The Garrison Church, Sydney
The Garrison Church is a heritage-listed Anglican church building located at Argyle Street in the inner city Sydney suburb of Millers Point in the City of Sydney, Australia. It was opened in 1846 and is still in active use.
Mortuary Station Sydney
The station opened as Mortuary on 29 June 1869. At some point, its name was changed to Regent Street, after the street on which it is located.It has also been referred to by different names, including the Necropolis Receiving Station and the Mortuary Station. The station was built as part of the larger Rookwood Cemetery line. It was completed on 22 March 1869 but had been used since 1 January 1869. It was also one end of the service that ran to the Woronora General Cemetery in Sutherland, located south of Sydney, and for trains heading to Sandgate Cemetery in Newcastle. This and the Receiving House station at Rookwood Cemetery were designed by colonial architect James Barnet using elements from the Venetian 13th century Gothic style. Principal sculptors Thomas Ducket and Henry Apperly worked on the elaborate carvings that were a feature of the stations, including angels, cherubs, and gargoyles. Although both buildings were designed to look like churches, both in structure and in the symbolic elements that adorned them, they were never used as places of worship. From 14 March 1938, the station found a new use as a platform for horses and dogs. From February 1950 it was used as a platform for parcels.It was restored by the State Rail Authority in 1985. By this time it had also been classified by the National Trust of Australia and the Australian Heritage Commission and made part of Permanent Conservation by the Heritage Council of New South Wales. The cost of restoring the site was approximately A$600,000. It was reopened on 21 April 1985 by Premier Neville Wran. From 1986 to 1989, a pancake restaurant, the Magic Mortuary was operated using railway carriages to house the diners. Subsequently the station has occasionally been used as a venue to launch special train services and informative displays, and as a hired function centre. In the early 2000s the platform was shortened at the northern end to make way for a bus terminus. Source: Wikipedia
old stone Prebyterian Church with stone tower in Blayney New South Wales. Built 1885.
Blayney. The first European to explore these parts was George Evans in 1815, the year that Bathurst was established. Although some squatters lived in the district after this, the first land grant was received by Thomas Icely in 1829 who named his station Coombing Park. By the mid 1830s the area boasted a pub, a flour mill and several houses so Governor Gipps founded a town here a few years later in 1842 which he had named Blayney. The town was sited on the Belubula River in a picturesque valley. From its earliest days it competed with Carcoar for settlers and development. The town advanced during the 1850s gold rushes and then prospered once the railway reached the town in 1874 on its way from Bathurst to Orange. It then surpassed nearby Carcoar as the major regional agricultural service centre. The railway station dates from 1876 with major extensions in the late 1880s. Its most notable 19th century building is Christ Church Anglican Church built in 1872. Prior to this, Anglican services were held in the Presbyterian Church from 1862 onwards. Today the 2,700 residents of the town are supported by some local industry- a 6$million super livestock sale yard which can sell over 8,000 cattle in a day ; the Nestlé Lucky Dog and Friskies pet food factory; and the Simplot and Stuggles cold storage warehouse. There are a number of historic buildings of interest in Blayney including the post office (c.1880); the Courthouse (1880); the Presbyterian Church (1885); the Presbyterian Church hall (1861); and the Anglican Church (1890). Carcoar. The whole village of Carcoar is classified by the National Trust of NSW. Thomas Icely’s land covered the site of Carcoar as well as Blayney. The town was established in 1839 making it the third settlement west of the Blue Mountains after Bathurst and Wellington. Consequently it has dozens of attractive, historic and interesting buildings for you to look at and explore. It has the second oldest church west of the Dividing Range- St Paul’s Anglican Church which was built in 1845 by architect Edmund Blacket for the only Anglican Bishop of Australia, William Broughton. (The river and port in SA are named after him. When he left Sydney in 1854 the colonies set up their own Anglican bishops and NSW only had a Bishop of NSW.) The church was one of the first in the Gothic revival style of architecture unlike the Georgian style churches at Windsor, Richmond and Sydney. This style became the norm for Australia very quickly. The first services in the new church began in 1848.The rectory opposite was built in 1849. The first government buildings of Carcoar date from the late 1830s when this was the “wild west” of NSW but they have all been demolished. The police station and court house were especially busy in the 1840s. The current police and court house date from the 1880s. Most of the buildings in town date from the 1850s or later. One of the oldest buildings in town is the old stable built by convicts in 1849. It is now the town museum. The old hospital, Uralba is another of the older buildings in town as it dates from 1852. It is now an aged care facility. Carcoar was a staging point for the Cobb and Co stage coaches as it is almost equidistance from Orange, Bathurst and Cowra. Travellers and coach drivers were always thirsty and so the town had seven hotels by the 1860s. The town eventually got a railway station in 1888 but it was a branch line that failed to boost the town’s prosperity by the time it reached it. Carcoar’s heyday was in the 1850s during the gold rushes and in the 1860s. Because of its prosperity it became a target for escaped convicts and bushrangers. In 1863 Australia's first daylight bank robbery took place in Carcoar. Johnny Gilbert and John O'Meally held up the Commercial Bank but fled empty-handed when a teller in the bank fired a shot at the ceiling, thus alerting the town residents to the holdup. The bushrangers escaped. Another time the Presbyterian minister James Adam was held up by Ben Hall who finally decided not to rob him! Frank Gardiner, a ticket of leave man broke his parole conditions and took up cattle thieving in the district. Ben Hall. Did Ben hall hold up the Carcoar Bank with Johnny Gilbert and John O’Meally? No but Ben Hall worked with these two fellow bushrangers. They were part of his gang. Ben hall was born in 1837 in NSW and he married Bridget Walsh in 1856. He ran a sheep station with his brother in law. In 1862 Bridget left Ben for another man and took their son with her. After this Ben was arrested for armed holdup several times but always got off as the police had insufficient evidence. Once he started working with Gilbert and O’Meally there was no doubt about his bush ranging. The NSW government put a £1,000 bounty on his head and he was dobbed in for the reward. Ben Hall was surrounded by 8 policemen at Billabong Creek and they fired 32 shots into him. This was in 1865 and he was just 28 years old.
Former St Peter’s Church, Gullane
By renowned architect Sydney Mitchell, 1898; extensive enlargement to form squat tower and church hall also by Sydney Mitchell, 1908. Squared and snecked, red sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings. Chamfered arrises to openings. Gable of original church with tall pointed arch, roll-moulded centre door and window bay. Chamfered door surround with ogee detailed lintel; blind panel above arcaded lintel. Tripartite, pointed arched, cusped and loop traceried window above, stepped over by string course, bearing corbel at the point. Louvred ventilator with pyramidal roof on church. Crown finial to spire. Sydney Mitchell made the largest contribution to the church building fund, and gave his architect's fees free of charge. It has now been converted into two semi-detached homes, one occupying the church and the other the attached church hall to the rear.
Adoration of the Angels (AK Nicholson, 1920)
St Peter, Yoxford, Suffolk I hadn't been back to Yoxford for years. If you are a cyclist, it isn't the easiest place to get to. There are few Suffolk villages which are only approached by main roads, but Yoxford is one of them, and it wasn't until August 2017, more than fifteen years after my previous visit, that I took my life in my hands and cycled down the A12 from Darsham. And yet, I'd always liked Yoxford. I remembered writing on the occasion of my previous visit that if, against all my better judgements, a day came when I tired of my shameless hedonistic urban lifestyle and decided to retire to the country, and money were no object, then Yoxford would be pretty near the top of my list. It was big enough to have three decent pubs, a few good shops, one of which was one of Suffolk's best second-hand book shops, and even had a railway station half a mile to the north. And after all, the A12 didn't actually run up the high street. There were some pretty houses and even a park. And it was still a village. What more could I want? The name of the village means a ford where oxen can pass (as, of course, does the name of the city without the Y in front). The little stream that comes down from the industrial village of Peasenhall a couple of miles off is referred to locally as the River Yox, but this is a backnaming, the stream named after the village rather than the other way around. Yoxford proclaims itself 'the garden of Suffolk' as a result of the intensive fruit farming that began here a couple of centuries ago. And it will come as no surprise to learn that Yoxford is alphabetically last of Suffolk's 500-odd parishes. Well, the second-hand bookshop has long gone, and so has one of the pubs. I couldn't tell you if either of the others are still decent, as I didn't call at them. But St Peter is still a fine sight with its grand spire, so unusual in Suffolk. Obviously, given the dedication, there is a cock on top of it. This church is one of the last of what I think of as the large southern Suffolk churches you meet heading north, before hitting the Blythburgh/Southwold/Covehithe group which give a new meaning to grandeur. And yet, stepping inside, it is hard to shake off the impression that this is a town church, for it has an urban quality to it. Partly, this is because of the 19th Century restoration at the hands of Richard Phipson, but it is also because of the monuments and brasses that line the walls. Significant names from Suffolk history can be found on them, for important people seem often to have lived around here. One of them not buried here was Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who was the second husband of Henry VIII's little sister Mary, who had previously been married to the King of France. Their grand-daughter was Lady Jane Grey, who for a brief, teenage week in 1553 was proclaimed Queen of England by the desperate protestant advisers to Edward VI, aghast at having a dead young king on their hands. Their cunning plot to impose extreme protestantism on England was foiled by the popular acclamation of the accession of Mary I, who was staying a few short miles away from here at Framlingham. Mary's reign would prove to be short and unhappy, and young Jane paid with her life for the treasonable actions of those scheming old men. But if the protestants had succeeded in their plan, England would have been quite different today. There certainly would not have been a Church of England, for instance. More than half a century before all that, Thomasina Tendrynge died in 1485, the year of the Battle of Bosworth Field. That was an end to the Wars of the Roses, of course, and the accession of Henry Tudor kickstarted the dramatic events of the next two centuries for the English people. Thomasina was the daughter of William Sydney, himself an ancestor of the family who would find favour with Henry's grand-daughter Elizabeth a century later, being given Penshurst castle in Kent. Her brass, and those of her seven children, are set on the south side of the sanctuary. Thomasina is wrapped in a shroud, a striking if not unusual style for brasses at the time. Two things make this one rather uncommon, however. Firstly, she is stunningly beautiful, and she gazes out at us with wide eyes from the elegant curve of her winding. When he first saw her, my young son said that she looked like a mermaid, and so she does. Secondly, although two of her daughters stand beside her in Tudor robes, her five other children are also in shrouds, indicating that they died before she did. A fine pair of earlier brasses nearby are to John and Matilda Norwiche. We know very little about them, except that they are responsible for St Peter's being here. John was probably a member of the Norwiche family of Mettingham castle. Matilda died childless in 1417. John succeeded to the Lordship of Cockfield Manor in Yoxford in 1422. He never took up the reins however, preferring to remain elsewhere, possibly Mettingham. The Manor was sold, and the proceeds were used to completely rebuild this church in the prevailing Perpendicular style. John himself died in 1428, and these brasses remain as a sign on their patronage. Two hundred years later, the Manor was in the hands of the Brooke family, and Joan Brooke survives in the form of a characterful brass in the south aisle. There are several others, all worth a look. But these brasses really should not be mounted on the walls. I realise that this is done with the best of intentions, to allow them to be displayed, and to protect them from being walked on. The trouble is, if there was a fire, and these do happen in churches from time to time, the brasses would melt, and run down the walls. Floor-mounted brasses set in stone do not melt, because the heat rises away from them. Later, the Manor would come to the Blois family, who were remembered in the name of the pub that closed. St Peter still remembers them, with a splendid array of ten hatchments, mostly beneath the tower. There are also a couple of fine wall monuments to the family, one of them to the long-lived Sir Charles Blois, which has been very clumsily relettered at some point. Mortlock tells us that the sculptor was Thomas Thurlow, whose work can be found widely in this part of Suffolk. Sir Charles was ever feelingly alive to the duties of his station, apparently, as well as being faithful and earnest in the discharge of them. My favourite memorial is a very simple one, but it remembers one of the great and often unsung heroes of church explorers. This is David Elisha Davy. The agricultural depression of the 1820s pushed him into an early retirement, which he spent travelling around Suffolk, sketching and taking an inventory of the exterior and contents of medieval churches. It is no exaggeration to say that he rediscovered Suffolk's churches, which had mostly been in a state of neglect since the early 17th century. His vast body of research is still largely unpublished, although it is possible to view it in the British Library, and his lively account of his journey is available in a Suffolk Records Society publication. This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in Suffolk's churches - Suffolk Library Service has loads of copies. Davy created a priceless record of the county's churches on the eve of their Victorian restoration. In many cases, his record is the only one we have of the churches between the Reformation and the modern age. White's Directory of Suffolk tells us that, by 1844, Davy had already headed off to his other house in Ufford. But Yoxford could still boast no less than five tailors, four milliners, and even a staymaker. The Directory also reveals that this large village (1500 people even then) could sustain a lifestyle considered so harmonious that Anglican ministers of surrounding villages thought it worthwhile abandoning their parishes and living here instead. The Vicar of Ubbeston for example (although that church is now a private house), but also the Rector of Middleton, Fordley, Westleton and Peasenhall, the splendidly named Reverend Harrison Packard. Today, all these villages come within the benefice of Yoxford. Ironically, of course, those 19th Century clergymen moved to Yoxford because of the trappings of an urban lifestyle it could provide.
Corowa. St Johns Anglican Church built in 1883. It features a beautiful stained glass window donated by and in memory of Elizabeth Hume. .
Corowa and Australian Federation. The origins of Corowa go back to 1838 when white pastoralists took up leasehold runs. In the early years flocks of cattle and sheep were overlanded from Albury along the Murray River to Adelaide. In fact Hawdon who overlanded cattle to Adelaide in 1838 with Bonney left from his brother’s property named Howlong near Corowa. John Foord across the river on his Wahgunyah run brought his wife to the district in 1842 and the first white girl in the district was born to them in 1844. Foord developed a small town at Wahgunyah in Victoria in the mid-1850s which prospered from the gold finds and the river boat trade. Corowa then developed also because it was a river crossing point taking NSW diggers to the Beechworth goldfields. Amazingly Corowa district had direct links with South Australia in the mid-1850s. In fact one paddle steamer trip from Goolwa to Corowa in 1856 had some 1,800 bags of SA flour was unloaded at Wahgunyah and carted by drays to the goldfields of Beechworth. The very first river boat to reach Wahgunyah was the Lady Augusta from Goolwa in 1854. Then in September 1856 Lady MacDonnell and the South Australian governor Sir Richard MacDonnell travelled to Wahgunyah/Corowa in the paddle steamer named Melbourne. From here they took a gig to Beechworth and upon arrival our Governor made possibly the first public speech about Australian federation. He said: “The River Murray knows no frontiers and recognises no particular colony. It flows for us all and unites us all closely together.” The Governor’s party returned to Albury from Beechworth and returned to Goolwa on the PS Melbourne. South Australia’s leading businessman Sir Thomas Elder also voyaged up the Murray to Albury in 1856 examining trade and pastoral possibilities. The Corowa district was surveyed in 1856 into small farming blocks and the town created in 1859 with around 40 town blocks selling in the first two days. John Foord of Wahgunyah bought freehold land beside the town which was later sold as town blocks in the 1870s. After gold was discovered at Rutherglen in 1860 the town of Corowa blossomed and many disappointed diggers settled there whilst taking up a trade or business. The Post Office opened in 1861 as did the Courthouse and the first wooden bridge across the Murray. By the end of that year Corowa had two hotels, several stores and residences. The first Police Station was built in 1865 and the town had a river boat company boking office and loading docks. In the following decades the town consolidated with more public and commercial buildings – the Anglican Church ( 1885), the new Post Office ( 1880), the first bank of NSW (1874), a new Star Hotel (1870), the Royal Hotel (1870), the Corowa hospital (1893), the Customs House ( 1880) and the town school (1878). The first iron bridge to cross the Murray River in the area was built in 1892. The railway from Culcairn to Corowa opened in 1892 also and assisted the local flourmill market its products. Passenger services ceased in 1975 and the line finally closed in 1989. By the 1890s Corowa was known through Australia as it became the “home” of Australian federation. It was also known as the place where Australian artist Tom Roberts painted his iconic painting “Shearing the rams”. It was at Corowa that he learnt about shearing and then he created the painting in 1890 in his Melbourne studio from his drawings done at Corowa. He had another link with Corowa too as it was Tom Roberts who painted the “First Parliament” painting – it is 8 metres long, set in the Melbourne Exhibition building and includes recognisable portraits of 254 dignitaries. It hangs in the Canberra Museum with a copy in the Corowa Federation Museum. But why was Corowa so important in the fight for Australian Federation? It was because the Riverina/Murray districts were most effected by trade tariffs between Victoria and NSW. The Riverina was settled as the main NSW grain producing region in the late 19th century but it was much closer to Melbourne than Sydney. Grain was carted across the border at the Murray River. NSW was a free trade colony but Victoria was a protectionist colony. Thus towns developed each side of the river at crossing points – Wodonga and Albury; Wahgunyah and Corowa; Yarrawonga and Mulwala; Cobram and Tocumwal; Echuca and Moama. In the Victorian towns Customs Houses were built to gather taxes from the NSW grain farmers sending their produce to Melbourne and Port Melbourne. Then the railways were pushed up much sooner from Melbourne than from Sydney and grain was transported by rail from the Riverina by the mid-1870s. Many lines only reached Riverina towns in the 1890s and even later (e.g. Corowa had a NSW rail line in 1892 but Wahgunyah had a line to Melbourne from 1879.) So the Corowa district was directly interested in the benefits of federation especially abolition of tariffs and customs but the other great issue was the control of the Murray River and its waters. In NSW Sir Henry Parkes pushed for federation and the other colonies waited to see if NSW would push ahead with the idea as their approval was always going to be crucial. Parkes began the push for federation in speeches in 1881 and again more seriously in 1889. The first national constitution convention was held in 1891 in Sydney. In the next couple of years the localised Australian Natives Association formed many more branches and became a national movement and along the Murray the Border Federation League was formed in Corowa and soon spread to Albury and 15 other regional towns. It was at a meeting of the Border Federation League in 1893 that Dr John Quick of Bendigo, moved a motion in the Corowa Oddfellows Hall, to provide a process to achieve federation. This was something the arguing statesmen and politicians could not achieve or had not achieved to that point. He moved that colonial parliaments should pass enabling legislation to send delegates to a national convention to adopt a constitution. From this point on the federation movement gained great impetus and it was in Corowa that the people, rather than the politicians pushed the idea. The press talked about Corowa as the logical place for the new national capital but that idea was soon squashed by NSW as Albury pushed its case to be the capital. In the end legislation made that impossible for either Murray River towns. The main federation conferences and events held after 1893 were: the Premiers Conference in Hobart in 1895; the Peoples’ Convention in Bathurst in 1896; the Constitution Convention in Adelaide in 1897; the next Constitutional Convention in Melbourne in 1898; the state referendums to approve federation in 1899; the Australian Federation bill enactment in Westminster London in 1900 and Queen Victoria’s assent to the legislation; and finally the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia on January 1st 1901. This was really the culmination of a process that began with Sir Henry Parks in 1881. Corowa played a pivotal role in this process and its Oddfellows Hall was an important location of meetings as well as the town hotels for accommodation of delegates and the Courthouse for smaller meetings. The other important building still standing in the region from the federation movement is the Wahgunyah Customs House where the tariffs were collected. It is the only Murray River customs house still standing in rural Victoria. Corowa has also been pivotal in control of the Murray River. In 1886 NSW and Victoria met to agree on controls of irrigation and water flows as irrigation colonies were just beginning, or about to begin in Mildura and the Riverina (the Chaffey brothers started at Mildura in 1887). South Australia was ignored. This early agreement failed in 1890 when NSW wanted to do its own thing. After the prolonged drought of 1895 to 1902 in NSW and Victoria the new Federal government called a conference of the three river states, NSW, Victoria and SA at Corowa in 1902. State premiers and the federal Prime Minster wanted to ensure adequate river flows during time of drought to keep the riverboats travelling. The outcome was a Royal Commission which eventually recommended a series of locks across the Murray to maintain river levels and irrigation controls in NSW and Victoria to ensure SA got adequate water from the Murray. But nothing happened for 13 years. In 1915 the River Murray Commission was established and work started on the first lock across the Murray at Blanchetown. But the issue of irrigation water controls never progressed further.
Bodalla. The beautiful Anglican Church built in 1880. Funded by the Mort family the owners of Bodalla.
Bodalla.The first white settler here was Mr Weatherhead who had been an employee of John Hawdon. He established his run in 1834 and left it in 1838 when it was taken over by John Hawdon. Hawdon sold the Bodalla run in the 1856 when he defaulted on a loan. It was then taken over by Thomas Mort who held the mortgage over Hawdon in 1858. Mort wanted to make money and so he eventually started a township at Bodalla in 1870. But a Post Office opened in 1858 with the first store in 1862 and four primitive houses before the formal town was formed. Mort lived on the property with his wife and they both tried to promote the town and their estate. They established saw mills, cropping lands and dairy farms and they drained the swamps along the Tuross River. A cheese factory was started near Bodalla in 1865 with an associated piggery and bacon factory run by Thomas Mort. Mort extended his property to 13,000 acres and introduced hares and pheasants to his estate and by the time of his death in 1878 his land covered 56,000 acres. He employed 40 men and had 200 on contract as well as some tenants with around 500 people living on his estate or in the village. Bodalla had the most extensive dairy lands in NSW. Mort lived in Comerang House (now demolished) which was used for the early Anglican Church services. By 1878 his estate was making £67,000 profit per year. Mort largely paid for the Friendly Society’s Hall in Bodalla and the Anglican Church was built in 1880 as a memorial to Mort. The family, which owned all the land in this private village donated land for the Catholic Church too. His wife laid the foundation stone of the Anglican Church and Mort’s estate paid for the clergyman’s stipend until 1886. Mort was a founder of the AMP Society, an investor in the Parramatta Railway, in NSW gold mines but he was also a wool buyer and wool auctioneer and the first in Australia to use refrigeration to ship frozen meant to English markets in 1880. He worked with his brother and the Mort Company eventually merged with the Goldsborough Company in the 1888 to form Goldsborough Mort Ltd. Mort, who also owned 13 acres at Darling Point where he had his Sydney house, will be remembered for creating Bodalla, introducing English dairy cattle and using “model farming” techniques to modernise dairying in NSW. After Thomas Mort’s death the estate was run by trustees until his son reached 21 years of age in 1898. During this time the output of cheese from the Bodalla estate increased to 300 tons a year, and the production of bacon came from 1,200 pigs annually. The Trustees formed the Bodalla Company in 1887 by act of the NSW parliament. All the members of the Company were Mort family members. Much of the estate was leased for closer settlement in 1894 by the Bodalla Company but the Company kept the cheese and bacon factory. The Company owned all of Bodalla and every building and site except the Post Office and the school. In 1923 and 1924 the Company sold all their lands and the town was purchased by the individual tenants. The Company kept the cheese and bacon factory and a small parcel of land until 1931 when the home farm and factory site were also sold. The factory became owned by a cooperative of local dairy farmers until it closed in 1951 and milk was then carted to a larger factory in Moruya. The Mort family maintained shares in the Bodalla Cooperative and cheese business until 1987 when the Company turned 100 as it was formed in 1887. The old buildings in Bodalla include: the Public School 1878; the granite Anglican Church 1880 – architect was Edmund Blacket; and the Catholic Church 1886. The next town Narooma has a fine wooden Methodist Church ( 1914, tower 1934) and manse( 1935).
Mortuary Station Sydney
Taken just before sunrise. The station opened as Mortuary on 29 June 1869. At some point, its name was changed to Regent Street, after the street on which it is located. It has also been referred to by different names, including the Necropolis Receiving Station and the Mortuary Station. The station was built as part of the larger Rookwood Cemetery line. It was completed on 22 March 1869 but had been used since 1 January 1869.It was also one end of the service that ran to the Woronora General Cemetery in Sutherland, located south of Sydney, and for trains heading to Sandgate Cemetery in Newcastle. This and the Receiving House station at Rookwood Cemetery were designed by colonial architect James Barnet using elements from the Venetian 13th century Gothic style. Principal sculptors Thomas Ducket and Henry Apperly worked on the elaborate carvings that were a feature of the stations, including angels, cherubs, and gargoyles.[3] Although both buildings were designed to look like churches, both in structure and in the symbolic elements that adorned them, they were never used as places of worship. From 14 March 1938, the station found a new use as a platform for horses and dogs. From February 1950 it was used as a platform for parcels. It was restored by the State Rail Authority in 1985. By this time it had also been classified by the National Trust of Australia and the Australian Heritage Commission and made part of Permanent Conservation by the Heritage Council of New South Wales. The cost of restoring the site was approximately A$600,000. It was reopened on 21 April 1985 by Premier Neville Wran. From 1986 to 1989, a pancake restaurant, the Magic Mortuary was operated using railway carriages to house the diners. Subsequently the station has occasionally been used as a venue to launch special train services and informative displays,and as a hired function centre. In the early 2000s the platform was shortened at the northern end to make way for a bus terminus. Source: Wikipedia
St Mary the Virgin, Blundeston, Suffolk
Many places like to wear their connections with Charles Dickens visibly, but I find it hard to believe anywhere does it more completely than Blundeston. Blundeston is mentioned in David Copperfield, and there has been a strong movement by the local parish planners to ensure that most street names now have a Dicken connection. I know this a a colleague of mine resisted the overtures to name their new dwellings something Dickensian, but stuck with the family name after all. I also have family connections with Blundeston, and indeed a distant relation is on the war memorial, but he is one of the branch that has an extra D in their name, the first one I have ever seen. My name is very mis-spelt, and the double D variation the most common. Anyway, late one afternoon, I arrive in Blundeston to visit the church, and see, or notice the pound for the first time. Situated on a road junction, the brick-built circular enclosure was once used to corral livestock. It is a rare survivor, and the first time I had noticed it. It is a fine round-towered church, with plenty of interest inside, and the medieval (I guess) glass in the porch the first of many. Some unusual tessellated tiling in the chancel, but the sanctuary is now a book shop and the altar brought forward.The font, at least to my eyes, looks Norman, and is impressive, as is the arts and crafts window, but I guess this is where Simon puts me right on many points..... ----------------------------------------- "I was born at Blunderstone, in Suffolk. There is nothing half so green as I know anywhere, as the grass of that churchyard; nothing half so shady as its trees; nothing half so quiet as its tombstones. The sheep are feeding there, when I kneel up to look out. Here is our pew in the church. What a high-backed pew! With a window near it, out of which our house can be seen. I look up at the monumental tablets on the wall, and try to think of Mr Bodgers late of this parish, and what the feelings of Mrs Bodgers must have been, when affliction sore, long time Mr Bodgers bore, and physicians were in vain. I look to the pulpit, and think what a good place it would be to play in, and what a castle it would make, with another boy coming up the stairs to attack it..." - Charles Dickens, David Copperfield Blundeston is these days a very pleasant outer suburb of Lowestoft, although wise planners have kept a cordon sanitaire between it and the rampaging new estates of Oulton and Gunton. Everything here is very trim and polite, although St Mary itself has a rather more primitive air about it. Its narrow, tapering tower rises up sharply beside the steeply banked roof of its nave, for all the world like a Cornish tin mine or Derbyshire mill. This is an ancient building. The tower, at least the lower part, is clearly Saxon, and here inside there are some other ancient details. You step into a church which is much bigger than it might appear from the outside, with a gentle High Church feel to it. The nave was widened in the late medieval period, and although there is no aisle or arcade, the tower has been left offset. The font dates from the 12th century, a plain, octagonal bowl set on 8 relief legs. The tower arch is earlier, and beside it there is a very curious detail. A circular squint hole, about 12 inches across, about 5 feet from the floor in the north-west corner. It is obviously intended to line up with something outside the church, but what, exactly? There is one exactly like it, in the same position, two miles away at Lound. They do not align with each other, though. Perhaps an outdoor Easter sepulchre? or to enable an internal sepulchre to be seen on Good Friday, when the church was out of use? Above the south door, the arms of Charles II are very curious. They have been reused as a hatchment at some point, but the overpainting has faded to reveal the true origin. An altar against the north wall is dedicated to St Andrew, in memory of the nearby former church at Flixton, which was destroyed in a storm early in the 18th century. The font in the churchyard here comes from Flixton, too. And the memorials? Well, I'm afraid there is no 'Mr Bodgers, late of this parish', and probably never was. The high-backed pews are all gone, and although the pulpit would certainly make an excellent castle, it post-dates Dickens's (and Copperfield's) time. The grass is still lush and green in the churchyard though, and much wilder than the neatly trimmed lawns of the very pleasant houses that surround it. Simon Knott, June 2008 www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/Blundeston.htm ----------------------------------------- Blundeston. There are two manors here—those of Blundeston Hall, and Gonville's. The former was held by a family which took their name from the place, and retained it, with the patronage of the church, till the end of the reign of Edward III. In the ninth of Edward I., Robert de Blundeston was lord; (fn. 1) and in the twenty-third of Edward III., in the year 1348, there was a conveyance from Osbertus, Rector of the church of Blundeston, and Oliverus de Wysete, to William, the son of Robert de Blundeston, and the heirs of his body, of the manor of Blundeston, with all the lands and appurtenances in Blundeston, Oulton, and Flixton; together with the advowson of the church of the village of Blundeston, with the appurtenances; all which were formerly of Robert de Blundeston; to hold to the said William and the heirs of his body lawfully begotten. From this family the manor and advowson passed to that of Yarmouth; Henry Yarmouth, of Blundeston, presenting to the church in 1438. Humphrey Yarmouth, his descendant, on the 1st of December, 1570, conveyed to William Sydnor the manor of Blundeston, cum pertinentibus, and all other his manors, tenements, liberties, swanmarks, and hereditaments in Blundeston, Corton, Lound, Somerleyton, Flixton, Lowestoft, and Gunton, or elsewhere, and all other his manors and hereditaments, in the said towns, in fee. The manor, &c., and the messuages, were found to be holden of Sir John Heveningham, of his manor of South Leet, in soccage. (fn. 2) The said William Sydnor, by deed indented 6th of October, twenty-sixth of Elizabeth, 1584, in consideration of a jointure to Elizabeth, late wife of Henry Sydnor, his son, and heir apparent, did enfeoff John Read, and others, and their heirs, of a house called Gillam's, and 90 acres of land in Blundeston and Flixton; a meadow of 12 acres in Flixton; a marsh called Wrentham's, and 41 acres of land in Blundeston; two other messuages and 9 acres of land in Blundeston; a house called Chamber's, and 104 acres of land in Henstead. And of the manor called Blundeston; and the manor of Fritton with the appurtenances, to their uses; viz., as to the manor of Blundeston with the appurtenances, to the use of the said William for life; and after to the use of the said Henry, and his heirs male by the said Elizabeth, his wife; and after to the right heirs of the said William. The marriage between the aforesaid Henry Sydnor and Elizabeth was solemnized on the 1st of February, twenty-seventh of Elizabeth. He died during his father's lifetime, in December, 1611. William Sydnor, the father, died on the 26th of August, 1612. By his will, dated the 26th of March, in the same year, being "then of Christ's Church, but late of Blundeston," he gave to the poor of Blundeston, Henstead, Fritton, Belton, Conisford at the Gate (Norwich), Berstete St. John's, 20 shillings to each parish, and to Trowse on this side the Bridge 10 shillings. He desired "his body to be buried in the chauncell of the parishe church of Blundeston." He gave unto Dorothy Sydnor, his daughter, £ 200 of lawful English money, some furniture, and £10 in gold, to be paid within fourteen days; a cup of silver with three feet, and a cover. To Alice Goldsmithe, his daughter, all her mother's apparell, and £10 in gold, &c. Among other bequests, he leaves to William Sydnor, his grandchild, some furniture, and a great carved chest which lately came from Blundeston, and his next best salt-cellar. After leaving annuities to his servants, he directed "that his house in Christ's Church in all things be mayntayned and kept as usually he did for the entertainment of his children; and such of his children and servants as would stay and live orderly, and do their service honestly, during the time of their stay; for which they were to have their wages. The charges of such housekeeping to be defrayed by his executors; and he desired that Dorothy Sydnor, his daughter, during the said month should have the government of the said house." (fn. 3) By an inquisition, held the 30th of August, in the twelfth of James I., when the death of William Sydnor was returned, it was found that William, the son of Henry, his eldest son, then deceased, was his next heir, and of the age of 24 years and more. And that the said William, eldest, was seized in fee of the manor of Blunston, alias Blundeston, with the appurtenances in Blundeston, Corton, Gunton, Lowestoft, Oulton, Ashby, Flixton, Bradwell, Burgh, Fritton, Belton, Herringfleet, Lound, Somerleyton, Hopton, and Gorleston. On the 13th of February, eleventh of James I., William Sydnor, the grandson, in consideration of a marriage with Anne Harborne, did covenant with William Harborne, her father, to convey to him, Sir Anthony Drury, and others, and their heirs, the manor of Fritton, with the appurtenances, in Suffolk, and all lands, tenements, &c., of the said William, in Fritton, or in the towns adjoining, to the use of himself and his heirs until the marriage, and after the marriage to the use of himself and the said Anne, for jointure, and the heirs male of his body, with several remainders over to Robert, Thomas, and Henry, his brothers, Edmund, William, Francis, and Paul Sydnor, his uncles, and the heirs male of every of their several bodies. And after to the use of the right heirs of the said William Sydnor, the grandfather. And the manor of Blundeston, with the rights, members, and appurtenances, in Suffolk, and all lands, tenements, and other hereditaments, &c., of the said William Sydnor, the grandson, in Blundeston, or in the towns adjoining, or any of them, to and for the like uses, and estates, and remainders as before; omitting only the said Anne, and her estates, for life. In the following year a fine was levied in pursuance, by the said William Sydnor, his uncle, and the heirs of Sir Anthony, of the manors of Fritton and Blundeston, with the appurtenances. By the Office of the ninth of Charles I., after the death of William Sydnor, the grandson, it was found that he died, seized, on the 13th of June, eighth of Charles I., 1632, without issue male. By the same Office, Elizabeth, Anne, Sarah, Mary, Hester, Susanna, Abigail, and Lydia, were found to be the daughters and co-heiresses of the said William Sydnor, and that Elizabeth, the eldest, was, at her father's death, under eleven years of age, and all the rest under fourteen years of age. (fn. 4) On the 3rd of July, in the tenth of Charles I., the King, by ind're under the seal of the Court of Wards, granted to Anthony Bury, for a fine of 200 marks, the custody, wardship, and marriages of the said co-heiresses, to his own use. On the 2nd of July, tenth of Charles, the King, by another ind're, under the seal of the said Court, granted and leased to him, in consideration of £10, the manor of Henstead Pierpoind's, and two acres in Blundeston, during the minority of the said co-heiresses, at the yearly rent of £ 2. 6s. 8d. On the 20th of November, in the same year, this Anthony Bury, by ind're, assigned all his interests to Dr. Talbot, who married the said Anne, mother of the said co-heiresses, to his own use, for £330 paid, besides £100 for Bury, to the receiver of the Court of Wards, for leave of the King's fine. In Michaelmas Term, 1640, there was a decree in the Court of Wards, against Sir John Wentworth, who, in his answer to the information of the attorney of the wards on behalf of the said co-heiresses, denied they had the manor of Blundeston, but confessed they had the manor of Gonville's, in Blundeston, and that their father purchased that of one Jettor. But the Court decreed that the said co-heiresses had the manor of Blundeston, and also the manor of Gonville's. And such possession as the father of the said wards had in Blundeston great water, and fishing, is by the decree settled with the wards during their minority, and until livery sued. And Sir John desired not to fish in right of a tenement in Blundeston, which was his father's. As to the wards' suit as touching an hoorde, some lands in Fritton, and other matters, they are left to trial at law. Elizabeth, Anne, Sarah, Mary, Hester, Susanna, Abigail, and Lydia Sydnor, the eight daughters and co-heiresses of William Sydnor, of Blundeston, by fine levied, and recovery suffered, and by deed dated the 19th of December, 1651, conveyed the said manors in Blundeston and Fritton to hold to William Heveningham, Esq., his heirs and assigns, for ever. ¶The family of Sydnor, from whom Blundeston thus passed, appears to have originated from — Sydnor, who married a daughter of Sir John Berney, of Reedham, in Norfolk. The following pedigree is derived from an abstract of the title of the estates, sold by the eight daughters and co-heiresses of William Sydnor, made in 1651; except the marriages of the eight daughters, which are added from the abstract continued to 1663, at which time Sarah was married to William Castleton. The other daughters had been all married before that date. William Sydnor, the purchaser of Blundeston, as appears from bequests in his will, left three daughters, namely, Dorothy Sydnor, Alice Sydnor, who married Henry Goldsmith, and left issue Charles Goldsmith; and Elizabeth Sydnor, who married W. Doans, and left a son, William. Henry Sydnor, who died in his father's lifetime, left also three daughters, Elizabeth, Catharine, and Alice. William Heveningham, Esq., who purchased the manors of Blundeston and Fritton of the Sydnors, was in the year 1661 convicted and attainted of high treason, as has been already shown under Mutford, &c. By letters patent, dated 28th September, thirteenth Charles II., the King did give unto Brian, Viscount Cullen, Sir Thomas Fanshaw, Sir Ralph Banks, Knights, Edward Pitt, and Charles Cornwallis, Esqrs., among other manors and lands, the said manors of Blundeston and Fritton; to hold to them, the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., and their heirs, for ever. The said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., by their deed-poll, dated 3rd October, thirteenth Charles II., made between them, the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., George, Earl of Bristol, Henry, Earl of Dover, and Margaret Heveningham, wife of the said William Heveningham, which was also signed by His Majesty's sign manual, did declare the use of the aforesaid letters patent to be to the intent that the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., should, either by perception of the profits or sale of the aforesaid manors of Blundeston and Fritton, amongst others, raise £11,000 for the said Earl of Bristol, and several other trusts therein comprised: the remainder to be for the use of the said Mary, wife of the said William. The said William Heveningham, and Mary his wife, in Michaelmas Term, thirteenth Charles II., levied a fine, and suffered a recovery of the said manors of Blundeston and Fritton, inter alia. And by indenture, dated 24th of October, thirteenth of Charles II., the said William and Mary declared that the said fine and recovery should be to the use of the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, Sir Thomas Fanshaw, Sir Ralph Banks, Edward Pitt, and Charles Cornwallis, and their heirs, for ever. In the 10th and 11th of December, 1662, fourteenth of Charles II., appear a lease and release from the Earl of Bristol, Brian, Viscount Cullen, Sir Thomas Fanshaw, Sir Ralph Banks, Edward Pitt, and Charles Cornwallis, unto Sir John Tasburgh, of the manor of Blundeston, and the capital house called Blundeston Hall, and the manor of Fritton, alias Freton Paston's, and all that manor called Blundeston, alias Gunville's, alias Scroope Hall, alias Gunville's Blundeston, with all the rights, members, and appurtenances to the said manors belonging; and the advowson of the churches, rectories, and vicarages of Blundeston and Fritton aforesaid; and courts-leet and view of frank-pledge, &c., to hold to him and his heirs, for ever. Consideration, £4000 in hand, and £4000 to be paid as therein named. On the 27th of December, 1662, the said William Heveningham and Mary his wife did grant, release, and confirm all and every the said manors of Blundeston, Fritton, and Blundeston Gunville's, to the said John Tasburgh, and his heirs, for ever. These estates next passed to the Allins; for, on the 20th July, 1668, are letters of attorney from Thomas Allin, of Lowestoft, Knt., to Richard London, &c., to receive livery of seizin of John Tasburgh, of Bodney, in Norfolk, Esq., of all his manors, messuages, lands and fruits, and hereditaments situated in Blundeston, Fritton, Corton, or any other town adjoining. Sir Thomas Allin held his first court baron for these manors on the 3rd of November, 1668. (fn. 5) On the 9th of July, 1712, the trustees of Richard Allin, under a deed authorizing them to sell lands to satisfy his debts, sold a messuage and about 76 acres of land at Blundeston and Fritton, of the yearly rent of £39. 10s., to Gregory Clarke, for £663; and on the 30th of August following, two other pieces of land, containing 13 acres, of the yearly rent of £5. 10s., to the same Gregory Clarke, for £100. These estates were afterwards purchased by Sir Ashurst Allin, Bart., who resided there; and were by him devised to his daughter, Frances Allin, for life. On the 29th of September, 1714, Blundeston Hall-farm, lands and decoy, of the yearly rent of £217. 2s. 6d., were sold to William Luson, merchant, the consideration money being £3691. 2s. 6d., who devised them to Robert Luson, his son, who, by his will of the 1st of May, 1767, bequeathed them to his eldest daughter, Maria, in fee, who married George Nicholls, Esq., by whom this estate was sold to Robert Woods, who, by his will, dated July 4th, 1780, devised the same to his wife to sell, and in 1791, she conveyed it to Thomas Woods in fee. Other estates in Blundeston were by Robert Luson devised to his second daughter, Hephzibah, who married Nathaniel Rix, Esq. An estate at Blundeston, and Corton, and Lound, he devised to Elizabeth, his daughter, who afterwards married Cammant Money, by whom the second property was sold to J. B. Roe, and the first to J. Manship. (fn. 6) The Decoy farm, at Blundeston, was, by the executors of Robert Luson, under the powers in the will contained, sold to William Berners, Esq., of Woolverstone Hall, whose son, Charles, resold it to Thomas Morse, Esq. (fn. 7) The manor of Fritton, and an estate of the annual value of £173, were sold to Samuel Fuller, Esq., for £ 2660. (fn. 8) The manors of Blundeston Hall and Gunville's united, as will be presently shown, remained with the Allins, and passed with their other estates to the family of Anguish. From the Anguishes they descended to Lord Sydney Osborne, who sold them, in 1844, to Samuel Morton Peto, Esq. The Manor of Gonville's, in Blundeston, ¶was the lordship of John, the son of Nicholas de Gunville or Gonville, in the fourteenth of Edward III., in the month of March in which year is a "note of time" of this manor between the aforesaid John, who is styled the son of Nicholas Gonvyll, chyvaler, and Johan, his wife, complainants, and William de Gonvyll, parson of the church of Thelnethan, John Gonvyll, parson of the church of Lylyng, Osbert, parson of the church of Blundeston, and Thomas de Kalkhyll, deforcients, of 24 messuages, 332 acres of land, 16 acres of meadow, &c., in Gorleston, Louystoft, Barneby, Little Yarmouth, and Hopton, to John, son of Nicholas and Johan, and the heirs of their bodies; and remainder, after the decease of John and Johan, to the right heirs of John, the son of Nicholas. (fn. 9) The manor remained with this ancient line till it passed, in the early part of the fifteenth century, to Sir Robert Herling, Knt., who married Joan or Jane, the heiress of the Gonvilles, as the subjoined pedigree will show. Sir Robert Herling, and Joan his wife, held the manor of Gonville's in 1420, as we learn from an inquisitio ad quod damnum, taken in that year. "Robtus Harlyng, miles, et Johanna, uxor ejus, tempore ultimi pascigii d'ni Henr. Regis nunc ad partes Norman: seiziti fuerunt de mn'o vocat Gunvilles manor: cum p'tin: in villis de Blundeston, Olton, et Flyxton, in d'mico suo ut de feodo." (fn. 10) Sir Robert Herling left a daughter and heiress, Anne, who was thrice married; first, to Sir William Chamberlain, Knight of the Garter; secondly, to Sir Robert Wingfield, Knt., who in 1474 settled, amongst divers manors and estates in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, the manors of Gnateshall, Corton, Newton, Lound, and Blundeston, with Lound advowson, in Suffolk, on themselves and their trustees. He died seized of these in 1480. In 1492, Anne, his widow, married, thirdly, John, Lord Scroop, of Bolton, who died in 1494. (fn. 11) On her death, without issue, the manor of Gonville's went to Margaret, her father's sister, the wife of Sir Robert Tuddenham, Knt. (fn. 12) On the 4th of April, sixth of James I., Robert Jettor conveyed to William Sydnor the site, manor, or member of a manor, called Blundeston, Gunvilles Blundeston, or Gunvilles cum pertin: and a close called Gunvilles, reputed the site of the said manor, containing six acres; another close called the Home-close, in Blundeston, and four several fish-ponds, with several waters and fishings in Blundeston and Flixton, and with covenant to levy a fine thereof to the use of the said William Sydnor, and his heirs. William Sydnor's eight daughters and co-heiresses conveyed it to William Heveningham. Both manors in this parish being thus united, were granted, with the advowson, to Lady Heveningham's trustees in 1661, as already shown. Early in the seventeenth century, Sir Butts Bacon, created a Baronet on the 29th of July, 1627, possessed an estate and resided at Blundeston. He married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Warner, of Parham, in Suffolk, Knt., and widow of William, second son of Sir Henry Jermyn, Knt., by whom he had three sons, Charles and Clement, who died without issue, and Sir Henry Bacon, his successor. He had also two daughters, Anne, the wife of Henry Kitchingman, of Blundeston Hall, and Dorothy, who married William Peck, of Cove. Sir Butts died in 1661, and his widow in 1679. They lie buried in Blundeston church. Soon after the year 1700, the estate of the Bacons was sold to the Allins of Somerleyton; and in 1770 became the property of Frances, the daughter of the Rev. Ashurst Allin, of whose executors it was purchased by Nicholas Henry Bacon, Esq., the second surviving son of the late Sir Edmund Bacon, Bart., of Raveningham, in Norfolk, who sold it in 1832 to Charles Steward, Esq., an officer in the Honourable East India Company's service, who is the present possessor. He married his first-cousin, Harriet, the only daughter, by his first wife, of Ambrose Harbord Steward, Esq., of Stoke Park, near Ipswich, High Sheriff for Suffolk in 1822, by whom he has an only son, Charles John. The mansion erected on this estate has been termed at different periods Sydnors, and Blundeston Villa, but is now designated Blundeston House. The spot is more celebrated for the loveliness of its scenery than the grandeur of the residence, which is simply a good substantial house, erected in a style of unpretending architecture. But its verdant lawns and ample sparkling lake bear testimony of a long subjection to the hand of taste, which evidently still controls. The domain was many years the residence of the late Rev. Norton Nicholls. Mr. Mathias, an author well known by his 'Observations on the Character and Writings of Gray,' in a letter to a friend, occasioned by the death of this "rare and gifted man," terms his villa here "an oasis." Speaking of what Mr. Nicholls had perfected at Blundeston, he says, "if barbarous taste should not improve it, or some more barbarous land-surveyor level with the soil its beauties and its glories, (it) will remain as one of the most finished scenes of cultivated sylvan delight which this island can offer to our view." An aged pollard oak, and a summer-house placed at the termination of the lake, are said to have been favourite haunts of Gray, who was an occasional guest of Mr. Nicholls at Blundeston. In 1799, this gentleman entertained here the gallant Admiral Duncan, soon after his return to Yarmouth, crowned with the laurels won at Camperdown. Mr. Nicholls died on the 22nd of November, 1809, aged 68, and was buried at Richmond church, in Surrey. The vicinity of Blundeston House, while tenanted by Dr. Saunders, was some years since the scene of an unfortunate accident, which deprived that gentleman of life. Being in the act of reloading his double-barrelled gun, a favourite dog fawning upon him, sprung the trigger of the second barrel, and discharged the contents into his master's body. Dr. Saunders's melancholy fate is recorded in the 'Suffolk Chronicle' of October the 15th, 1814. ¶The lake, or Blundeston Great Water, as it is called in ancient writings, was the subject of a dispute in the reign of James I., very similar to that recorded at Ashby, as we learn from the following "exemplification of interrogatories to be administered on the part and behalf of John Ufflet, Gent., Henry Winston, Henry Doughtie, and Anne his wife, Thomas Stares, and Anthony Thornwood, complainants, against William Sydnor, Esq., and Henry Sydnor, Gent., deforcients; and of depositions taken at Lowestoft, on the 15th of March, in the seventh of James I., before Anthony Shardelow, William Southwell, William Cuddon, and Benedict Campe, Gents., by virtue of His Majesty's commission out of the Court of Chancery, to them directed. Richard Burman deposed, inter alia, that he knew the great water in Blundeston, called the common fenne, or common water, and the piece of ground called Hempwater green, containing about three acres; that the said water contained about sixteen or seventeen acres. That the messuage wherein Henry Sydnor then dwelt was sometimes of Maister Yarmouth. That the water and green had always been reputed as common. That the inhabitants fished in the water; wetted their hemp therein, and dried it on the green, and fed their cattle thereon. William Pynne deposed, inter alia, that he did not know that the said William Sydnor or Humphrey Yarmouth had any manor in the said towne; nor that there were more manors therein than the manor of Mr. Jettor, called Gunvilles. Robert Jettor deposed that the water is called the common water of Blundeston in a court-roll of the manor of Blundeston Gonville, dated the thirty-first of Henry VIII., and that he did not know that Mr. Yarmouth, or the defendants, had any manor in Blundeston, or that there was any other manor therein than his, called Blundeston Gonvilles. John Wood deposed, inter alia, that the said William Sydnor had obtained the leases from divers owners of sundry messuages or dwelling-houses in Blundeston, of their interests of their fishing in the said great water about twenty years sithence, and that he had before that sued some of the inhabitants of the said towne for having fished therein. That he and another, then churchwardens of Blundeston, did sell the alders growing in or near the said water, and did convert the money to the reparations of the town-house, and that other inhabitants did take poles, splints, and other wood growing there, &c. That he had heard that Mr. Yarmouth did keep courts in Blundeston, and had tenants therein, and that this deponent did hold of Mr. Sydnor, who had Mr. Yarmouth's estate, three acres of land, &c., and that Mr. Jettor had a manor in Blundeston, &c. Interrogatories to be administered to the witnesses to be produced on the part and behalf of William Sydnor, Esq., and Henry Sydnor, Gent., complainants, against Henry Winston, &c., deforcients. Inter alia. Do you know that Humphrey Yarmouth, Esq., deceased, was seized of the manor of Blundeston in Blundeston, and of land covered with water, containing forty acres, and which, on his death, descended to Henry Yarmouth, his son, also dead; who sold the same to William Sydnor; and that they severally held courts-baron, &c. And whether Humphrey Yarmouth, and Henry Yarmouth, his son, and William Sydnor afterwards, did not present to the living on the death or resignation of the incumbents. If the house wherein Henry Sydnor then dwelt was not called Blundeston Hall in court-rolls and writings. Whether, in the twenty-eighth of Elizabeth, in a controversy between the said William Sydnor, lord of Blundeston, and owner of the water, with the inhabitants as to the same being common or not, the dispute was not referred to Sir Edward Coke, then Attorney-General, and afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and to Richard Godfrey, Esq. Whether in the thirty-first of Elizabeth there was not a similar dispute, and that it was amicably settled by the said Henry Winston and certain others of the inhabitants agreeing to release their rights of fishing in the water, and that they should have in lieu thereof, a certain driftway thereto from the highway, near the mansion of the said William Sydnor, and a certain piece of land at the end of the said water, containing three acres, for their use, and the feed thereof; and to wet hemp in the water, and dry the same on the said three acres of land, and might dig the soil and carry it away therefrom, and also from Mill Hill, in Belton Heath, and the timber, &c., growing on the said way for repairing the town-house; and whether the said agreement was not carried into execution; and if complainants did not for twelve years quietly enjoy the water, &c., after the execution of the releases. And whether, before the agreement, the inhabitants had a right to take the land, gravel, &c.; and if complainant did not clear the water, and make a bank, &c., for the fowl to breed, &c." he Church at Blundeston, which is a rectory dedicated to St. Mary, and now consolidated with the adjoining benefice of Flixton, is valued in the King's books at £13. 6s. 8d. It is a singular edifice, comprising a nave and chancel, with a remarkably high-pitched roof, covered with thatch. The tower, which is circular and small in diameter, rises but little above the ridge of the nave, and looks more like a chimney than a steeple. It exhibits decided marks of Norman erection, and was probably attached to an earlier edifice than the present church, which, apparently incorporating the north wall of the ancient nave, seems raised on a wider ground-plan, thereby bringing the apex of the western gable to the southward of the tower, and producing a very inharmonious effect. The masonry of both nave and chancel is composed of large squared flints, but the walls of the latter bulge outwards in a threatening angle, and foretell a speedy dissolution. The interior is lofty and effective, and very neatly kept; and a carved oaken screen beneath the chancel arch is well deserving of observation. The lower compartments of this screen were in olden days richly painted and gilt, as the accidental discovery of one portion, by the removal of some boards, fortunately evinces. This splendid example of ancient art forms an illustration to the present work, and has been engraved from the faithful pencil of the late Miss Dowson, of Yarmouth. St. Peter pointing to the keys of Heaven and Hell, and an angel with uplifted hands assuring us of our salvation through the passion of Christ, occupy the two compartments of a pointed arch, richly backed by a crimson ground, diapered with gold. There is a stiffness in the attitude of each figure, and a harshness of outline visible here, as in the works of more celebrated artists, even at a later period; but these paintings are, nevertheless, extremely interesting, as illustrating the success of art in England in the fifteenth century. There is a small piscina in the chancel, and some oaken benches in the body of the church of excellent workmanship, and an ancient benetura near the south door. In the tower hang two bells, one of which was brought from the ruinated church of the adjoining village of Flixton. The body of the church, which presents a far less fearful aspect than the chancel, has lately undergone considerable renovation, and is indebted to the zeal of Mr. Steward for the preservation of many of its ancient features. Reginald Wynstone, by his last will, dated the 14th of April, 1438, leaves his body to be buried within the church of Blundeston, and constitutes William Wynstone and John Wynstone, his sons, his executors. In the Lansdowne MSS. (fn. 13) is a note, taken apparently about the year 1573, of several armorial cognizances which then ornamented the windows of this building. "In the chancel windows. Arg. a lion sable. FitzOsbert and Jerningham. Quarterly, arg. and b. quarterly indented, a bend gules. Arg. a cross engrailed gules. Bloundeville, or and b. quarterly, indented, a bend gules, sided with Gurney. Gules, 3 gemelles or, a canton ermine, billetted sable. Sable a cross sarsele or, betwixt four scallops arg. Sable, a chevron arg. between 3 cinquefoils or."—"In the church, gul. a lion argent. Arg. 3 buckles lozengy gules, Jernegan. Gu. and b. pale, on a fess wavy arg., 3 crescents sab. betwixt three crosses pale or. Blundeville and Inglos. Erm. on a chevron sab., 3 crescents or, syded with Nownton. Sir Ed. Jenney, erm. a bend gul. cotised or, quartering sab. a chevr. twyxt 3 buckles argent. Or and g. barre unde. Castell, gu., 3 castells arg. Sab. a chev. gules, droppe or, twixt 3 cinquefoils pserd ermine. Or and b. checke. Paston, Bolaine, Nawton, and Barney, Nawton and Howard. Or 3 chev. gu., on each 3 ermines arg. sided with Nawton. Sampson syded with Felbrig. Felbrig, on his shoulder a mullet arg. Bedingfeld quartering Tuddenham, and one of Knevett single." Monuments.—There is an old floor-stone with a cross, but no other ancient memorials, in this church. Among the more modern are the following: Robertus Snelling, Rector, obt. Sep. 12, 1690, æt. 65. Hic jacet Butts Bacon, Baronettus, Nicholai Bacon, Angliæ Baronetti primi filius septimus, qui obiit Maij 29, 1661. Dorothea Bacon, his widow, obt. Sep. 4, 1679. Arms. Bacon. Elizabeth, daughter of John Burkin, of Burlingham, died Jan. 26, 1735. She was first married to the Rev. Mr. Gregory Clarke, and after his decease to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Carter. ¶Samuel Luson, died July 7, 1766, aged 33. Luson bears, quarterly, 1st and 4th, az. and gul., 3 sinister hands arg., 2nd and 3rd, erm., 3 roses. . . . Sarah Keziah Thurtell, died May 29th, 1833, aged 18 years. William Wales, died June 8, 1710, aged 63. Gregory Clarke, Christi minister, died 3 Ides of Jan. 1726, aged 45. William Sydnor, Esq., died 1613. Robert Brown, died Sep. 6, 1813, aged 52 years. Mary, his daughter, Aug. 18, 1812, aged 22 years. Sarah, wife of John Clark, widow of the above Robert Brown, died Nov. 16, 1818, aged 59. Elizabeth, second wife of James Thurtell, of Flixton, died June 15, 1823, aged 75 years. Elizabeth, wife of John Clark, died Jan. 28, 1801, aged 28 years. John Clark, died Oct. 7, 1826, aged 57 years. Stephen Saunders, M. D., born 17th Oct. 1777, died 1st Oct. 1814. Timothy Steward, of Great Yarmouth, died 25th of June, 1836. Mary, his wife, daughter of John Fowler, and Ann, his wife, died 22 Jan. 1837. Arms. Steward, quarterly, 1st and 4th. Or, a fess chequee arg. and az.; 2nd and 3rd, arg., a lion ramp. gules, debruised with a bendlet raguly or, impales Fowler, az. on a fess between 3 lions pass. guard, or, as many crosses patonce sable. The registers of Blundeston commence in 1558. They contain several notices of monies collected by Brief in aid of sufferers by fire in distant parts of England. Among others, "To a loss by fire at ye head of ye Cannon-gate at Edinburgh, in North Britain, Jan. 13, 1708/9, 1s. 6d." The advowson of Blundeston with Flixton was sold in 1844, by Lord Sydney Osborne, to Thomas Morse, Esq., of Blundeston. www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/suffolk-history-antiq...
St Mary the Virgin, Blundeston, Suffolk
Many places like to wear their connections with Charles Dickens visibly, but I find it hard to believe anywhere does it more completely than Blundeston. Blundeston is mentioned in David Copperfield, and there has been a strong movement by the local parish planners to ensure that most street names now have a Dicken connection. I know this a a colleague of mine resisted the overtures to name their new dwellings something Dickensian, but stuck with the family name after all. I also have family connections with Blundeston, and indeed a distant relation is on the war memorial, but he is one of the branch that has an extra D in their name, the first one I have ever seen. My name is very mis-spelt, and the double D variation the most common. Anyway, late one afternoon, I arrive in Blundeston to visit the church, and see, or notice the pound for the first time. Situated on a road junction, the brick-built circular enclosure was once used to corral livestock. It is a rare survivor, and the first time I had noticed it. It is a fine round-towered church, with plenty of interest inside, and the medieval (I guess) glass in the porch the first of many. Some unusual tessellated tiling in the chancel, but the sanctuary is now a book shop and the altar brought forward.The font, at least to my eyes, looks Norman, and is impressive, as is the arts and crafts window, but I guess this is where Simon puts me right on many points..... ----------------------------------------- "I was born at Blunderstone, in Suffolk. There is nothing half so green as I know anywhere, as the grass of that churchyard; nothing half so shady as its trees; nothing half so quiet as its tombstones. The sheep are feeding there, when I kneel up to look out. Here is our pew in the church. What a high-backed pew! With a window near it, out of which our house can be seen. I look up at the monumental tablets on the wall, and try to think of Mr Bodgers late of this parish, and what the feelings of Mrs Bodgers must have been, when affliction sore, long time Mr Bodgers bore, and physicians were in vain. I look to the pulpit, and think what a good place it would be to play in, and what a castle it would make, with another boy coming up the stairs to attack it..." - Charles Dickens, David Copperfield Blundeston is these days a very pleasant outer suburb of Lowestoft, although wise planners have kept a cordon sanitaire between it and the rampaging new estates of Oulton and Gunton. Everything here is very trim and polite, although St Mary itself has a rather more primitive air about it. Its narrow, tapering tower rises up sharply beside the steeply banked roof of its nave, for all the world like a Cornish tin mine or Derbyshire mill. This is an ancient building. The tower, at least the lower part, is clearly Saxon, and here inside there are some other ancient details. You step into a church which is much bigger than it might appear from the outside, with a gentle High Church feel to it. The nave was widened in the late medieval period, and although there is no aisle or arcade, the tower has been left offset. The font dates from the 12th century, a plain, octagonal bowl set on 8 relief legs. The tower arch is earlier, and beside it there is a very curious detail. A circular squint hole, about 12 inches across, about 5 feet from the floor in the north-west corner. It is obviously intended to line up with something outside the church, but what, exactly? There is one exactly like it, in the same position, two miles away at Lound. They do not align with each other, though. Perhaps an outdoor Easter sepulchre? or to enable an internal sepulchre to be seen on Good Friday, when the church was out of use? Above the south door, the arms of Charles II are very curious. They have been reused as a hatchment at some point, but the overpainting has faded to reveal the true origin. An altar against the north wall is dedicated to St Andrew, in memory of the nearby former church at Flixton, which was destroyed in a storm early in the 18th century. The font in the churchyard here comes from Flixton, too. And the memorials? Well, I'm afraid there is no 'Mr Bodgers, late of this parish', and probably never was. The high-backed pews are all gone, and although the pulpit would certainly make an excellent castle, it post-dates Dickens's (and Copperfield's) time. The grass is still lush and green in the churchyard though, and much wilder than the neatly trimmed lawns of the very pleasant houses that surround it. Simon Knott, June 2008 www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/Blundeston.htm ----------------------------------------- Blundeston. There are two manors here—those of Blundeston Hall, and Gonville's. The former was held by a family which took their name from the place, and retained it, with the patronage of the church, till the end of the reign of Edward III. In the ninth of Edward I., Robert de Blundeston was lord; (fn. 1) and in the twenty-third of Edward III., in the year 1348, there was a conveyance from Osbertus, Rector of the church of Blundeston, and Oliverus de Wysete, to William, the son of Robert de Blundeston, and the heirs of his body, of the manor of Blundeston, with all the lands and appurtenances in Blundeston, Oulton, and Flixton; together with the advowson of the church of the village of Blundeston, with the appurtenances; all which were formerly of Robert de Blundeston; to hold to the said William and the heirs of his body lawfully begotten. From this family the manor and advowson passed to that of Yarmouth; Henry Yarmouth, of Blundeston, presenting to the church in 1438. Humphrey Yarmouth, his descendant, on the 1st of December, 1570, conveyed to William Sydnor the manor of Blundeston, cum pertinentibus, and all other his manors, tenements, liberties, swanmarks, and hereditaments in Blundeston, Corton, Lound, Somerleyton, Flixton, Lowestoft, and Gunton, or elsewhere, and all other his manors and hereditaments, in the said towns, in fee. The manor, &c., and the messuages, were found to be holden of Sir John Heveningham, of his manor of South Leet, in soccage. (fn. 2) The said William Sydnor, by deed indented 6th of October, twenty-sixth of Elizabeth, 1584, in consideration of a jointure to Elizabeth, late wife of Henry Sydnor, his son, and heir apparent, did enfeoff John Read, and others, and their heirs, of a house called Gillam's, and 90 acres of land in Blundeston and Flixton; a meadow of 12 acres in Flixton; a marsh called Wrentham's, and 41 acres of land in Blundeston; two other messuages and 9 acres of land in Blundeston; a house called Chamber's, and 104 acres of land in Henstead. And of the manor called Blundeston; and the manor of Fritton with the appurtenances, to their uses; viz., as to the manor of Blundeston with the appurtenances, to the use of the said William for life; and after to the use of the said Henry, and his heirs male by the said Elizabeth, his wife; and after to the right heirs of the said William. The marriage between the aforesaid Henry Sydnor and Elizabeth was solemnized on the 1st of February, twenty-seventh of Elizabeth. He died during his father's lifetime, in December, 1611. William Sydnor, the father, died on the 26th of August, 1612. By his will, dated the 26th of March, in the same year, being "then of Christ's Church, but late of Blundeston," he gave to the poor of Blundeston, Henstead, Fritton, Belton, Conisford at the Gate (Norwich), Berstete St. John's, 20 shillings to each parish, and to Trowse on this side the Bridge 10 shillings. He desired "his body to be buried in the chauncell of the parishe church of Blundeston." He gave unto Dorothy Sydnor, his daughter, £ 200 of lawful English money, some furniture, and £10 in gold, to be paid within fourteen days; a cup of silver with three feet, and a cover. To Alice Goldsmithe, his daughter, all her mother's apparell, and £10 in gold, &c. Among other bequests, he leaves to William Sydnor, his grandchild, some furniture, and a great carved chest which lately came from Blundeston, and his next best salt-cellar. After leaving annuities to his servants, he directed "that his house in Christ's Church in all things be mayntayned and kept as usually he did for the entertainment of his children; and such of his children and servants as would stay and live orderly, and do their service honestly, during the time of their stay; for which they were to have their wages. The charges of such housekeeping to be defrayed by his executors; and he desired that Dorothy Sydnor, his daughter, during the said month should have the government of the said house." (fn. 3) By an inquisition, held the 30th of August, in the twelfth of James I., when the death of William Sydnor was returned, it was found that William, the son of Henry, his eldest son, then deceased, was his next heir, and of the age of 24 years and more. And that the said William, eldest, was seized in fee of the manor of Blunston, alias Blundeston, with the appurtenances in Blundeston, Corton, Gunton, Lowestoft, Oulton, Ashby, Flixton, Bradwell, Burgh, Fritton, Belton, Herringfleet, Lound, Somerleyton, Hopton, and Gorleston. On the 13th of February, eleventh of James I., William Sydnor, the grandson, in consideration of a marriage with Anne Harborne, did covenant with William Harborne, her father, to convey to him, Sir Anthony Drury, and others, and their heirs, the manor of Fritton, with the appurtenances, in Suffolk, and all lands, tenements, &c., of the said William, in Fritton, or in the towns adjoining, to the use of himself and his heirs until the marriage, and after the marriage to the use of himself and the said Anne, for jointure, and the heirs male of his body, with several remainders over to Robert, Thomas, and Henry, his brothers, Edmund, William, Francis, and Paul Sydnor, his uncles, and the heirs male of every of their several bodies. And after to the use of the right heirs of the said William Sydnor, the grandfather. And the manor of Blundeston, with the rights, members, and appurtenances, in Suffolk, and all lands, tenements, and other hereditaments, &c., of the said William Sydnor, the grandson, in Blundeston, or in the towns adjoining, or any of them, to and for the like uses, and estates, and remainders as before; omitting only the said Anne, and her estates, for life. In the following year a fine was levied in pursuance, by the said William Sydnor, his uncle, and the heirs of Sir Anthony, of the manors of Fritton and Blundeston, with the appurtenances. By the Office of the ninth of Charles I., after the death of William Sydnor, the grandson, it was found that he died, seized, on the 13th of June, eighth of Charles I., 1632, without issue male. By the same Office, Elizabeth, Anne, Sarah, Mary, Hester, Susanna, Abigail, and Lydia, were found to be the daughters and co-heiresses of the said William Sydnor, and that Elizabeth, the eldest, was, at her father's death, under eleven years of age, and all the rest under fourteen years of age. (fn. 4) On the 3rd of July, in the tenth of Charles I., the King, by ind're under the seal of the Court of Wards, granted to Anthony Bury, for a fine of 200 marks, the custody, wardship, and marriages of the said co-heiresses, to his own use. On the 2nd of July, tenth of Charles, the King, by another ind're, under the seal of the said Court, granted and leased to him, in consideration of £10, the manor of Henstead Pierpoind's, and two acres in Blundeston, during the minority of the said co-heiresses, at the yearly rent of £ 2. 6s. 8d. On the 20th of November, in the same year, this Anthony Bury, by ind're, assigned all his interests to Dr. Talbot, who married the said Anne, mother of the said co-heiresses, to his own use, for £330 paid, besides £100 for Bury, to the receiver of the Court of Wards, for leave of the King's fine. In Michaelmas Term, 1640, there was a decree in the Court of Wards, against Sir John Wentworth, who, in his answer to the information of the attorney of the wards on behalf of the said co-heiresses, denied they had the manor of Blundeston, but confessed they had the manor of Gonville's, in Blundeston, and that their father purchased that of one Jettor. But the Court decreed that the said co-heiresses had the manor of Blundeston, and also the manor of Gonville's. And such possession as the father of the said wards had in Blundeston great water, and fishing, is by the decree settled with the wards during their minority, and until livery sued. And Sir John desired not to fish in right of a tenement in Blundeston, which was his father's. As to the wards' suit as touching an hoorde, some lands in Fritton, and other matters, they are left to trial at law. Elizabeth, Anne, Sarah, Mary, Hester, Susanna, Abigail, and Lydia Sydnor, the eight daughters and co-heiresses of William Sydnor, of Blundeston, by fine levied, and recovery suffered, and by deed dated the 19th of December, 1651, conveyed the said manors in Blundeston and Fritton to hold to William Heveningham, Esq., his heirs and assigns, for ever. ¶The family of Sydnor, from whom Blundeston thus passed, appears to have originated from — Sydnor, who married a daughter of Sir John Berney, of Reedham, in Norfolk. The following pedigree is derived from an abstract of the title of the estates, sold by the eight daughters and co-heiresses of William Sydnor, made in 1651; except the marriages of the eight daughters, which are added from the abstract continued to 1663, at which time Sarah was married to William Castleton. The other daughters had been all married before that date. William Sydnor, the purchaser of Blundeston, as appears from bequests in his will, left three daughters, namely, Dorothy Sydnor, Alice Sydnor, who married Henry Goldsmith, and left issue Charles Goldsmith; and Elizabeth Sydnor, who married W. Doans, and left a son, William. Henry Sydnor, who died in his father's lifetime, left also three daughters, Elizabeth, Catharine, and Alice. William Heveningham, Esq., who purchased the manors of Blundeston and Fritton of the Sydnors, was in the year 1661 convicted and attainted of high treason, as has been already shown under Mutford, &c. By letters patent, dated 28th September, thirteenth Charles II., the King did give unto Brian, Viscount Cullen, Sir Thomas Fanshaw, Sir Ralph Banks, Knights, Edward Pitt, and Charles Cornwallis, Esqrs., among other manors and lands, the said manors of Blundeston and Fritton; to hold to them, the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., and their heirs, for ever. The said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., by their deed-poll, dated 3rd October, thirteenth Charles II., made between them, the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., George, Earl of Bristol, Henry, Earl of Dover, and Margaret Heveningham, wife of the said William Heveningham, which was also signed by His Majesty's sign manual, did declare the use of the aforesaid letters patent to be to the intent that the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., should, either by perception of the profits or sale of the aforesaid manors of Blundeston and Fritton, amongst others, raise £11,000 for the said Earl of Bristol, and several other trusts therein comprised: the remainder to be for the use of the said Mary, wife of the said William. The said William Heveningham, and Mary his wife, in Michaelmas Term, thirteenth Charles II., levied a fine, and suffered a recovery of the said manors of Blundeston and Fritton, inter alia. And by indenture, dated 24th of October, thirteenth of Charles II., the said William and Mary declared that the said fine and recovery should be to the use of the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, Sir Thomas Fanshaw, Sir Ralph Banks, Edward Pitt, and Charles Cornwallis, and their heirs, for ever. In the 10th and 11th of December, 1662, fourteenth of Charles II., appear a lease and release from the Earl of Bristol, Brian, Viscount Cullen, Sir Thomas Fanshaw, Sir Ralph Banks, Edward Pitt, and Charles Cornwallis, unto Sir John Tasburgh, of the manor of Blundeston, and the capital house called Blundeston Hall, and the manor of Fritton, alias Freton Paston's, and all that manor called Blundeston, alias Gunville's, alias Scroope Hall, alias Gunville's Blundeston, with all the rights, members, and appurtenances to the said manors belonging; and the advowson of the churches, rectories, and vicarages of Blundeston and Fritton aforesaid; and courts-leet and view of frank-pledge, &c., to hold to him and his heirs, for ever. Consideration, £4000 in hand, and £4000 to be paid as therein named. On the 27th of December, 1662, the said William Heveningham and Mary his wife did grant, release, and confirm all and every the said manors of Blundeston, Fritton, and Blundeston Gunville's, to the said John Tasburgh, and his heirs, for ever. These estates next passed to the Allins; for, on the 20th July, 1668, are letters of attorney from Thomas Allin, of Lowestoft, Knt., to Richard London, &c., to receive livery of seizin of John Tasburgh, of Bodney, in Norfolk, Esq., of all his manors, messuages, lands and fruits, and hereditaments situated in Blundeston, Fritton, Corton, or any other town adjoining. Sir Thomas Allin held his first court baron for these manors on the 3rd of November, 1668. (fn. 5) On the 9th of July, 1712, the trustees of Richard Allin, under a deed authorizing them to sell lands to satisfy his debts, sold a messuage and about 76 acres of land at Blundeston and Fritton, of the yearly rent of £39. 10s., to Gregory Clarke, for £663; and on the 30th of August following, two other pieces of land, containing 13 acres, of the yearly rent of £5. 10s., to the same Gregory Clarke, for £100. These estates were afterwards purchased by Sir Ashurst Allin, Bart., who resided there; and were by him devised to his daughter, Frances Allin, for life. On the 29th of September, 1714, Blundeston Hall-farm, lands and decoy, of the yearly rent of £217. 2s. 6d., were sold to William Luson, merchant, the consideration money being £3691. 2s. 6d., who devised them to Robert Luson, his son, who, by his will of the 1st of May, 1767, bequeathed them to his eldest daughter, Maria, in fee, who married George Nicholls, Esq., by whom this estate was sold to Robert Woods, who, by his will, dated July 4th, 1780, devised the same to his wife to sell, and in 1791, she conveyed it to Thomas Woods in fee. Other estates in Blundeston were by Robert Luson devised to his second daughter, Hephzibah, who married Nathaniel Rix, Esq. An estate at Blundeston, and Corton, and Lound, he devised to Elizabeth, his daughter, who afterwards married Cammant Money, by whom the second property was sold to J. B. Roe, and the first to J. Manship. (fn. 6) The Decoy farm, at Blundeston, was, by the executors of Robert Luson, under the powers in the will contained, sold to William Berners, Esq., of Woolverstone Hall, whose son, Charles, resold it to Thomas Morse, Esq. (fn. 7) The manor of Fritton, and an estate of the annual value of £173, were sold to Samuel Fuller, Esq., for £ 2660. (fn. 8) The manors of Blundeston Hall and Gunville's united, as will be presently shown, remained with the Allins, and passed with their other estates to the family of Anguish. From the Anguishes they descended to Lord Sydney Osborne, who sold them, in 1844, to Samuel Morton Peto, Esq. The Manor of Gonville's, in Blundeston, ¶was the lordship of John, the son of Nicholas de Gunville or Gonville, in the fourteenth of Edward III., in the month of March in which year is a "note of time" of this manor between the aforesaid John, who is styled the son of Nicholas Gonvyll, chyvaler, and Johan, his wife, complainants, and William de Gonvyll, parson of the church of Thelnethan, John Gonvyll, parson of the church of Lylyng, Osbert, parson of the church of Blundeston, and Thomas de Kalkhyll, deforcients, of 24 messuages, 332 acres of land, 16 acres of meadow, &c., in Gorleston, Louystoft, Barneby, Little Yarmouth, and Hopton, to John, son of Nicholas and Johan, and the heirs of their bodies; and remainder, after the decease of John and Johan, to the right heirs of John, the son of Nicholas. (fn. 9) The manor remained with this ancient line till it passed, in the early part of the fifteenth century, to Sir Robert Herling, Knt., who married Joan or Jane, the heiress of the Gonvilles, as the subjoined pedigree will show. Sir Robert Herling, and Joan his wife, held the manor of Gonville's in 1420, as we learn from an inquisitio ad quod damnum, taken in that year. "Robtus Harlyng, miles, et Johanna, uxor ejus, tempore ultimi pascigii d'ni Henr. Regis nunc ad partes Norman: seiziti fuerunt de mn'o vocat Gunvilles manor: cum p'tin: in villis de Blundeston, Olton, et Flyxton, in d'mico suo ut de feodo." (fn. 10) Sir Robert Herling left a daughter and heiress, Anne, who was thrice married; first, to Sir William Chamberlain, Knight of the Garter; secondly, to Sir Robert Wingfield, Knt., who in 1474 settled, amongst divers manors and estates in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, the manors of Gnateshall, Corton, Newton, Lound, and Blundeston, with Lound advowson, in Suffolk, on themselves and their trustees. He died seized of these in 1480. In 1492, Anne, his widow, married, thirdly, John, Lord Scroop, of Bolton, who died in 1494. (fn. 11) On her death, without issue, the manor of Gonville's went to Margaret, her father's sister, the wife of Sir Robert Tuddenham, Knt. (fn. 12) On the 4th of April, sixth of James I., Robert Jettor conveyed to William Sydnor the site, manor, or member of a manor, called Blundeston, Gunvilles Blundeston, or Gunvilles cum pertin: and a close called Gunvilles, reputed the site of the said manor, containing six acres; another close called the Home-close, in Blundeston, and four several fish-ponds, with several waters and fishings in Blundeston and Flixton, and with covenant to levy a fine thereof to the use of the said William Sydnor, and his heirs. William Sydnor's eight daughters and co-heiresses conveyed it to William Heveningham. Both manors in this parish being thus united, were granted, with the advowson, to Lady Heveningham's trustees in 1661, as already shown. Early in the seventeenth century, Sir Butts Bacon, created a Baronet on the 29th of July, 1627, possessed an estate and resided at Blundeston. He married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Warner, of Parham, in Suffolk, Knt., and widow of William, second son of Sir Henry Jermyn, Knt., by whom he had three sons, Charles and Clement, who died without issue, and Sir Henry Bacon, his successor. He had also two daughters, Anne, the wife of Henry Kitchingman, of Blundeston Hall, and Dorothy, who married William Peck, of Cove. Sir Butts died in 1661, and his widow in 1679. They lie buried in Blundeston church. Soon after the year 1700, the estate of the Bacons was sold to the Allins of Somerleyton; and in 1770 became the property of Frances, the daughter of the Rev. Ashurst Allin, of whose executors it was purchased by Nicholas Henry Bacon, Esq., the second surviving son of the late Sir Edmund Bacon, Bart., of Raveningham, in Norfolk, who sold it in 1832 to Charles Steward, Esq., an officer in the Honourable East India Company's service, who is the present possessor. He married his first-cousin, Harriet, the only daughter, by his first wife, of Ambrose Harbord Steward, Esq., of Stoke Park, near Ipswich, High Sheriff for Suffolk in 1822, by whom he has an only son, Charles John. The mansion erected on this estate has been termed at different periods Sydnors, and Blundeston Villa, but is now designated Blundeston House. The spot is more celebrated for the loveliness of its scenery than the grandeur of the residence, which is simply a good substantial house, erected in a style of unpretending architecture. But its verdant lawns and ample sparkling lake bear testimony of a long subjection to the hand of taste, which evidently still controls. The domain was many years the residence of the late Rev. Norton Nicholls. Mr. Mathias, an author well known by his 'Observations on the Character and Writings of Gray,' in a letter to a friend, occasioned by the death of this "rare and gifted man," terms his villa here "an oasis." Speaking of what Mr. Nicholls had perfected at Blundeston, he says, "if barbarous taste should not improve it, or some more barbarous land-surveyor level with the soil its beauties and its glories, (it) will remain as one of the most finished scenes of cultivated sylvan delight which this island can offer to our view." An aged pollard oak, and a summer-house placed at the termination of the lake, are said to have been favourite haunts of Gray, who was an occasional guest of Mr. Nicholls at Blundeston. In 1799, this gentleman entertained here the gallant Admiral Duncan, soon after his return to Yarmouth, crowned with the laurels won at Camperdown. Mr. Nicholls died on the 22nd of November, 1809, aged 68, and was buried at Richmond church, in Surrey. The vicinity of Blundeston House, while tenanted by Dr. Saunders, was some years since the scene of an unfortunate accident, which deprived that gentleman of life. Being in the act of reloading his double-barrelled gun, a favourite dog fawning upon him, sprung the trigger of the second barrel, and discharged the contents into his master's body. Dr. Saunders's melancholy fate is recorded in the 'Suffolk Chronicle' of October the 15th, 1814. ¶The lake, or Blundeston Great Water, as it is called in ancient writings, was the subject of a dispute in the reign of James I., very similar to that recorded at Ashby, as we learn from the following "exemplification of interrogatories to be administered on the part and behalf of John Ufflet, Gent., Henry Winston, Henry Doughtie, and Anne his wife, Thomas Stares, and Anthony Thornwood, complainants, against William Sydnor, Esq., and Henry Sydnor, Gent., deforcients; and of depositions taken at Lowestoft, on the 15th of March, in the seventh of James I., before Anthony Shardelow, William Southwell, William Cuddon, and Benedict Campe, Gents., by virtue of His Majesty's commission out of the Court of Chancery, to them directed. Richard Burman deposed, inter alia, that he knew the great water in Blundeston, called the common fenne, or common water, and the piece of ground called Hempwater green, containing about three acres; that the said water contained about sixteen or seventeen acres. That the messuage wherein Henry Sydnor then dwelt was sometimes of Maister Yarmouth. That the water and green had always been reputed as common. That the inhabitants fished in the water; wetted their hemp therein, and dried it on the green, and fed their cattle thereon. William Pynne deposed, inter alia, that he did not know that the said William Sydnor or Humphrey Yarmouth had any manor in the said towne; nor that there were more manors therein than the manor of Mr. Jettor, called Gunvilles. Robert Jettor deposed that the water is called the common water of Blundeston in a court-roll of the manor of Blundeston Gonville, dated the thirty-first of Henry VIII., and that he did not know that Mr. Yarmouth, or the defendants, had any manor in Blundeston, or that there was any other manor therein than his, called Blundeston Gonvilles. John Wood deposed, inter alia, that the said William Sydnor had obtained the leases from divers owners of sundry messuages or dwelling-houses in Blundeston, of their interests of their fishing in the said great water about twenty years sithence, and that he had before that sued some of the inhabitants of the said towne for having fished therein. That he and another, then churchwardens of Blundeston, did sell the alders growing in or near the said water, and did convert the money to the reparations of the town-house, and that other inhabitants did take poles, splints, and other wood growing there, &c. That he had heard that Mr. Yarmouth did keep courts in Blundeston, and had tenants therein, and that this deponent did hold of Mr. Sydnor, who had Mr. Yarmouth's estate, three acres of land, &c., and that Mr. Jettor had a manor in Blundeston, &c. Interrogatories to be administered to the witnesses to be produced on the part and behalf of William Sydnor, Esq., and Henry Sydnor, Gent., complainants, against Henry Winston, &c., deforcients. Inter alia. Do you know that Humphrey Yarmouth, Esq., deceased, was seized of the manor of Blundeston in Blundeston, and of land covered with water, containing forty acres, and which, on his death, descended to Henry Yarmouth, his son, also dead; who sold the same to William Sydnor; and that they severally held courts-baron, &c. And whether Humphrey Yarmouth, and Henry Yarmouth, his son, and William Sydnor afterwards, did not present to the living on the death or resignation of the incumbents. If the house wherein Henry Sydnor then dwelt was not called Blundeston Hall in court-rolls and writings. Whether, in the twenty-eighth of Elizabeth, in a controversy between the said William Sydnor, lord of Blundeston, and owner of the water, with the inhabitants as to the same being common or not, the dispute was not referred to Sir Edward Coke, then Attorney-General, and afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and to Richard Godfrey, Esq. Whether in the thirty-first of Elizabeth there was not a similar dispute, and that it was amicably settled by the said Henry Winston and certain others of the inhabitants agreeing to release their rights of fishing in the water, and that they should have in lieu thereof, a certain driftway thereto from the highway, near the mansion of the said William Sydnor, and a certain piece of land at the end of the said water, containing three acres, for their use, and the feed thereof; and to wet hemp in the water, and dry the same on the said three acres of land, and might dig the soil and carry it away therefrom, and also from Mill Hill, in Belton Heath, and the timber, &c., growing on the said way for repairing the town-house; and whether the said agreement was not carried into execution; and if complainants did not for twelve years quietly enjoy the water, &c., after the execution of the releases. And whether, before the agreement, the inhabitants had a right to take the land, gravel, &c.; and if complainant did not clear the water, and make a bank, &c., for the fowl to breed, &c." he Church at Blundeston, which is a rectory dedicated to St. Mary, and now consolidated with the adjoining benefice of Flixton, is valued in the King's books at £13. 6s. 8d. It is a singular edifice, comprising a nave and chancel, with a remarkably high-pitched roof, covered with thatch. The tower, which is circular and small in diameter, rises but little above the ridge of the nave, and looks more like a chimney than a steeple. It exhibits decided marks of Norman erection, and was probably attached to an earlier edifice than the present church, which, apparently incorporating the north wall of the ancient nave, seems raised on a wider ground-plan, thereby bringing the apex of the western gable to the southward of the tower, and producing a very inharmonious effect. The masonry of both nave and chancel is composed of large squared flints, but the walls of the latter bulge outwards in a threatening angle, and foretell a speedy dissolution. The interior is lofty and effective, and very neatly kept; and a carved oaken screen beneath the chancel arch is well deserving of observation. The lower compartments of this screen were in olden days richly painted and gilt, as the accidental discovery of one portion, by the removal of some boards, fortunately evinces. This splendid example of ancient art forms an illustration to the present work, and has been engraved from the faithful pencil of the late Miss Dowson, of Yarmouth. St. Peter pointing to the keys of Heaven and Hell, and an angel with uplifted hands assuring us of our salvation through the passion of Christ, occupy the two compartments of a pointed arch, richly backed by a crimson ground, diapered with gold. There is a stiffness in the attitude of each figure, and a harshness of outline visible here, as in the works of more celebrated artists, even at a later period; but these paintings are, nevertheless, extremely interesting, as illustrating the success of art in England in the fifteenth century. There is a small piscina in the chancel, and some oaken benches in the body of the church of excellent workmanship, and an ancient benetura near the south door. In the tower hang two bells, one of which was brought from the ruinated church of the adjoining village of Flixton. The body of the church, which presents a far less fearful aspect than the chancel, has lately undergone considerable renovation, and is indebted to the zeal of Mr. Steward for the preservation of many of its ancient features. Reginald Wynstone, by his last will, dated the 14th of April, 1438, leaves his body to be buried within the church of Blundeston, and constitutes William Wynstone and John Wynstone, his sons, his executors. In the Lansdowne MSS. (fn. 13) is a note, taken apparently about the year 1573, of several armorial cognizances which then ornamented the windows of this building. "In the chancel windows. Arg. a lion sable. FitzOsbert and Jerningham. Quarterly, arg. and b. quarterly indented, a bend gules. Arg. a cross engrailed gules. Bloundeville, or and b. quarterly, indented, a bend gules, sided with Gurney. Gules, 3 gemelles or, a canton ermine, billetted sable. Sable a cross sarsele or, betwixt four scallops arg. Sable, a chevron arg. between 3 cinquefoils or."—"In the church, gul. a lion argent. Arg. 3 buckles lozengy gules, Jernegan. Gu. and b. pale, on a fess wavy arg., 3 crescents sab. betwixt three crosses pale or. Blundeville and Inglos. Erm. on a chevron sab., 3 crescents or, syded with Nownton. Sir Ed. Jenney, erm. a bend gul. cotised or, quartering sab. a chevr. twyxt 3 buckles argent. Or and g. barre unde. Castell, gu., 3 castells arg. Sab. a chev. gules, droppe or, twixt 3 cinquefoils pserd ermine. Or and b. checke. Paston, Bolaine, Nawton, and Barney, Nawton and Howard. Or 3 chev. gu., on each 3 ermines arg. sided with Nawton. Sampson syded with Felbrig. Felbrig, on his shoulder a mullet arg. Bedingfeld quartering Tuddenham, and one of Knevett single." Monuments.—There is an old floor-stone with a cross, but no other ancient memorials, in this church. Among the more modern are the following: Robertus Snelling, Rector, obt. Sep. 12, 1690, æt. 65. Hic jacet Butts Bacon, Baronettus, Nicholai Bacon, Angliæ Baronetti primi filius septimus, qui obiit Maij 29, 1661. Dorothea Bacon, his widow, obt. Sep. 4, 1679. Arms. Bacon. Elizabeth, daughter of John Burkin, of Burlingham, died Jan. 26, 1735. She was first married to the Rev. Mr. Gregory Clarke, and after his decease to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Carter. ¶Samuel Luson, died July 7, 1766, aged 33. Luson bears, quarterly, 1st and 4th, az. and gul., 3 sinister hands arg., 2nd and 3rd, erm., 3 roses. . . . Sarah Keziah Thurtell, died May 29th, 1833, aged 18 years. William Wales, died June 8, 1710, aged 63. Gregory Clarke, Christi minister, died 3 Ides of Jan. 1726, aged 45. William Sydnor, Esq., died 1613. Robert Brown, died Sep. 6, 1813, aged 52 years. Mary, his daughter, Aug. 18, 1812, aged 22 years. Sarah, wife of John Clark, widow of the above Robert Brown, died Nov. 16, 1818, aged 59. Elizabeth, second wife of James Thurtell, of Flixton, died June 15, 1823, aged 75 years. Elizabeth, wife of John Clark, died Jan. 28, 1801, aged 28 years. John Clark, died Oct. 7, 1826, aged 57 years. Stephen Saunders, M. D., born 17th Oct. 1777, died 1st Oct. 1814. Timothy Steward, of Great Yarmouth, died 25th of June, 1836. Mary, his wife, daughter of John Fowler, and Ann, his wife, died 22 Jan. 1837. Arms. Steward, quarterly, 1st and 4th. Or, a fess chequee arg. and az.; 2nd and 3rd, arg., a lion ramp. gules, debruised with a bendlet raguly or, impales Fowler, az. on a fess between 3 lions pass. guard, or, as many crosses patonce sable. The registers of Blundeston commence in 1558. They contain several notices of monies collected by Brief in aid of sufferers by fire in distant parts of England. Among others, "To a loss by fire at ye head of ye Cannon-gate at Edinburgh, in North Britain, Jan. 13, 1708/9, 1s. 6d." The advowson of Blundeston with Flixton was sold in 1844, by Lord Sydney Osborne, to Thomas Morse, Esq., of Blundeston. www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/suffolk-history-antiq...
Down the Aisle
St Philip's Church, Sydney is the oldest Anglican parish church in Australia. The current building on York Street is the second church building on Church Hill, and was designed by Edmund Blacket. It was built 1848-56. The church tower was styled after Magdalen Tower at Oxford, United Kingdom, and was opened in 1856.
St. Brigid's Church School
Originally known as St. Bridget's - Australia's oldest centre of catholic worship, dating back to 1833. Kent Street, Millers Point, Sydney (Monday 25 Aug 2008 @ 1:52pm). ISO100 | f/8 | [1.6, 0.8, 0.4] sec | 17mm | eval.meter | AWB | raw View Large
Peterborough. The former St Peters Lutheran Church built in 1885 when the town was called Petersburg. Now a cluttered residence
Railways in Peterborough. Early railways in South Australia headed out from the ports inland to the farming areas and one was from Port Pirie to Crystal Brook in 1874. This line was significant as it was extended to Peterborough in January 1881. Meanwhile, the railway from Burra (it reached there in 1870) and been extended to Hallett in 1878. But as early as 1874 the premier, Mr Boucaut was talking about running the line north from Hallett to connect to Port Augusta via Quorn. The line up to Burra from Adelaide was broad gauge- 5 feet 3 inches, but the line up from Port Pirie to Peterborough was narrow gauge - 3 feet 6 inches. The first surveys for this great northern line were made in 1876 and the township of Lancelot was fixed as the point where the broad gauge line would end and the narrow gauge line to Peterborough and Quorn would begin. Not long after this, the government made a new decision to terminate the broad gauge line at Terowie (and not at Lancelot) and create a junction at section 216 north of Terowie by having a spur line across to the existing line at Jamestown. As soon as the owner of section 216 heard of this plan he subdivided his land, auctioned it off, and created a township at the rail junction which he called Petersburg after his German friend Peter Doecke. The narrow gauge line from Jamestown reached Peterborough (then Petersburg) in January 1881. At the same time the broad gauge line was opened from Hallett to Terowie. Contracts for the construction of the line from Terowie to Quorn were let almost immediately and the line reached Peterborough from Terowie in June of 1881 thus linking the southern and Pirie rail systems. The line north from Peterborough to Quorn opened in stages with the first stage to Orroroo open in late 1881. The line reached Quorn in 1882 and later in that year the first connecting rail service from Adelaide to Port Augusta was operated. After federation Port Augusta was linked with Kalgoorlie in Western Australia in 1917 and the rail service from the eastern states to Perth passed through Peterborough then Quorn, Port Augusta and on to Perth. This main national railway line passed through Peterborough until mid 1937 when the new line was opened across the Adelaide Plains from Salisbury to Port Pirie and on to Port Augusta and Perth. Pictured above is the Railway Hotel in Peterborough with the cupola. Peterborough’s importance as a rail junction and centre was strengthened in 1884 with the discovery of the world’s richest silver, lead and zinc deposit at a site which became known as Broken Hill. The South Australian government in 1886 passed an Act authorising the construction of a new railway from Peterborough to the SA border location closest to Broken Hill. The government could see that the riches of the mines could assist SA as it had the closest port, and wharf facilities. The terminus of the line was at Cockburn on the border which was reached by January 1887. The NSW government, in typical fashion, had refused permission for SAR to build a line to Broken Hill, so a private railway was built for the last 30 miles into Broken Hill called the Silverton Tramway Company. SAR operated and provided rolling stock etc for the Silverton Tramway Company for some time after the line opened! This northern railway division was known as the Peterborough Division and the town blossomed as the administrative, workshop and rail centre for the top half of the settled areas of South Australia. In later years the line north from Gladstone to Wilmington (1915) was added to the division and it also controlled the line north from Quorn to Farina. More recently the narrow gauge line from Port Pirie was converted to standard gauge through to Broken Hill in 1970. At the same time the line from Terowie to Peterborough was converted to a broad gauge line. This then meant that Peterborough had three gauges. But it was not too long after that the rail passenger service from Adelaide via Terowie ceased as the new standard gauge line between Adelaide and Crystal Brook (and consequentially Peterborough and Sydney) was opened in 1982. Services south from Peterborough to Adelaide though Terowie ceased not long after in 1986. In 1957 a railcar service between Peterborough and Quorn had commenced but this ceased operating in 1980 with a reduced service just to Orroroo remaining. That stopped a year later. Steam Town Society began in 1981 to preserve the Old Round House rail turntable and workshops and the steam locomotive services of the district. SAR was taken over by the Commonwealth Government in 1974 and became part of Australian National with a consequent demise of the workshops and numbers of rail employees in Peterborough. Peterborough (population 1,500.) Alexander McCulloch took up a pastoral lease in this area in 1850. He held it until much of the area was resumed for closer settlement in 1869. The Hundred of Yongala was declared soon after but settlement did not begin until around 1875. The section where Peterborough now stands was taken up by Peter Doecke in 1875. He sent his niece and her husband from the Barossa Valley to settle the section in 1876. Once the government sent surveyors to determine the junction of the railways from Jamestown and Terowie, Peter Doecke had township allotments surveyed and created a private town in 1880. He called it Petersburg. (This was changed during World War One in 1917 when all German place names were changed.) In the same year Doecke sold some land to the government for railway and government purposes and a Post Office was opened in 1880, along with a Telegraph station in 1881, and a railway station in 1881. A police station and two hotels soon followed in 1881. Banks, shops and service industries followed, along with churches, and a government school in 1881 with the current buildings opening in 1883. There was frenzied activity to establish a major town at this important rail junction. The town developed more once a railway from Petersburg to the SA/NSW border to tap into the silver mines of Silverton (1887) was authorised. The coming of age of the town was reached quickly with the opening of the Institute in 1884 and the establishment of the town corporation and the opening of the adjoining Town Hall in 1894. The lifeblood of any town was always industry which would provide employment. Although Peterborough had the railways it soon had other significant industries too. The first was the flourmill which opened in 1885 and operated until 1924 when it was converted into premises for freezing rabbits and for producing ice. A cordial factory was established in 1894 and operated until 1976 when the factory was burnt down. The cordial factory had various owners over the years and after a visit by the Governor in 1899 it was granted Vice Regal approval! In the early days from 1899 until 1915 another factory produced temperance drinks, relishes and Worcestershire sauce. Given the town was just outside Goyder’s Line it is somewhat surprising that Peterborough had a butter factory from 1898 until well into the 1930s. Butter was exported to England. Milk was supplied to the factory from a wide area including Orroroo, Hallett and Hammond from over 100 suppliers. It was usually sent by rail to Peterborough and often came from properties with only one or two cows which were hand milked. The town also had its own printing works from 1887 to produce a local newspaper. Papers for Orroroo and Quorn were also printed in Peterborough. The printing works surviving until 1970 when all operations were taken over by the printers in Port Pirie. Peterborough was also special in that the government established a Gold Battery in the town in 1897 with an attached cyanide works. In the first six years of operation the battery produced 61,000 grams of gold with most of it coming from the goldfields near Oodlawirra and Dawson. Ore from across the state was still being sent to the Peterborough works in the 1980s. The cyanide plant was closed down in 1954. The gold battery is controlled by the National Trust, more as a museum piece, than a fully operating gold battery but it does still operate. It is the only gold battery in South Australia. The Union Church which opened in 1879 was used by Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians. A tin Wesleyan Church was opened in 1880, but a stone church was not finished until 1884. The Baptists opened their first church in Peterborough in 1883 and it was added to several times. Once the Wesleyans and Baptists had their own churches, the original Union Church was re-dedicated as the Anglican Church in 1884. The Anglicans later built a new church which was opened in 1888.Further additions and enhancements were carried out over the next thirty years. This church was in the Diocese of Willochra which was created in 1915 with bishops being enthroned in the Port Pirie or Port Augusta church. The first bishop in 1915 resided in Peterborough in rented premises for two years before moving to Gladstone. The Presbyterians did not establish regular services after the initial period of 1879, until 1900 when they began planning their own church. They held services in the Town Hall until their church was completed in 1903. The congregation was always small and the church closed in 1918, with the building being converted to a residence in 1922. The Lutherans in Petersburg started their first services in 1877. A church (St Peters) was built in 1885 and a Lutheran school started soon afterwards. Dwindling numbers forced the day school to close in 1912 but the government would have forced its closure during World War One anyway. The Catholics in Peterborough built the first church, St Sebastian’s three miles outside of the town with the first priest arriving in 1884.( This church was later demolished.) In 1884 the first Catholic Church in the town was opened and dedicated to St Anacletus with an attached day school for seven pupils. Tenders were called for a new church in 1890 and the formal opening was held in 1892. This became one of the largest buildings in the town after extensive additions in 1916 as it was then the Pro-Cathedral for the Diocese of Port Augusta. Nearby the convent school was opened in 1923 and still operates. In 1912 work started on a two storey Bishop’s Residence, designed by Bishop Norton himself. The massive stone residence of fourteen rooms, complete with new electric light from a private generator was finished in 1913. It had extensive stables, out buildings and a large surrounding stonewall. Peterborough was to be the focal point of the diocese of Port Augusta. Bishops resided in the house until 1952 when the diocese was changed to the diocese of Port Pirie and the Bishop’s Residence was shifted to Port Pirie as was the cathedral. Bishop’s Palace is now known as St Cecilia’s and operated as a private bed and breakfast establishment where you can sleep in Mother Superior’s Room or the Bishop’s room!
St Paul's Church Burwood
The church building of St Paul's is a superb example of the work of Edmund Blacket. Dedicated priests and parishioners have cared for the church down the years such that its beauty remains undiminished. The Foundation Stone of St Paul's was laid on 29 July 1871. The first section of the church to be completed was the Nave, which was opened for worship in April 1872. Ten years passed before the chancel and transepts were brought to completion and opened on 1 July 1882. In 1883, a small choir vestry was added, which was later enlarged in 1904. In 1883 Edmund Blacket died, his burial taking place in the churchyard of St Stephen's Anglican Church in Newtown. Like St Paul's, Blacket had built St Stephen's in 1871. The structure of St Paul's was completed in 1924 with the addition of the tower, designed by Ernest Lindsay Thompson, the tower base having been in place since the 1880s. The tower remains the home of a peal of eight bells that were dedicated on 3 April 1960. Thompson also designed the stone fence along Burwood Road, constructed one year after the tower in 1925. The columbarium wall was built after World War II. The fabric of St Paul's is Sydney sandstone, rendered into a decorated Gothic style building. The church is cruciform in shape, aligned east west, and stands on the highest point in Burwood. Its windows sport a variety of tracery and provide the framing for a spectacular array of beautiful stained glass. The tower stands out as a landmark of the Burwood district, and the building as a whole is very much part of Burwood's heritage. Source: St Paul's website
St Mark's Church, Darling Point, Sydney
Format: Glass plate negative. Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. Repository: Tyrrell Photographic Collection, Powerhouse Museum www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/collection=The_Tyrrell_Photographic Part Of: Powerhouse Museum Collection General information about the Powerhouse Museum Collection is available at www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database Persistent URL: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=30739 Acquisition credit line: Gift of Australian Consolidated Press under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme, 1985
Holy Trinity Anglican Church - "The Garrison Church" - Miller's Point, Sydney, NSW
Holy Trinity Anglican Church - Miller's Point, Sydney, New South Wales. Built 1840-46. Known as the Garrison Church, it was the first official military church in the Colony of New South Wales. Located on the corner of Argyle and Lower Fort Streets, Miller's Point.
Congregational Church - Sydney - 1888
Alfred St, Milson's Point. Unlike the Anglican and Roman Catholic faiths, the Congregational Church believes that Christ rules in His church, not through the office of a Pope or Bishop, but through the congregation itself. It was, at its highest, one of the major non-conformist religious movements outside the mainstream Anglican and Catholic faiths. Built on the North Shore, this red brick church with sandstone trimming is in the Gothic Revival style. The architect was Herbert Samuel Thompson. Given the dwindling number of its flock, the church is no longer used by the Congregationalists who merged with the Presbyterians and Methodists in 1977 to form the Uniting Church in Australia. Reflecting the cultural diversity of Sydney, it now serves as the Chinese Christian Church.
The Garrison Church 0715 01 Millers Point Sydney
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Armidale Anglican Cathedral designed by John Horbury Hunt the famous architect. Wonderful three dimensional effect with the brick work. Opened 1875. Tower added 1936.
The Development of Armidale. What is so special about Armidale? Well it is a cathedral city with both Anglican and Catholic cathedrals; it is a wealthy city with a prosperous hinterland and many mansions; it is Australia’s highest city with a bracing English style climate; it is an education city with a university and several prestigious boarding schools; it was one of a number of sites considered for the Australian capital city site after Federation; it has been one of the centres wanting to secede from the rest of NSW; and it has an interesting history with a squatting phase, mining phase, agricultural phase etc. It is also a regional capital and has always been considered the “capital” of the New England region - a distinctive Australian region defined by rainfall, altitude, etc. And it has always been on the main inland route between Sydney and Brisbane but that is no longer of importance in this aviation transport era. The origins of Armidale district go back to Henry Dumaresq when he squatted on land here and took out leaseholds on Saumarez and Tilbuster stations in 1834. He and other squatters soon displaced the local aboriginal people after a period of considerable violence. The turning point in terms of the city came in 1839 when George Macdonald was appointed Commissioner for Crown Lands for the New England District. He arrived with a small police force and he set about building a house and office headquarters. The site he chose is now Macdonald Park. NSW land regulations allowed the government to set aside reserves for future towns or to resume leasehold land for the creation of towns. Macdonald immediately surveyed the local landowners of which there were 37 in New England, giving it a population of 422 people. But this was the convict era of NSW and half of the population were assigned convicts. They provided the brawn to develop the stations, build the shepherd’s huts, dig the wells and dams, and fell the timber and clear the land. Of the original 422 people in New England only 10 were females, probably wives of shepherds or convict women who were cooks etc. Most stations had between 8 and 12 assigned convicts. Saumarez for example, had 11 convicts and 8 free male workers in 1839. In 1841 convicts still accounted for 42% of the population of New England and as they completed their seven year terms, many stayed on to become the founders of towns like Armidale. Transportation of convicts to NSW ceased around 1843 and so convict assignees gradually declined in the region, but ex-convicts remained. Macdonald named the town site Armidale after the Armadale estate on the Isle of Skye. Macdonald had barracks built for the police men, stables, a store shed, his own house and he enclosed some paddocks for the growing of wheat and vegetables. His first years were often taken up with writing reports about Aboriginal massacres and deaths including the Bluff Rock Massacre on the Everett brothers’ run at Ollera near Guyra. Macdonald seldom investigated reports of Aboriginal deaths closely. He was a pompous little man, just 4 feet 10 inches tall with a deformed hunched back. But he was meticulous in most matters. In 1841 he was jilted just before his proposed wedding to a local woman. He remained in Armidale until 1848 overseeing the early development of the town. By 1843 a small town had emerged with a Post Office and a Court House, blacksmith, wheelwright, hotel, general store etc. The town provided government and commercial services to the surrounding pastoral estates. But the town reserve included other lands that were sold or leased to farmers- agriculturists who grew wheat. By 1851 Armidale had two flour mills. The long transport route to Newcastle and on to Sydney meant all wheat had to be converted to flour before it was transported to the markets. The old dray route down to the coast was also used for the transport of the region’s major product- wool. The official town was surveyed and the streets laid out in 1849. Many of the early pastoralists were commemorated in street names – Beardy, Dumaresq, Dangar, Marsh, Faulkner and Rusden to name a few. In 1851 Armidale also had local industries for the regional population- two breweries, general stores, chemist, butcher etc. In the early 1850s the churches began to erect their first buildings and the town became “civilised” with more and more women living there. Then gold discoveries near Uralla and towards the eastern escarpment boosted the town’s population and services. A newspaper was founded, a hospital was built and the population reached 858 in 1856. A gaol was built on South Hill in 1863, the town became a municipality in 1864, and the Robertson’s Land Acts (1861) were introduced throughout NSW to break up the big pastoral estates for ‘selectors” or small scale farmers on 320 acre blocks. This boosted the total population of the Armidale region but as noted elsewhere the pastoralists also used this era to buy up large lots of land freehold for themselves by the process of “dummying”- using relatives and employees to buy small parcels of land which they sold on to the large land owners. But the early years of growing wheat around Armidale collapsed in the 1870s as the wheat lands of South Australia opened up and cheap SA imports destroyed the New England wheat industry. Other forms of agriculture were then taken up in New England. Another key factor in the growth of Armidale in the late 1870s and into the 1890s was its English style climate. In 1885 Armidale was proclaimed a city. It had a population of 3,000 residents - a remarkable achievement for a locale so far from the coast. This was of course boosted further with the arrival of the railway in Armidale in 1883. The line soon reached the Queensland border with a connection on to Brisbane. But the railway was not all good news as the city of Armidale could then receive beer and other supplies on the railway from Newcastle or Sydney and some local industries closed down with the arrival of the railway. By the 1880s the boom years were apparent as large mansions and prominent commercial buildings were erected in the growing city. The fact that Armidale is equidistant from Sydney and Brisbane was one of the factors considered in its application to become the new Federal capital. The fact that Armidale had nearby reservoirs and a large water supply big enough for a large capital city was also an important consideration. The new Federal government was considering the site of the capital city after a long drought so access to water supplies was a major concern. As we known the site of Canberra near Yass was finally selected despite its lesser supply of water but it was closer to Sydney. Anglican Cathedral and associated buildings. Bishop Broughton conducted the first Anglican service in Armidale in 1845 with the first church opening in 1850, followed by a parsonage for Rev. Tingcombe who was the first minister arriving in 1846. Armidale was part of the Diocese of Newcastle. Then in 1869 the diocese of Grafton and Armidale was established. The founding Bishop was James Turner from Norfolk, England. His diocese was the size of England! He started with 10 clergy and 21 churches. He appointed John Horbury Hunt to design and oversee the building of a suitable cathedral in Armidale. The foundation stone was laid in 1873 and the cathedral opened in 1875 as St. Peter’s. Hunt designed a relatively small cathedral of brick, his favourite building medium, rather than stone. Turner continued as Bishop until 1893. Before he left the diocese of Armidale he had the Christ Church Cathedral erected in Grafton in 1884 and a new Grafton diocese created. Bishop Turner also used John Horbury Hunt for cathedral that we saw in Grafton. By the time Turner left he had 2 diocese and 58 churches. The Anglican Cathedral was made of Armidale blue bricks with clay taken from Saumarez station. The vestry was added in 1910 according to Hunt’s design (he died in 1903) and the tower, again according to Hunt’s design in 1936. The cathedral features Gothic arches, a square tower, small pyramids on top of buttresses, moulded bricks for special areas and interesting English bonds and patterns. Uralla granite was used for keystones and the foundations. The Deanery was also designed by Hunt and built of the same Armidale blue bricks in 1891. Hunt was known to make great demands on the brickies as he was a perfectionist and supervised all the intricate brickwork very closely. The result was an outstandingly fine cathedral. Note the band of green tiles above the main door included by Hunt. Note also the fine stained glass windows, and one is a memorial to Bishop Turner’s wife who died in 1879. The cathedral has a fine timber ceiling. Hunt even selected the pulpit and lectern to suit his design. The pulpit has an effigy of St. Peter carved in the sandstone. Some of Hunt’s original plans can be viewed in the Tower Room.
Yoxford
St Peter, Yoxford, Suffolk I hadn't been back to Yoxford for years. If you are a cyclist, it isn't the easiest place to get to. There are few Suffolk villages which are only approached by main roads, but Yoxford is one of them, and it wasn't until August 2017, more than fifteen years after my previous visit, that I took my life in my hands and cycled down the A12 from Darsham. And yet, I'd always liked Yoxford. I remembered writing on the occasion of my previous visit that if, against all my better judgements, a day came when I tired of my shameless hedonistic urban lifestyle and decided to retire to the country, and money were no object, then Yoxford would be pretty near the top of my list. It was big enough to have three decent pubs, a few good shops, one of which was one of Suffolk's best second-hand book shops, and even had a railway station half a mile to the north. And after all, the A12 didn't actually run up the high street. There were some pretty houses and even a park. And it was still a village. What more could I want? The name of the village means a ford where oxen can pass (as, of course, does the name of the city without the Y in front). The little stream that comes down from the industrial village of Peasenhall a couple of miles off is referred to locally as the River Yox, but this is a backnaming, the stream named after the village rather than the other way around. Yoxford proclaims itself 'the garden of Suffolk' as a result of the intensive fruit farming that began here a couple of centuries ago. And it will come as no surprise to learn that Yoxford is alphabetically last of Suffolk's 500-odd parishes. Well, the second-hand bookshop has long gone, and so has one of the pubs. I couldn't tell you if either of the others are still decent, as I didn't call at them. But St Peter is still a fine sight with its grand spire, so unusual in Suffolk. Obviously, given the dedication, there is a cock on top of it. This church is one of the last of what I think of as the large southern Suffolk churches you meet heading north, before hitting the Blythburgh/Southwold/Covehithe group which give a new meaning to grandeur. And yet, stepping inside, it is hard to shake off the impression that this is a town church, for it has an urban quality to it. Partly, this is because of the 19th Century restoration at the hands of Richard Phipson, but it is also because of the monuments and brasses that line the walls. Significant names from Suffolk history can be found on them, for important people seem often to have lived around here. One of them not buried here was Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who was the second husband of Henry VIII's little sister Mary, who had previously been married to the King of France. Their grand-daughter was Lady Jane Grey, who for a brief, teenage week in 1553 was proclaimed Queen of England by the desperate protestant advisers to Edward VI, aghast at having a dead young king on their hands. Their cunning plot to impose extreme protestantism on England was foiled by the popular acclamation of the accession of Mary I, who was staying a few short miles away from here at Framlingham. Mary's reign would prove to be short and unhappy, and young Jane paid with her life for the treasonable actions of those scheming old men. But if the protestants had succeeded in their plan, England would have been quite different today. There certainly would not have been a Church of England, for instance. More than half a century before all that, Thomasina Tendrynge died in 1485, the year of the Battle of Bosworth Field. That was an end to the Wars of the Roses, of course, and the accession of Henry Tudor kickstarted the dramatic events of the next two centuries for the English people. Thomasina was the daughter of William Sydney, himself an ancestor of the family who would find favour with Henry's grand-daughter Elizabeth a century later, being given Penshurst castle in Kent. Her brass, and those of her seven children, are set on the south side of the sanctuary. Thomasina is wrapped in a shroud, a striking if not unusual style for brasses at the time. Two things make this one rather uncommon, however. Firstly, she is stunningly beautiful, and she gazes out at us with wide eyes from the elegant curve of her winding. When he first saw her, my young son said that she looked like a mermaid, and so she does. Secondly, although two of her daughters stand beside her in Tudor robes, her five other children are also in shrouds, indicating that they died before she did. A fine pair of earlier brasses nearby are to John and Matilda Norwiche. We know very little about them, except that they are responsible for St Peter's being here. John was probably a member of the Norwiche family of Mettingham castle. Matilda died childless in 1417. John succeeded to the Lordship of Cockfield Manor in Yoxford in 1422. He never took up the reins however, preferring to remain elsewhere, possibly Mettingham. The Manor was sold, and the proceeds were used to completely rebuild this church in the prevailing Perpendicular style. John himself died in 1428, and these brasses remain as a sign on their patronage. Two hundred years later, the Manor was in the hands of the Brooke family, and Joan Brooke survives in the form of a characterful brass in the south aisle. There are several others, all worth a look. But these brasses really should not be mounted on the walls. I realise that this is done with the best of intentions, to allow them to be displayed, and to protect them from being walked on. The trouble is, if there was a fire, and these do happen in churches from time to time, the brasses would melt, and run down the walls. Floor-mounted brasses set in stone do not melt, because the heat rises away from them. Later, the Manor would come to the Blois family, who were remembered in the name of the pub that closed. St Peter still remembers them, with a splendid array of ten hatchments, mostly beneath the tower. There are also a couple of fine wall monuments to the family, one of them to the long-lived Sir Charles Blois, which has been very clumsily relettered at some point. Mortlock tells us that the sculptor was Thomas Thurlow, whose work can be found widely in this part of Suffolk. Sir Charles was ever feelingly alive to the duties of his station, apparently, as well as being faithful and earnest in the discharge of them. My favourite memorial is a very simple one, but it remembers one of the great and often unsung heroes of church explorers. This is David Elisha Davy. The agricultural depression of the 1820s pushed him into an early retirement, which he spent travelling around Suffolk, sketching and taking an inventory of the exterior and contents of medieval churches. It is no exaggeration to say that he rediscovered Suffolk's churches, which had mostly been in a state of neglect since the early 17th century. His vast body of research is still largely unpublished, although it is possible to view it in the British Library, and his lively account of his journey is available in a Suffolk Records Society publication. This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in Suffolk's churches - Suffolk Library Service has loads of copies. Davy created a priceless record of the county's churches on the eve of their Victorian restoration. In many cases, his record is the only one we have of the churches between the Reformation and the modern age. White's Directory of Suffolk tells us that, by 1844, Davy had already headed off to his other house in Ufford. But Yoxford could still boast no less than five tailors, four milliners, and even a staymaker. The Directory also reveals that this large village (1500 people even then) could sustain a lifestyle considered so harmonious that Anglican ministers of surrounding villages thought it worthwhile abandoning their parishes and living here instead. The Vicar of Ubbeston for example (although that church is now a private house), but also the Rector of Middleton, Fordley, Westleton and Peasenhall, the splendidly named Reverend Harrison Packard. Today, all these villages come within the benefice of Yoxford. Ironically, of course, those 19th Century clergymen moved to Yoxford because of the trappings of an urban lifestyle it could provide.
Cathedral Church of St Michael, the Archangel - Wagga Wagga (2)
Wagga Wagga (informally called Wagga) is a city in New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, and with an urban population of 46,735 people, Wagga Wagga is the state's largest inland city, as well as an important agricultural, military, and transport hub of Australia. The city is located midway between the two largest cities in Australia, Sydney and Melbourne, and is the major regional centre for the Riverina and South West Slopes regions. The central business district is focused around the commercial and recreational grid bounded by Best and Tarcutta Streets and the Murrumbidgee River and the Sturt Highway. The main shopping street of Wagga is Baylis Street which becomes Fitzmaurice Street at the northern end. The city is located in an alluvial valley and much of the city has a problem with urban salinity. The original inhabitants of the Wagga Wagga region were the Wiradjuri people. In 1829, Charles Sturt became the first European explorer to visit the future site of the city. Squatters arrived soon after, leading to conflict with the indigenous inhabitants. The town, positioned on the site of a ford across the Murrumbidgee, was surveyed and gazetted as a village in 1849 and the town grew quickly after. In 1870, the town was gazetted as a municipality. During the negotiations leading to the federation of the Australian colonies, Wagga Wagga was considered as a potential capital for the new nation. During World War I the town was the starting point for the Kangaroo recruitment march. The Great Depression and the resulting hardship saw Wagga Wagga become the centre of a secession movement for the Riverina region. Wagga Wagga became a garrison town during World War II with the establishment of a military base at Kapooka and Royal Australian Air Force bases at Forest Hill and Uranquinty. After the war, Wagga Wagga was proclaimed as a city in 1946 and new suburbs were developed to the south of the city. In 1982 the city was amalgamated with the neighbouring Kyeamba and Mitchell Shires to form the City of Wagga Wagga local government area. Wagga Wagga is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese, with its principal church being St Michael's Cathedral. (From Wikipedia)
Tournus Eglise St Philibert Vue d'ensemble Church Kirche
Mémoire2cité il existe de nos jours, de nombreux photographes qui privilégient la qualité artistique de leurs travaux cartophiles. A vous de découvrir ces artistes inconnus aujourd’hui, mais qui seront peut-être les grands noms de demain. archipostcard.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-02-13T... - museedelacartepostale.fr/periode-semi-moderne/ - archipostalecarte.blogspot.com/ - museedelacartepostale.fr/blog/ - museedelacartepostale.fr/exposition-permanente/ - www.queenslandplaces.com.au/category/headwords/brisbane-c... - collection-jfm.fr/t/cartes-postales-anciennes/france#.XGe... - www.cparama.com/forum/la-collection-de-cpa-f1.html - www.dauphinomaniac.org/Cartespostales/Francaises/Cartes_F... - furtho.tumblr.com/archive le Logement Collectif* 50,60,70's, dans tous ses états..Histoire & Mémoire d'H.L.M. de Copropriété Renouvellement Urbain-Réha-NPNRU., twitter.com/Memoire2cite tout içi sig.ville.gouv.fr/atlas/ZUS/ - media/InaEdu01827/la-creatio" rel="noreferrer nofollow">fresques.ina.fr/jalons/fiche-media/InaEdu01827/la-creatio Bâtir mieux plus vite et moins cher 1975 l'industrialisation du bâtiment et ses innovations : www.dailymotion.com/video/xyjudq?playlist=x34ije la préfabrication en usine www.dailymotion.com/video/xx6ob5?playlist=x34ije , le coffrage glissant www.dailymotion.com/video/x19lwab?playlist=x34ije ... De nouvelles perspectives sont nées dans l'industrie du bâtiment avec les principes de bases de l'industrialisation du bâtiment www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a98iz?playlist=x34ije , www.dailymotion.com/video/xk6xui?playlist=x34ije , www.dailymotion.com/video/xk1dh2?playlist=x34ije : mécanisation, rationalisation et élaboration industrielle de la production. Des exemples concrets sont présentés afin d'illustrer l'utilisation des différentes innovations : les coffrages outils, coffrage glissant, le tunnel, des procédés pour accélérer le durcissement du béton. Le procédé dit de coffrage glissant est illustré sur le chantier des tours Pablo Picasso à Nanterre. Le principe est de s'affranchir des échafaudages : le coffrage épouse le contour du bâtiment, il s'élève avec la construction et permet de réaliser simultanément l'ensemble des murs verticaux. Au centre du plancher de travail, une grue distribue en continu le ferraillage et le béton. Sur un tel chantier les ouvriers se relaient 24h / 24 , www.dailymotion.com/video/xwytke?playlist=x34ije , www.dailymotion.com/video/x1bci6m?playlist=x34ije Le reportage se penche ensuite sur la préfabrication en usine. Ces procédés de préfabrication en usine selon le commentaire sont bien adaptés aux pays en voie de développement, cela est illustré dans le reportage par une réalisation en Libye à Benghazi. Dans la course à l'allégement des matériaux un procédé l'isola béton est présenté. Un chapitre sur la construction métallique explique les avantage de ce procédé. La fabrication de composants ouvre de nouvelles perspectives à l'industrie du bâtiment. Lieux géographiques : la Grande Borne 91, le Vaudreuil 27, Avoriaz, Avenue de Flandres à Paris, tours Picasso à Nanterre, vues de la défense, Benghazi Libye www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x34ije_territoiresgouv_cinem... - mémoire2cité - le monde de l'Architecture locative collective et bien plus encore - mémoire2cité - Bâtir mieux plus vite et moins cher 1975 l'industrialisation du bâtiment et ses innovations : www.dailymotion.com/video/xyjudq?playlist=x34ije la préfabrication en usine www.dailymotion.com/video/xx6ob5?playlist=x34ije , le coffrage glissant www.dailymotion.com/video/x19lwab?playlist=x34ije ... De nouvelles perspectives sont nées dans l'industrie du bâtiment avec les principes de bases de l'industrialisation du bâtiment www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a98iz?playlist=x34ije , Le Joli Mai (Restauré) - Les grands ensembles BOBIGNY l Abreuvoir www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUY9XzjvWHE … et la www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK26k72xIkU … www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCKF0HEsWWo … Genève Le Grand Saconnex & la Bulle Pirate - architecte Marçel Lachat - Un film de Julien Donada içi www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=4E723uQcpnU … … .Genève en 1970. pic.twitter.com/1dbtkAooLM è St-Etienne - La muraille de Chine, en 1973 ce grand immeuble du quartier de Montchovet, existait encore photos la Tribune/Progres. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJAylpe8G48 …, - la tour 80 HLM située au 1 rue Proudhon à Valentigney dans le quartier des Buis Cette tour emblématique du quartier avec ces 15 étages a été abattu par FERRARI DEMOLITION (68). VALENTIGNEY (25700) 1961 - Ville nouvelle-les Buis 3,11 mn www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_GvwSpQUMY … - Au nord-Est de St-Etienne, aux confins de la ville, se dresse une colline Montreynaud la ZUP de Raymond Martin l'architecte & Alexandre Chemetoff pour les paysages de St-Saens.. la vidéo içi * Réalisation : Dominique Bauguil www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqfb27hXMDo … … - www.dailymotion.com/video/xk6xui?playlist=x34ije , www.dailymotion.com/video/xk1dh2?playlist=x34ije : mécanisation, rationalisation et élaboration industrielle de la production. Des exemples concrets sont présentés afin d'illustrer l'utilisation des différentes innovations : les coffrages outils, coffrage glissant, le tunnel, des procédés pour accélérer le durcissement du béton. Le procédé dit de coffrage glissant est illustré sur le chantier des tours Pablo Picasso à Nanterre. Le principe est de s'affranchir des échafaudages : le coffrage épouse le contour du bâtiment, il s'élève avec la construction et permet de réaliser simultanément l'ensemble des murs verticaux. Au centre du plancher de travail, une grue distribue en continu le ferraillage et le béton. Sur un tel chantier les ouvriers se relaient 24h / 24 , www.dailymotion.com/video/xwytke?playlist=x34ije , www.dailymotion.com/video/x1bci6m?playlist=x34ije Le reportage se penche ensuite sur la préfabrication en usine. Ces procédés de préfabrication en usine selon le commentaire sont bien adaptés aux pays en voie de développement, cela est illustré dans le reportage par une réalisation en Libye à Benghazi. Dans la course à l'allégement des matériaux un procédé l'isola béton est présenté. Un chapitre sur la construction métallique explique les avantage de ce procédé. La fabrication de composants ouvre de nouvelles perspectives à l'industrie du bâtiment. la Grande Borne 91, le Vaudreuil 27, Avoriaz, Avenue de Flandres à Paris, tours Picasso à Nanterre, vues de la défense, Benghazi Libye 1975 Réalisateur : Sydney Jézéquel, Karenty la construction des Autoroutes en France - Les liaisons moins dangereuses 1972 www.dailymotion.com/video/xxi0ae?playlist=x34ije - Ministère de l'Équipement et de l'Aménagement du Territoire - Dotation par la France d'autoroutes modernes "nécessité vitale" pour palier à l'inadaptation du réseau routier de l'époque voué à la paralysie : le reportage nous montre des images d'embouteillages. Le ministre de l'Équipement et de l'Aménagement du Territoire dans les deux gouvernements de Pierre Messmer, de 1972 à 1974, Olivier Guichard explique les ambitions du programme de construction qui doit atteindre 800 km par ans en 1978. L'ouverture de section nouvelles va bon train : Nancy / Metz par exemple. Le reportage nous montre l'intérieur des bureaux d'études qui conçoivent ces autoroute dont la conception est assistée par ordinateurs dont le projet d'ensemble en 3D est visualisé sur un écran. La voix off nous informe sur le financement de ces équipements. Puis on peut voir des images de la construction du pont sur la Seine à Saint Cloud reliant l'autoroute de Normandie au périphérique, de l'échangeur de Palaiseau sur 4 niveau : record d'Europe précise le commentaire. Le reportage nous informe que des sociétés d'économies mixtes ont étés crées pour les tronçons : Paris / Lille, Paris / Marseille, Paris / Normandie. Pour accélérer la construction l’État a eu recours à des concessions privées par exemple pour le tronçon Paris / Chartres. "Les autoroutes changent le visage de la France : artères économiques favorisant le développement industriel elles permettent de revitaliser des régions en perte de vitesse et de l'intégrer dans le mouvement général de l'expansion" Sur le plan européen elles vont combler le retard de la France et réaliser son insertion. Images de l'inauguration de l'autoroute entre Paris et Bruxelles par le président Georges Pompidou. Le reportage rappel que l'autre fonction capitale des autoroute est de favoriser la sécurité. La question de la limitation de vitesse est posée au ministre de l’Équipement, qui n'y est favorable que sur certains tronçons. Un des facteur de sécurité selon le commentaire est l'humanisation des autoroutes : aires de repos, restaurants, signalisation touristiques... "Rien n'est impossible aux techniques modernes" nous apprend la voix off qui prend comme exemple le déplacement sur rail de 65 mètres d'un château classé afin de faire passer l'autoroute Lille / Dunkerque.Durée : 4 minutes 30 secondes Sur les routes de France les ponts renaissent 1945 reconstruction de la France après la Seconde Guerre mondiale www.dailymotion.com/video/xuxrii?playlist=x34ije , Quelques mois après la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, un triste constat s'impose : 5 944 passages sont coupés, soit plus de 110 km de brèches ; de nombreuses villes se trouvent isolées.Les chantiers s'activent dans toute la France pour "gagner la bataille des communications routières". Mais outre la pénurie de main d’œuvre, il faut faire face au manque de matériaux (béton, métal) et donc déployer des trésors d'imagination pour reconstruire les ponts détruits. Si le savoir faire des tailleurs de pierre est exploité, le plus spectaculaire est le relevage des ponts, comme le pont de Galliéni à Lyon, où 7 à 800 tonnes d'acier sont sorti de l'eau avec des moyens de l'époque. En avril 1945, il reste 5 700 ponts à reconstruire soit 200 000 tonnes d'acier, 600 000 tonnes de ciment, 250 000 m3 de bois, 10 millions de journées d'ouvrier, prix de l'effort de reconstruction.1945 Auteurs / réalisateurs : images : G.Delaunay, A.Pol, son : C.Gauguier Production : Direction Technique des Services des Ponts et Chaussées / Ministère des Travaux Publics et des Transports Support original : 16 mm noir et blanc Durée : 14 min Thèmes principaux : infrastructures-ouvrages d'art Mot clés : chantier, pont, Reconstruction, restauration, béton précontraint, ministère des travaux publics et des transports Lieux : Lyon, Tournon, Caen - Le Bosquel, un village renait 1947 l'album cinématographique de la reconstruction, réalisation Paul de Roubaix production ministère de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme, village prototype, architecte Paul Dufournet, www.dailymotion.com/video/xx5tx8?playlist=x34ije - Demain Paris 1959 dessin animé présentant l'aménagement de la capitale dans les années 60, Animation, dessin animé à vocation pédagogique visant à promouvoir la politique d’aménagement suivie dans les années 60 à Paris. Un raccourci historique sur l’extension de Paris du Moyen Âge au XIXe siècle (Lutèce, œuvres de Turgot, Napoléon, Haussmann), ce dessin animé retrace la naissance de la banlieue et de ses avatars au XXe siècle. Il annonce les grands principes d’aménagement des villes nouvelles et la restructuration du centre de Paris (référence implicite à la charte d’Athènes). Le texte est travaillé en rimes et vers. Une chanson du vieux Paris conclut poétiquement cette vision du futur. Thèmes principaux : Aménagement urbain / planification-aménagement régional Mots-clés : Banlieue, extension spatiale, histoire, quartier, ville, ville nouvelle Lieu géographique : Paris 75 Architectes ou personnalités : Eugène Haussmann, Napoléon, Turgot Réalisateurs : André Martin, Michel Boschet Production : les films Roger Leenhardt www.dailymotion.com/video/xw6lak?playlist=x34ije - Rue neuve 1956 la reconstruction de la France dix ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, villes, villages, grands ensembles réalisation : Jack Pinoteau , Panorama de la reconstruction de la France dix ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, ce film de commande évoque les villes et villages français détruits puis reconstruits dans un style respectant la tradition : Saint-Malo, Gien, Thionville, Ammerschwihr, etc. ainsi que la reconstruction en rupture avec l'architecture traditionnelle à Châtenay-Malabry, Arles, Saint Étienne, Évreux, Chambéry, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Abbeville, Le Havre, Marseille, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Dunkerque. Le documentaire explique par exemple la manière dont a été réalisée la reconstruction de Saint-Malo à l'intérieur des rempart de la vieille ville : "c'est la fidélité à l'histoire et la force du souvenir qui a guidé l'architecte". Dans le même esprit à Gien, au trois quart détruite en 1940, seul le château construit en 1494 pour Anne de Beaujeu, fille aînée de Louis XI, fut épargné par les bombardements. La ville fut reconstruite dans le style des rares immeubles restant. Gien est relevé de ses ruines et le nouvel ensemble harmonieux est appelé « Joyau de la Reconstruction française ». Dans un deuxième temps est abordé le chapitre de la construction des cités et des grands ensembles, de l’architecture du renouveau qualifiée de "grandiose incontestablement". S’il est précisé "on peut aimer ou de ne pas aimer ce style", l’emporte au final l’argument suivant : les grands ensembles, c'est la campagne à la ville, un urbanisme plus aéré, plus vert." les films caravelles 1956, Réalisateur : Jack Pinoteau (connu pour être le metteur en scène du film Le Triporteur 1957 qui fit découvrir Darry Cowl) www.dailymotion.com/video/xuz3o8?playlist=x34ije , Film d'archive actualités de 1952 Reconstruction de la France sept ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale état des lieux de la crise du logement , Actualités de 1952. Sept ans après la fin de la seconde guerre Mondiale état des lieux de la reconstruction de la France et de la crise du logement à l’œuvre, pénurie de logement, logements insalubres. Les actualités montrent des images d'archives de la destruction de la France, les Chars de la division Leclerc qui défilent sur les Champs Elysees. Le commentaire dénonce la lenteur de la reconstruction et notamment des manifestations qui ont eu lieue à Royan afin d''accélérer la reconstruction de la ville détruite.Le film montre à Strasbourg, Mulhouse, des réalisation moderne de grands ensembles et des images d'archive de la reconstruction du Havre de Saint Nazaire.Le film se termine à Marseille sur les réalisation nouvelles autour du vieux port puis on assiste à l'inauguration de la Cité Radieuse par le ministre de la Reconstruction et de l'Urbanisme Eugène Claudius-Petit en présence de son architecte Le Corbusier à qui le ministre remet la cravate de commandeur de la légion d'honneur. www.dailymotion.com/video/xk1g5j?playlist=x34ije Brigitte Gros - Urbanisme - Filmer les grands ensembles 2016 - par Camille Canteux chercheuse au CHS -Centre d'Histoire Sociale - Jeanne Menjoulet - Ce film du CHS daté de 2014 www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDUBwVPNh0s … L'UNION SOCIALE POUR L'HABITAT le Musée des H.L.M. musee-hlm.fr/ union-habitat.org/ - EXPOSITION :LES 50 ANS DE LA RESIDENCe SALMSON POINT-Du JOUR www.salmsonlepointdujour.fr/pdf/Exposition_50_ans.pdf - Sotteville Construction de l’Anjou, le premier immeuble de la Zone Verte sottevilleaufildutemps.fr/2017/05/04/construction-de-limm... - www.20minutes.fr/paris/diaporama-7346-photo-854066-100-an... - www.ladepeche.fr/article/2010/11/02/940025-140-ans-en-arc... dreux-par-pierlouim.over-blog.com/article-chamards-1962-9... missionphoto.datar.gouv.fr/fr/photographe/7639/serie/7695...
war memorial window: St George (Lavers & Westlake, 1920)
St Peter, Yoxford, Suffolk I hadn't been back to Yoxford for years. If you are a cyclist, it isn't the easiest place to get to. There are few Suffolk villages which are only approached by main roads, but Yoxford is one of them, and it wasn't until August 2017, more than fifteen years after my previous visit, that I took my life in my hands and cycled down the A12 from Darsham. And yet, I'd always liked Yoxford. I remembered writing on the occasion of my previous visit that if, against all my better judgements, a day came when I tired of my shameless hedonistic urban lifestyle and decided to retire to the country, and money were no object, then Yoxford would be pretty near the top of my list. It was big enough to have three decent pubs, a few good shops, one of which was one of Suffolk's best second-hand book shops, and even had a railway station half a mile to the north. And after all, the A12 didn't actually run up the high street. There were some pretty houses and even a park. And it was still a village. What more could I want? The name of the village means a ford where oxen can pass (as, of course, does the name of the city without the Y in front). The little stream that comes down from the industrial village of Peasenhall a couple of miles off is referred to locally as the River Yox, but this is a backnaming, the stream named after the village rather than the other way around. Yoxford proclaims itself 'the garden of Suffolk' as a result of the intensive fruit farming that began here a couple of centuries ago. And it will come as no surprise to learn that Yoxford is alphabetically last of Suffolk's 500-odd parishes. Well, the second-hand bookshop has long gone, and so has one of the pubs. I couldn't tell you if either of the others are still decent, as I didn't call at them. But St Peter is still a fine sight with its grand spire, so unusual in Suffolk. Obviously, given the dedication, there is a cock on top of it. This church is one of the last of what I think of as the large southern Suffolk churches you meet heading north, before hitting the Blythburgh/Southwold/Covehithe group which give a new meaning to grandeur. And yet, stepping inside, it is hard to shake off the impression that this is a town church, for it has an urban quality to it. Partly, this is because of the 19th Century restoration at the hands of Richard Phipson, but it is also because of the monuments and brasses that line the walls. Significant names from Suffolk history can be found on them, for important people seem often to have lived around here. One of them not buried here was Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who was the second husband of Henry VIII's little sister Mary, who had previously been married to the King of France. Their grand-daughter was Lady Jane Grey, who for a brief, teenage week in 1553 was proclaimed Queen of England by the desperate protestant advisers to Edward VI, aghast at having a dead young king on their hands. Their cunning plot to impose extreme protestantism on England was foiled by the popular acclamation of the accession of Mary I, who was staying a few short miles away from here at Framlingham. Mary's reign would prove to be short and unhappy, and young Jane paid with her life for the treasonable actions of those scheming old men. But if the protestants had succeeded in their plan, England would have been quite different today. There certainly would not have been a Church of England, for instance. More than half a century before all that, Thomasina Tendrynge died in 1485, the year of the Battle of Bosworth Field. That was an end to the Wars of the Roses, of course, and the accession of Henry Tudor kickstarted the dramatic events of the next two centuries for the English people. Thomasina was the daughter of William Sydney, himself an ancestor of the family who would find favour with Henry's grand-daughter Elizabeth a century later, being given Penshurst castle in Kent. Her brass, and those of her seven children, are set on the south side of the sanctuary. Thomasina is wrapped in a shroud, a striking if not unusual style for brasses at the time. Two things make this one rather uncommon, however. Firstly, she is stunningly beautiful, and she gazes out at us with wide eyes from the elegant curve of her winding. When he first saw her, my young son said that she looked like a mermaid, and so she does. Secondly, although two of her daughters stand beside her in Tudor robes, her five other children are also in shrouds, indicating that they died before she did. A fine pair of earlier brasses nearby are to John and Matilda Norwiche. We know very little about them, except that they are responsible for St Peter's being here. John was probably a member of the Norwiche family of Mettingham castle. Matilda died childless in 1417. John succeeded to the Lordship of Cockfield Manor in Yoxford in 1422. He never took up the reins however, preferring to remain elsewhere, possibly Mettingham. The Manor was sold, and the proceeds were used to completely rebuild this church in the prevailing Perpendicular style. John himself died in 1428, and these brasses remain as a sign on their patronage. Two hundred years later, the Manor was in the hands of the Brooke family, and Joan Brooke survives in the form of a characterful brass in the south aisle. There are several others, all worth a look. But these brasses really should not be mounted on the walls. I realise that this is done with the best of intentions, to allow them to be displayed, and to protect them from being walked on. The trouble is, if there was a fire, and these do happen in churches from time to time, the brasses would melt, and run down the walls. Floor-mounted brasses set in stone do not melt, because the heat rises away from them. Later, the Manor would come to the Blois family, who were remembered in the name of the pub that closed. St Peter still remembers them, with a splendid array of ten hatchments, mostly beneath the tower. There are also a couple of fine wall monuments to the family, one of them to the long-lived Sir Charles Blois, which has been very clumsily relettered at some point. Mortlock tells us that the sculptor was Thomas Thurlow, whose work can be found widely in this part of Suffolk. Sir Charles was ever feelingly alive to the duties of his station, apparently, as well as being faithful and earnest in the discharge of them. My favourite memorial is a very simple one, but it remembers one of the great and often unsung heroes of church explorers. This is David Elisha Davy. The agricultural depression of the 1820s pushed him into an early retirement, which he spent travelling around Suffolk, sketching and taking an inventory of the exterior and contents of medieval churches. It is no exaggeration to say that he rediscovered Suffolk's churches, which had mostly been in a state of neglect since the early 17th century. His vast body of research is still largely unpublished, although it is possible to view it in the British Library, and his lively account of his journey is available in a Suffolk Records Society publication. This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in Suffolk's churches - Suffolk Library Service has loads of copies. Davy created a priceless record of the county's churches on the eve of their Victorian restoration. In many cases, his record is the only one we have of the churches between the Reformation and the modern age. White's Directory of Suffolk tells us that, by 1844, Davy had already headed off to his other house in Ufford. But Yoxford could still boast no less than five tailors, four milliners, and even a staymaker. The Directory also reveals that this large village (1500 people even then) could sustain a lifestyle considered so harmonious that Anglican ministers of surrounding villages thought it worthwhile abandoning their parishes and living here instead. The Vicar of Ubbeston for example (although that church is now a private house), but also the Rector of Middleton, Fordley, Westleton and Peasenhall, the splendidly named Reverend Harrison Packard. Today, all these villages come within the benefice of Yoxford. Ironically, of course, those 19th Century clergymen moved to Yoxford because of the trappings of an urban lifestyle it could provide.
Adoration of the Magi (AK Nicholson, 1920)
St Peter, Yoxford, Suffolk I hadn't been back to Yoxford for years. If you are a cyclist, it isn't the easiest place to get to. There are few Suffolk villages which are only approached by main roads, but Yoxford is one of them, and it wasn't until August 2017, more than fifteen years after my previous visit, that I took my life in my hands and cycled down the A12 from Darsham. And yet, I'd always liked Yoxford. I remembered writing on the occasion of my previous visit that if, against all my better judgements, a day came when I tired of my shameless hedonistic urban lifestyle and decided to retire to the country, and money were no object, then Yoxford would be pretty near the top of my list. It was big enough to have three decent pubs, a few good shops, one of which was one of Suffolk's best second-hand book shops, and even had a railway station half a mile to the north. And after all, the A12 didn't actually run up the high street. There were some pretty houses and even a park. And it was still a village. What more could I want? The name of the village means a ford where oxen can pass (as, of course, does the name of the city without the Y in front). The little stream that comes down from the industrial village of Peasenhall a couple of miles off is referred to locally as the River Yox, but this is a backnaming, the stream named after the village rather than the other way around. Yoxford proclaims itself 'the garden of Suffolk' as a result of the intensive fruit farming that began here a couple of centuries ago. And it will come as no surprise to learn that Yoxford is alphabetically last of Suffolk's 500-odd parishes. Well, the second-hand bookshop has long gone, and so has one of the pubs. I couldn't tell you if either of the others are still decent, as I didn't call at them. But St Peter is still a fine sight with its grand spire, so unusual in Suffolk. Obviously, given the dedication, there is a cock on top of it. This church is one of the last of what I think of as the large southern Suffolk churches you meet heading north, before hitting the Blythburgh/Southwold/Covehithe group which give a new meaning to grandeur. And yet, stepping inside, it is hard to shake off the impression that this is a town church, for it has an urban quality to it. Partly, this is because of the 19th Century restoration at the hands of Richard Phipson, but it is also because of the monuments and brasses that line the walls. Significant names from Suffolk history can be found on them, for important people seem often to have lived around here. One of them not buried here was Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who was the second husband of Henry VIII's little sister Mary, who had previously been married to the King of France. Their grand-daughter was Lady Jane Grey, who for a brief, teenage week in 1553 was proclaimed Queen of England by the desperate protestant advisers to Edward VI, aghast at having a dead young king on their hands. Their cunning plot to impose extreme protestantism on England was foiled by the popular acclamation of the accession of Mary I, who was staying a few short miles away from here at Framlingham. Mary's reign would prove to be short and unhappy, and young Jane paid with her life for the treasonable actions of those scheming old men. But if the protestants had succeeded in their plan, England would have been quite different today. There certainly would not have been a Church of England, for instance. More than half a century before all that, Thomasina Tendrynge died in 1485, the year of the Battle of Bosworth Field. That was an end to the Wars of the Roses, of course, and the accession of Henry Tudor kickstarted the dramatic events of the next two centuries for the English people. Thomasina was the daughter of William Sydney, himself an ancestor of the family who would find favour with Henry's grand-daughter Elizabeth a century later, being given Penshurst castle in Kent. Her brass, and those of her seven children, are set on the south side of the sanctuary. Thomasina is wrapped in a shroud, a striking if not unusual style for brasses at the time. Two things make this one rather uncommon, however. Firstly, she is stunningly beautiful, and she gazes out at us with wide eyes from the elegant curve of her winding. When he first saw her, my young son said that she looked like a mermaid, and so she does. Secondly, although two of her daughters stand beside her in Tudor robes, her five other children are also in shrouds, indicating that they died before she did. A fine pair of earlier brasses nearby are to John and Matilda Norwiche. We know very little about them, except that they are responsible for St Peter's being here. John was probably a member of the Norwiche family of Mettingham castle. Matilda died childless in 1417. John succeeded to the Lordship of Cockfield Manor in Yoxford in 1422. He never took up the reins however, preferring to remain elsewhere, possibly Mettingham. The Manor was sold, and the proceeds were used to completely rebuild this church in the prevailing Perpendicular style. John himself died in 1428, and these brasses remain as a sign on their patronage. Two hundred years later, the Manor was in the hands of the Brooke family, and Joan Brooke survives in the form of a characterful brass in the south aisle. There are several others, all worth a look. But these brasses really should not be mounted on the walls. I realise that this is done with the best of intentions, to allow them to be displayed, and to protect them from being walked on. The trouble is, if there was a fire, and these do happen in churches from time to time, the brasses would melt, and run down the walls. Floor-mounted brasses set in stone do not melt, because the heat rises away from them. Later, the Manor would come to the Blois family, who were remembered in the name of the pub that closed. St Peter still remembers them, with a splendid array of ten hatchments, mostly beneath the tower. There are also a couple of fine wall monuments to the family, one of them to the long-lived Sir Charles Blois, which has been very clumsily relettered at some point. Mortlock tells us that the sculptor was Thomas Thurlow, whose work can be found widely in this part of Suffolk. Sir Charles was ever feelingly alive to the duties of his station, apparently, as well as being faithful and earnest in the discharge of them. My favourite memorial is a very simple one, but it remembers one of the great and often unsung heroes of church explorers. This is David Elisha Davy. The agricultural depression of the 1820s pushed him into an early retirement, which he spent travelling around Suffolk, sketching and taking an inventory of the exterior and contents of medieval churches. It is no exaggeration to say that he rediscovered Suffolk's churches, which had mostly been in a state of neglect since the early 17th century. His vast body of research is still largely unpublished, although it is possible to view it in the British Library, and his lively account of his journey is available in a Suffolk Records Society publication. This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in Suffolk's churches - Suffolk Library Service has loads of copies. Davy created a priceless record of the county's churches on the eve of their Victorian restoration. In many cases, his record is the only one we have of the churches between the Reformation and the modern age. White's Directory of Suffolk tells us that, by 1844, Davy had already headed off to his other house in Ufford. But Yoxford could still boast no less than five tailors, four milliners, and even a staymaker. The Directory also reveals that this large village (1500 people even then) could sustain a lifestyle considered so harmonious that Anglican ministers of surrounding villages thought it worthwhile abandoning their parishes and living here instead. The Vicar of Ubbeston for example (although that church is now a private house), but also the Rector of Middleton, Fordley, Westleton and Peasenhall, the splendidly named Reverend Harrison Packard. Today, all these villages come within the benefice of Yoxford. Ironically, of course, those 19th Century clergymen moved to Yoxford because of the trappings of an urban lifestyle it could provide.
Annunciation
St Peter, Yoxford, Suffolk I hadn't been back to Yoxford for years. If you are a cyclist, it isn't the easiest place to get to. There are few Suffolk villages which are only approached by main roads, but Yoxford is one of them, and it wasn't until August 2017, more than fifteen years after my previous visit, that I took my life in my hands and cycled down the A12 from Darsham. And yet, I'd always liked Yoxford. I remembered writing on the occasion of my previous visit that if, against all my better judgements, a day came when I tired of my shameless hedonistic urban lifestyle and decided to retire to the country, and money were no object, then Yoxford would be pretty near the top of my list. It was big enough to have three decent pubs, a few good shops, one of which was one of Suffolk's best second-hand book shops, and even had a railway station half a mile to the north. And after all, the A12 didn't actually run up the high street. There were some pretty houses and even a park. And it was still a village. What more could I want? The name of the village means a ford where oxen can pass (as, of course, does the name of the city without the Y in front). The little stream that comes down from the industrial village of Peasenhall a couple of miles off is referred to locally as the River Yox, but this is a backnaming, the stream named after the village rather than the other way around. Yoxford proclaims itself 'the garden of Suffolk' as a result of the intensive fruit farming that began here a couple of centuries ago. And it will come as no surprise to learn that Yoxford is alphabetically last of Suffolk's 500-odd parishes. Well, the second-hand bookshop has long gone, and so has one of the pubs. I couldn't tell you if either of the others are still decent, as I didn't call at them. But St Peter is still a fine sight with its grand spire, so unusual in Suffolk. Obviously, given the dedication, there is a cock on top of it. This church is one of the last of what I think of as the large southern Suffolk churches you meet heading north, before hitting the Blythburgh/Southwold/Covehithe group which give a new meaning to grandeur. And yet, stepping inside, it is hard to shake off the impression that this is a town church, for it has an urban quality to it. Partly, this is because of the 19th Century restoration at the hands of Richard Phipson, but it is also because of the monuments and brasses that line the walls. Significant names from Suffolk history can be found on them, for important people seem often to have lived around here. One of them not buried here was Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who was the second husband of Henry VIII's little sister Mary, who had previously been married to the King of France. Their grand-daughter was Lady Jane Grey, who for a brief, teenage week in 1553 was proclaimed Queen of England by the desperate protestant advisers to Edward VI, aghast at having a dead young king on their hands. Their cunning plot to impose extreme protestantism on England was foiled by the popular acclamation of the accession of Mary I, who was staying a few short miles away from here at Framlingham. Mary's reign would prove to be short and unhappy, and young Jane paid with her life for the treasonable actions of those scheming old men. But if the protestants had succeeded in their plan, England would have been quite different today. There certainly would not have been a Church of England, for instance. More than half a century before all that, Thomasina Tendrynge died in 1485, the year of the Battle of Bosworth Field. That was an end to the Wars of the Roses, of course, and the accession of Henry Tudor kickstarted the dramatic events of the next two centuries for the English people. Thomasina was the daughter of William Sydney, himself an ancestor of the family who would find favour with Henry's grand-daughter Elizabeth a century later, being given Penshurst castle in Kent. Her brass, and those of her seven children, are set on the south side of the sanctuary. Thomasina is wrapped in a shroud, a striking if not unusual style for brasses at the time. Two things make this one rather uncommon, however. Firstly, she is stunningly beautiful, and she gazes out at us with wide eyes from the elegant curve of her winding. When he first saw her, my young son said that she looked like a mermaid, and so she does. Secondly, although two of her daughters stand beside her in Tudor robes, her five other children are also in shrouds, indicating that they died before she did. A fine pair of earlier brasses nearby are to John and Matilda Norwiche. We know very little about them, except that they are responsible for St Peter's being here. John was probably a member of the Norwiche family of Mettingham castle. Matilda died childless in 1417. John succeeded to the Lordship of Cockfield Manor in Yoxford in 1422. He never took up the reins however, preferring to remain elsewhere, possibly Mettingham. The Manor was sold, and the proceeds were used to completely rebuild this church in the prevailing Perpendicular style. John himself died in 1428, and these brasses remain as a sign on their patronage. Two hundred years later, the Manor was in the hands of the Brooke family, and Joan Brooke survives in the form of a characterful brass in the south aisle. There are several others, all worth a look. But these brasses really should not be mounted on the walls. I realise that this is done with the best of intentions, to allow them to be displayed, and to protect them from being walked on. The trouble is, if there was a fire, and these do happen in churches from time to time, the brasses would melt, and run down the walls. Floor-mounted brasses set in stone do not melt, because the heat rises away from them. Later, the Manor would come to the Blois family, who were remembered in the name of the pub that closed. St Peter still remembers them, with a splendid array of ten hatchments, mostly beneath the tower. There are also a couple of fine wall monuments to the family, one of them to the long-lived Sir Charles Blois, which has been very clumsily relettered at some point. Mortlock tells us that the sculptor was Thomas Thurlow, whose work can be found widely in this part of Suffolk. Sir Charles was ever feelingly alive to the duties of his station, apparently, as well as being faithful and earnest in the discharge of them. My favourite memorial is a very simple one, but it remembers one of the great and often unsung heroes of church explorers. This is David Elisha Davy. The agricultural depression of the 1820s pushed him into an early retirement, which he spent travelling around Suffolk, sketching and taking an inventory of the exterior and contents of medieval churches. It is no exaggeration to say that he rediscovered Suffolk's churches, which had mostly been in a state of neglect since the early 17th century. His vast body of research is still largely unpublished, although it is possible to view it in the British Library, and his lively account of his journey is available in a Suffolk Records Society publication. This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in Suffolk's churches - Suffolk Library Service has loads of copies. Davy created a priceless record of the county's churches on the eve of their Victorian restoration. In many cases, his record is the only one we have of the churches between the Reformation and the modern age. White's Directory of Suffolk tells us that, by 1844, Davy had already headed off to his other house in Ufford. But Yoxford could still boast no less than five tailors, four milliners, and even a staymaker. The Directory also reveals that this large village (1500 people even then) could sustain a lifestyle considered so harmonious that Anglican ministers of surrounding villages thought it worthwhile abandoning their parishes and living here instead. The Vicar of Ubbeston for example (although that church is now a private house), but also the Rector of Middleton, Fordley, Westleton and Peasenhall, the splendidly named Reverend Harrison Packard. Today, all these villages come within the benefice of Yoxford. Ironically, of course, those 19th Century clergymen moved to Yoxford because of the trappings of an urban lifestyle it could provide.
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