One Historic Tower

Yesterday afternoon, after dropping Mum and Dad off for a history talk in King's Lynn, I set off along the quayside to the antiques warehouse.  As I turned down the lane leading to it I saw this sign.

How could I resist? I love history, I love towers and I suspected it was part of a house I'd longed to see inside for ages.

My suspicions were correct - it was part of Clifton House.  It was just coming up to the end of their opening time, but this worked in my favour.

Each floor of the tower has one room and some of them were set out as they might have been during the tower's history. This room was set out for a merchants' diner - the painted walls are partly restored and are beautiful.

The view from the top was amazing.  

Over the historic town centre to the church of St Margarets with its twin towers

and also over the river to where the merchant ships would originally have docked.

When I came down I was the only visitor still there and I was offered a guided tour of the house by its now owner, Simon Thurley - how could I resist?  A free, personal, tour by an eminent historian who lives in the house? Yes please!

He showed me the restoration work that they'd been doing and work they still needed to do - I didn't take many photos as I was too busy listening.  But I did take pictures of the delicately restored plasterwork on the stairs,

and in the 14th century vaulted undercroft which was originally used to store the wine that was imported by the merchants.

It was a lovely afternoon - if you ever get a chance to visit it's well worth it.  

I did get to the antiques warehouse too - so a pretty perfect afternoon really!

King's Lynn Treasures

Yesterday, Mum, Dad and I had a little trip out into King's Lynn.  It's their local town and one that I went to secondary school in.  I know lots of people aren't fond of the place, but it's very close to my heart.

We parked in Tuesday Market Place.  It's changed a little since I was last there, with some pedestrian areas and tables and chairs outside of cafes, which I imagine would be lovely in the summer.

I did my driving test round this market place, in the snow with the mart (annual funfair) on it!

The reason for our trip was to visit the flea market in the Corn Exchange and we had a good wander round and I bought a few treasures, but before I show you what I bought let me show you some of the treasures of King's Lynn.

This is King Street, I went to secondary school in King Street, yesterday we had a coffee in the building just along from my old school.

This is my old school, now rather expensive apartments.

It has a blue plaque on it saying that it was once the home of the King's Lynn and West Norfolk High School for Girls.  I'd love to go inside and have a look round it now.

This is the Custom House and the statue of Captain George Vancouver  - he was born in King's Lynn and in April 1792 sailed to America and declared the land as British Columbia.

This is Queen Street - see the dutch influence in the gables? That's due to the influence on architecture from the town being part of the Hanseatic league  - a commercial group of merchant guilds and towns in northern Europe from the 14th to 19th century.

photo courtesy of Flickriver

And this is the Guildhall - a pretty spectacular building.

photo courtesy of Lynn News

If you're ever in North Norfolk I do recommend that you pay a visit to King's Lynn - don't be put off by the modern shopping centre, go and find the old part, you won't be disappointed.

What did I buy at the flea market? These 4 treasures:

a glass bottle complete with its marble, a crown derby jug, a 1950's dish and the hand embroidered cloth they're standing on.  Total cost £19 - bargain :-)

A Little Detour

After a day of cleaning and gardening at my parents' yesterday I took a little detour on the way home and went to Castle Acre.

The views from the top were impressive, but all the time I kept thinking that it wasn't how I remembered it from visiting as a child.

I had a good wander round, it was nice but I was puzzled as to where all the arches were that I knew had been there before.

I wandered back to the car and saw a sign to 'The Priory' and the penny dropped - that was where I'd been as a child not the castle! As I walked out of the village the priory came into view across the fields.

It's managed by English Heritage and when I got to the entrance there was only 20mins left until they closed so I didn't pay the £6.90 to go in, instead I wandered around the perimeter on a footpath.

 Now I could see the arches that I remembered.  Arches from the cloisters,

and from windows long missing their glass.

I will go back and pay to go in as I'd love to get up close to those arches and see the re-created herb garden showing the herbs that the monks used to use for medicinal purposes.

But even from a distance it was a lovely end to the day - a day where I found this gorgeous cloche hat in mum's cupboard, bought and worn by me in the 80s!

Hope you all had good Easter weekends too.

A Bank Holiday Bog!

On Saturday my new (ish) boots and I set off for North Norfolk to see Mum and Dad for lunch and a walk.

After some legendary directions from mum along the lines of:
Mum "Go along the road you came in on"
Me  "I came on the Swaffham Road"
Mum "No, not that one.  Then turn right!" - at this point I had no idea which direction she meant at all, but somehow we ended up at the carpark in Wolferton by the sign that said 'Dersingham Bog'.

When we were kids we used to access the bog from the track along the side of the tip and use it as a short cut to the Station Museum at Wolferton where we played (without permission) on the handcar  (as in 'The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery".

Now the area is managed by Natural England  and contains many rare mosses etc.  It's a bog, not a fen, because it's on acidic soil whereas Fens are on alkaline soil.

We had a lovely walk on the board walk, as walked on by Tony Robinson in his recent programme 'Walking Through History', where the cotton grass was everywhere.

Then we walked around to the Wolferton Cliffs from where we could just see across the wash to Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire.  Although Wolferton is now several miles inland the cliffs are evidence of its past shoreline location.

There was a beautiful low lying glade, that I couldn't resist scrambling down into

and of course the rhododendrons were stunning as they always are this time of year.

The rest of my weekend has mainly been spent in the garden dodging the showers and repairing a hearth with fire cement (but more about that another time).

I hope you've all enjoyed the long weekend too.