Beaumaris Castle and Penmon Point

Before we had travelled to Anglesey, we had plotted a few places to visit - weather permitting! We were lucky with the weather, so today we are heading to Beaumaris to look at "The Greatest Castle Never Built" - as it is described. It was the last of the royal strongholds created by Edward I in Wales – and perhaps his masterpiece. The following it taken from the Welsh Touret site:

Here, Edward and his architect James of St George took full advantage of a blank canvas: the ‘beau mareys’ or ‘beautiful marsh’ beside the Menai Strait. By now they’d already constructed the great castles of Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech. This was to be their crowning glory, the castle to end all castles.

The result was a fortress of immense size and near-perfect symmetry. No fewer than four concentric rings of formidable defences included a water-filled moat with its very own dock. The outer walls alone bristled with 300 arrow loops.

But lack of money and trouble brewing in Scotland meant building work had petered out by the 1320s. The south gatehouse and the six great towers in the inner ward never reached their intended height. The Llanfaes gate was barely started before being abandoned.

So the distinctive squat shape of Beaumaris tells of a dream that never quite came true. Still it takes its rightful place on the global stage as part of the Castles and Town Walls of Edward I World Heritage Site.

Because this castle is special – both for the scale of its ambition and beauty of its proportions. Gloriously incomplete Beaumaris is perhaps the supreme achievement of the greatest military architect of the age.

The moat around Beaumaris

South Gatehouse

The North Gatehouse

Some of its 300 arrow loops

A modern rendering (2016) of the master builder - James of St. George

The Chapel - taken with difficulty though a window, as it was shut off!

Well worth a visit to savour the history of 800 years ago. Having left the castle, we headed toward the river side passing through some of the town of Beaumaris in the process.

The 14th-century Tudor Rose (one of the oldest original timber-framed buildings in Britain) this was in the main street.

Symmetry on Beaumaris Pier

And so onto Penmon Point where the remains of a Priory are sited and just a little further, Penmon Point itself. I only took a couple of images here.

Part of the ruins of the Priory

Penmon Priory is believed to have been established by St. Seiriol, as early as the 6th century. The existing 12th century stone St. Seiriol church and tower date from around 1140 and is a fine example of Romanesque architecture. Within the church interior are two medieval crosses carved in the Celtic style. Close by the church is a stone built dovecot (c.1600s) built by the Bulkeley family of Beaumaris. (below)

St. Seiriol's Well also lies close to the church and is believed to have healing powers and visited by pilgrims.

Penmon Priory stone built dovecot with domed roof c.1600s

Trwyn Du Lighthouse

A short drive away, and classed as the same carpark, we came to Penmon Point with its lighthouse. The first lighthouse was erected in 1838, at a price of £11,589. There had been a call for a light at this location for some years by master shipmen in the nearby city of Liverpool, especially after the steamer the Rothsay Castle ran aground and broke up on nearby Lavan Sands in 1831 with 130 people losing their lives.

The present Lighthouse, built 1835–1838, is 29 metres (95') tall and was designed by James Walker. It was his first sea-washed tower, and a prototype for his more ambitious tower on the Smalls.

The Lighthouse has a stepped-base designed to discourage the huge upsurge of waves that had afflicted earlier lighthouses on the site and reduce the force of the water at the bottom of the tower. Austere vertical walls, instead of the usual graceful lines of other rock towers, are probably an economy measure. The tower has a crenelated stone parapet, in preference to iron railings on the gallery, and narrows in diameter above the half-way point. These are features used by Walker in his other lighthouse designs. The tower is distinguished by its original three black bands painted on a white background. Its also bears the words "NO PASSAGE LANDWARD" on its north and south sides.

Walker also pioneered, unsuccessfully, the use of a primitive water closet, comprising a specially designed drain exiting at the base of the tower. The stepped design of the lighthouse may have helped water exit the closet, but surges of seawater made its use difficult during heavy weather.

The light-source initially was a 4-wick Argand lamp, set within a first-order fixed catadioptric optic manufactured by Isaac Cookson & co. It displayed a fixed red light.

In 1922 Trwyn Du became the first Trinity House lighthouse to be automated, when it was converted to unwatched acetylene operation and the lamp was converted to solar power in 1996 with the lighthouse being modernised extensively at that time.

At present the Lighthouse has a 15,000 candela light that flashes once every 5 seconds and can be seen 12 mi (22 km) away. Additionally, a 178-kilogram (3½ cwt) fog bell sounds once every thirty seconds. There was also a lifeboat station built in 1832, nearby, but this closed in 1915.

The tower has been unmanned since 1922 and is checked from Holyhead Control Centre. In August 2019 Trinity House started trials of a new fog horn, stating, "The bell is activated by an ageing electronic striker mechanism which no longer provides the assurance of reliability which is needed."

All in all, a great day out without to much driving from base.

  Index of posts

Our stay on Anglesey - South Stack on day one.

We had booked a week on the island of Anglesey having first visited with Gra and Jane in 2012 and planning to return one day and explore further. This was our time! The journey was longer than anticipated but we arrived safely to begin our weeks holiday. 

Historically, Anglesey has long been associated with the druids. The Roman conquest of Anglesey began in AD 60 when the Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, determined to break the power of the druids, attacked the island using his amphibious Batavian contingent as a surprise vanguard assault and then destroying the shrine and the nemeta (sacred groves). News of Boudica's revolt reached him just after his victory, causing him to withdraw his army before consolidating his conquest. The island was finally brought into the Roman Empire by Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Roman governor of Britain, in AD 78. During the Roman occupation, the area was notable for the mining of copper, something which continued for hundreds of years after the Romans left.

This was our cottage for the week with the owner`s in the lefthand background. Turning around, the view was stunning, and we had only to sit on our couch to see this beautifull view. The standards of fitting and cleanliness were outstanding, and the owners really great people.

Anglesey is known for its wind and rain, but we were fortunate in that the last day was our only really wet one.

We decided to travel across the island on our first day to visit South Stack.

South Stack lighthouse

Although the lighthouse’s construction was completed in 1809, it was first envisaged in 1665, when a petition for a patent to build a lighthouse on the spot was presented to Charles II. The patent wasn’t immediately granted though, and not until the 9th of February, 1809, did the first light appears to mark this rocky little island out as the lighthouse’s setting. Not until 1828, eight years after the lighthouse was finished, was a bridge added!

Trinity House employee, Daniel Alexander, was the main surveyor and architect. Originally he had it fitted with Argand oil lamps and reflectors. Yet, in about 1840, a small railtrack was installed in order that a lantern, with an additional light, could be lowered down the cliff, to sea level, when fog had concealed the main beam above.

In the mid 1870s the lighthouse’s lantern and lighting apparatus were replaced by newer machinery. Then, in 1909 (100 years after its construction) an early form of incandescent light was installed. This was replaced in 1927 by a more modern form of incandescent ‘mantle burner’.

The lighthouse was properly electrified in 1938. It wasn’t until 1983 that the lighthouse was automated, meaning that the last lighthouse keepers were withdrawn from the site. A necessary, yet sombre day. From then on the lighthouse was, and still is, monitored and controlled automatically, from Trinity House’s Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.

Nowadays the islet, separated from Holy Island by 30 metres of often, turbulent seas and treacherous rocks, is reachable via a footbridge…oh and the 400 steps you need to climb down to get to there! However, this was not always the case. The coastline in this area, from the breakwater in Holyhead, around to the south-western shore, is made up of large granite cliffs, with sheer drops of up to 60 metres, and fierce tide races below.

In 1983 the existing footbridge, sadly, had to be closed to the public, due to safety reasons. However, in 1998 a new aluminium bridge was built, and once again the island was opened to the public. This is the bridge we can all still cross today.

Until 1828, before the footbridge was added, the only means of crossing the deep-water channel to the island was via a wicker basket, suspended on a hempen cable! Yes, they had to brave the swirling seas below them in nothing more than a hamper-like container on a rope.

In 1859, during the horrendous storm that wrecked the ‘Royal Charter’ off Moelfre (some say it should be classed as a hurricane), one of the keepers was fatally hit on the head by a falling rock as he came on duty. Many of the keepers lived here with their families.

Irish ferry crosses the top of South Stack

Elin's Tower is a Victorian stone tower on Holy Island, located around 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of Holyhead. The castellated folly, which was originally used as a summer house, was built between 1820 and 1850 for the notable Stanley family from Penrhos. It is named after Elin (anglicised as "Ellen"), the Welsh wife of the 19th-century politician William Owen Stanley.

The building near South Stack was used during both the First and Second World Wars as a coastal observation tower. However, it was abandoned and fell derelict. The restored tower is used as an RSPB information centre, shop and café for the nature reserve in which it is situated, and affords a good view of South Stack and its lighthouse. In 2007, the tower was damaged by vandals who used it for a drunken party.

With the magnificent granite cliffs in the area, this is a haven for seabirds by the hundred.

As the only crow with a red bill and red legs, the all-black chough is easy to identify. But it's harder to spot: there are only small, coastal populations in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man. This one we spotted on South Stack.

There appear to be many birds on South Stack, this being a Wheatear.

Also in abundance, many wild plants. This a clump of Thrift.

After a great day wandering about to see what we could see, a shower hurried us back to the car and the journey home. We have been here, before but it was well worth a revisit.

  Index of posts

Manor Houses of Hadleigh

In general, a Manor was the dwelling of a feudal lord, and if the lord was the owner of several manors, he only inhabited it occasionally. Sometimes an administrator or seneschal was appointed to control and manage the stately property. The ordinary administration was delegated to a bailiff or a reeve. Below is the building on the site of the Medieval Hadleigh Manor, the Manor itself long gone; however I read that the medieval core is still evident in the current interior. There were four other lesser Manors in Hadleigh and I attach images of three of the current buildings on their sites. The fourth one is now demolished and the site is empty.

Hadleigh Hall School - On the site of Hadleigh Manor House

The medieval Manor House was built around 1297. There would certainly have been a Manor house on the site in the C10 and definitely before the Norman Conquest. It`s possible before that even, in the time of Guthrum (c880-890). 

Aethelstan or Guthrum as we know him, was the Danish King of Danelaw, the area under Danish law, had Hadleigh as one his royal towns and it is reputed that he was buried within the vicinity of the current St Mary`s Church. Who knows, perhaps he even lived in a hall on the site?

The first documented lord had been ealdorman Byrhtnoth – killed at the Battle of Maldon in 991 as he and Anglo-Saxon forces tried to repel Viking invaders. Ealdorman was the highest rank of noble and just before his death he was the most senior ealdorman in the country to King Aelthelred.

Byrhtnoth and his wife had no children, “so he bequeathed his many lands to churches or religious institutions around the country”.

The manor of Hadleigh, along with those of Lawling in Essex and Monks Eleigh in 

Suffolk, were among those given to the Priory Church of Canterbury Cathedral. It made Hadleigh an “archiepiscopal peculiar” – under the direct control of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which is how it remained until 1838. The rectory was in the archbishop's personal gift and several incumbents became bishops.

The present building was built in the C17, much of the original and perhaps earlier work remains obscured by later renovations and additions. The present front is C19 red brick with stone dressings. It is a two storeys building with a tall one storey wing to left, and modern wing to right

The Hall, and the adjoining Brett Works factory site, had been bought as bankrupt stock by George Price in 1929. George Price was a natural entrepreneur: the elder son of an Enfield carpet and textile trader, he developed the Hadleigh branch of E H Price into a successful small business making rugs and carpets at what we all know as Brett Works. The Brett Works became an important source of employment and George Price a pillar of the Hadleigh community.

However, in 1949, his wife Ruth Price, put the Sunday roast in the oven at Hadleigh Hall, went off to Chapel, where she died of a stroke.

Hadleigh Hall was now too big for George Price to live in alone. He spent the rest of his life with his widowed daughter, Ione, first at Bradfield House Hotel, near Manningtree, then at Hillmorton House in Lavenham. So what was to be done with Hadleigh Hall?

The idea of a school was an obvious solution. So George Price and Leslie Widdicombe began Hadleigh Hall School to serve the evident needs of local professional people, and starting with just 18 pupils, in September 1949. The school’s first years were intimately associated with his family.

Leslie Widdicombe, brother to his son-in-law and one of his salesman at Brett Works, was well placed to run a school. Before selling carpets, he had been a teacher himself; and his father had been the distinguished Senior Tutor and Bursar at Downing College, Cambridge.

So George Price and Leslie Widdicombe began Hadleigh Hall School to serve the evident needs of local professional people. The old stables were converted into classrooms; suitable toilets were built, desks and chairs arrived. Each child had to bring a shoe-bag, to hang in the corridor beside the telephone. The uniform for girls was grey flannel pinafore dress in winter, blue and white striped or checked cotton frocks in summer.

The School flourished in the 1960s, many families sending all their children there in succession, in 1967, Leslie Widdicombe ended his relationship with the school, which was sold to the incumbent headmaster and closed, insolvent, in 1973.

Toppesfield Manor House  - now Toppesfield Hall, one of the lesser Manors

Just a limited view of the rear of Toppesfield Hall from across the river.

This 18th century building, built on the site of its predecessor, was re-fronted and re furbished in the 19th century and is now divided into two house.

In the 1360s, another famous name Sir William Clopton who was Lord of Toppesfield Manor, is recorded in Hadleigh Manor records to be in default of rent and failure to attend the obligatory Hadleigh Manor court. I assume the rent arrears were for land leased from the Manor of Hadleigh. Hadleigh Manor being the primary Manor.

Peyton Hall Farm, believed to be on the site of the original Manor House

The current building is probably of Cl6/17 origin. It`s a 2 storey timber framed and plastered building, with a tiled roof,and looks as if at the moment it is a farm house. It has a cross wing at the west end and a small additional wing on the south-west corner. It has a large central chimney stack. Obviously much restore from the C16/17.

Pond Hall Manor

The official listing goes something like this: Probably C16/17, 2 storey timber framed and plastered with roofs tiled. L-shaped with modern brick extending on the east. Upper storey projects on whole of west front and windows are mainly 3-light casement. Said to be seat of D'Oyly family circa C16.

However, it has a lot of other history including one infamous owner called John Harvey, leader of the East Anglian smugglers called the Hadleigh Gang.

The Hadleigh Gang, so we are told, was part of a highly organised body of smugglers operating the Suffolk coastline,. They specialised in the running of tea and other dry goods in the 18th century.

In 1735 it came to light that a "little house at Seymor near Hadleigh", was being used and a force of Customs Officers supported by Dragoons raided the place. They found a large quantity of contraband tea which they took away to the George Inn at Hadleigh for the night. In the morning the smugglers numbering about 20 cut-throats overpowered the small party of Customs Officers accompanied by four Dragoons just outside Hadleigh and recovered the tea. We are told that two smugglers named as John Wilson and John Biggs were later hanged for this incident in which a Dragoon was killed and others of the party were wounded.

One of the leaders of the gang was apparently a John Harvey of Pond Hall who was finally brought to trial and sentenced to be transported for seven years.

Lastly, there was Cosford Hall. This one we only have an approximate location, which is to the side of Stone Street, Hadleigh. It was an early C17 building but no longer exists.

  Index of posts

Captain Tom Moore

The Captain Tom image that appeared on the wall in Angel Street to honour the memory this great man

Captain Sir Thomas Moore (30 April 1920 – 2 February 2021), more popularly known as Captain Tom, was a British Army officer who raised money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic. He served in India and the Burma campaign during the Second World War, and later became an instructor in armoured warfare. After the war, he worked as managing director of a concrete company and was an avid motorcycle racer.

On 6 April 2020, at the age of 99, Moore began to walk one hundred lengths of his garden in aid of NHS Charities Together, with the goal of raising £1,000 by his 100th birthday. In the 24-day course of his fundraising, he made many media appearances and became a popular household name in the UK, earning a number of accolades and attracting over 1.5 million individual donations. In recognition of his efforts, he received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award at the 2020 ceremony. He performed in a cover version of the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" sung by Michael Ball, with proceeds going to the same charity. The single topped the UK music charts, making him the oldest person to achieve a UK number one.

On the morning of Moore's hundredth birthday, the total raised by his walk passed £30 million, and by the time the campaign closed at the end of that day had increased to over £32.79 million (worth almost £39 million with expected tax rebates). His birthday was marked in a number of ways, including flypasts by the Royal Air Force and the British Army. He received over 150,000 cards, and was appointed as honorary colonel of the Army Foundation College. On 17 July 2020, he was personally knighted by the Queen at Windsor Castle. He died on 2 February 2021 at Bedford Hospital where he was taken after being treated for pneumonia and then testing positive for COVID-19.

A true inspiration.

  Index of posts

Hadleigh, George Street - Listed buildings

George Street is a lovely reasonably quiet road with lots of old properties in it. So, looking at some listed properties here, I am starting with number 3-5 which was probable a public house in times past.

It`s a C15-C16 2 storey timber framed and plastered building. The upper storey projects at the front with massive close-set joists. Although it is now part of Partridges store, it was the Moulders Arms. Apparently, it was given its name referring to the iron foundry once located behind the building.

Crossing Magdalene Street, you arrive in George Street proper, I like to think.  This property is no.15 and is a C17 property which has been altered, fittingly called Tudor Gables. 

Next door to Tudor Gables is this lovely building called The Old House which was previously listed as no19 and 20. It is probably C17, and is a two storey timber-framed and plastered structure with a cross wing at the east end with the upper storey projecting on curved brackets. The main block has a ground floor only and attic dormers. I took a photograph (below) in 2010, of the front door with the small side windows and rather pretty hanging baskets.

Front door of The Old House

Then we come to this cute cottage squeezed between The Old House and  Thelwyn House. It is called Chip Cottage, which seems rather appropriate I think! Its probably of C18 origin.

Then for something completely different - a thatched cottage. This is unusual in Hadleigh, this being the only one. Its date is on the side wall, as seen above. Generaly noted as No 42, it is sometimes listed as 40 and 42.

This one is The Cock Inn, dated C18, and is a two storey timber framed and plastered building with tiled roof. It has four gabled dormers on the front, the most easterly one having a date in the gable of 1722. It has a one storey extension north at west end. The wrought iron bracket to the inn sign is probable C18.

The Georgian East House has two large wings on the south largely rebuilt or refaced in C19 red brick and for a number years had been used for varied activities including a community center. In March 2013, plans by Babergh District Council to redevelop the site and build houses on the land behind were withdrawn after strong local protest. Opponents of the plan had argued that the adjacent land had been used as a village green for the previous 20 years. In 2018, the building was renovated into two private homes: East House and West Lodge by period property restorers Richard Abel and Ruth McCabe-Abel. The couple were awarded the Noel Turner Award by the Hadleigh Society in 2019 for their sympathetic restoration of East House and West Lodge.

The Row Chapel of the Blessed Mary Magdalene and Saint Catherine - to give it its full title. This chapel is a mid-15th century timber-framed building that, since 1497, has served as the chapel to the Pykenham Almshouses. In 1887, the almshouses were rebuilt in brick and three years later the chapel was restored. Hadleigh Grand Feoffment Charity administer this site in trust for the town. 

I have not been inside but hope to in the future. The current pandemic rules that out at the moment I am afraid.

No. 48 George Street

A medieval hall-house with a cross-wing to the south and two storey C19 addition to the north in the place of the north service wing. It is a house of C14 or C15 date, remodelled in the C16, C17 and C18; converted into four tenements in the C19 and restored to one dwelling in the early C21. Quite a history!

The earliest phase of building appears to date to between 1380 and 1420 and comprised an open hall with a parlour crosswing to the west. The service end to the east, possibly also in a crosswing, has been lost to C19 remodelling. Between c 1560 and 1590, the building was significantly reconfigured. The front and rear were faced with brick, and projecting gables with multi-light mullion windows added. At the same time, the orientation of the building changed. The main stack, stair tower and porch were added to the street frontage and the principal façade switched to the rear, opening onto a private garden. The hall was ceiled over and the upper chambers of hall and parlour were panelled. On the ground floor, the hall had painted decoration to the walls. In the mid C17, a further painting scheme was applied to the ground floor walls of the hall, and a decorative plaster vine-scroll motif embellished the cornices and bridging beams of the upper hall.

Around 1700, an external chimney stack was added to the west gable end. By the late C18, the former parlour had been divided into two and some panelling removed. An outshut was added to the west end to accommodate a winder stair. In the C19, the building was poorly sub-divided into 4 dwellings, with an additional wing added to the east on the site of the service range and an outshot added to the George Street elevation. During this period, casement windows were inserted into the rear elevation and the late-C16 principal door removed. Many of the windows on the George Street frontage were blocked. The rear stair went out of use in the C20.

The earliest documentary reference to the hall dates to 1661, when the building was known as Thorpes, perhaps after an owner of the property. It is known that in 1814, the Wesleyan Methodists purchased the building, leasing it to the Primitive Methodists (known as Ranters) in 1836. A map of that date shows the building sub-divided into three; it seems that the parlour crosswing was used as a chapel at the time. In 1846, the land to the east was purchased for a chapel which was constructed in 1848 and enlarged in 1875. The building has been restored. The C19 internal partitions have been removed and the C16 plan-form reinstated. The panelling and decorative plasterwork in the upper floor have been cleaned, conserved and remain in situ. The C17 and earlier paint schemes on the ground floor have been recorded and covered over to ensure their continued preservation, but are no longer on view.

No 22-26 George Street

This C15-C16 property is a two storey building which is timber framed and plastered. It has cross wings on the east and west ends, the east one having a  projecting upper storey in the front, sitting on curved brackets with moulded capitals and shafts. The west cross wing was the same but has been underbuilt in front.

The old Dairy, No.111 George Street

Another rather grand C15 hall house, which is a two storey, timber framed and plastered building. It has a contemporary cross wing at the west end with the upper storey projecting on curved brackets on the front and a hipped gable. The ground floor front of the cross wing is faced in brick and flint rubble, with the ground floor main block faced in brick. It has a large exterior chimney and an east side cross wing as well. It is called the old Dairy but as yet I have found no information about it.

There a numbers of other listed buildings in the street but this is a sample of what I considered, the most interesting ones.

  Index of posts

Snow and Cold from the East!

This Beast from the East – a phrase recently used to describe wintry conditions in the UK caused by easterly winds from the near continent – is a result of cold air from Scandinavia and Russia combined with an active storm front (named Storm Darcy by the Dutch meteorological office). The best remembered Beast from the East hit Britain at the end of February 2018, bringing with it 10 days of heavy snow. This one though does not compare with the 2018 one in severity or length it persisted. However, a winter walk was require to capture the occasion.

View from the front door in the morning

Swans and Canada Geese awaiting breakfast

Drifts on the roadside as we went for our walk

More piles of snow on the bank plus a close up of the wonderful texture

Clumps of snow on the hedges and fences

The approach to Overbury Hall

Icicles abound along the roof of this cottage

Izobelle making a "Snow angel"

Later, sitting in the snow seats for a warm cuppa!

What about this for a giant icicle on our guttering

  Index of posts