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.

Stepped buttresses

Buttresses are very common, almost ubiquitous, on church buildings of this age, we are talking a complete rebuild between 1371 and 1419 so, of course St Nick's has its share. They strengthen the wall and hold up the roof trusses preventing them from pushing out the walls. Between each buttress there's a window to let in the light and also a glass window weighs less than solid  stone or brick so keeping building's weight and costs down (every little helps). Obviously a tall spire needs supporting and good buttresses do the job.

In this picture you can see the second doorway on the north side. Behind this wall a pitched roof leads to the clerestory which to my regret I haven't got a good picture except for a slight peek in the one below. (This picture shows the clerestory from the other side). The clerestory is supported by internal pillars as I showed way back in this post.

Now no doubt you'll be delighted to hear that to all intents and purposes the church is  symmetrical so the south side looks much like the north save for a porch that I mentioned yesterday and the base of the spire.

...and I've just realised that this was rebuilt some twenty years after the Black Death killed a third to half the population of England, no taking silly test tests to see if you had the lurgy back then, no godforesaken masks either just: Attishu, attishu, we all fall down. No doubt twenty years from now they'll still be waiting for their precious vaccine while face masks will have become implanted hermetically at birth along with health passports courtesy of the Gates Foundation...

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 Lamp Shop, King's Lynn

Railway Road in King's Lynn does not as you might think head to the railway, no, it runs teasingly close but keeps away from the station and the tracks. Someone will know why it's called Railway Road but that should not detain us. On a corner of said road, with Portland Street (which FYI does run to the station), sits a little shop that sells lighting stuff and, at night , is all lit up like someone else is paying the bill. Naturally your fearless correspondent took a few pictures for the record.

 

Ceci n'est pas un ...

England it seems has been split into three tiers by the increasingly Caesar-like Fat Controller and I agree. Tier one is all those who thought this is Sars-Cov-2, you have been soaking in the tepid bath of mass media brainwash for far too long, you almost certainly believe in Santa Claus, wear a mask when you brush your teeth, for you there is nothing but an interminable wait for the FC to smile on you and say "You may now take the vaccine and be free". Tier two is those who say no, this is a sea urchin, you mistake the image for reality, you too will fall for the three-card-trick, you think you know the science behind it and can follow the model, you want lockdowns and face masks because you think they work but you complain when your local store closes, for good, and your hairdresser can't fix your curls; for you there is no hope. Tier three has you clever clogs, who have more sense to fall for this nonsense, you say this a mere image, a manipulated collection of dots designed to mislead and be used as propaganda by an old fool, you should go far, but then you're far too clever to be reading this...

This is a detail of something I posted earlier just as the world fell into a madness from which it has not recovered.

King Street, King's Lynn

 

Here's King Street connecting Tuesday Market Place to the Purfleet and the Customs House. Many of the buildings here are listed and medieval in origin with what were considered, back in the day, fashionable Georgian façades, some have clearly had an extra story or two plonked on top. It's a marvellous street to wander down.  Somehow I can't see that bluey-white building getting planning permission these days ("You want to build a big white, square topped thing? On our precious King Street!") yes it stands out and yet it doesn't jar overly. This is just one side, the other is as good, trust me. Good job then that town planners and their dull schemes are Johnnies-come-lately, how did we ever manage without them?