The Devil's Hill

 Quosdam daemones quos dusios Galli Nuncipant

                                                                          St Austin

I've shown Pilot Street before, it runs alongside St Nicholas Chapel until it is abruptly terminated by some of that modern housing I mentioned the other day. Clearly it has been abridged at some point and the new John Kennedy Road cut through and taken it over  but it used to run as far as the junction with Loke Road. I found the following on a Facebook group showing almost the same view as above from I'm guessing late 1950s very early 1960s, all the right hand side buildings are gone as is the chapel on the left with the road sign. What now looks picturesque and tree filled was once very domestic and gritty. But we are not here to gawp at pretty things ...

 

The street is ancient, at least 14^th century possibly much, much older and back then had a different name, Dowshill Street. In those days the sea was practically knocking on Lynn's door and just to the north of the borough was a wild and "dreary, unfrequented spot", most likely there were sand dunes, the History of the Borough of  King's Lynn refers to "the sands of Lenn at Dusehill". The same source gives evidence of a belief in malicious spirits, that the region to the north of the borough was "the abode of hobgoblins, sprites, and other indescribable monsters" (quite possibly still is) and that even the Loke was named after the supreme evil one of the Norsemen, Loke or Loki. The name Dowshill, it is thereby claimed, comes from the ancient northern European word duus or dusiens  or  deuce or as we say these days, the Devil.

So what I can tell you about what is known of Dowshill and its street. Old maps and records show a bridge over a fleet at the north end (now called the Fisher Fleet but then known as Dowshill Fleet). It is thought that there was a saltern at this point, where brine was boiled to make salt, no doubt adding to its devilish aura. The Corporation built canals off the fleet so that ships could moor at merchants' houses. It became so popular that local ship owners complained they could not moor their own boats due to the presence of large foreign vessels in the creek. An ordinance was issued saying the creek was for local ships.

The bridge had a gate on it for defense and gate keepers were appointed every year. So, for example, we find in 1403 John Groute was appointed keeper of Douz Hill Yard.

By the mid 18th century, however, the fleet had fallen into disrepair and the Corporation was sued by a merchant named Turner for not cleansing the creek. The judge , one Lord Mansfield, using quite bizarre logic, affirmed that as the Corporation's charter did not include a prescription to carry out the cleansing no such duty existed (even though they had done so for centuries) and further that what had been used as a public right of way (the creek) was in fact private property (it was never stated who it belonged to). This, I'm told,  was a unique judgement in English Law, the absence of a claim it was public was enough to make it private ...

18^th and 19^th century engineering gradually eased the river bank westwards and marshes to the north were drained, the sea retreated a couple of miles to the north, the Enlightenment reached even wildest Norfolk and the Devil's Hill lost its fears, until in 1809, King's Lynn renamed a lot of streets and Dowshill Street became Pilot Street complete with a Pilot's House. 

Teacup: storms in

 

Back in February this year, before the world went mad, someone took offence to the bells of St Nicholas Chapel. Seemed bell ringers had moved there to practice while St Margaret's was being repaired or some such story making too much campanological disturbance ... They only went and sprayed what you see here, and yes, it was still there in October (now slow yew down ...). I don't know if they caught the culprit but I did come across another story about poor old St Nick and his bells. Someone was irate that the bells no longer chimed the correct time, this guy liked the bells, for a change, indeed he had done away with clocks and watches and relied on the chapel to tell the time and was not too impressed with only ten chimes at midnight ... the Council, I read, were looking into it having only just found that they were responsible, I quote "... regarding that law, you learn something new every day!” You do indeed.

Homes ancient and modern

 

The area around St Nicholas chapel was cleared of its quaint little buildings and yards, OK it was a quasi slum as you can see from the old photo below taken from the roof of the chapel many years ago (thank you internet; I don't know the date but clearly back when everything was black and white and smokey). You don't just demolish buildings but a whole community as well, hence the museum to try and keep some memory of it alive. Anyhow modern housing has been built to replace what was removed. It seems to be weathering in nicely, though I doubt they'll build a museum to it.

 

 

Most of the houses, chapels, schools, small businesses and yards in the foreground have gone but those terraced houses way off in the distance are still there around Loke Road. The graveyard trees are also still there as you can see above.

What's in a name? ...

I was going to write how this was St Anne's House on St Anne's Street and how some folk think a secret passage runs from here to the Exorcist's House over on the other side of St Nicholas Chapel. That was until I found that this is not really St Anne's House after all but the house next door to St Anne's and that the echt St Anne's House was demolished way back. Anyhow it still a fine façade but perhaps a bit too twee for my taste. The building is split into apartments some of which are for sale I notice. (I suspect that this building got called St Anne's House by estate agents wanting to make a buck ...) I found a picture of the real St Anne's House and why shouldn't I paste it here ... and if you want to know more try here.

The site of this old house is now a fine Elizabethan car park.

... and finally to top off the post, as it were, there's an owl automaton, complete with swivelling head, atop the Georgian pile; I'm told it's a bird scarer.

1749 and all that

Today's post bring us four hundred years forward from the 14^th century medieval to the 18^th century and the Enlightenment (I wonder what happened to that?). St Nicholas chapel has several gates which are never locked as far as I know. These however are the finest of the bunch with this fancy wrought iron decoration. I struggled at first to see what the number was until I read this gate was installed in 1749 when it all became clear(ish). I'm going to guess that somebody came into a tidy sum and wanted to pave the way to eternal salvation with a gift of fine iron work (from iron gates to the pearly gates), well I hope it was worth it. The design is secular and not sacred, we have clearly moved a long way from Old Nick creeping out of the brickwork to these floral scrolls.

These gates, indeed all the gates and boundary walls of St Nick's are considered listed buildings of historical and architectural interest, they have their own listing quite apart from the building itself.

Though I'm sure 1749 was filled with exciting and important events the only one of any importance is that the first recorded game of baseball was played at Kingston-upon-Thames. I don't who won but you can be sure the game was fixed (Say it ain't so, Joe!) as the Prince of Wales was playing. Britain, with George II as king, a man who could barely speak English, was up to its colonial expansion as usual in North America and India. This was then considered a good thing but has recently been declared to be a bad thing by those who decide these matters, mainly liberal, white, middle class, wet behind the ears, woke, EU-remainer, eco-fearing, bedwetting pro-maskers and assorted lock down loonies employed (if that is the word) in Universities and other publicly funded sinecures mainly, but by no means exclusively, the BBC. 

Oh and all you vaxxers (who wait so patiently, peace be upon you), can celebrate the birth of your hero and saviour Edward Jenner on May 17 of this fine year. Jenner it was who started us on the path to eradicating smallpox. If you want and have the security clearance you can go see vials of smallpox held in secure vaults, you could weigh some out if they let you. Your friendly Sars-Cov-2 lacks all such tangible properties, never having been isolated, purified or indeed been anything other than an RNA profile in a Chinese publication and yet each day hundreds of thousands of 'tests' are performed to find the presence of something completely unsubstantiated (The Fat Controller even admits 93% are false positives! 93%! He has no shame but then this year's attacks on liberty have had nothing to do with the 'virus'). Millions of you have overturned, thrown out without a thought, three centuries of Enlightenment and science and become fearful of miasmas and fanciful tales of horror spread by old wives in the press, the TV and, yes, Government. You, like penitents of medieval times, welcome, indeed crave, the punishment of lock downs and the hair shirts of face nappies, you have sinned and you deserve it. Well, shame on you, you ought to know better.

The west door, St Nicholas, King's Lynn

From Historic England "The elaborately carved door surround comprises a pointed-arch terminating in figurative head corbels, and containing two cusped door openings separated by a Y-tracery trumeau (mirroring the arrangement of the window tracery above), and two early-C15 doors (restored in 2012)". Now having read that you'll no doubt want to see the window tracery  ...

 

Such a fancy ornamented doorway with heraldic shields and beasts was clearly the main entrance at one time but not now, now you go in via porch way on the southern side... and I suppose you'll want to see the figurative head corbels or at least one of them; t'other is just a mess of eroded stone.

... to round off the day how about a pair of angels?

this one could do with a little restoration.

I can't let you go without posting this handsome chap; Old Nick himself creeping out of the stonework.

Figurative Heads, King's Lynn

On our way home from town we wandered around St Nicholas chapel which I've shown many times. This time we walked around the north side which for some reason we'd not visited. There'll be a few posts about this for the next couple of days so if 14^th century English church architecture is not your cup of tea you have been warned.

The people who detail listed buildings, Historic England, say the following about this doorway, "The north aisle has two late-C14 doorways: that in the second bay having a pointed arch, and carved figurative heads to the corbels of the hood moulding...", concise, dull but accurate and there's not really a lot more to say so I'll quit while I'm ahead.

The Church of All Saints, Hillington Square, King's Lynn

This little church is not much spoken of in the tourist bumpf, we hear loads about St Margaret's church and St Nicholas chapel but it was only a few months ago I came across a mention of the ancient church of All Saints, tucked away to the south of the town. Odd because it's the oldest church in town originating in the 11th century or possibly earlier. It describes itself as "a hidden pearl" and with centuries of accretions it has a certain barroco appearance. A sign informs the visitor that "the tower collapsed in 1768", I'm at a loss to know where a tower could be fitted in but that's not my problem. I visited early in the morning so it was closed but visitors are welcome if you contact before hand and I've since found it's open on Saturdays  but maybe check before you go. Anyhow I'll post an anticlockwise tour starting at the west end.

This little window/niche and statue seem to have been added since the mid 19th century as an engraving shows a sundial over the doorway.

This is the view from Church Lane, the iron gates are pretty useless since there are no walls apart from these little bits.

The two windowed annex above is (or was), I'm reliably informed an anchor-hold, a room set to the side of the church where an anchoress (think Julian of Norwich) would seal themselves in and live a life of religious contemplation there's a tiny window inside with a view of the altar. This is considered a rare feature being on the north side of the church as most were on the south (warmer) side and also most have also been lost to demolition (the reformation did away with this kind of thing). You can see it has been added to over the years and it's now obstructing the window of the church.

Another odd feature is the lack of a church wall surrounding the church yard, it is surrounded by 60-70s social housing giving a quiet, peaceful almost cloistered feeling.

St Nicholas Chapel, King's Lynn

While in Lynn this was the view that greeted me each day on my way to get the newspapers in Norfolk Street. Bit different from the usual streetscene.

The weekend in black and white is here.

St Nicholas' Chapel

There may be no Santa Claus (who can say?) but there is definitely a St Nick's with its impressive spire looming out of the evening gloom over the Fisher Fleet in King's Lynn.

Trifles make the sum of life

I've shown the old Customs House, the Purfleet and St Nicholas' Chapel (that's the spire peeking out in the background) before but they're worth another viewing this time from across the river. So what can I add? Oh yes, I remember now ... there's a new film out, some dire comedy based on David Copperfield, and the Lynn papers and media folk (for they are ubiquitous, even in Norfolk) are in a tizz that some of the film features the Customs House and it gives them a quite a frisson. Then last night the local, as in Hull, BBC news had a report featuring the same film and how it has bits of Hull in  it and doesn't that give you all a thrill (we don't do frissons in Hull) ... Bury St Edmunds also stars but we don't want to talk about that ... Oh go on then here's the trailer.

Pylons, The Loke and The Long Pond

As the sun set softly over Loke Road (or simply 'the Loke'; as the natives term it) so Margot indulged her passion for pylons.

St Nicholas' spire in the background

I admit it's the same pylon from a different view.

The short part of the Long Pond

The Loke crosses the Long Pond cutting this ancient water course in two. I'm guessing it's a monastic structure to do with drainage, monks were real clever at drainage... Old maps (1887) show a Short Pond close by and I'm guessing now filled in as no-body mentioned it when I was there. There was also another large pond named the Loke (sic) filled in and covered over and now a playground close by yesterday's picture.

If I'm right then this is the very pylon Margot used to dawdle under on her way home from school despite her mother telling her not to.

A drowning shopping trolley, when will they ever learn that they can't swim?

Some local wild life.

And with this post we've come to the end of our little day trip to King's Lynn and must make our way back to Hull. I enjoyed meeting Margot's old friends (who I'd only known from Facebook) and  even the hanging around for a locksmith in the cold of the evening seems like a dream now (OK a nightmare) ... Hoping to be back soon ...

None of this would have been possible without the kind assistance of Dave Hunter and Betsy Smith, friends also met on Facebook, who offered us a lift both ways, seems they like driving a lot. Once again many thanks ...

Some more bobs and bits

Here's some more snaps from King's Lynn. Starting with a compass structure by the Purfleet, commemorating historical activities and notable people associated with the town.

There's a maritime trail you can follow should you wish to become a full time tourist. Maybe later.

This cattle trough is near the museum in what is now the bus station and shopping centre but at one time was King's Lynn cattle market. There's a very similar one on High Street , Hull.

And a final cute memento mori from St Nicholas' that should have been posted a few days ago but somehow slipped through the net.

Some bits and bobs

Today is an assortment of photos taken because I was in full tourist mode photographing anything without much discretion. First off is Pilot Street close by St Nicholas chapel and the exorcist's house.

King's Lynn was rich enough to have no fewer than four monasteries leaching off it before good King Henry put an end to such parasitic simony and other restrictive practices. I've shown the Franciscan Greyfriars tower, there were also Dominicans, Carmelites and the above wall is the remnants of the Augustinian monastery. Because Augustinian was a bit of a mouthful for medieval folk it was shortened to Austin; this little road is still known as Austin Street.

The Tudor Rose Hotel with its fine original doorway is just off Tuesday Market Place. It's a 16th century building that comes with resident ghost , a woman in a long white dress who wanders around the place ...

This odd shaped building on Nelson Street, was a medieval pub known as the Valiant Sailor until 1925.

Last for today is St Margaret's Lane which has hanseatic warehousing dating from 1475 and leads down to the river.

and then back to St Nick's ...

So at the end of what was quite a hectic few hours of touristic traipsing through the delightful street of King's Lynn it was time to head back to base and put our feet up before the return trip to Hull. But not before passing by St Nicholas chapel (which was now open) and having a goodly gawp inside. I promised musical angels and a literary connection to Hull and I try to keep my promises.

The first thing I noticed on entering was the warmth of the place, it was mafting to use a colloquialism, so warm it was positively unchurchlike. Electric heaters beamed out the calories like no-one was paying the bill and indeed no-one is, there's a large array of solar panels on the roof sucking up sunshine and warming us poor sinners down below. Any how I'm sure you can make out the roof beams in the above photo; each is decorated with an angel playing an instrument or singing from a hymn sheet. These carvings are over 600 hundred years old (the chapel was already old by then). As you can see this is no ordinary chapel, it oozes past opulence, the stained glass windows, the altar screen, the ornate and oversized baptismal font cover and last but not least the numerous plaques to rich benefactors (described by a really nice and helpful friend of St Nicholas as the "millionaires' row"). This delightful place reflects the enormous wealth of King's Lynn in the medieval period. It is now a community church being used for all sorts of events, musical, artistic both sacred and secular and seems to have found a new use for itself in the modern age. It is not just a monument to past religious devotion and finery (though it is that most definitely) it now serves a purpose and has a bright future.

I appreciate that this is not a very good photo so if you want to see all the angels there's this gallery of photos from the chapel's website, here.

You don't expect font covers to go missing (did nobody notice this thing leaving the building?), then turn up in an auction and finally return after a fund raising effort by the Friends of St Nick's but that is what happened to this ornate canopy. It's a copy of the original 17th century on which the Victorians destroyed. This dates from 1902 and is 17 foot in height and I suspect is screwed tightly to the floor.

This is a very rare consistory court, set aside in a corner of the chapel to try matters relating to church law.

And here as promised is the literary link to Hull. The memorial to Robinson Cruso and his family. Daniel Defoe visited King's Lynn and seemed to have had a good time: "Here are more gentry, and consequently is more gaiety in this town than in Yarmouth, or even in Norwich itself – the place abounding in very good company." Cruso is or was a common name in the area (the Corn Exchange, for example,  was built to a design by Cruso and Maberley of King's Lynn) so he no doubt purloined it for his wee book. The connection to Hull is that the fictional Robinson Crusoe set sail from Hull as I posted many years ago. Defoe, of course, could not have seen this particular memorial as he died in 1731. (Did I just debunk a local myth? Ooops!)

More memorials with attractive memento mori features.

This marble urn memorial to Sir Benjamin Keene dates from 1757 and is by Robert Adam, close inspection shows details of the Customs House and the Purfleet and goods being loaded from a ship.

Millionaires' Row. There's a saying that you cannot take it with you when you go so why not leave some of it hanging on the church wall (sorry chapel wall) to show the world what fine upstanding folk you have been.