Kings Lynn and the church's of Terrington St. Clements and Tilney All Saints
By Liz Cole
As usual, we started off in style, riding in our luxury coach, and passing the traditional bag of toffees round. Barry had arranged good weather, and we stopped for our coffee break at a charming hotel in Munford. Some of us took advantage of the good weather and dined alfresco accompanied by the five outdoor staff, who cleared the resulting crumbs of our delicious scones with great alacrity. See picture.
Next stop after lunch was the village church of Terrington St. Clement famous for its 15th century font and its unusual painted font cover added in the late 17th century. The style of the architecture is mainly perpendicular. Some of the grand plans may have been curtailed by the advent of the black plague, as the stone was quarried in Northamptonshire and ferried down the Nene ~ no cheap stuff here! The clerestory windows fill the church with light and the exterior is most imposing.
Outside,
the tower is sitting 'next door' to the main body of the church, as the
ground plan was originally to be a central tower, like that of Ely's,
when that central tower collapsed they wisely changed their minds at the
last minute. There is an excellent guide with some good drawings of the
exterior, plus interior features. Well worth having.
Ron
spotted a rare Queen Anne coat
of arms in the huge
area through the porch, seen displayed, before visitors could walk through
a vast oak screen via a door to the body of the church and the font.
In
contrast the church at All Saints, Tilney, was a cosier atmosphere
in all but temperature! With Norman pillars, in arcades north and south
providing a solid support to the beautiful hammer beam roof, festooned
with angels. They were notoriously shy of my camera, and lurked mainly
in the dark when I asked them to pose. Under the choir stalls were the
'amplifiers' 
of
the day to assist the choristers' volume.The magnificent rood screen,
with its doors continued either side in front of the tiny side chapels
and hand pumped organ. The floor tiles, which were uneven and untouched,
added extra charm to this church, even the much-needed hideous electric
plug-in fire next to the organist's seat, didn't detract. The porch/schoolroom
was unusually large with a brick chimney (to keep the priest/teacher warm?)
built in. An upper chamber possibly 
for
visiting priests, is to be restored in time.
Immediately
out side the churchyard, I was struck by the sad little building up for
sale. The carving over both doors, either side of the derelict walls,
declared BOYS and GIRLS, and on the roof could still be seen where the
school bell must have rung. Perhaps somebody will restore it sympathetically
in the future, who knows what stories it had to tell?
Great day out as usual, educational and fun. If you are reading these pages and haven't yet come on an outing, come along and give it a try ~ you won't regret it, especially if you like toffees!
Lincoln
Cathedral - By Liz Cole (With
additional material & photographs by Mike Crome)
On arriving at Lincoln, some of the group departed hastily to the old
town for earthly sustenance and some entered the cathedral for
the spiritual menu first. I thought the first view as one enters was
absolutely stunning, and the scale of the architecture astonishing.
There was enough to see to take up two days worth, and the map was sorely
needed as the building seemed as big as the town itself. All too easy
to get
lost in the aisles and chapels, and all too easy to miss some of the
wonderful features in thishuge building. Highlights for me through the
mental overload was the modern stations of the cross, so beautifully
realised in marquetry, compared to the early medieval cheeky carvings
reminiscent of passion plays staged on waggons; the exhibition of flowers
and their meaning and symbolism in art; the Lincoln 'imp'; the carving
on the wooden font and the fantastic stone carving everywhere!
Some
of us were lucky enough to join a small group and were given a tour
of the roof. This meant climbing narrow staircases and walking along
narrow ledges, but the views were stunning. We also visited the bell
ringers room after climbing the many narrow winding steps, how anyone
would have the energy to start ringing the bells, we certainly couldn't.
Our guide said they used to ring the bells for upto 4/5 hours on special
occasions. I don't think we could even manage 5 mins. 
The
model of the cathedral on the left is housed in the room behind the
twin tall thin windows in the roof space between the base of the two
towers. The model seen includes the steeples that once existed on all
three towers, which it is believed made the cathedral the tallest building
in europe for a short time until they were brought down by high winds,
and have never been replaced. Just below these windows can be seen a
round window, from where the photo above the model was taken.
The
picture to the right is of the magnificent high alter, bathed in a blaze
of light.
Tottering
out for respite, we passed many people coming back from the Magna Carta,
(the pub, not the one in the castle!)which offered to supply the strong
desire for chips, but we all succumbed to their sausage and mash in
the end. After all we were in Lincoln sausage territory. We then found
two family butchers shops in the old town, (weep your heart out Sudbury!)
to buy the real thing. While others took advantage of the guided tour
around the cathedral I managed to get two shots in focus and 
snap
the old Roman gateway into town, with its quaint little guardhouse cum
cottage built in into the structure at a much later date.
Please Barry, could we go again some time? There was too much to take
in one go on a first visit to the cathedral, I missed the guided tour,
a visit to the castle and the document of the Magna Carta, and I never
found the tomb of Katherine Swinford, practically none of my shots of
the interior of Lincoln cathedral came out, and I need to call back
to try the chips!
01787 227029 or email info@sudburyhistorysociety.co.uk
