jump to navigation

Tynemouth Priory & Castle February 13, 2009

Posted by shortfinals in British Isles, Castles, England, Great Britain, Second World War.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
add a comment
Tynemouth Priory & Castle

Tynemouth Priory & Castle

Tynemouth Priory and Castle is a most impressive ruin, seen here in the evening sun. Standing on a rocky outcrop between Tynemouth village and the sea, it dominates the mouth of the River Tyne. There had been a church on this site for hundreds of years before 1090, when Robert de Mobray, Earl of Northumberland, caused the Priory to be built. Earlier buildings had been attacked by the Vikings (or Danes as they were called) no less than five times, the first invasion coming in 800, the last attack coming in 875, when the priory was destroyed.  Many years later, in 1296, the Prior was given the right to fortify the buildings on site – so a priory and castle it became. No less than three kings are supposedly buried here including, Oswin, King of Deira (d.651), who was later to become St Oswin, and Osred, King of Northumbria from 789-790. There are also hundreds of other gravestones, many of them of the Benedictine monks who were sent here from their ‘mother house’ in St Albans – not a happy transfer, I am sure.

King Henry VIII took possession of the Priory upon the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538, and the buildings began their long slide into obscurity. By the time of the First World War a small military garrison occupied this important spot to guard against possible German naval forays. The site was also used to house  a coastal battery during the Second World War, and has also been the site of a Coastguard Station.

Now, English Heritage owns the Priory and Castle, and their magnificent ruins are open to all, for a reasonable entrance fee.

Inside the Co-op at Beamish January 31, 2009

Posted by shortfinals in England, Museums.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
add a comment
The Co-op store, Beamish
The Co-op store, Beamish

Beamish, the North of England Open Air Museum, was first opened to the public in 1972. The site is a reconstruction of a typical village in the Northumberland/Durham area. There are other periods represented, but the main street is firmly set in 1913. The former Co-operative Store from Annfield Plain has been careful re-assembled, stocked and even staffed with period re-enactors.

Here we can see a wonderful display of household items, from the period immediately before the First World War, in the hardware section of the store. It is dominated by brands which have long gone, and items for which there is no longer any use whatsoever. Take the huge array of polish for domestic kitchen grates. These grates were made from cast iron, but with the addition of a liquid compound of ‘black lead’ they could be given a deep, lusterous black sheen; look for trade names such as ‘Zebo’, ‘Zebra’, and ‘Jester’. This was a Saturday morning ritual for many people of my great-grandmother’s and grandmother’s generation. I can even think back to my mother showing me how it was done, on an old kitchen grate and boiler in a house at Golden Valley, Derbyshire. You can also see many brands of soap, but notice that neither soap powder nor soap flakes for the washing of clothes have yet made it onto the shelves. In 1913 you had to rely on such products as ‘Hudson’s Soap’ to wash your clothes with. If you look in the centre of the display you will see bundles of white, wooden clothes pegs (usually made from ash), with a simple, turned head. These were sold in bundles of a dozen, and I can remember helping my own mother ‘peg out’  the washing on the clothes line, using pegs such as these. Other survivors to the present day include the many types of wooden-backed bristle brushes, some of which you can see next to the label ‘Fireside Set’, and the containers of ‘Brasso’, a metal polish, with its distinctive black and white design.
The Co-operative Wholesale Society, or C.W.S., was the backbone of the Co-operative movement, a confederation of member-owned stores which gave back profits to the membership as a twice-yearly ‘dividend’ payment. The ‘divi’ as it was called,  and the Co-op itself, were important elements in working class areas at this time. You can see signs all over the store urging customers to buy C.W.S. brand products.
As an aside, many of you will be wondering what on earth ‘Reckitt’s Blue’ is. No, it’s not another soap, it is actually an early, quite successful, optical whitener, used on white items in the wash. It works by adding a tiny amount of blue dyestuff to the cloth during the final rinse, which makes the fabric SEEM whiter to the eye. Oh, and it has one other intriguing side-effect.  The so-called ‘bluebag’ which contained the ‘Reckitt’s Blue’, when dampened and held against a recent bee sting would ease the pain considerably. Oh, and the magic formula which did this? ’Reckitt’s Blue’ is a mix of synthetic ultramarine (aluminosulphosilicate) and bicarbonate of soda!

Here is another family dog! January 14, 2009

Posted by shortfinals in England, Scotland, dogs.
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
2 comments
Dylan wants to play!

Dylan wants to play!

Dylan is one of my favourite family dogs. He is a ‘dark phase’ Cairn Terrier, and is a most handsome lad. Cairns were used to eradicate vermin on farms in the Western Isles of Scotland, and as such they are strong and quick, with a weather-proof coat. Dylan is an intelligent dog (as all Cairn’s are) and enjoys playing, and I have great fun with him. Fortunately, the breed lives well into their teens.

The Magic Lantern – Beamish Open Air Museum January 14, 2009

Posted by shortfinals in England, Museums.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
add a comment
A wonderful magic lantern
A wonderful magic lantern

Before DVDs and VHS and 8mm film, and fragile – nay, potentially EXPLOSIVE – 35mm nitrocellulose film, there were hand-painted glass slides and the magic lantern.

This lensed ‘projector’ of images shone a beam of light – provided by candles, gaslight or even electricity, through a slide, then a lens, and threw an image against a white painted wall or even a sheet.  The magic lantern was first devised in a crude form in the 17th century, but it’s heyday came in the Victorian Era. They were used by churches to give moral or religious instruction, by political speakers to influence audiences, and by itinerant projectionists to entertain. Well-to-do households used sets of slides and a magic lantern in the same way as today you are asked to sit through a video of the lastest holiday in Spain or Turkey.
Although magic laterns lingered on until the start of WW2 in rural areas (some of the last ones even offering stereoscopic images), they quickly disappeared whenever cinemas appeared on the scene. The few examples of magic lanterns that still exist are real collector’s items, and are pieces of pure sculpture in polished brass and carved wood. This one is at Beamish Open Air Museum in Northumberland.

Temple to Mithras, Carrawburgh January 8, 2009

Posted by shortfinals in England, Great Britain, Literature, Rudyard Kipling.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
add a comment
The mithraeum, Carrawburgh

The mithraeum, Carrawburgh

 

Temples to the god Mithras, or mithrae, were common amongst the Roman Legions. Wherever they went, they were sure to erect a temple to this Persian deity. Sacred rites, always conducted in near darkness, involved the initiation and ‘raising’ of members of this cult from one of the seven grades to the next. Central to this worship was the sacrifice of a bull, and special chambers were constructed to allow for this event.

Here we see part of a tiny mithraem just south of Hadrian’s wall near what was the Roman fort of Brocolitia (now Carrawburgh). The columns you can see are concrete replicas – the originals having been removed for display elsewhere.

I always think of Kipling when I see a temple or votive carving dedicated to this god, beloved of the Legions. Several of the short stories in ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ and ‘Rewards and Faries’ are centred on The Wall and involve characters who are devotees of Mithras. In some ways there are echoes of Mithranism in the various Masonic rites, with their initiation and ‘raising’ and secret methods of identifying fellow-initiates. It is no surprise, therefore, to learn that Rudyard Kipling, who wove Mithranism into some of his stories, also wrote others with a Masonic theme, or that he was, himself, a Mason.

I know it’s not a castle, but …#3 January 8, 2009

Posted by shortfinals in England.
Tags: , , , ,
add a comment
Ellingham Hall, entrance

Ellingham Hall, entrance

I simply canot believe that I have not posted more photographs from the wedding of my lovely and talented neice, Marianne, and her delightful guy, Paul. It was my great joy to attend this event, which took place in the magnificent setting of Ellingham Hall, Northumberland, which is quite close to the Scots border. Everything went wonderful well – and I couldn’t be happier for them.

Ellingham Hall

Ellingham Hall