not supposed to be.

Lanercost Priory ~ 2014 ~ The Tombs

January 22, 2023January 21, 2023Posted in Adventures, castles & ruins, Graves, History, Nikon, photography, UncategorizedTagged "Lanercost Priory", adventure, fraggle, Nikon D700, photography, tombs, UK39 Comments

Following on from last weeks pictures of the priory HERE, today we’re going to investigate the contents of the tombs within.

Hubert de Vaux’s eldest son Robert de Vaux was the founder of Lanercost Priory, and for centuries the de Vaux remained important benefactors of the priory. In the north transept, the oldest tomb of the priory is one of the Roland de Vaux lords from the fourteenth century. Unfortunately the knight’s effigy and tomb decorations are mostly now gone, but surviving fragments of the effigy from the top of the tomb are now in store.

I managed not to take a picture of Roly’s tomb, so asked permission to link to this one I found on Flickr.

Lake District 2018 Lanercost Priory (25) — Roly, photo by Purple Heather ~ Flickr

Next up we have the first Dacre tomb, the tomb of Sir Humphrey (1424–85), 1st Baron Dacre, and his wife, Mabel Parr (d. 1510), stands in a chapel off the north transept. The visible sides are covered with heraldic imagery, showing the various families who had married into the Dacre line. This tomb was erected by their son Thomas. Sir Hump was a soldier, landowner in Cumbria, and peer, and stayed loyal to King Henry VI at The Battle of Towton during the War of the Roses. The battle took place in 1461 and was fought for ten hours between an estimated 50,000 soldiers in a snowstorm on Palm Sunday, with the Yorkist army achieving a decisive victory over their Lancastrian opponents. As a result, Edward IV deposed the Lancastrian Henry VI and secured the English throne. Our Hump was attainted, which meant he lost everything, his property and titles, but managed to keep his life.

He must have been a wiley old fox as he was later pardoned, regained the family estates, summoned to parliament as a baron, attended the coronation of Richard III, and was appointed Governor of Carlisle and Warden of the West Marches. His Missis, Mabs, was the great aunt to Catherine Parr, Ol’Henery the eighth’s last Missis, and the only one to survive marriage to him.

Tomb of Sir Humphrey Dacre and his wife, Lady Mabel — Photo by PunkToad, Flickr ~ The tomb of Sir Hump and Lady Mabs. On the left are the de Vaux chequers; on the right, the Dacre scallops; and in the centre, Humphrey Dacre’s arms, with the Dacre (scallop), Vaux (chequers), Lancaster (lion above bars) and Morville (lattice with fleur-de-lys) family arms quartered

Side panel details see info under previous photo.

Thomas, 2nd Baron Dacre (1467–1525), and his wife, Elizabeth Greystoke (d.1516), are buried in the second large chest tomb, which stands in the south transept, under an early 19th-century stone canopy. The tomb was erected by Thomas during his lifetime. The arms of the Dacre and Greystoke families are set within garters, so the tomb must date from after 1518, when Thomas was made a Knight of the Garter.

Hump and Mabs, had 9 children, the eldest being Tommy who succeeded Hump as Baron Dacre of Gilsland. He too was a soldier but fought on the Yorkist side in the Battle of Bosworth, the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, which took place on August 22nd 1485. Dicky III was on the throne at this point, but was defeated and killed in the battle, with the Lancastrian Henry Tudor being the winner taking all. Like his Dad, Tommy managed to suck up to the victor and earned himself some kudos with Henry Tudor who had now ascended the throne as “King Henry VII of England” and who would continue to trust Tommy’s services for the remainder of his reign. Henry made Tommy a Knight of the Bath in 1503.

I think a small digression is worthy here, to explain that during the middle ages, knighthoods were often conferred with elaborate ceremonies. (Blokes!!🙄) The chap being Knighted would first have to have a bath and not the kind where you chill out in candlelight with nice smelling bubbles and a waterproof book, nope, instead he had senior Knights instructing him in his Knightly duties. I bet the water went cold. Then he’d be clothed in a special cloak and music would play whilst he was taken to a chapel to pull an all nighter vigil. At dawn he’d have to make a confession and go to mass, after which he was allowed to go to bed for a snooze until it was fully daylight. Lastly he was taken to see the King who instructed two senior Knights to strap spurs to the chaps heels, and then the King fastened a belt around the guy’s waist, and then smacked him on the neck with his hand or a sword. The chap was then a Knight. 🤷‍♀️ Nowadays the Monarch just has them visit Buckingham Palace and taps the persons shoulders with a sword, job done, no messing about with baths and spurs.

Our Tommy then declared loyalty to the next King, the Eighth Henry. He did well too and by 1509 was Lord of all The Marches. The Lord Warden of the Marches was an office in the governments of Scotland and England. The holders were responsible for the security of the border between the two nations, and often took part in military action. He had an illustrious military career, being in charge of the “Border Lancers” at the Battle of Flodden in 1513 where the invading army of James IV was crushingly defeated and its king killed. Tommy found him and transported him to Berwick on Tweed. Henery made Tommy a Knight of the Garter in 1518 and he was present, with all the other Garter Knights, at the meeting in 1520 between Henry VIII and the Pesky French King Francis I, you may know of it as The Field of The Cloth of Gold. Anyhoo, Tommy died on the borders on 24 October 1525, killed by a fall from his horse, a bit of an ignominius ending I feel,and was banged up in the tomb below.

I must mention he married Elizabeth Greystoke, 6th Baroness of Greystoke in her own right, and she was absolutely minted! Tommy ~~abducted~~ eloped with her at night from Brougham Castle where she’d been staying as a ward of the King in the custody of the Baron of Clifford. When they married the extensive lands held by the Greystokes passed to the Dacre family. These included Greystoke Castle and the barony of Greystoke, Morpeth Castle and the barony of Morpeth, along with the lost manor of Henderskelf, which is now the site of Castle Howard. Tommy and Liz had eight children who all became or married, Knights and Earls and Barons but am not sure which of them would have been the ancestor of Tarzan.

Although there were very few family buriels inside the church between the 16th and 18th centuries, in 1708, a 25yr old chap, John Crow of Longlands, died whilst falling trying to climb the ruins, stupid boy, and ended up buried in a re-used 14th Century chest tomb, previous incumbent unknown. ( Stop weeping April 🙂 ) The tomb effigy is the only complete medieval effigy to survive at Lanercost.

In the 19th Century the Priory was in the hands of the Howard family, George Howard (1843–1911), 9th Earl of Carlisle, revived the use of the church as a family mausoleum. His infant daughter Eizabeth died at the age of 4 months in 1883, and he had a terracotta effigy made of her by the famous sculptor Sir Edgar Boehm. George was quite the artist with many of his works in prestigious galleries and museums, the Tate and the Ashmolean being just two.

The Howards lived in London in Kensington, in a house at 1 Palace Green,built for them by Arts and Crafts architect Philip Webb in 1870,and at Naworth Castle. Among their visitors at Naworth were Robert Browning, William Ewart Gladstone, Lewis Carroll, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and many others. William Morris was an intimate friend, well that’s what it says but I think it means in the intellectual sense, and his wallpapers were used in Kensington, at Naworth Castle and at Castle Howard when George inherited it. With Morris and Webb he was one of the founding members of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

George’s eldest son Charles (8 March 1867 – 20 January 1912) became the 10th Earl of Carlisle when Dad expired in 1911 and was also known as Viscount of Morpeth from 1889 to 1911. Another soldier he was firstly a Captain in the 3rd Border Regiment, whereafter he retired from the regular army and went on to serve in the Boer War in South Africa as a Captain in the 5th militia Battalion of the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own). After the war he became the MP for Birmingham South until he got his Earldom in 1911 and joined the house of Lords. He died age 44, and his wife Rhoda Ankaret L’Estrange, with whomst he got spliced in 1894, didn’t join him until 1957 45 years later. They they stuck her in the same tomb with him and she was the last person to be entombed in the priory.

So that’s it for tombs, but there’s a couple of interesting grave slabs to look at.

Firstly the one on the right in this next photograph is possibly from the late 12th century, with a small Maltese cross on the top surface. On its left side is a sword, and on the right are a pilgrim’s scrip (purse or satchel) and palm, suggesting the deceased had been on pilgrimage. Can’t make much out of all that except the palm and the sword.

The next one below is a fragment of a late 14th- or 15th-century floor slab or tomb chest, bearing a cross with fleur-de-lys terminals. On the left is a scallop, part of the Dacre family crest.

And that is the end of our history lesson today 😊

All images taken by me except where stated otherwise, and are clickable and embiggenable. The 2 from Flickr are links from those person’s albums and you can see more of their photos of Lanercost if you click through and scroll about.

No apostrophies were harmed in the making of this post, but some may have gone out to play, and others could be playing somewhere they’re not supposed to be.

refs:-
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/lanercost-priory/history/a-family-mausoleum/
wiki for all the Lords and Ladies

for wherever next.

📷😊

Lanercost Priory ~ June 2014

January 15, 2023January 14, 2023Posted in Adventures, castles & ruins, Church, History, medieval, photography, UncategorizedTagged "Lanercost Priory", adventure, fraggle, history, Nikon D700, photography, ruins68 Comments

Digging back into the archives today, and my visit to Lanercost Priory with Sophie, and our erstwhile companion Mike, in 2014. I did a couple of posts on it back in the day but no-one who follows this blog has seen those (except Stevie), plus I did a rubbishy history bit, so I’m starting over.

The History Bit ☕️ 🍪 *Long Post Alert*

We’re going back in time to 1169 or thereabouts, when a prominent 12th-century English noble called Robert de Vaux founded Lanercost Priory to house Augustinian Canons.

A little digression~ Canons are not Big Guns firing big stone balls, they were originally, back in the 8th century, clerics who lived together, so a bit like monks I guess. Later on in the 11thC some churches had it that these clerics also had to give up all their private wealth and then they became Augustinian Canons Regular. The ones who didn’t give up their wonga were known as secular canons.

Our Bob turned out to be a bit of a useless effort really. He had to pay scutage to Henry II as he didn’t join in the Norman Invasion of Ireland, which cost him 40 shillings, a lot back then. Then he was appointed Sherriff of Cumberland in 1174 and whilst he held Carlisle Castle when the Pesky Scots led by King William I of Scotland invaded Cumberland in 1173, he then surrendered it in 1174 when they came back and had another bash. In 1186 he was fined a hundred marks for a variety of offences including allowing prisoners to escape. Robert died around 1195 and was succeeded by his brother Ranulf as Bob and his Missis Ada only had one lad, and he died young.

Another digression ~ Scutage is a medieval English tax. Under feudalism the king, through his vassals, provided land to knights for their support. The knights owed the king military service in return. The knights were allowed to “buy out” of the military service by paying scutage (a term derived from Latin scutum, “shield”)

Most of the church building dates from the late 13th century, though there is evidence of earlier work. The Priory buildings were constructed, at least in part, from stones derived from Hadrians Wall, including a number of Roman inscriptions that were built into its fabric. Unfortunately the Priory was built close to the border with Scotland, and that determined a turbulent history as it was a target of the Pesky Scots’ attacks in retaliation for English raids.

When the Wars of Scottish Independence broke out in 1296 the Scottish army set fire to Hexam Abbey, then Lambley Nunnery before arriving at Lanercost and encamping there. Luckily they were chased off before they did too much damage. A chap called William Wallace, was one of the blokes in charge of the War, and he was well Pesky. If you’ve seen a movie called Braveheart you might have thought he was Australian, but nope, he was a Scottish Knight though little is definitely known of his family history or even his parentage, so who knows? Anyway he continued to attack and plunder the Priory which naffed off the English who called for reprisals.

I guess I should digress and talk a little about the Pesky Wallace, a revered man of great standing in Scotland (and possibly Australia). There’s statues of him and everything all over Scotland. As I say, no-one has come up with much evidence about his early life, the surname Wallace means he could even have Welsh ancestry. Anyhoo, he was good at War stuff. His first act was to kill William De Heselrig the English High Sheriff of Lanark, in May 1297. He then joined Lord Douglas in the Raid of Scone, one of several rebellions taking place across Scotland, including those of several Scottish nobles and in the north.

On 11 September 1297, an army jointly led by Willy and Andrew Moray won the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Although vastly outnumbered, the Scottish army routed the English army. John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey’s feudal army of 3,000 cavalry and 8,000 to 10,000 infantry met disaster as they crossed over to the north side of the river. It was a complete clusterf**k. The bridge the English were crossing was narrow so the Scots held back until half of them had passed and then killed the English as quickly as they could cross. Then one of Willy’s captains, caused some of the English soldiers to retreat as others pushed forward, and under the overwhelming weight, the bridge collapsed and many English soldiers drowned. Thus, the Pesky Scots won a significant victory, boosting the confidence of their army. Hugh de Cressingham, King Edward I’s treasurer in Scotland, died in the fighting and it is reputed that his body was subsequently flayed and the skin cut into small pieces as tokens of the victory. The Lanercost Chronicle records that Willy had “a broad strip [of Cressingham’s skin] … taken from the head to the heel, to make there with a baldrick for his sword”. (Don’t mess with Willy!! ) Afterwards they made Willy a Knight, and a Guardian of Scotland along with Moray.

After that he went on to cock up the Battle of Falkirk in April 1298 when the English totally pasted the Scots and many of them died, though Willy escaped. He resigned his Governership and went off to France to beg for assistance from the Pesky French King Philip IV, after which he returned to Scotland and got involved in some skirmishes, but in 1305 was captured by a Scottish Knight called John de Monteith, a turncoat who gave Willy up in return for lands and titles from King Eddy. Willy was put on trial for treason and for atrocities against civilians in war, and on August 23rd was dragged naked through London at the heels of a horse to the Elms at Smithfield where he was strangled by hanging, though let down whilst still alive, whereupon he had his specifically male appendages lopped off, followed by disembowelment – the contents of which were set fire to before his eyes. Finally he was beheaded, then his limbs were hacked off and displayed seperately in Newcastle, Berwick, Sterling and Perth. (Don’t mess with King Eddy!!)

OK, OK, hands up. King Eddy was a real bad guy and you can’t blame the Pesky Scots for wanting shot of him. Anyhoo back to the Priory….

In August 1311 the Peskiest Scot of all Robert Bruce, King of Scotland turned up and made his headquarters in the Priory for 3 days, “committing infinite evils” according to the Canons, some of whom he imprisoned, though later released. I won’t digress into King Bob’s life, he did what Willy couldn’t and fought successfully during his reign to regain Scotland’s place as an independent kingdom. He is now revered in Scotland as a National (pesky) Hero.

Although King Bob and King Eddy III had made a truce in 1328, King Bob died a year later, and later on Pesky King David II arrived in 1346 and he ransacked the conventual buildings and desecrated the church. Fresh from the overthrow of Liddel he and his army “entered the holy place with haughtiness, threw out the vessels of the temple, stole the treasures, broke the doors, took the jewels, and destroyed everything they could lay hands on”. Sigh. The fortunes of the priory were linked to the state of warfare and raids on the border. The priory was in relatively affluent circumstances before the outbreak of the war of Independence in 1296, and the annual revenue of the house was returned at £74 12s 6d in the 1291 valuation of Pope Nicholas IV. But by the taxation of 1318, the value had fallen almost to nothing.

Moving swiftly forward now (phew!) Old Henery the Eighth did his thing with the dissolution of everything churchy in 1538 and the conventual buildings were stripped of their roofs, excepting the church building which continued in use as the parish church. In the late 17th century, as the nave deteriorated, the congregation used just the north aisle which had been re-roofed. In 1747, the nave was re-roofed, but by 1847 the Priory was in a state of disrepair to the extent that the east end roof collapsed. However, by 1849, The church was in use again after a major restoration by Anthony Salvin and in the 1870s, there was further restoration by the Carlisle architect C.J. Ferguson.

At the Dissolution, ownership had passed to the Dacre family, and then in the early 18th century to the Howards. In 1929, the Priory ruins were put into public ownership, and today they are managed by English Heritage.

That’s it! Do you need a toilet break now? 🙂 Well done if you got through all that.

On with the pics!

I think that will do for this week, next time we’ll have a look at some of the tombs and effigies in the Priory and learn about who is buried inside them 😊

All pics clickable to embiggen.

Alnmouth Old Battery Gun Emplacement ~ November 2022

January 8, 2023January 5, 2023Posted in Adventures, contax aria, film, History, landscape, photography, UncategorizedTagged adventure, Alnmouth, fraggle, Gun Battery, landscape, Northumberland, photography58 Comments

Christmas caught up with me before I could get this post done, so here is the last outing Sophie and I had at the end of November, on the same day as my previous post on Alnwick. We parked up at the beach at Alnmouth and walked up the hill to see this legacy of wars. I think first though we’ll have

The History Bit ☕️ 🍪 * Long post Alert *

Alnmouth has had a bit of bother with the Pesky Scots and the Pesky French over the past 871 years, though it seems calm and peaceful now. It was established by a Norman Nobleman, William de Vesci, in 1152, but it was his son Eustace who, in 1207 or 8 was given royal permission to turn it into a port and have a Wednesday fish market going on, and by 1306 is shown to be a port of call by a Crown request for the supply of a boat to assist in a military campaign to Gascony.

But let’s digress here a little, whilst Eustace has nothing to do with our gun battery, there’s a cool history of him in The Baronage of England by Sir William Dugdale (1605-1686.) a bit of which I’ll paraphrase as it’s all in olde worlde English. This bit happened in 1211 when King John was on the way to Wales to invade it. One evening, at the dinner table, King John, (who was a bit of a lech to say the least) found out that Eustace’s missis, Margaret of Scotland, (King Alex 2nd’s sister) was thought to be very beautiful. He pretended to admire Eustace’s ring, and borrowed it to have one like it made for himself. But the cad! He was fibbing, and instead sent the ring to Maggie pretending Eustace had sent it, begging her to come and see him if she wanted to see him alive! A cad and a bounder! As luck would have it, as Maggie, unaware of the King’s ruse, was hot hoofing it to see her dearly beloved, Eustace was having a leisurely ride out and about and the two met up. Now that folks, is what we call serendipity! Anyway, Eustace, once he understood how they had both been deluded, resolved to hire a lady of the night, dress her in clothes his Missis would wear, and send her off to dally with the King. All that was accomplished, and the King was soon bragging to Eustace about how lovely his Missis was and how naughty they had been, whereupon our Eustace put him right. The King was mighty peed off at being thusly thwarted and tricked and threatened to kill Eustace, and wisely our man skedaddled North toot~sweet!

So, back to Alnmouth in 1336 or forwards now really 🙄 and the Pesky Scots came a’calling, and whilst in 1296, twenty-eight people had been listed as being liable to pay tax; in 1336 this fell to just one after the Pesky Scots had finished with the place. The Black Death, (bubonic plague) arrived and added to the woes of anyone left living there, and as always in this part of Northumberland Pesky Scottish Border Reivers constantly raided the place. In the 15th and 16th centuries the place was in pretty poor order, but nothing lasts forever, and in the 17th and 18thC’s things were looking up. Trade flourished from the port, exporting grain everywhere, coal, eggs, pork and pickled salmon to London, wool to Yorkshire for the weaving industry and then importing bat guano from Peru as you do, blue slate from Scotland, and timber from Holland and Scandinavia. The port had a modest shipbuilding centre and at it’s peak around 1750, up to 18 vessels might be seen in the harbour at any one time.

And then in August 1779 two Pesky French Privateer ships (sovereign backed pirates basically) had a contre~temps for 2 hours with a British Man Of War ship off the coast of Alnmouth. I couldn’t find out who won the battle. To cap that, a month later a chap called John Paul Jones (NOT the sublime bass player of Led Zeppelin) turned up in a ship and fired a cannonball at Alnmouth Church in support of the American War of Independence. What the heck he hoped to achieve with one cannonball in Alnmouth is beyond me, but it didn’t do much damage, missed the church and landed on a farm house roof.

I think a little digression is worthwhile here, as John Paul Jones is an interesting chappy. He was the United States’ first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites (including John Hancock and Benjamin Franklin) as well as enemies (who accused him of piracy), and his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation that persists to this day. As such, he is sometimes referred to as the “Father of the American Navy” (a nickname he shares with John Barry and John Adams). He has a very long and illustrious naval history, served with the Americans, the French and the Russians, winning medals from them all. The Institution du Mérite Militaire from France, the Congressional Gold Medal from the USA and the Order of St. Anne from Russia. His history, albeit fascinating is too long for my little blog post, my digression here is just to point out that he wasn’t American in the slightest. Nope! He was born in Arbigland in Southern Scotland! A Pesky Scot no less!! As well as his pot shot at Alnmouth, he raided Whitehaven on the West coast and in 1999 Jones was given a posthumous honorary pardon by the port of Whitehaven for his raid on the town, in the presence of Lieutenant Steve Lyons representing the U.S. Naval Attaché to the UK, and Yuri Fokine the Russian Ambassador to the UK. The U.S. Navy was also awarded the Freedom of the Port of Whitehaven, the only time the honour has been granted in its 400-year history. He didn’t get a pardon from Alnmouth, and quite right too, the traitorous Bunty.

Bear with me, we’re getting there! The Napoleonic Wars from 1803 ~1815 affected the trade of the port and the fear of further invasions carried on throughout the century. In 1799 the Volunteer Movement had come into being, and militia’s were setting up all over the shop. The Armed Association of the Percy Tenancy Volunteers was raised by the Duke of Northumberland, Hugh, in 1798, and operated between 1805 and 1814. In 1859, the 2nd Northumberland (Percy) Volunteers Artillery was established, with the next Duke of Northumberland, Algernon, being the Commanding Officer. He is the chap who had the gun battery at Alnmouth built. It was completed on 12th March 1881. When WW2 kicked off, invasion fears arose again and more defences were added to Alnmouth, anti-tank cubes, an anti-tank ditch, pill-boxes, reinforcement of the gun battery, and firing slits built into the walls of the Church Hill guano shed. We may need another outing to Alnmouth!

Enough edumacation, lets have the pictures! These are all taken with my Contax Aria, loaded with Cinestil 800T.

It was late in the afternoon when we got to it. Well not really late, but afternoons end at 3.30-4pm in winter here, so we didn’t have too much time to photograph and it was a bit of a hike from the carpark next to the beach up to the battery.

Don’t think the next invaders need to worry.

It didn’t take long to shoot the battery, but we hung about watching a lovely gentle sunset, and the view from where the battery sits is worth a few moments.

that’s my little car parked, just to the right of center.

All pictures embiggenable with a click.

And that is the end of my posts for 2022 outings, I’m pretty sure there’ll be more in 23 so

refs-
Percy Volunteers
History of Alnmouth
Old Gun Battery
John Paul Jones
Eustace De Vescy

Christmas Market North Shields ~ December 2022

December 25, 2022December 22, 2022Posted in Adventures, Christmas, Iphoneography, people, photography, UncategorizedTagged adventure, Big Crosby, Christmas, fraggle, iphone11, North Shields, photography, UK36 Comments

Not sure if anyone will be popping in here as it’s Christmas Day, but if you do, my very heartfelt Best Wishes for a lovely day for you, wherever and however you are. Sundays are my post days here, and not even Christmas prevents that, so here’s a short one, that is at least apt for the day.

On our last outing together before Sophie’s return to Spain, we decided to visit the Christmas Market in North Shields. There were many, many stalls selling all sorts of produce, arts, crafts, clothes. All the usual stuff, and the place was heaving with people, it you stood still you got knocked into. Not really conducive to taking photographs. So we didn’t, we sauntered around trying to peek through people to see the stalls. I know Sophie was looking at a hat stall for a Christmas present but not sure if she bought one in the end as I’d wandered off to look at something else, and I bought three scotch eggs of different flavours as Phil likes them, but mostly we didn’t buy anything.

They had some fairground rides for the kids, so we went and photographed those instead. They’d kind of given it a Christmas feel, candy canes, penguins, Mickey Mouse dressed as Santa.

It was nice for the Mums and their little kids I guess, and I realise I still prefer fairgrounds empty.

On the way back to the car I spotted a man parked on the corner of a road, or his car was anyway, and he was underneath it, I think he’d broken down and was trying to fix it.

Anyway the afternoon would be drawing in soon enough so we went over the river to South Shields Christmas Market, which we took one look at and decided it was not in the same league as the one we’d been to, so we went to lunch instead. On the way to where we thought we were going we spotted a sign outside the library building advertising the café within, so a snap decision was made and we went in. Not the best photo but I was trying to be unobtrusive (sneaky really) and fluffed it.

It was so lush to be in from the cold for a while. We both had a home made vegetable soup and I had a ham sandwich with mine. The sandwich was nothing special, but the soup was glorious. I don’t do ‘food at the dinner table’ pics really, not a fan, but I had to remember this one! Made it myself last week, so yum!

The evenings arrive so quickly up North here at this time of year, you just finish lunch to find the sun beginning to set. And so it was as we walked back to the car, and we could see it was going to be a lovely sunset and if we were sharp I could drive us up the coast to get some nice shots. So I did, and we did.

I had my Contax on the go too, still waiting for those to come back, so the iPhone was enlisted for this post, don’t usually bother but they look much better clicked through to, especially the last two. Anyhow enough of me,

#itsnotchristmaswithoutabing

Merry Everything, and have a cool Yule!

Stay tooned 😎 🎄

Alnwick November 2022

December 11, 2022January 2, 2023Posted in Adventures, books, Fuji, Fujifilm X100F, FujiX-T2, Iphoneography, landscape, photography, Uncategorized, Victorian eraTagged Barter Books, fraggle, Northumberland, photography, The Rocky, UK44 Comments

On Sophies first weekend back from Spain, we decided to organise our photography trip around our favourite café, regular readers will know we love The Rocking Horse Café up in the Alnwick area of Northumberland. Before lunch though we went to visit Barter Books on the outskirts of Alnwick town.

A l’il History Bit

Alnwick Railway Station is a Victorian building designed by William Bell and opened in 1887. In 1991, after the closure of the branch line to Alnwick 10 years before, it reopened as a second~hand book shop having been bought by Stuart and Mary Manley who also run it. 350,000 people a year come to visit it, 140,000 of those from outside the area according to Wiki, but that isn’t surprising, Alnwick isn’t THAT big! Anyway it’s one of the largest second-hand bookshops in Europe, and is notable for using a barter system (hence the name) whereby customers can exchange their books for credit against future purchases, but you can also just buy books like in a shop.

It’s also quite famous, as in 2000, the owner discovered a box of old books bought at auction and in it was a WW2 poster from 1939 that hadn’t seen the light of day until then. I see you wondering why that made it famous, doesn’t sound like much, but you might have seen what became of the poster.

On to some pictures I took inside

Everything is only order and beauty, quiet luxury and peace.

They have rare books in locked glass cupboards as they have had a robbery in the past.

To Posterity and Beyond! ~ Books Lightyear. I made a joke. 🥴

After having a good old wander through the sections, we both purchased a couple of books each, and then we went off to Rock, for lunch at The Rocking Horse. Check out the menu, yum!

It’s a dog friendly café and there are 3 resident border collies.

After lunch we drove down the coast to Alnmouth an visited the Old Gun Battery Emplacement ruin, as you do, so stay tooned for next week!

📷 😊

On The Road 1 ~ Spain 2001

November 27, 2022November 26, 2022Posted in Adventures, family, people, photography, Road Trip, Spain, Travel, UncategorizedTagged adventure, fraggle, Fraggle Curated, memories, photography, roadtrip, Spain54 Comments

In lieu of any outings, with the weather being pants and Sophie away, I’m digging down into the archives for another episode of Fraggle Curated.

I’ve always loved driving, and had many cars in my life I especially love a good road trip and driving in other lands. Of course it’s not easy to take photos and drive simultaneously, and more than probably not the safest manoeuvre to pull off, but I have parked up and got out to take the odd road picture, and I especially like being a front seat passenger when I can do drive by shooting. It’s also good to have a passenger who I can direct what and where to shoot with my camera or iPhone. I have quite a few so there’ll be more than one episode of these!

In 2001, my friend Andy moved from Milton Keynes to Alhaurìn El Grande, in southern Spain. He hired a van, packed up all his gear and I went up to drive him down, through France and Spain, a 3000 mile round trip. I took Ben with me and we made some memories. Ben took nearly all the pictures here.

“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ben and Andy, Ford Transit, just got to France on an overnight Ferry.

“Roads are a record of those who have gone before.” ~ Rebecca Solnit

“Wherever you get to is better than where you started. To stay on the road is a massive achievement.” ~ Anthony Joshua

Sunrise over Alhaurìn El Grande, we’ve arrived!

All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination. ~ Earl Nightingale

We delivered Andy to his Mum’s Villa, from where he was embarking upon his new life, and Ben and I had a day and overnight stop there before setting off back to Old Blighty the next morning.

“No matter who you are or where you are, instinct tells you to go home.” ~ Laura Marney

Rocky Mountain Road ~ Spain, the journey home.

“All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.” ~ Jack Kerouac

Me by Ben, family tradition- stick tongue out when being photographed 🙂

“Look at life through the windshield, not the rearview mirror.” ~ Byrd Baggett

“The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.” ~ Alain de Botton

The sun went down as we reached the border between Spain and France, and I pulled off when we saw a motel to stay the night and rest up for the next day’s journey.

“When you go on a road trip, the trip itself becomes part of the story.” ~ Steve Rushin

“If you’re not lost, you’re not much of an explorer.” ~ John Perry Barlow

Driving over one of the rivers that run through Bordeaux, where I got totally lost.

“In life, it’s not where you go – it’s who you travel with.” ~ Charles M. Schulz

Finally arrived at Calais, Ben checking the map before we get on the Ferry.

That was the first really long road trip I ever did, but not the last. I know the photos are not all that, but Ben was only 12, the camera was a 1MP point and shoot, and I knew sweet fanny adams about photography. It doesn’t matter to me though, these are wonderful memories of me and my boy, and memories are why I got into photography in the first place.

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” ~ Aaron Siskind

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“Roads are a record of those who have gone before.” ~ Rebecca Solnit

“Wherever you get to is better than where you started. To stay on the road is a massive achievement.” ~ Anthony Joshua

“All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.” ~ Jack Kerouac

“Look at life through the windshield, not the rearview mirror.” ~ Byrd Baggett

“The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.” ~ Alain de Botton

“When you go on a road trip, the trip itself becomes part of the story.” ~ Steve Rushin

“If you’re not lost, you’re not much of an explorer.” ~ John Perry Barlow

“In life, it’s not where you go – it’s who you travel with.” ~ Charles M. Schulz

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