Two Devon Libraries compared.

On a very wet and misty day at the British seaside what on earth is there to do?? If it’s a Friday then it is an excellent opportunity to visit a Landmark Trust property on changeover day, if there happens to be one handy. So, with an appointment made, I set off to walk the mile or so from my beach chalet, by the sea at Branscombe, to visit Margells at Street, on the western edge of the village that is not a village  (according to historian W. G. Hoskins) – Branscombe.

Arriving at Margells (it’s a hard ‘g’) I was welcomed by the Housekeeper who asked me whether I would like to read the History Album (yes, I would) whilst she made the beds upstairs. I also expressed an interest in looking at the library and offered to put the books back into some kind of order. This gave me the opportunities that I needed to study the history and the books – two of my favourite Landmarking occupations.

From the History Album I discovered that Margells was a bit of a mystery to both the Landmark Trust and the historian who had been employed to supply information to the Trust before it proceeded with renovation in 1975.

“Margells was originally a hall house, open to the roof, and probably built in the late 15th century. The frame is a very early construction, the cruck coming at first floor level. There would have been a sleeping gallery at first floor level reached by a ladder type stair probably from the sitting room side, using the rounded door which now goes into the painted bedroom.

About a hundred years later the present first floor was put in, making two big bedrooms. The fine coffered ceilings are typical of this period …  The spiral stair would have been added at this time. It is made of solid blocks of chestnut, except for the top two treads which are oak, as is all the rest of the wood used in the house. At about this time, the two fireplaces were built on, added to the outside of the house.

The quality of such a small cottage has led some people to suggest that Margells was the cross-wing of a larger house. The doorway, which is clearly visible in the wall of the bedroom above the kitchen certainly suggests this. The door from the kitchen into the bathroom was at one time bigger than it is now, and that it was an important door is shown by the decoration in red-ish paint that can still be seen on the beam. The village of Branscombe contains a remarkable number of good houses of 16th and 17th century date, and as the church records show, it housed a number of minor gentry. Margells almost certainly belonged to one of these families.”

From The Landmark Trust website.

When friends visited me at the beach chalet last year they declared it to be like a TARDIS. Much the same could be said about Margells. The  beach chalet sleeps four in two bedrooms and has a sitting room, kitchen and full bathroom, plus a verandah. There is parking for two cars.

Margells looks like “any old” quaint Devon thatched cottage but inside has three large bedrooms a big sitting room and dining kitchen. So, more spacious manor house than bijou cottage. I would have loved to have seen the garden but it was really just too wet.

The library is a standard item in the Landmark property inventory. There’s a small but growing ‘library’ at the beach chalet too. At Margells I was expecting to find the Jane Austen, the John Fowles, some Thomas Hardy books, books on geology, fossils, the seashore, on thatching and some poetry. I was pleased to see Little Pig Robinson written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter during a visit to Lyme Regis.

Above : books from the Margells Library

Below : The Beach Chalet Library

The crossover with the beach library is in the nature section – field guides are prominent at both : birds, wild flowers, seashore guides, plant life also local walking guides and books about the local geology/fossils. We are, after all, on the Jurassic Coast a World Heritage site designated in 2001.

Above : Margells pamphlets

Below : Beach Chalet pamphlets

The chalet has some excellent maps – both an OS Explorer and a Landranger centred on Branscombe, a new local footpath map and lots of OS maps for areas further afield in Devon, Dorset, Cornwall and Somerset. No getting lost round here and plenty of inspiration for walking trips near and far!

Tea and Cake and Quiet London (2)

From the peace and shade of the Bonnington Square Garden we headed for nearby Newport Street (SE11) and The Ragged Canteen at Beaconsfield (QL p.115). However when we arrived we found that it is closed for most of August. On our way there we had passed through what was left of the original Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and we had noticed a very nice tea shop with a buzz of friendly chatter and gentle music coming through the wide open doors and windows (it was a very hot day), so we decided to turn back and take our afternoon break there. It turned out to be an excellent choice despite not being Quiet; there’s a classical guitarist strumming gently in the corner.

The Tea House Theatre

Inside The Tea House Theatre

This book stood on a chair by the door.

Refreshed, we strolled along the Albert Embankment to The London Eye where we met huge milling crowds and quickly bought tickets for the Thames Clipper service to take us back down the river to Tower Pier, a short walk from our hotel.

We chose and booked a Quiet restaurant for our evening meal : Carnevale near The Barbican (QL p. 91). After an hour or so in which to refresh ourselves we then walked the mile or so to and from the restaurant. We marvelled at the height of so many buildings, the almost hidden churches and all the new work that seemed to be going on in order to cram this city with even more curiously shaped high buildings. On our way back we noticed that one of the hidden churches was still open so we peeped inside at the exhibition “This is not a Plate : your heritage, your language, your culture“. St Ethelburga’s Church (QL p. 66) is a centre for peace and the exhibition and late opening were to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic Games.

This is not a Plate display

“Following devastation by the IRA bomb in 1993, this small 700 year old church has been transformed into a centre for peace and reconciliation. Not only are services still held here, meditation sessions are also offered once a week. In the pebbled courtyard visitors can enter a Middle Eastern Bedouin tent made of woven goats hair – a special place for anyone seeking quiet contemplation.” [QL p. 66]

It kind of rounded off our hot and dusty day very serenely.

Sunday was another hot and sunny day but despite this we had decided to participate in one of The London Walks “The Old Jewish Quarter” departing from nearby Tower Hill at 10.30am. Perfect.

“This walk traces the history of London’s Jewish community in the East End. It’s a story that embraces the poverty of the pogrom refugees and the glittering success of the Rothschilds; the eloquence of the 19th-century Prime Minister Disraeli and the spiel of the Petticoat Lane stallholder; the poetry of Isaac Rosenberg and the poetry-in-motion of Abe Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters. Set amid the alleys and back streets of colourful Spitalfields and Whitechapel, it’s a tale of synagogues and sweatshops, Sephardim and soup kitchens. Guided by Shaughan.” [From the London Walks leaflet]

Lo and behold the highlight of this walk is a visit to The Bevis Marks Syngogue (QL p. 65) where Maurice took over from Shaughan to tell us more about the synagogue and its former members.

“Thanks to Oliver Cromwell, Jews in England could practice their own religion openly for the first time since the Middle Ages. In 1657, a Quaker builder was invited to build this London synagogue and it was completed in 1701. (He later returned all profits from its construction to the Jewish community). Bevis Marks is the oldest synagogue in Britain and has barely changed since the early 18th century. In the main room of the synagogue hang seven ornate brass candelabra, one for each day of the week, but overall, with its original wooden seating and simple balconies, the interior is very simple and unadorned.” [QL p. 65]

The walk finished just by Christ Church Spitalfields so we made our way down Commercial Street to Whitechapel Art Gallery. There’s a cafe serving quiches and salad, sausage rolls, Scotch eggs and cookies and cakes – all homemade. After a bite to eat and a cup of tea we found we had time to see one exhibit and we chose “Government Art Collection: Commissions: Now and Then” and “The Story of the Government Art Collection” a fascinating insight into art in public/government ownership.

“It was the cost of decoration that prompted the use of art instead of wallpapers to cover the walls of government buildings in 1899. Today the Government Art Collection is one of the most important collections of British art, with 13,500 works dating from the 16th century to the present day displayed in over 420 government buildings worldwide.

On display for the first time from the Collection’s archives are rare documents, such as papers detailing the loan of Winston Churchill’s bust to the Oval Office in Washington from 1997 to 2008, and records of paintings hung in 10 Downing Street under Prime Ministers from the first Duke of Wellington to Margaret Thatcher. A 1962 document records artist William Coldstream’s proposal that the Whitechapel Gallery hold an exhibition of the Collection, while a World War II photograph shows the bomb damage to the State Rooms at 10 Downing Street.” [Whitechapel Art Gallery promotional literature]

A Quiet Weekend with Tea and Cake and much more besides!

Tea and Cake and Quiet London (1)

Our visit to Benjamin Franklin House (QL p. 23) on Friday was such a success for us both that we decided to devote the rest of the weekend following up places suggested by Siobhan Wall in her book Quiet London and some eateries suggested in another little book of mine Tea and Cake London by Zena Alkayat.

From BHF we trotted off to Lincoln’s Inn Fields to try to track down The Fleet River Bakery  (T&C L p. 40) mentioned in the Tea and Cake book. We eventually found it and bought ourselves tea and cake (my cake was Hummingbird – pineapple, mango and pineapple – so lovely and moist). We decided not to eat in but to take our food and drink into the Lincoln’s Inn Fields and picnic on a park bench in the sun.

London is so interesting and you never know what you might see so we usually walk whenever we can. Our route back to the hotel took us along Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill, past St Paul’s Cathedral, past 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin, to you and me) and finally to Aldgate and Minories.

The Royal Exchange and The Gherkin

We called a few of the Quiet restaurants that evening but all were full. We ended up at Morito the Tapas bar next to and owned by Moro on Exmouth Market. The tapas was excellent but the bar would not gain a place in Quiet London!

Next day we had a number of places in mind and began our Quiet London Trail at the Crypt Museum (QL p. 20). A 20 minute ‘pop in’ to the church of All Hallows By The Tower ended about two hours later! You can see why (and this poster does not mention the exhibition “Bonuses, Benefits & Bailouts : the morality of the King James Bible”).

All Hallows By The Tower

“To tie in with the 350th anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer, All Hallows by the Tower and The Museum of the Book in Limehouse are pleased to present this exhibition of manuscripts, first edition bibles, prayer books and other artefacts challenging our thinking on issues of legality versus morality using the King James Bible as a starting point.” [Summer Programme leaflet]

“This tiny museum lies underneath one of London’s original Saxon churches. In the crypt is a Roman tesselated floor from a house built in the late 2nd century. The museum also holds registers dating back to the 16th century. The highlight, however, is the intricate brasses inlaid in the stone floor of the church, near the altar.” [Quiet London, p. 20]

Moving on from All Hallows we visited The Wellington Arch. Recently opened by English Heritage this London landmark has not yet arrived in Quiet London. You can climb (or take the lift) to the top for views towards Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace Gardens, Green Park and Piccadilly. There’s an exhibition space (at the moment it commemorates 100 years of Blackpool Illuminations and the Blackpool Tower), a further gallery showing the history of the Arch and its former locations plus a bijou bookshop of London book titles.

Next up we crossed the river (underground by tube) to Vauxhall. During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall were one of the London places to see and be seen but our hunt was for something very much more esoteric : Bonnington Square Garden (QL p. 46).

Bonnington Square Garden

“Known as ‘the Pleasure Garden’ in homage to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, this former bomb site and derelict playground  was transformed by the imaginative residents of the Bonnington Square Garden Association. Amazingly, this south London oasis is full of lush tropical plants and intriguing public sculptures.” [QL p. 46]

The residents continued their enthusiasm for all things green by planting out more areas in the neighbourhood, on street corners and other small open spaces.

Bonnington Cafe (plays music so not quiet!)

[To be continued]

An Eighteenth Century American Polymath in London : Benjamin Franklin

On Friday I joined my sister for a weekend break in London. Right now London is riding on the crest of the Olympic Games wave and there’s evidence everywhere that the Games have just taken place and the Paralympics are due to begin in about ten days’ time. We checked in at our bargain priced four star hotel in the City early on Friday and shared ideas on where to go and what to do. My first suggestion, taken from Quiet London by Siobhan Wall, was to call and make a booking to visit Benjamin Franklin House.

We’d both come across Franklin in a vague sort of way on our various trips to Boston and New England but we really knew nothing much about him. Our visit to 36, Craven Street right next door to Charing Cross Station was to change all that.

Craven Street, WC2

Here’s a brief resumé of his career in England taken from the Benjamin Franklin House website.

“While lodging at 36 Craven Street, Franklin’s main occupation was mediating unrest between Britain and America, but he also served as Deputy Postmaster for the Colonies; pursued his love of science (exploring bifocal spectacles, the energy-saving Franklin stove); explored health (inoculation, air baths, cures for the common cold); music (inventing the delightful glass armonica for which Mozart, Bach and Beethoven composed) and letters (articles, epitaphs, and his witty Craven Street Gazette), all while forging a hearty social life and close friendships with leading figures of the day.”

Franklin lived at 36 Craven Street between 1757 and 1775

Benjamin Franklin House, 36, Craven Street, London, WC2

The Historical Experience brings to life the years that Franklin spent in London lodging in this house with Mrs Margaret Stephenson and her daughter Polly, later to be joined by Polly’s husband William Hewson (in 1770) who ran an anatomy school on the premises. The Historical Experience is based on Franklin’s last day at the house (20 March 1775) and we followed the actress as Polly around the house from room to room as the drama unfolded with use of lighting, sound and visual projection.

The house itself held great interest for us. It was so very like 13, Princelet Street in Spitalfields where we stayed last January. Both houses were built in the first half of the eighteenth century and have a very similar design and  layout and have managed to survive with surprisingly many of their original fixtures and fittings in place.

The Hall, Benjamin Franklin House

The rear of Benjamin Franklin House

The Friends of Benjamin Franklin House rescued the house from its dire condition at the end of the last century and after a great deal of hard work the Grade 1 listed Georgian building was opened to the public on 17 January 2006 which was 300 years to the day since the birth of Benjamin Franklin. Miraculously it is the only surviving house on the street. From the front this is not at all obvious but at the back the neighbouring houses are all of new brick.

“A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.”
Read more athttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/benjamin_franklin.html#VtV0qrzico5gm2OK.99

The Brownlee Brothers of Bramhope

Read All About It! Read all about it!

The Golden Post Box on New Road Side Horsforth

Yesterday I was in Morecambe. I planned the trip a few weeks ago not realising that the 2012 London Olympics Men’s Triathlon was to take place from 11.30 on that very day. I missed seeing the race in its entirety, there was no public TV at the hotel (we did ask), but I received the good news by text almost instantly from a friend, followed by several others, whilst lunching at The Midland Hotel.

What we wanted to hear was that one of the brothers had won gold and the other silver. In fact the result was Alistair Brownlee – Gold and his brother Jonathan – Bronze. A superb effort and result nonetheless.

Alistair and Jonathan now live in Bramhope having moved there from nearby Horsforth. Both boys attended Bradford Grammar School where, along with my own two sons, they were keen members of the Cross Country Team. Sometimes we would share lifts to and from the school cross country coach on a Saturday.

Every Sunday I drive through the village of Bramhope and for the last several months have noticed the street decorations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee which have stayed in place for the London Olympic Games. Two Sundays ago I remembered to take my camera with me and stopped to take a snap of the decorated village signpost. As I walked around trying to find the best angle my eye fell on two cyclists who had stopped outside the village shop. Two cyclists in Bramhope? Surely they must be Alistair and Jonny so I wandered over to say ‘hello’ and wish them good luck. We had a chat and I’m sorry I didn’t think to take a photo of them. You can just see a white cycle helmet behind the display in the picture below. That is Alistair.

Well done, boys! You have done Yorkshire and Britain proud. And Good Luck in the future.

I leave you with one further comment. Yesterday, after Alistair’s win, the medals table showed the county of Yorkshire in 10th position!

Bring me Sunshine … or at least Lunch in the Sun Terrace Restaurant

Small wonder Eric Morecambe was wanting people to bring him sunshine. We didn’t see much of it on our day out at the seaside in Morecambe yesterday. In fact when my train drew into the station more people were getting on the train than were getting off it. Not deterred, my friend A and I headed for the seafront and the recommended traditional Italian Ice Cream Parlour Brucciani’s.

Taking us back to the “good old days”

The Lavs are free now! (To Brucciani’s customers)

Much of Morecambe has seen better days but it has such great potential for revival with its Winter Gardens, the Platform Theatre in the former Midland Railway Station, cafes like Lewis’s and Brucciani, the star of the show beautifully restored Art Deco Midland Hotel and the lovely Stone Jetty where ferries tied up in days gone by. It’s such a shame about the weather and the credit crunch hasn’t helped either. We noticed lots of new sculpture, most of it taking the form of seabirds, and a path from the front to the station called Flock of Words.

The Winter Gardens

The Midland Hotel

One of the Tern Project Sculptures

After a quick photo shoot with Eric Morecambe we visited one shop on the front: Woods of Morecambe. We made a few purchases and then battled against the wind and rain to walk back along the promenade  and around the front of the hotel before taking our places in the Sun Terrace Restaurant of The Midland Hotel for lunch.

For starters how could we resist Frank Benson’s Morecambe Bay Potted Shrimps with Toasted Sourdough as we sat looking out at the tide rushing in over the bay itself?   For afters we both chose the Selection of Lewis of Morecambe ice creams.  I must say the Selection of Great British Cheeses with Fruit Chutney and Home Made Chorley Cakes sounded very tempting, had I not filled up on the previous two courses. True to its name as we dawdled through our meal, chatting and savouring the food and the experience, slowly the sun did appear and by the time we reluctantly felt we should leave the sun was out and blue sky appearing through the cloud cover. On a future visit Afternoon Tea on the Sun Terrace is definitely high on my list.

A quick visit to the Tourist Office (for postcards) also in the former Midland Railway Station was followed by a stroll along the Stone Jetty which looked to have a nice old cafe which itself is topped by a lighthouse. The views from Morecambe seafront and the Jetty are amazing and worth the visit alone. All of the Lake District mountains and the mysterious sands and channels of Morecambe Bay fill the picture.

The Stone Jetty

Some of the postcards

All too soon it was time to go our separate ways and we returned via the Flock of Words footpath to Morecambe’s modern railway station – just 2 empty platforms these days: even the ticket office was closed. But Morecambe has lots going for it and if it can weather the storm of the present tough financial times I foresee a return to a form of former glory.

Sun and blue sky appear as we turn to leave

The Old Ways Part Two : Mastiles Lane Revisited and Meet the Author

Well, it finally happened a few weeks ago in the middle of July, I walked the length of the Yorkshire old way, Mastiles Lane. The weather stayed reasonable and it’s a dry track most of the way but there was a fair wind blowing on the top. Amazing to see the remains of the Roman Camp – how did those soldiers feel about the winds and rain up there in such an exposed location? – and we managed to spot for sure one of the two remaining stone cross bases where the monks from Fountains placed crosses along the way.

“Along the lines of monastic roads it was the custom to place crosses at prominent points, partly to stand as landmarks pointing the way and partly as a symbol of consecration or dedication to the service of the church. Crosses were usually a very plain and rather stumpy shaft, roughly squared or sometimes bevelled to a rough octagon and set in a socket cut in a large base block but in others it is squared up and tooled. five of these crosses lie alongside the old road across Malham Moor, one near Strete Gate.” [Malham and Malham Moor, by Arthur Raistrick]

Most Dales hikes that I undertake tend to be circular but it made a nice change to do a there and back one and my fellow hikers agreed. Mastiles Lane starts in the village of Kilnsey.

This high limestone landscape is unsuited to arable but the monks of Fountains Abbey brought their flocks of sheep to this area and the lane itself was established by them. Mastiles Lane is almost totally for its full length a walled lane and those walls are just a small proportion of the dry stone walls that criss-cross the county (and other counties too, of course).

We reach Strete Gate

About ten days before the walk I had the good fortune to meet Robert Macfarlane author of The Old Ways book. He was speaking at The Buxton Festival. I was interested to hear him talk about how landscapes shape us and he talked (and wrote in the book) at length about the East Anglian walker and writer George Borrow who was one of the first people to note the connection between walking and health and memory-making and re-walking in the memory. His (Borrow’s) walks were full of meetings and conversations with people. A fine example is his book Wild Wales.

From Borrow Robert moved on to talk about his walk along The Icknield Way, which he chose because of its proximity to Cambridge where he lives. Edward Thomas’s “The Icknield Way“ was an inspiration to him as well. Thomas in turn was influenced by a poem by Robert Frost :

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost
This poem prompted ET to sign up to serve in the army during The First World War. He was killed at The Battle of Arras on Easter Day (8 April), 1917. Thomas and Frost had become friends and Frost encouraged ET to move from prose into poetry. There’s much more in The Old Ways about the two poets, about Thomas’s war service and death and about the South Downs Way. And Macfarlane asked, do we trust Frost’s poem?

Some Suffolk Curiosities

I’ve moved on down to Aldeburgh a lovely little seaside town on the Suffolk coast. For a coastal resort it’s a funny place – it kind of turns its back on the sea – as walking down the High Street you would not believe that beyond the shops on the east side is a beach and fishing shore.

A Landmark

Aldeburgh has a local Landmark Trust property. It’s about a mile out of town and it’s a Martello Tower.

“This is the largest and most northerly of the chain of towers put up by the Board of Ordnance to keep out Napoleon. Built in the shape of a quatrefoil for four heavy guns, nearly a million bricks were used in its construction. It stands at the root of the Orford Ness peninsula, between the River Alde and the sea, a few hundred yards from Aldeburgh.” From The Landmark Trust website.

To me the exterior has very little appeal, the beach nearby is very stony and rocky and it’s a long old trudge from the town but I understand it’s possible to reach the roof from inside so there is somewhere outside to sit in privacy and enjoy a sea view so maybe it has something going for it after all.

A Purpose-Built Edwardian Resort

Just a couple of miles north of Aldeburgh is the quirky resort of Thorpeness. It seems to be having a revival these days.  When I visited one summer a couple of decades ago the place seemed rather quiet and run down but today children (and some adults) were enjoying rowing and sailing on The Meare and the shops and pub seemed buzzing.

Thorpeness was the brainchild of Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie the owner of nearby Sizewell Hall. He bought an area of coast and dunes and in 1910 set about establishing a purpose-built resort based on the fishing hamlet of Thorpe. He changed the name to Thorpeness. Like Aldeburgh Thorpeness also turns its back on the sea.

The Beach at Thorpeness

The main attraction for children and adults alike seems to be The Meare a manmade lake covering 64 acres with scattered islands and at no point deeper than one metre. The islands feature playhouses and characters from children’s books, in particular Peter Pan – Ogilvie was a friend of J M Barrie. The Meare opened in 1913 and many of the boats are 100 years old!

I had a leaflet outlining a trail around the village which included the Golf Club, the famous House in the Clouds, the windmill and the other eccentric and quaint seaside houses and cottages. It was good to follow the trail and see that the village was experiencing a resurgence in popularity since my last visit. Read the newspaper article that inspired me to revisit Thorpeness here.

The Former Water Tower – The House in The Clouds

A Clapperboard Holiday Bungalow – Thorpeness

Tudor Style Holiday Home

The Almshouses, Thorpeness

The Boat House with Clock Tower

Modern Sculptures

We missed many of our ports-of-call on our brief visit to the Suffolk coast this year but we did manage to get to one of our favourite places – Snape Maltings. This year we joined a River Trip on the Enchantress for a 45 minute cruise down the River Alde to Iken church and back. The highlight was seeing a family of harbour seals.

But on dry land I love to re-visit The Family of Man by Barbara Hepworth. It’s  such an evocative sculpture standing between the great concert hall of the Maltings and the acres of reed beds that so characterise this estuarine part of Suffolk.

“Snape Maltings, [Barbara] Hepworth, Family of Man, 1970, group of three from the larger series, presented in memory of Benjamin Britten, wonderfully sited. The abstract – totemic appearance of the figures further suggests a non- western – timeless iconography, looking back to Hepworth’s earlier interest in Mexican sculpture and pointing to the universality of sculptural language across cultures.” ( http://www.racns.co.uk/trails/Ipswich_Southwold.pdf )

Then on the beach between Aldeburgh and Thorpeness is Maggi Hambling which I also love to revisit – but didn’t actually fit in on this visit. I was last there in February 2010.

“Aldeburgh, Beach, Scallop to celebrate Benjamin Britten, Maggi Hambling, with Sam and Dennis Pegg unveiled 8 November 2003, I HEAR THOSE VOICES THAT WILL NOT BE DROWNED; fine tribute, intensely disliked by most locals.”  ( http://www.racns.co.uk/trails/Ipswich_Southwold.pdf ) How strange is that?

Strictly Agnes Strickland

So who is Agnes Strickland? And why am I writing about her today?

You may not have heard of her but she was a very well known author in her day. Although I had heard of her for a long time I can’t remember when I first knew that she was the author of a 12 volume history entitled : Lives of the Queens of England published between 1840 and 1848. Each volume was eagerly awaited by the public at the time.  I’ve kept a 2-page article about Agnes and her family, including her 4 literary sisters, which appeared in the Sunday Supplement to the Eastern Daily Press back in April 2009. Unfortunately, I can’t find a link to this article online.

Agnes first wrote what are now called ‘improving’ stories for children and later collaborated with her sister, Elizabeth, to produce her best-known work about the Queens of England. Elizabeth did not want her name included but Agnes was happy with her celebrity fame. Later her sister Jane Strickland wrote and published Agnes’ biography.

Two of her sisters found fame in Canada as writers – Catherine Parr Traill and Susanna Moodie – Catherine’s The Backwoods of Canada (1836) became a classic as did sister Susanna’s Roughing it in the Bush (1852).  I could write more about the sisters but as I’ve called this post Strictly Agnes Strickland  I’ll stick to my subject.

Agnes was born in London in 1796. She was the second of six sisters and two brothers. Her father had business interests in London, Norwich and the small Suffolk town of Bungay. He encouraged his daughters’ education and reading habit. The family  moved to Reydon Hall in Suffolk in 1806.

Reydon Hall

When her father, Thomas Strickland, died in 1818 he had lost most of his fortune from acting as guarantor to a firm that failed. The family stayed at Reydon Hall and the daughters set about earning their livings. In 1832 the two younger daughters sailed from Southwold via Greenock to Quebec with their husbands to start new lives in Canada. When Mrs Strickland died in 1864 the family home was sold and after travelling around with various addresses Agnes decided to settle in Southwold in Park Lane in the house that is now called Strickland House.

She died there in 1874 and is buried in the churchyard of St Edmund’s parish church.

Jane Margaret, Thomas and Elizabeth Strickland tomb beside Agnes Strickland’s.

Agnes and Elizabeth carried out much of their historical research at the British Museum. The 12 volume Lives details the stories of 38 queens – from Matilda of Flanders, the wife of William the Conqueror, to Queen Anne. They also wrote a Lives of the Queens of Scotland and other histories.

“Agnes Strickland’s Lives of the Queens of England (1840-8) marked a new era in the writing of English history by women. ‘Facts not opinions’ was the watchword of these historical biographies, which were based on pioneering manuscript research.” (Publisher)

Last year I read the single volume selected and edited by Antonia Fraser. My friend Lyn has written a much better review than I could ever hope to do – especially as it’s some time since I read it.

Landmark Visiting In Deepest Norfolk

Landmark Trust properties are usually very easy to find. For each stay you are always sent meticulous instructions which in some cases may be totally unnecessary but on other occasions you really do wonder whether the building will ever materialise. As we drove further and further off the beaten track in South Norfolk this morning along narrow lanes, with grass growing down the middle, we did wonder if we were ever going to find our quest. Suddenly, on the other side a big field we spotted Manor Farm “in the pink” just as my friend’s directions suggested!

We were visiting the Norfolk Landmark – Manor Farm – on changeover day. The housekeeper very kindly allowed us to have a quick peep around and I must say it is a lovely old building in which one would very quickly feel at home. The Landmark staples are all there plus the advantage of peace and quiet and a lovely big grassy garden. There is birdsong and there are wildflowers. You are truly in the depths of the countryside.

I took a particular interest in the Library at Manor Farm as Norfolk is my county of birth and I grew up and lived there for my first 18 years. I’ve read and I own lots of books about Norfolk and it’s always fascinating to see another’s take on what’s considered to be the essential reading matter for one’s own county.

I’d expect to see Henry Williamson’s The story of a Norfolk Farm and Ketton-Cremer’s A Norfolk Gallery. I love Susan Hill’s Through the Kitchen Window which would make a good addition to all country Landmarks. I know nothing about The rabbit skin cap but it sounds very cosy!

Ha! I love the fact that a copy of The Manor Farm by M. E Francis was tracked down. First published in 1902 it has no Norfolk connection (as far as I am aware) but the title is very fitting. Another good one is A Frenchman in England, 1784 Francois de la Rochefoucauld’s account of his observations of Britain and its people whilst living in Bury St Edmunds.

There’s a life of Elizabeth Fry the Victorian woman prison reformer born of a quaker banking family at Earlham Hall in Norwich and I note a copy of Arnold Wesker’s play Roots. I bet all Norfolk school pupils in the 1960s had to read this play – I know we did – the accents came easy to us! I’m familiar with several R. H. Mottram books. I’ve read his The Spanish Farm and If stones could speak but I don’t know The window seat. Will have to investigate. He was a prolific writer on many topics. See the list of works here.

Parson Woodforde, The Go-Between, The Paston Letters all very necessary for Norfolk. And, oh yes, I’d definitely include works by Roger Deakin. That’s his Notes from Walnut Tree Farm at the end there. Excellent reading in this part of the country especially his Waterlog. I read this book when it first came out. With the subtitle A swimmer’s journey round Britain Deakin writes here about his travels around Britain swimming in lakes and rivers and the sea. The book begins by relating his daily swims in his own moat. Moats surround many old properties in South Norfolk and North Suffolk. Here’s a quiet reach of the local River Waveney in Bungay where Deakin enjoyed swimming.

Sadly, Roger Deakin died in 2006. It’s still possible to listen to his radio programme Cigarette on the Waveney.

On leaving Manor Farm we only got lost twice and had to check maps and turn back twice and puzzle over road signs before reaching the real world of Harleston, Bungay and Hempnall. No one gave us instructions for leaving the Landmark!