My 2018.

Tags

2018, building works, Christmas, church, Days out, holidays, home improvements, medical problems, no rector, retrospective, weddings

I will begin with a couple of thank yous.  Thank you to everyone who has kept in touch with me and kindly asked how I have been during the past few months.  Thank you to all of you who have continued to follow my blog despite my not having written much all year.

We have had quite a busy year which, as you know has included having our old conservatory demolished and a new room built at the back of the house.

During the building works in the spring

Building has begun!

Ta-da!!

Elinor continued attending art classes three times a week at Wensum Lodge in Norwich until mid-summer and was also interviewed by and accepted at East Coast College to start a Level 3 Art and Design course which began in September.  Richard and I share the driving, taking Elinor to and from college in Lowestoft.  There is no direct public transport between where we live and where she studies; it is quicker and probably cheaper for us to drive her there.  In the autumn we took her to three East Anglian universities that run degree courses in the subject she wishes to study.  They all held open days and we were able to tour the colleges and listen to the tutors speaking about the subjects they teach.  Elinor was able to speak to these tutors and ask relevant questions.  We visited Suffolk University in Ipswich, The University of the Arts in Norwich and Anglia Ruskin College in Cambridge.  She is currently applying to all three and has filled out her UCAS form and paid her fee.  We now wait to see if and when she is called for interviews.

Because we still have no rector for the eleven churches in our benefice we have had to become more involved in the running of the benefice by attending more meetings and in taking some of the services.  Richard took a few services in Rumburgh church during the first half of the year and I took a couple in the second half.  We have attended fund-raising events such as coffee mornings, sales and quizzes and have tried to be as supportive of the other churches in the benefice as we can.  As well as being on the cleaning rota for Rumburgh church I have been doing most of the cleaning at St Margaret South Elmham church all year as there has been no-one well or fit enough there to do the job.  All cleaning is done voluntarily as most of the churches do not have the funds to pay for a cleaner.  As St Margaret has discovered, even when money is found to pay for a cleaner, no-one wants to do it as many local people are afraid to enter these old churches on their own.   All of our churches are medieval buildings needing constant work to keep them from falling down.  This past summer, with its lack of rain, we have found cracks appearing in many of the churches in the benefice.  Some of these repairs have been attended to but we at Rumburgh are still waiting to see when and if ours can be done.  We also have lost a number of glass panes from our windows which meant that birds and insects got into the church during the summer and cold, wind and rain is getting in this winter.  The window repair job will cost about £1000 and we will have to find the money from somewhere.  We have an on-going problem with bats roosting in the church.

Rumburgh church decorated for Harvest Festival. You can see the cracks above the East window.

A closer view of the cracks above the window

Another crack

and another.

The floor tiles are disintegrating.

I visited Alice in February so that I could see her act in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ as I mentioned in a post at the start of the year.  I drove to Kent in March to make a long overdue visit to my sister who was not at all well at the time.  Richard has visited Manchester a couple of times to see his brother, his nephew and his family.  I travelled to Liverpool for a couple of days in June to re-visit old haunts and to see a dear blogging friend who made me very welcome indeed.

The Liver Building in Liverpool seen from the Mersey ferry in June

Richard, both girls and I spent a week on the Isle of Wight in July and then Richard and I spent a week in the Peak District in August while Elinor stayed with Alice in Sheffield.

Looking out to sea from the Isle of Wight in July

The Peak District in August

We visited my dear friend Wendy and her family in August and then, before we knew it, it was the beginning of term and we were driving to Lowestoft three times a week.

We celebrated my brother’s wedding to Helen in May and Richard, Elinor and I visited Pensthorpe Natural Park for the day in June to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary.

Pensthorpe

We have all had to attend many medical appointments.  I take my mother to the eye clinic every five weeks and despite having eye injections because of her macular degeneration she has almost completely lost the sight in her left eye and the sight in her right eye isn’t too good but it is stable for the time being.  She also has cataracts and glaucoma.  Her arthritis is painful and she can no longer stand up straight.  Her pet cat died in the summer while we were away on holiday and she misses him very much.  I am spending more time with her.

Richard had a hospital appointment for a procedure at the end of May during which he had to be sedated.  During this procedure it was discovered his pulse rate was irregular and faded away at times so the investigation had to be abandoned.  Since then he has had a number of tests to see what was causing this problem and the specialists were very puzzled for some months.  Of course, Richard was quite anxious all this time not knowing how serious the problem was and wondering if he would need an operation or not.  A couple of days before Christmas he received a letter telling him the latest test had shown that the problem wasn’t as serious as previously thought and he would just be needing a course of statins.  This made us very happy.  The test for the original problem for which he needed sedating is no longer needed either!

Elinor has scoliosis and has a trapped nerve in her spine which has caused part of her leg to become numb.  The problem appears to worsen during the winter months when she gets cold.  She has been having physiotherapy to see if anything can be done to ease the situation.  Nothing so far has made a difference.

My rheumatoid-arthritis is still in remission, which means I have had no flare-ups for some time.  My joints are quite severely damaged, especially my hands and feet but I am used to this as I have had it for many years.  Unfortunately, I have now got osteo-arthritis which is causing yet more damage to my hands and feet.  As everyone knows who has osteo-arthritis, there is nothing that can be done for it except pain relief and eventually joint replacement if appropriate.  I also know that the best thing that can be done is to keep using the joints and keep them moving.

After many years trying to get a full-time job Alice was at last successful and began working at Manchester Metropolitan University in November.  She now has a challenging job as befits someone with a doctorate but has to commute from her home in Sheffield to Manchester each day.  There are regular problems with the trains and she often doesn’t get home til very late.  However, once she is on the train she can enjoy an hour’s reading which is a great pleasure to her.  She will be receiving her doctorate at a graduation ceremony in a couple of weeks time.  She and her partner, Phil got married on 1st December.  They organised the event themselves and as they couldn’t afford a big wedding they only invited very close family and friends.  There were eighteen of us all together and the wedding was a Goth-themed one.  We had a wonderful time and we all got on very well together.

Alice and Phil

Alice and me on her wedding day

Alice and Elinor

No photos of Richard, unfortunately!

We couldn’t get to church for Advent Sunday as we were returning home from Alice’s wedding that day; my brother and Helen took Mum to church.  The following Sunday, the 2nd in Advent, I took a Morning Prayer service at Rumburgh and on the 3rd and 4th Sundays in Advent, I took Mum to church at her church in the town of Eye.

The Advent Crown on a table in our new garden room

Our Advent Crown

The view from the garden room. Apologies for the reflections in the windows.

Another view from the garden room

We have had a very nice Christmas.  We attended the Carol Service at St Margaret South Elmham on the 20th of December and Richard organised and ran our Carol Service at Rumburgh on the 23rd of December.  Richard, Elinor and I collected Mum and took her to Midnight Mass at Eye church on Christmas Eve.   She came to us for the day on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  We had friends visit for coffee on the morning of the 28th.  Alice came to visit on the 27th (on her own as Phil had to work) and was due to go back home on the 29th but when we got to the station we discovered that there were no trains running to or from Norwich due to signalling failures.  She had to return here for the night and eventually got home the following afternoon.

St Margaret’s church at the carol service

A frosty view from the garden room on Christmas Day

I think that covers everything!  I hope I am able to get back to blogging some time soon though, of course, I cannot promise to be any better at it than last year!

May I wish you all a very happy, healthy and successful 2019.

 

Framlingham Castle

Tags

Days out, Framlingham, Framlingham Castle, Medieval building, Suffolk, Tudor building

Elinor and I went to Framlingham three weeks ago.  Richard had intended coming with us but he had a bad cough and cold and stayed at home instead.

The distance to Framlingham from home is about 17 miles and in ideal conditions would normally take about 40 minutes.  However, with local road closures for repairs and other works, the long diversion we had to take meant it took us nearly an hour to get there.  I checked the route after we got home on Googlemaps and it now provides information on how to travel to the required destination by public transport.  I was amused to discover that it would have taken us 4 hours and 5 minutes to get to Framlingham by using three different buses, walking some distance and only if we had travelled on a Wednesday!

The approach to Framlingham castle

We eventually found somewhere to park in the town centre, though there is a car park at the castle, and walked to the castle.  We hadn’t visited it for many years, not since Elinor was very small and she had no recollection of the place at all.  The castle is looked after by English Heritage and they have recently been working on expensive improvements to the wall walk, the exhibitions and the museum and in providing a large café.  Disabled access has been improved too.  While all the repairs were underway a chute was installed from the top of the wall walk down to the inner court to entertain visitors.  The chute is still in place but we didn’t avail ourselves of it!

A Tudor brick chimney on the top of the gatehouse.  Most of the chimneys at Framlingham are purely ornamental and were added as a sign of wealth.

The castle has a deep, steep-sided ditch around it which was always a dry ditch.  This was designed to prevent tunnelling under the walls and made breaching the walls almost impossible.

The inner ditch and curtain wall.  Do you see the people walking at the bottom of the ditch?  This castle is enormous!

Skip this next bit unless you have the time to read some historical background!

Roger Bigod I was formally granted the manor of Framlingham in 1101 by King Henry I even though he had been living there since shortly after the Norman Conquest.  The Bigods, who were very powerful and rich barons were also made Earls of Norfolk.  Roger Bigod II built the castle that we see today and he and his son were the first two of the list of barons who forced King John to accept the Magna Carta in 1215.  The Bigods were constantly at odds with their king and were a law unto themselves.  Eventually, the expense of numerous building projects and constant quarrels with Edward I produced such enormous debts that Roger Bigod IV was forced to make the king his heir and at his death all his lands were given to the king.

Edward II gave Framlingham to his half-brother, Thomas Brotherton who left the estate to his two daughters.  His elder daughter, Margaret was created Duchess of Norfolk in 1397 – the first Englishwoman to be a duchess in her own right.  Her grandson and heir, Thomas Mowbray was created First Duke of Norfolk, also in 1397 and Framlingham remained with the Mowbrays until the death of John Mowbray VII in 1476.

The castle then passed to the Howard family who were descendants of the Mowbrays.  The Howards were skillful politicians and also brave soldiers and included John, First Howard Duke of Norfolk who died at the battle of Bosworth aged 60 while commanding Richard III’s troops.  His son, Thomas was imprisoned in the Tower of London but was released and gradually recovered the Howard estates.  At the age of 70 he led the English forces to victory against King James IV of Scotland at Flodden Field.  In gratitude for this victory Henry VIII gave him back the title of Duke of Norfolk.  His son, also Thomas, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk was the uncle of two of Henry VIII’s wives – Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.  He not only schemed to get them to court and to marry the king but also betrayed them both for his own ends.  Eventually his scheming and the arrogance of his son Henry, a soldier and gifted poet, proved his downfall.  They were both sentenced to death, Henry Howard was executed in January 1547 but his father survived through the good fortune of King Henry’s own death taking place a day before the execution date.  The Norfolk title and lands were surrendered to the Crown.

In her father’s will, Mary Tudor was granted most of the Howard lands in East Anglia and received Framlingham in 1552.  On his death bed in 1553, Mary’s brother, King Edward VI was persuaded to disinherit both his half-sisters on the plea that they were illegitimate.  He and his mentor, the Duke of Northumberland were both staunch Protestants and were fearful that the country would revert back to being Roman Catholic when he died.  He named his successor to the throne as Lady Jane Grey, Northumberland’s 17-year-old daughter-in-law.  Mary heard that the Duke of Northumberland planned to capture her so she fled to Framlingham and rallied her troops about her.  Not only the local landed gentry came to her support but also crowds of the poor country people.  Support for Northumberland and Lady Jane Grey dwindled and eventually Northumberland surrendered and Mary was crowned queen.  Queen Mary released the elderly Thomas Howard and gave him back his lands and title.

The castle was passed to Queen Elizabeth after the 4th Duke of Norfolk was executed and she used it as a prison, housing mainly Catholics.  James I returned the castle to the Howard family in 1603 but by then it was in a sorry state of repair.  It was sold to Sir Robert Hitcham, a rich lawyer and politician in 1635 who died the following year leaving it to his old college at Cambridge.  He asked that all the castle not built of stone be pulled down and a poorhouse built.   The first poorhouse built in the castle grounds was the Red House.  It was soon found inadequate but a bigger and better one wasn’t built until 1729.

The gatehouse was rebuilt at the beginning of the C16th. This is the coat of arms of the Howard family, much weathered.

This was our first view of the inside of the curtain wall. You can see the chute on the left of the photo.  Elinor stands next to the well.

The buildings in the inner court were originally built out from the curtain wall and you can see window recesses and fireplaces in the curtain wall in the photo above.

Part of the inside of the curtain wall

The Red House, built in 1660 and now containing private accommodation and beyond it, the Poorhouse built in 1729 on the site of the Great Hall.

The site of the kitchen, which was always kept well away from other buildings as it was a fire risk.

The old Poorhouse, now the café, museum and exhibition room.

Another view of the inside of the curtain wall showing the traces of the chamber block.

From left to right – the first arch is a 12th century stone window that was later opened up as a doorway.  The next wider opening is a Tudor window and above it the three small holes in a row are impressions left by the rafters of the mid-12th century building which was encased in the curtain wall.  The floor joists can be seen above them.  The stone chimneys are 12th century and were extended in Tudor brick.  These two chimneys are the earliest known surviving cylindrical chimneys in England.  Two more smaller openings in the wall are followed by the remains of a tower under which was the chapel, the east window of which can be seen below the walkway.

 

Four of the five stone heads that survive from the medieval buildings.  They have been re-set into the facade of the Poorhouse.

Elinor and I went into the Poor House building from where we were able to climb up to the wall walk.

The stairs to the wall walk are in a tower which is part of the curtain wall. This is a photo looking down the stairs.

Looking up the stairs as Elinor climbs up ahead of me.

Looking towards Framlingham Mere from the wall walk

Looking towards the town. The church tower is in the centre of the photo.

Looking down into the inner ditch.

The remains of the western tower which protected the castle from attack from the west. Also known as the Prison Tower.

Looking down into the Inner Court.

Here is a slideshow of a few views from the wall walk.

 

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Hart’s-tongue Fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium ), Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes ) and other plants growing in the castle wall.

Jackdaws (Corvus monedula ) were still nesting in the chimneys of the castle.

The white pillars are the remains of a Tudor bridge.

Just outside the curtain wall and built at the same time, is the Lower Court. It was walled on all sides and was defended by two towers. It may have originally housed granaries, barns or stables.

Framlingham Mere and beyond it, behind the trees is Framlingham College.

The roof of the Poor House

The underside of the roof . You see how the slates are attached to the rafters.

One of the windows in the Poor House

The Gatehouse as we left the castle

 

We enjoyed our short visit to the castle and went next to the church which I will talk about in another post.

The singer Ed Sheeran, who grew up here, has brought many more visitors to the town than it had before.  Here is his recent song, ‘Castle on the Hill’ which talks about the time he lived in the town.  The young people acting in the video are members of Framlingham College.

Thanks for visiting!