Browsed by
Tag: Timber-framed Buildings

Black & White Villages and an Arrow – Part 1.

Black & White Villages and an Arrow – Part 1.

Comments 3 Comments

There is an area in Herefordshire known as the Black and White Villages and there is also a Black and White Villages Trail which is meant for motoring not walking. We last visited about 12 years ago on a day trip from Ludlow and the results from that are already on the web site. That previous visit was before the blog was started so there is no blog entry for it. This time it was a 30 minute drive from home so we were able to have a much more leisurely look round especially as we were re-visiting only two of the villages.

Both villages, Pembridge and Eardisland, are situated on the River Arrow.

Part 1.

We started in Pembridge and we had to cross the River Arrow to get into the village and this is the bridge we used. It is not very old having been built in the 19th century but is attractive nevertheless.

There is a small, free, car park with access down the roadway next to the King's House in East Street and there was plenty of room. There is a small sign, easily missed, pointing to it from the main road and there are also public toilets in the car park which had disabled facilities and were nice and clean.

The entrance to the public car park can be seen on the right. The King's House is a restaurant, not open on a Monday when we were there of course, and dates from the 15th century. This building is a sign of things to come. This next picture is in East Street looking towards West Street and showing the front corner of the King's House on the right. You should be able to see a number of black & white timber-framed buildings.

I think we'll need to do a bit of exploring don't you?

How's that for a start? The building on the right is the New Inn so called because it was new when it was built in the 17th century. Can you think of a better reason?

A market charter was granted to Pembridge in 1239 and just behind the New Inn is the early 16th century Market Hall.

Standing in the Market Square it doesn't look like a hall as it isn't enclosed but that's because the upper storey was removed at an unknown date. Pity really as it would have looked pretty impressive with an upper storey.

Although these villages are known as the black and white villages, with good reason, not all of the buildings are black and white. This next picture shows a row of black and white buildings broken by one cream washed, jettied building.

The picture above shows a timber-framed building with red brick infill and the one to its right, an early 15th century hall house known as West End Farm, has a pinkish cream wash on the walls. This was one of the earliest domestic buildings in Pembridge. The multitude of other timber-framed buildings in Pembridge date to the 15th century.

The church here is also unusual in that it has a separate bell tower which dates from the 13th century. The current church dates from the 13th century with alterations in the 14th century century.

The bell tower has to be seen to be believed. The main timbers are enormous and from the look of them they are whole trees squared off.

The church also has some very interesting interior features. There are mason's marks in the picture below – can you spot them?

There are also some medievel wall paintings. One on the wall behind the organ and one on the wall of the nave. Not in the best of condition but they are visible in spite of being around 600 years old.

Just outside the church door is a delightful view across the churchyard to the village and the hills beyond.

That is the end of part one covering Pembridge. Part two will be Eardisland.

 

Sun, Signals and Sabrina

Sun, Signals and Sabrina

Comments 5 Comments

We have been to Shrewsbury twice before and I have blogged both trips as you may remember. On each of those occasions it was cloudy but today was forecast to be sunny intervals. We have experienced forecasts like that before where we have two minutes of sun followed by two hours of cloud so we weren't hopeful but decided to risk it. So we started off on our third trip to Shrewsbury on the train and it turned out to be third time lucky.

I have shown you pictures of our little one carriage train before, but from the outside, so here's a picture of the inside.

You may notice that it is very popular, especially at this time of year as between 1st October and 31st March old people like us who have bus passes may travel free. This covers the whole line from Swansea in the south to Shrewsbury in the north; a total trip of around four hours. Our part of the trip from Knighton to Shrewsbury is only 50 minutes.

This is a picture of the signal box outside Shrewsbury Station. I took it from the train as we flashed past inasmuch as our little train can flash past anything. "But wait", I hear you cry, "why are you showing us pictures of a signal box.? We don't want to see pictures of signal boxes." Well, you do, but you just don't realise it yet.

This signal box was built in 1903 and is the largest mechanical signal box in the world which is still working. There, you can't fail to be impressed by that can you? When I first saw it I thought it was big but I didn't think it was THAT big.

We emerged from the station into a sunny Shrewsbury and headed south east along Castle Gates. We hadn't gone far when we realised that we had just passed some some steps and we thought 'I wonder where they go?'. Well we had to find out didn't we? The steps led us up to a higher level walkway and I spotted this view.

What do you think that building is? A stately home, a museum perhaps or even a prison. Nope! None of those. It is, in fact, Shrewsbury Railway Station. Quite impressive for a railway station eh? Built in 1848 it is now designated a grade II listed building.

We went back down the steps and after a short walk entered Shrewsbury Castle grounds. Bearing right along a path which was sloping upward we eventually arrived here at the top of a knoll. This is Laura's Tower built by Thomas Telford, in 1790, for Laura, the daughter of Sir William Pulteney, as a summer house.

There are some impressive views to be had from the top of this knoll although some of them are obscured by trees. Luckily for us it was March and there were no leaves on the trees so we had some lovely clear views such as this one along the River Severn. Incidentally the steps and walkway we decided to follow earlier would have taken us across that footbridge but we didn't want to spend time going that far today.

After a surfeit of views over the town we went back down to ground level and continued our walk through the town along Castle Street then Pride Hill where we turned into Butcher Row and saw this fine timber-framed building.

The timber-framed building shown below is at the south-east end of Butcher Row and on the corner of Fish Street which runs across the top of Grope Lane which I have mentioned in previous posts. This particular building still has its original frontage with the deep window sills on which the merchants would have displayed their wares.

We went back along Butcher Row and turned left along Pride Hill heading south-west. We eventually reached St. Chad's Terrace where we found (you've guesssed it) St. Chad's Church. Built in the 1700s, so not that old, but quite an impressive and unusual church. It created a stir at the time because it had a circular nave. 

I was hoping to get a photograph of Ebeneezer Scrooge's gravestone in the churchyard but we couldn't find it. Yes we know that Scrooge was a fictional character but the churchyard was used in the making of the film and the gravestone was left when filming was finished. It is still there somewhere.

The circular nave is unique, with pews arranged like a maze and Charles Darwin was baptised in St Chad’s Church.

Just across the road is the Quarry park which incorporates the Dingle. Dingle, apparently, is another name for a Dell. Either way it's a very attractive garden and there were plenty of blooms in spite of it being the middle of March.

This view shows St. Chad's Church, with its very tall tower, in the background.

This statue of Sabrina was created in 1846 by Peter Hollins of Birmingham for the Earl of Bradford. A folk etymology developed, deriving the name from a mythical story of a nymph, Sabrina, who drowned in the River Severn nearby and Sabrina is also the goddess of the River Severn in Celtic mythology.

That, however, is not the only Sabrina, as there is a boat called Sabrina which takes visitors for a cruise around Shrewsbury on the river. It was very convenient that it happened to come along as I was photographing the river.

After our last two visits Amanda wasn't particularly enamoured of Shrewsbury but she says now that she is really beginning to like it. We are, of course, planning to come again in the warmer weather when the leaves are on the trees.

We caught the train back home where we arrived without incident.

I suppose that that was our first 'proper' trip of the year. More trips to come I hope.

Houses, Water and Fungi

Houses, Water and Fungi

Comments 0 Comment

Houses.

We have lived in Knighton for eight months now and I have walked past this house on the main road through the town centre many times without noticing it at all. That may seem unbelievable but it is set back from the road in a narrow little courtyard so perhaps I might be excused. Even so it is the oldest house in Knighton dating back to the fourteenth century and I managed to miss it until now. sad

The facade was actually replaced in the 17th century but the house behind it is a Cruck-framed construction from the 14th century. I have no idea how large, or small, it is inside. I have now also added this to the the Knighton web pages.

Water

About a week ago we had some heavy rain. I mean HEAVY! It went on for a day or two and the stream which runs alongside our garden changed a little in that time. This it what it looks like under normal conditions.

After the rain stopped it was like this.

We are not in any danger of being flooded but it was moderately impressive all the same. It seems worse when you can hear the rushing water as well. The weather is a bit different now. Clear sky and sun this morning but one pays a penalty for that. Last nigh was the coldest that we have experienced since we've been here at, according to the weather forecast, 27F. Amanda looked at the Min/Max thermometer in her greenhouse and that read 20F. We don't want too much of that.

Fungi.

This is an 'Inkcap' fungus soon after it appeared above ground. So why 'Inkcap'?

After a few days it starts to open up from the bottom when you may see why it has that particular name.

A few days later it has progressed a bit more.

And then a bit more.

Until the final stage. Not a pretty sight.

Medieval Mischief

Medieval Mischief

Comments 1 Comment

First of all let's set the tone of this trip before we do anything else.

This little alley dates back to medieval times so, knowing that, if you think that you know why it was given that name then you are probably right. They were fairly blunt about names at that time so we will leave it there. 'Nuff said.

Here are some more pictures of that alley:




So where is it and what were we doing there?

It is Shrewsbury and we went shopping. Not only that but as we have a railway station in Knighton we used the railway to get there. The sneaky part is that travelling cost us nothing and I'll explain why. In Britain, when one is over 60, one can apply to the local council for a concessionary travel pass which permits travelling on buses free. In Wales that same pass can apply to some railway routes and one of those is the Heart of Wales Line. Now guess where that line runs through. Yes – Knighton.

The Heart of Wales line, which runs the 120 miles between Swansea and Shrewsbury, could not be described as 'Mainline' and is, in fact, very very rural. This is our train waiting in our station and, as you can see, couldn't be any shorter. It has just one carriage and no locomotive because it is a diesel railcar with engines under the floor.

It may be small but it provides some very nice landscape views.

So back to Shrewsbury.

We were wandering around the town looking at the shops, of which there was a great variety, with an occasional foray into places of interest which was when we found ourselves in the grounds of Shrewsbury Castle.

The original castle was built by the Normans but, apart from the gateway, very little of that building survives. Much of it was demolished during the rebuilding and strengthening of the castle around 1300 when an outer bailey was also added. It was never used as a fortress after that and over the centuries fell into disrepair until the civil war when further alterations were made.

We didn't actually buy very much in Shrewsbury although I did get a new pair of shoes. We plan to go back on further visits.
 

Little legs and Little Wheels

Little legs and Little Wheels

Comments 0 Comment

We found ourselves with no builders here today and the weather forecast was for sun and clear skies all day so do we believe the weather forecast? Of course we do. So were we too trusting? Of course we were!

We decided to visit Powis Castle, a National Trust property about 30 miles north of us, and set off in bright sunshine. The journey was straight forward and we arrived about an hour later.

Having reached the entrance the first thing that became apparent were the Peafowl. There were numerous birds around and they ignored people completely to the extent that one could walk up to one of the birds and they would carry on doing whatever it was they were doing as if you weren't there.


In that last picture there are two youngsters with their mother – can you spot them? When their mother moved off on her long legs the young birds had to run like hell on their little legs to keep up. Rather cute.

This was our first view of the castle which is an end view and not along the length.

Just out of the picture to the left is the restaurant which is why there are people sitting at tables in the courtyard although there are tables and chairs inside.

The castle was apparently built as a medieval castle but by the Welsh not the Normans. It never became ruinous and has been modified over the centuries to the stately home it is today.

The interior is impressive but not spectacular. The rooms are large but not as grand as some. What we didn't like was how dark it all was. We understand that light will cause fabric colours to fade but as it's then not easy to appreciate them is it worth it? Photography is also prohibited anywhere inside the house which I think that the National Trust should make more obvious in their publicity but they don't.

I remember a particularly impressive table with an inlaid stone top which was near a window with the curtains open and so was brightly lit. That was because, of course, stone colours will not fade in the light. We don't have any desire to revisit the house interior but we will revisit the gardens.

As it was now near lunchtime we decided to pay the restaurant a visit. Amanda chose sausage and mash which she thought was a bit dry and I chose a vegetable and coconut curry which was very tasty. I enjoyed it very much but would have prefered some rice or bread to go with it. One can buy bread of course but at this time of day the restaurant is very busy and if I'd queued for bread my curry would have been cold by the time I returned to it.

So – on to the gardens.


The gardens are laid out as a series of terraces which descend to the flat ground that you can see right at the bottom. Plenty of leg work required to look round.

You may also notice how murky the weather is. It was like that at the start of the day and we hoped that the mist would burn off – but it didn't. You may also notice that cloud has started to appear although there is still plenty of sun.

We went down to the next terrace, the Top Terrace, to start looking around. There are plenty of interesting, unusual and colourful plants and some interesting topiary in these gardens.

Time to go down another level to the Aviary Terrace.


The brick facade features open arches with a relatively small space behind with bench seating. I have tried to find why this is called the 'Aviary Terrace' but failed. One has to assume that there may have been an aviary here at some stage but there isn't any evidence of one now.

There is a great variety of plants on this terrace but now down to the Orangery Terrace but  before we go there is a good view of the Orangery Terrace below.

Here we are on the Orangery Terrace having come down the steps you can see on the right of the picture below with the Orangery on the left.  The orangery would have been used for growing citrus fruit and protecting it during the winter months.


Inside the Orangery is Lady Amanda resting on a seat and outside is an abundance of flowering plants in a multitude of colours.

Further along this terrace, on one of the paths, there is plenty of topiary in the form of mega-hedges. I would not like to have to look after something like that especially that high.

We had now arrived at the lowest part of the garden where we saw this building.

This, apparently, is one of the National Trust's holiday cottages which you can rent for your holiday. I don't know any more than that but you could probably find out more on the National Trust's web site.

We wandered around a little more then decided we'd had enough and headed back to the car park. On the way we had this rather nice view of the castle and the terraces together with a variety of coloured foliage.

We weren't, however, quite finished yet. We drove all of two miles into the town of Welshpool nearby to a railway station on the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway to see if we could catch sight of a train. When we got there we discovered that a train was due in about 30 minutes so we settled down to wait.

Eventually there it was steaming into the station.

What a cutie and such little wheels! This is just one of Wales' narrow gauge railways which now has a track length of eight miles to run on and runs between Welshpool and Llanfair Caereinon. We hope to travel on it one day as it has some quite steep inclines and sharp curves to negotiate which should make an interesting journey.

You may notice now that it has clouded over making the sky white. So much for 'sunny all day'.

After slogging up all those hills the poor little thing needed a drink.

After the drink the locomotive ran around to the front of the train to haul it back home.

That was a rather nice end to a rather nice day.
 

Up and Down and Round and About.

Up and Down and Round and About.

Comments 3 Comments

Two for the price of one! You lucky people!

Work on the house is still progressing satisfactorily and this coming week will be a significant stage as the scaffolding around the house is coming down. smilies

We are, however, still managing to make a few trips and this time we did a half day walk followed a day later by a trip to Leominster ( pronounced Lemster ).

Trip 1. (Powys)

We walked from the top of Panpunton Hill at Knighton along the ridge to Cwm Sanaham Hill near Knucklas. We have walked up Panpunton Hill before and I even took a photograph of Knucklas Viaduct from the top but we didn't get anywhere near Cwm Sanaham Hill that time.

It was a fine warm day, which is unusual this summer smilies, and we set off towards Cwm Sanaham Hill with Amanda in the lead; quite a bit in the lead actually (that's her on the skyline).

You can see that there is plenty of Gorse in flower at this time of year and you should be able to see that we are still going up. Then we get our first sighting of Cwm Sanaham Hill; the one dead ahead.

As we cross another path we can see Knucklas down below and if you look carefully you should be able to see the railway viaduct.

Cwm Sanaham Hill is getting nearer and, on the extreme right of the next picture, you can see our path curving round the edge of the trees just below the horizon.

We have been following undulating ground all the way along this route but this is the final undulation. We are now going downhill into a small valley and then we start our final climb along the path which passes just below the trees on the left.

We finally reach the summit to be rewarded with some tremendous views and Amanda tries to stop the trigonometry point from falling over.

We didn't stop here for long as we were soon accosted by a big buzzy fly which we suspected was some sort of biting fly looking for a free meal and we didn't intend to supply it. So with much wild waving of arms we descended below the summit and, luckily, the fly didn't follow.

I took this photograph just below the top looking homeward as we set off back. The total distance travelled out and back was 4 miles and for most of that time the only sounds were sheep bleating in the distance and the breeze rustling in the trees. Wonderful!

We returned home without incident.

Trip 2. (Herefordshire)

We weren't able to go out the following day (building work y'know) but the day after we set off in the car to Leominster which is just under 30 miles from us. We hadn't been there before so we were looking forward to exploring.

The weather forecast for today was sunny and clear skies. There was, of course, about 80% cloud cover and little sun when we arrived and it stayed like that until the afternoon when the amount of sun did increase.

Our nearest point of interest was the church so we went there first. The church was once part of Leominster Priory, which no longer exists, and it was huge. There were three naves the earliest of which was Norman but there was also an interesting object now stored in the church.



Although the church was Norman and was very large it didn't really have much of interest although the roof over the earliest of the three Naves was nicely decorated.

I didn't take any photographs of the exterior of the church because of the lack of sun and because we will go to Leominster again hopefully on a better day.

By this time it was actually getting near lunchtime so we found somewhere for lunch and after lunch, when the sun appeared, we wandered off to see Grange Court.

Built in 1633 it is the last surviving market house, built by John Abel a local master carpenter, which originally stood at the top of Broad Street and housed the weekly butter market, selling chickens, eggs, and butter. It was then known as the Butter Crosse.

By the mid nineteenth century the market hall was proving to be a traffic hazard so the building was dismantled and lay in pieces in a builder's yard until 1859 when the building was bought and then rebuilt on the park known as the Grange.

This is Broad Street.

Although it is perhaps wider than usual it's not that wide and I'm sure a building like Grange Court plonked in the middle of the road would have been a significant traffic hazard.

This view of Corn Street which is like a little square shows where we had our lunch in the Merchant's House. The Merchant's House is the black and white timber-framed house on the left-hand edge of the picture.

There is an alley running down the left-hand side of the Merchant's House which leads to Grange Court and in the centre of the picture you should be able to see a small gap in the buildings which is the entrance to a little lane called School Lane. This is School Lane:

Another nice little lane is Drapers Lane.

There were also a number of alleyways of which these are two:


We'll leave you with this view of High Street.

As I said above we will be back for further explorations.
 

Chains, Chapters and a Challenge

Chains, Chapters and a Challenge

Comments 1 Comment

In the week starting Monday 18th July we were going to have the builders in only on Monday and Friday and as the weather forecast for Tuesday was sunny all day we did the obvious – a day trip out.

We thought that Hereford would be a good place to go because it's only an hours drive away and we had never been there. We duly arrived in Hereford without incident and walked towards the city centre. The temperature was forecast to go up to 88 F, which is rare for this country, but at this time of the morning it wasn't uncomfortable (yet).

You may realise that Hereford has a cathedral and has the River Wye running throught it (through the city not the cathedral). There is a modern bridge across the river which takes most of the traffic but a short way away is the old bridge, just one vehicle wide, which can be seen from the new bridge.


The 12th century Norman cathedral is obvious beyond the bridge and the bridge itself is also 12th century.

By this time it was around mid-day and it was starting to feel hot. This is now the middle of July and it's the first day this year I have felt able to wear a short sleeved shirt. Having seen the cathedral from the bridge we now made our way to see the cathedral close up.


It was much cooler inside which was a great relief. The fact that this is a Norman cathedral becomes obvious when one sees the arches on either side of the nave.

The font is also Norman and does look rather worn but the base is of a later date.

There is also a crypt under the Chancel.


Entry to the cathedral is free but this cathedral does have some unique features for which  entry is chargeable but which we couldn't afford to miss. One of those features is the Chained Library.


This is how the library looked in the 1600s. The books are attached to their bookcase by a chain, which is sufficiently long to allow the books to be taken from their shelves and read, but they cannot be removed from the library itself. This would prevent theft of the library's books The practice was usual for reference libraries from the Middle Ages to approximately the 18th century. However, since the chaining process was also expensive, it was not used on all books. Only the more valuable books in a collection were chained.

One thing you may notice is that the books are the 'wrong' way round i.e. with the spines on the inner end. It was standard for chained libraries to have the chain fitted to the corner or cover of a book. This is because if the chain were to be placed on the spine the book would suffer greater wear from the stress of moving it on and off the shelf. Because of the location of the chain attached to the book (via a ringlet) the books are housed with their spine facing away from the reader with only the pages' fore-edges visible (that is, the 'wrong' way round to people accustomed to contemporary libraries). This is so that each book can be removed and opened without needing to be turned around, hence avoiding tangling its chain. To remove the book from the chain, the librarian would use a key.

The other unique feature at Hereford Cathedral is the Mappa Mundi (Map of the World).

 

Dating from 1300 it is the largest medieval map known still to exist. It represents the known world with Jerusalem being drawn at the centre of the circle, east is on top, showing the Garden of Eden in a circle at the edge of the world. Curiously, the labels for Africa and Europe are reversed, with Europe scribed in red and gold as 'Africa', and vice versa.

Great Britain is drawn at the north-western border (bottom left) and shown below enlarged. In the enlarged version Scotland is the island on the left with England to its right. Wales is shown as a separate island below England with Ireland shown as two islands below that.

Needless to say America and Australasia are not shown at all.

This is a reproduction showing the detail with more clarity.

We eventually decided we'd have to venture out of the cathedral to see more of the city and that's where the challenge is involved. The temperature must have reached its forecast maximum of 88 F because it was HOT! It was also very humid which didn't help at all and we found that we were walking in the shade at any and every opportunity. It is interesting to note that since 2001, extremes at Hereford have ranged from 92.5 F (33.6 C) during July 2006, to as low as 3.6 F ( -15.8 C ) during December 2010.

We walked away from the cathedral along Church Street going past The Grapes, a 16th century coaching inn, and into High Town.


High Town is the old market square and is now the main main shopping area in the city. It also features the Old House; a Jacobean (early 17th century) timber framed house which I must say is rather impressive. It is open to the public, entry is free, and it is worth a look inside.


That Hereford Bull is looking at me very suspiciously and, taking into account the look on its face, I don't think I shall hang around.

We were melting by this time and decided that if we could actually make it back to the car we would go home. We did and we did.