St. Peter's at Barton-on-Humber

Next on that tour we crossed the Humber River over a suspension bridge.  I thought it was amusing that the retirement age people on the bus were excited about that.  But then, if you don't take a childish delight in things, where is the fun in life?

St. Peter's is an honest-to-goodness Anglo-Saxon church, with sections of the tower built around 970 AD.  It was decommissioned as a church around 1970 due to lack of attendance.  On the day that we were there, it was raining (big surprise), and so the walk up to the building was damp, grey, and had the type of atmosphere you would expect for walking through an ancient graveyard.

Unfortunately for this picture, my camera automatically adjusts to dim light.  Which is great if you are photographing medieval documents without a flash, but it did lose the quality of light that existed at this place on this day.

One of the gravestones reminded me of Snow White, because of its shape, and the Poe-like romantic quality of the ivy.

As you come around the corner from this, the tower comes into view.

The bottom level has the rounded arches supporting the pointed arches.  The second section, which was built about ten years later, has the pointed windows.  The top section was built sometime in the next century.  Here's a better view:

The rest of the building dates to the 14th century.  I like the wooden door within the door seen here:

The skeleton to the right just added to the feel of the place.

A view of the oldest part of the church from inside:

And then there is this very strange door.  It does not match the rest of the already eclectic building.  The rock work is very uneven, with stones poking out at various lengths, giving a somewhat eerie feel to it - like it was bricked up by someone in a hurry.  From the outside, however, the rock has been smoothed out. 

Because it is no longer a functioning church, and is owned by English Heritage, an archaeological dig was performed on the graveyard and under the flooring.  The interior of the building is now a strangely cheerful, macabre museum set up of what they found.

There are signs and exhibits discussing burial practices and how they had changed over the centuries.  One one interactive section you could push a button, answering the question of whether you would preferred burial or cremation (cheerful topic for a day out with the kids!)  Whole skeletons were on display, as well as old coffins, bones showing particularly nasty diseases, and this gem.

This poor soul was found with his skull cut open, as is visible on the picture, but also with a wooden stake replacing the vertebrae in his neck.  Hannah, a PhD that studies vampire and werewolf literature couldn't get her hands on pencil and paper fast enough.

The building was very interesting, and the grounds were beautiful, but I honestly can't decide which was creepier - the fact that there were bodies all over (well, under really) the place, or the fact that there should have been, but they had all been dug up.  It was astounding, either direction.

Of course, leave it to English Heritage to take all the fun out of things...

In case you can't read the finer print, it says "Please take care as historic sites can be hazardous."

Conisbrough Castle

Last Saturday I went on a day bus trip arranged by MANCASS (Manchester Anglo-Saxon Society) around Yorkshire.  It would have been a shame to spend all of my time while I'm here at libraries, conference rooms, and inside my flat, after all.  So off I went.  We got to see and cross the Humber River - three times.  We spent time at Barton-on-Humber, where I tried new foods, got teased by the waitress about my accent, and bought my first Turkish Delight.  I saw lots of baby animals, especially lambs, and pheasants.  I also spent the day talking to Dr. Hannah Priest, a goth type woman who studies vampires and werewolves in 12th, 13th and 21rst century literature.  It was great!

We went to a castle and four churches.  I'm going to focus my next few blog entries on each in turn.  The day started at Conisbrough Castle, made famous by a reference in Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, of which it is very proud.  It was built about 1180 for Hamelin Plantagenet, the half brother of king Henry II.

The main tower is around 100 feet high.  It took three flights of stairs to reach the top, one of which was outside the tower because they were concerned about weak walls due to battering ram damage.  Flash photography doesn't really capture the weight of all the rock around you, the dim light, or the uneven stairs.

Modernish wood floors were put in at every level for people to walk on, but they squeaked and didn't quite match the walls, which made me quite nervous. The third floor had a small room set off from the stairs that had interesting vaulting and decoration in the ceiling that was unexpected to me because of the early date of the building.  The gentleman in the picture was part of the group, but I don't know his name.

You can still see some of the paint and plaster on the ceiling.

Once at the top, you get a really good view of the surrounding countryside.

The yellowish fields in the background of this picture are actually a beautiful, vibrant color up close.  The distance and grey day make that difficult to see.  Apparently, in this part of the country large fields are planted with this.  It's rapeseed.  I don't know either.

While I was looking around at the vistas, I passed this feature about the same time as a woman and her grandchildren.  A girl of about ten asked what it was for, and grandma said it was where they put the kids when they were misbehaving.  Some things never change I guess.

The castle walls are very interesting.  Occasionally, a red stone is incorporated, and you can still see the whitewash that was used to make the whole building white and very noticeable from a distance.

The whole thing was very interesting and great to walk around on.  But English Heritage, the organization that preserves historic sites, has no sense of adventure:

Just because some of them look like this -

We only had about an hour and a half to walk around the grounds, see the castle, and go through the small visitor's center before we had to move on.  It was a very nice first tourist place for me, though.

My flat (apartment in American)

I think this is sort of a mundane topic, but figured some people might want to know.

I live in a one bedroom flat with what seemed to me to be a weird address.  It is a different postal code system than I'm used to.  I reside at 15 Regent House, 36 Denison Road, Manchester M14 5RY.  If I try to tell someone around here where I live, I have to say in Rushholm, just off the Curry Mile, across from the Chinese Embassy.  Giving a street address isn't that helpful, unless you know the area REALLY well, which most people don't, as Manchester is a big place.

Here's Denison Road, which is only four or five blocks long:

My block of flats (read apartment building) is at the end of the sidewalk.  The walls along the walk shaped stone, and have moss and ivy in spots.


Here's the Chinese Embassy as seen outside my front room window:

Obviously, this picture was taken a bit earlier.  It was mid December, and the snow was falling in the quiet, gentle way that happens when there is no wind, and no sound.  I find it so soothing, and somewhat magical.  I really enjoy it.  Especially from inside with a cup of hot chocolate.

I rent a furnished flat, because shipping furniture was too expensive, and basically pointless. (And I have no furniture worth that much anyway.)  The place is all done in blue, which I like.  I could have picked one done in purple, but it was up several floors and there are no lifts (elevators) in the building.  Here's what it looked like before my stuff arrived:

And after:

Ah, yes...books on every flat surface, and craft stuff all over the place.  I have a closet full of DVDs and another with bags of spinning stuff, spun stuff, cloth and textile tools.  Much better.

(You can't see the books in the hall, bathroom and back wall of the front room.  I brought about half of my library, only 500 or so books, and have added another dozen or so since I got here)

Now, of course the whole place is much messier.  Chet once told me I would keep a clean house, except wherever I was working, and wherever he was working.  At the moment, I'm rewarping the loom, and the desk is covered with books and papers (and headache meds), so the front room has piles of library books (read and unread) and yarns and clay donuts all over the place.  It'll get sorted...sooner or later.

Platt chapel and cemetery

Just down the road from my flat is a small, overgrown cemetery.  I pass it on the bus every time I go grocery shopping.  One Sunday, I decided it was time to visit the place, partly because I was very curious, and partly because I woke up a bit out of sorts and hoped the walk would cheer me up.  Nothing like visiting an empty building and graveyard for perking up the spirits...

This is the first view you get as you approach the building from the north.  The view is slightly deceiving, as the place is located on one of Manchester's busiest roads, but the effect is the same.  The small ivy is really beautiful.  I love the combination of light and dark greens on the leaves.

And on the gate...

The chapel itself is a small place, made of the same red brick you find all over this part of England.  I don't know how old it is, but the most recent burial in the cemetery is 1879, I think, and the date 1810 came up on one of the headstones I took a picture of, but I didn't take notes, so I'm not sure if that's the earliest one.  But the building has to be older than that.  It was used for a while as a meeting house for a photography group, according to the sign hanging from the front, but it is now empty.

There are burials along the side closest to the road, and out from the front door - fewer than thirty.  Some of those with head stones are overgrown (though not those in the previous picture).  Ivy is taking over this one.

This one is being enveloped by brush...

Some headstones are fairly clear of plant life. 

The small stone in this grouping has me wondering.  Is it a foot stone, or a memorial for a small child?  There was no writing that I could see, but then the writing on some is becoming lost as the stone sinks into the ground.  Like poor Alice's here.

Not all of the graves are memorialized with head stones though.  About half of them are full body markers.  I'm not sure what they are called.  (You can see the wall between the chapel yard and the street on the right of the picture, and the chapel wall is on the left side, just to give you an idea of how small the space is.)

The day itself was alternating rain and sun.  The image above shows the rainy part.  The next (and last) picture shows the sun.  I think I was there for about half an hour, all told.  I got rained on twice, and the sun came out only once, but it was a nice day anyway.

I like this picture of the front door area for the small sculptural detail that is typical for around here, the pretty ivy climbing the window, and the modern building across the street.  It's called The Toast Rack by the locals.  Its a block of flats, though why it is that shape, and what the metal arches are for is beyond me.

By the way...the chapel is for sale.  If you're interested.  Just sayin'.

Yo!

Last Saturday, or was it the Saturday before...anyway, Janilee and I went to the Manchester viewing wheel (the official name of the ferris wheel I've mentioned before). We also saw the cathedral together, and I took more pictures.

Just to the right of this picture is a sign stating that the cathedral has been used in videos, documentaries, and, oddly enough, video games.  I'd sure like to know which ones...

And of course, there are always interesting gargoyles and grotesques.

The quire is part of the oldest section of the building, with misericords that date to the first decade of the 1500's.  For those of you who don't know what a misericord is, it is the underside of a wooden seat, that when folded into the wall, can be leaned on to rest when the mass requires long periods of standing.  Here are a few of the more interesting ones:

I always find it interesting that the carvings are almost never of a religious nature, considering that they are inside of churches.

Some of the oldest carvings are missing pieces and/or no longer have faces.

The cathedral also displays military flags from the Manchester units.  The oldest are more than 100 years old, having been on display since right after WWII.

The oldest mortuary brasses have been taken off the floor to preserve what is left of them.

And some of the more modern sarcophagi surprised me.  This gentleman is done in the costume of the day.  For some reason, I don't think about sarcophagi as anything later than the High Middle ages...

After touring the cathedral, we went to Selfridges, the American goods store.  Here is the Wonder Woman window painting, I mentioned earlier.  I wonder why they decided this image as representing an American store?

Inside the store, in the basement, is an internal but separate food shop called Yo!, hence the title of this entry.  Yo! is a modern Japanese 'fast food' restaurant, where the prepared dishes go by on a conveyor belt.  Near your bar stool seats is a small area with water taps, having clear or sparkling water, chopsticks, napkins
and the condiments.  You choose which dishes you want to try, and at the end of the meal, the waitress counts up the bowls according to color, and you pay based on how many bowls of which color.  The cooks are in the center, surrounded by these conveyor belts, so they can put up new dishes as needed.

One of the cooks was a black man (no racism intended, just a description), who was singing rap.  It was a surreal experience.  A black man, singing rap, in a Japanese restaurant, in an American store, in the medieval section of an English town.

Life is always interesting, if you keep your eyes open!