The Ipswich Charter Hangings in St Peter`s Church

The Ipswich Charter Wall Hangings were researched and designed by Isabel Clover. The panels were embroidered by City and Guilds students from Suffolk College at the turn of the Millennium. Each of the eight panels is a graphic representation of Ipswich in the centuries since the town was granted its charter in 1200AD.

Embroidery is the embellishment of fabric with needlework; the panels demonstrate a wealth of techniques and applied materials to represent architectural styles, different forms of transport and Ipswich’s treasures.

The panels were born out of an idea by Ferial Rogers of the Ipswich Arts Association who, when discussing ways to mark the Millennium, suggested some kind of tapestry. Such needle-works have long been used to mark important occasions and historical events, most notable among them no doubt the Bayeux Tapestry.

A simple idea that, with Isabel’s experience in ecclesiastical designs and embroidery, became a major project. On a technicality, I am repeatedly reminded by my wife that neither the Bayeux nor the Charter Hangings are tapestries. Tapestries or hangings, they are a very suitable and fitting way to mark the occasion.

The initial idea of a panel for each century was revised so that the first panel could represent Ipswich in the period pre-dating the Charter (ie before 1200AD). There was a not insubstantial cost to creating the panels (despite the volunteer labour) and the Ipswich Arts Association set about fundraising. Sponsorship was secured from some of the owners and occupiers of the buildings featured and valuable contributions were made by members of the public. The panels took three years of research, design and craftsmanship to complete with the final results received to great acclaim.

The feature that links all eight is the river which runs through the bottom third of each panel, created in silk velvet, dyed with silk dyes and stitched with silk thread. It was accepted that over a long period of time the panels would fade but then so do the buildings featured, just as the river changes colour with the tide.

Using volunteers to create the panels was both a challenge and the source of much inspiration. The diversity of talent was bound to lead to different standards of workmanship but Isabel, who had the final word, frequently suggested pieces were reworked. The result is that the finished panels are of professional quality with unity and harmony. It is often suggested that to create a great painting you do not cut the canvas into jigsaw pieces and ask different individuals to each fashion their small section but this is exactly what happened here.

Isabel selected the person whose creative ability and known skills suited the piece to be crafted. The gold work was particularly difficult but was masterfully completed by Isabel’s church embroidery students, their collective years of experience reflected in the finished pieces. It was essential that throughout the creative process the students worked together to ensure the overall result was as required, the pieces fitted together and the finished panel created an impression of the period it was designed to represent. The result is a marvel fit for the 21st Century. The Charter Wall Hangings are on display in St Peter’s Church and can be seen every Wednesday between 10am and 3.30pm.

If you’ve seen the panels previously take another look, there is always something new to find. If you’ve never seen them then you really are missing out on one of Ipswich’s true icons.

This is one of the hangings - The Tudor Period (16th Century)

At the beginning ot the Tudor period Ipswich was stil Catholic. Many pilgrims came to the townto visit the shrine of Our Lady of Ipswich, eventhe royal pilgrims Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. At the top of the hangings, clergy and townspeople process to the shrine. Ipswich was the birthplace of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and his coat of arms is at the top, surmounted by his Cardinal`s hat; while at the bottom of the post, on the left a butcher`s boy with a knifein his mouth reminds us that Wolsey`s father was a butcher. Next to him is all that remains of his grand plan for a college: a waterside gateway.

At the top of the panel are two spandrel carvings, St Michael the archangel on the right and the Dragon on the left. They were carved on the entrance to the White Hart which stood on the site of Brook Street Craft Market.

On the Cornhill stood the Market Cross, removed in 1812. Two carved and painted heads top the corner posts on each of the hangings. The post on the left comes from Brown`s Yard, that on the right from the inn opposite the Ancient House in Dial Lane. Both are now in the Museum.

The Shambles (slaughter house) stood on the Cornhill and below this is the Royal Oak, still standing in Northgate Street at the corner of Oak lane. During this time of religious strife martyrs were burned on the Cornhill; groups are shown suffering on either side of the market cross.

Large new properties were erected on sites of religious houses suppressed or dissolved by Henry VIII. Christchurch, built on the site of the Augustinian Priory, is shown at the top of the hanging, with two of its original knot gardens in front.The mansion is now part of the Ipswich Museum. Below it is the tower of Great Place built for Sir Thomas Seckford in Westgate Street. At its base is the sundial from Smart`s Wharf on the docks, inscribed `Why stand you here idle while time passes`.

This was another prosperous time for the town, the port being used by many wealthy merchants. At the bottom of the hanging are depicted, from left to right, the merchant`s mark of Thomas Pownder and the coat of arms of Henry Toole, the Merchant Adventurers and William Smart, with the merchant`s mark of Thomas Drayll on the far right.

The ship on the river, the Mary Walsingha, belonging to Henry Tooley, a merchant fishing in Icelandic waters. The smaller ship, the Desire, took Thomas Cavendish of Trimley and Thomas Eldred around the world in the 1560`s. The grampusses, or porpoises, were washed up further down the Orwell. As they traditionally belonged to the king, their tails and fins were cut off and sent to him in London.

On the wharf to the right of Wolsey`s Gate is the inner court of the Issac Lord building, well restored today. Between this and the Quay is the magnificent hall and meeting place of the Merchant Adventurers which also remains.The other buildings are from Brown`s Yard.

For at least nine centuries a church has stood on this spot as a place for the community, whether it be congregations, lovers of music and the arts or model train enthusiasts!

As a church, St Peter’s served a large parish and the mariners who came into a port bustling with activity during the middle ages, first, probably as a building made of wood then on to a stone made building, which formed part of the Augustinian Priory of St Peter and St Paul during the late 12th century.

It is at this time that the magnificent Tournai Marble font, with its enormous bowl and prowling lions came to St Peter’s. One of only 10 in England and made from a type of limestone from around the town of Tournai in Belgium. (ABOVE)

Fast forward to the tudor period and St Peter’s gains prominence as Ipswich’s greatest son Cardinal Thomas Wolsey closes the Priory to use the church as the chapel to his College of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

During this period many changes were made to the building including the repositioning of the tower, addition of the north and south aisles and a new chancel.

Wolsey’s college was short lived when he fell out of favour with King Henry VIII and died in disgrace in 1530 and not long after St Peter’s was given back to the parishioners. Along with the church, the “Wolsey Gate”, a watergate on College Street are all that remains of his grand plans.

This gateway was once in the corner of St Peters Churchyard and is the only obvious reminder of the school founded by Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, a native of Ipswich who rose to become the most powerful man in the kingdom under Henry VIII.

In modern times St Peter`s has fulfilled many functions, which is great, as the building is kept for future generations and a lot of its beauty can still be appreciated. As you can see from the above image, what was the sanctuary is now the stage for music performances.

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Yoxford Man

A giant bronze statue of a man, the 26ft (7.9m) tall `Yoxman`, stands near the A12 at Cockfield Hall, in Yoxford. Quite a surprise when you see it for the first time. There is a layby just in the right place so you don`t neet to risk life or limb looking while driving!

Sculptor Laurence Edwards says it is one of the largest bronze pieces to be cast in England in recent years and is "a Green Man for our age".

"He is a lightning rod for loads of issues about ecology and what we are doing to this planet," he said. The eight-tonne statue was transported flat on a lorry from the foundry at Halesworth Industrial Estate to the grounds of the private estate of Cockfield Hall, where it was craned upright into its final position. Mr Edwards, who has been working on the project for four years, said he was delighted to see the statue in place.

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St Matthew`s and Our Lady of Grace

In the 1960s, town planners foresaw a rise in the town's population of Ipswich towards half a million people, and so they decided to cross and encircle the existing town centre with a network of dual carriageways lined with office blocks. They didn't get very far with their plans before a halt was called, for some reason. The towering Civic Centre, police station and the Civic Drive road system were all that was left.. The Civic Centre and the police station, both which stood directly opposite this church, have since been demolished, but the four lane Civic Drive still cuts across what was the Mount residential area, the little terraces all demolished to make way for the 20th century, and separates St Matthew from the rest of the town centre.

This church is perhaps less well-known than the other working town centre churches. Partly, because it requires an effort to find it and get across to it if you are a visitor. Because of this, many people don't realise that the church contains a treasure of national importance. This is the early 16th Century font, which is quite unlike any other in Suffolk, and is perhaps unique in England.

In medieval Ipswich, St Matthew's Church was the parish church for St Matthew's Parish. It is situated in Portman Road and now has Civic Drive running past on the other (back) side.

A church was first recorded here in the 12th century, but much of the work to create the present building was carried out in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was then enlarged in phases in the 19th century during its time as the garrison church for the Ipswich barracks.

The day I visited, I was fortunate to arrive at the door as a gentleman was leaving, and he promptly escorted me around the church and gave me some insights to the building. It appears it was locked that day so I was very fortunate to arrive when I did!

The Chancel with its hammer beam roof and the Angels Bearing Shields. The Angels were in the nave roof at one point, but were moved to the current position in 1958. The other magnificent feature is the Reredos of five panels, which is a memorial to a Mary Ann Cole.

The stained glass window was a gift in 1890 by Mr George Hewitt, a successful local business man and member of the Church. He died before it was completed, but it was finished by another parishioner and unveiled on 26th April 1894.

The five panel Reredos

One of the two treasure of the sanctuary; a Jacobean Monument of around 1630

Tuning right from the Chancel you find what was once the home of the organ. It is now St Katherine`s Chapel. It has three panels in the alter rail dedicated to Rev. Ampat Thomas George, the much loved assistant Priest who died suddenly in 1975. His life in Kerala, Ethiopia and East Anglia, is marked by these three panels. It is fitting that on the Altar is the Axum Cross, an original work by unknown Ethiopian craftsman and sent as a tribute to Father George.

The Axum Cross

The window in the East on St Katherine`s Chapel. There has been some controversy since it was erected in 1853, over what the stained glass artist (Hedgeland) was actually portraying in the window! Some people suggested that the kneeling figure in the middle bottom segment was Our Lady or St Katherine, but it appears to be of Mrs Jane Gaye, to whom the window was dedicated.

However, there are Catherine Wheel motifs in the window to represent how the original St Katherine is supposed to have died.

So much English medieval Catholic iconography was destroyed by the Protestant reformers of the 16th century, and the Puritans of the 17th century. Here at St Matthew we find an even rarer survival of England's Catholic past, a font whose panels show a sequence of images of events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This is regarded as one of the dozen most important and significant medieval art survivals in Suffolk, and one of the finest late medieval fonts in England.

Believe to date from some time during the second decade of the 16th Century or even 1350 according to one expert! Of the eight panels, one has a Tudor rose and another a foliage pattern, but five of them depict events in the devotional story of Mary, mother of Jesus. These five reliefs, and a sixth of the Baptism of Christ, are amazing art objects. They show the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin with Gabriel unfurling a banner from which a dove emerges to whisper in Mary's ear; The Adoration of the Magi, with the wise men pulling a blanket away from the Blessed Virgin and child as if to symbolise their revelation to the world; the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, with Mary radiating glory in a mandala, which four angels use to convey her up to heaven in bodily form; the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven, the crowned figures of God the Father and God the Son placing a crown on the Blessed Virgin's head while the Dove of the Holy Spirit races down directly above her; and the Mother of God Enthroned, the crowned figure of the Blessed Virgin sitting on the left of and looking at (and thus paying homage to) her crowned son on the right, who is holding an orb.

Across the road (Civic Drive) from the rear of St Matthews is the above statue on the wall of Lady Lane, to mark the spot where the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace was sited.

On January 8th, 1297, a royal wedding took place in Ipswich. Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward I, married the Count of Holland. Fitch, in his annals, records that Edward I stayed in the town for the ceremony with 'a splendid court', and that the three minstrels were paid 50s each for their services. The wedding took place, not in any of the parish churches of the town, but in one of England's major shrines of Marian pilgrimage; a shrine to which we may presume Edward I had a special devotion. This was the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace, also referred to in contemporary records as Our Lady of Ipswich.
This wedding is just the earliest record we have of a royal occasion at the shrine. Thereafter, a succession of visitors come here on pilgrimage, culminating in the early 16th century, when the pilgrimage cult was at its height. Between 1517 and 1522, both Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon made journeys to the shrine, set beside the Westgate in the parish of St Matthew. Other visitors included the local dignitary Cardinal Wolsey, and the future saint Thomas More.
The fame and influence of the Ipswich shrine reached its peak in the early years of the 16th Century, after an incident known as the Miracle of the Maid of Ipswich. This occurred in 1516 and was held in renown all over England in the few short years left before the Reformation intervened. The popularity of the Miracle, in which Joan, a young Ipswich girl, has a near-death encounter and experiences visions of the Virgin Mary, was widely used by the Catholic Church as a buttress against the murmurings of reformers.

The focus of any Marian shrine would be the statue of Mary, most often with the infant Christ on her knee. When the reformers of the 16th century set out to break the hold of the Church on the imagination of the people, statues of Mary and the saints were the first things to go. 

Records indicate that (Thomas) Cromwell... caused this image of Our Lady to be pulled down from her niche, and after despoiling the effigy of its rich habilements and jewels... it was conveyed to London and destroyed. John Weever, writing a century after the event, reports that all the notable images, as the images of Our Lady of Walsingham, Ipswich, Worcester, the Lady of Wilsdon, the rood of grace of Our Lady of Boxley, and the image of the rood of St Saviour at Bermondsey, were brought up to London and burnt at Chelsey, at the commandment of the aforesaid Cromwell.

There is some evidence that the original statue of Our Lady of Grace survived, and still exists today;  A wooden statue of the Madonna and Child displayed in the local church of the Italian seaside town of Nettuno closely matches various descriptions of the Ipswich statue. The statue is known locally as "Our Lady of Grace" or "The English Lady". Radio carbon dating places the era when the tree was felled to provide the wood of which the statue is carved at circa 1280 to 1420 with 94% certainty.

There is also evidence in the Nettuno archives that a statue arrived there from Ipswich in 1550. It was classified as being in the English iconic style in 1938 by Martin Gillett, an historian of 13th century iconography. Although the statue had been altered (a throne had been replaced and the posture of the Christ child had changed), details such as the folds in the material and Christ's position on the right rather than the left knee suggest that the statue came from England.

So, It wouldn't be that improbable?  Western mainland Europe is full of statues and sculptures produced in England during the 12th and 13th centuries. Many of them must have been exported at the time; Nottingham alabaster work, for instance, was greatly prized throughout Europe. But much probably went abroad at the time of the Reformation. 

Fast forward to more modern times, in 2002 the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace of Ipswich was re-established, at St Mary at The Elms. (Above) The shrine is visited annually by the people of Nettuno, Italy - where the original medieval statue is now venerated.

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Little Finborough and Needham Market _ Parish Churches

A few hours to visit some local churches that have been shut recently due to Covid! It took me a few minutes to find this church, having driven past it once! However, I backtracked to where my map indicated, and parked on the main road. The church is not visible from this point but a walk down the driveway to Finborough Hall, and then turn off through the fields, soon brought me to this tree surrounded, quaint little church. 

The Victorians had a lot to do with the church we see now, but it still feels Medieval. Probable of 14C origins and has never had a tower. The west end (above) was rebuilt in 1856, replacing the lath and plaster with the banded pebble wall that we see today.

A view from the North side and the shed like structure on wheels which is an old Shepherds Hut. Supposedly of C19 origin.

 

The interior of St Mary`s with it`s tiny organ tucked away in the corner and its curious pulpit and reading desk at the front. All in all, a sense of peace and tranquillity, tucked away from todays rat race.

Something I had not come across before and that was "Chalking the Door". Either on Twelfth Night (5 January), the twelfth day of Christmastide and eve of the feast of the Epiphany, or on Epiphany Day (6 January) itself, many Christians (including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics, among others) write on their doors or lintels with chalk in a pattern such as "20 ✝ C ✝ M ✝ B ✝ 22", with the numbers in this example referring to the calendar year 2022 and the crosses to Christ. The letters C, M and B stand for the traditional names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar)

Apparently, the Christian custom of chalking the door has a biblical precedent as the Israelites in the Old Testament marked their doors in order to be saved from death.

Medieval Wall Painting 

The fragment to the right of the door to the vestry is a surviving part of a medieval wall painting. This was rediscovered in 2005. An expert in medieval art surveyed it in 2008, although I find it difficult so see what they saw!

`The painting shows a figure with yellow hair and a yellow cloak over a red tunic. The left arm of the figure appears to be bare, with a strap or cuff around the wrist. The figure seems to 

be twisting to the left to manipulate some type of instrument, or to pull a rope or cable.

The picture was clearly larger originally, and more of it would have extended to the right, where a memorial plaque is now attached. The remains of a dark border on the painting suggest that it might have been one of a number of narrative scenes within a larger set of paintings.`

From here I traced my steps back to the main road and arrived at Needham Market where I wanted to visit the Parish church situated, unusually, in the middle of the town and hemmed in by other buildings.

A rather simple, almost dull looking Parish Church, but one with a surprise in store for the visitor. But first the outside and  again - no tower, although there is evidence that one may have existed in times past. Originally this building was a Chapel of ease for nearby Barking and only became a Parish Church in 1901. It was rebuilt in the 1480s; presumable from an existing chapel? Another oddity is that it is aligned SE to NW whereas churches are normally E to W. 

The porch and strange pinnacle are Victorian.

Then when you step inside you can immediately see what is arguable one of the best single hammer-beam roofs in England. Not being an expert I can only quote that its span of 30 feet is unusual in a single hammer-beam roof - it would be a double in most places. Just thinking about the carpentry skills required to build this really is breath-taking.

Prior to the C19 restoration, there was a plaster ceiling 16 feet below the roof. It must have come as something of a surprise to see this magnificent roof behind.

The carved angels, to the projecting ends of the hammer beams, were added in 1892 in memory of Major William Dods of Uvedale Hall. Well worth a visit to this rather quirky building if you are in the area.

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The woman who helped change the world - Princess Sophia Duleep Singh

Walking along the riverside in Ipswich, I am always on the lookout for art on the many buildings. At the end of 2021, I came across this image and promptly had to investigate as the name rang no bells with me! The following is a precis of this ladies life as found online. As you will see, she lived in Suffolk as a child, and although  a very privileged life for sure, she used that as a weapon in her fight for Women`s Rights.

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh is best known as a suffragette and campaigner for women's rights. Daughter of deposed Maharaja Duleep Singh and goddaughter of Queen Victoria, she used her fame, position and tenacity in the fight for gender equality in the early 20th century. Sophia's campaigning attracted the attention of both the press and the government. Her tireless activities ranged from participating in landmark historical events such as 'Black Friday' to routinely selling copies of The Suffragette newspaper outside Hampton Court Palace. Sophia's philanthropy extended far beyond women's rights and she supported many groups, particularly Indians and Sikhs wherever she encountered them. Her life was truly dedicated to the fight for equality and the support of others.

EARLY LIFE

Sophia Jindan Alexandrovna Duleep Singh was born on 8 August 1876, the daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh and Bamba Müller.

In 1854, the now deposed Maharaja, travelled to England, and was naturalised as a British Citizen. He lived on a pension of £25,000 a year which he was granted provided he 'remained obedient to the British Government'.

AN UNSTABLE CHILDHOOD

Sophia's early childhood was spent in Elveden Hall in Suffolk, which was purchased by her father in 1863. The Elveden estate provided the family with all the pastimes expected by the English aristocracy, particularly riding and shooting.

The house itself was rebuilt by her father with an Italianate exterior and palatial Mughal interior, full of rich textiles and furnishings. It must have been a truly wondrous place to be a child. Outside, exotic animals and birds roamed the gardens including golden pheasants, parrots, and peacocks.

This fantastical childhood was not to last. Sophia's parents' relationship broke down and Maharaja Duleep Singh spent the last six years of his life in Paris, campaigning to be returned to the throne of Lahore.

Worse still, in 1887 Sophia’s mother died, after which the children were in the care of Arthur Craigie Oliphant, chosen by Queen Victoria to be guardian.

The children first lived in the Oliphant family home in Folkestone, and then in their Brighton home. In Brighton Sophia received four years of education at a nearby girls' day school, after which she finished her education on a six-month tour with her sisters, staying in Holland, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Egypt.

Like her sisters Bamba and Catherine, Sophia inherited the sizeable fortune of £23,000 from her father. This was arguably a mere fraction of the wealth they could have expected from their patrimony.

In 1896 Queen Victoria gave Princess Sophia Faraday House, then part of the Hampton Court Estate, as a grace and favour residence. The Queen also granted her an allowance of £200 a year to maintain it.

While not the palatial surroundings her birth might have afforded her, Faraday House at least gave her the security of a home and a place to entertain.

TRAVEL TO INDIA

Sophia travelled twice to India with her sister Princess Bamba, in 1907 and 1924. The first time they visited family in Lahore and Amritsar, the second was a tour of Kashmir, Lahore, Amritsar and Murree.

The second visit was an emotional one, and nearly caused problems for the local authorities. In Lahore the crowds were excited to see the Princesses, resplendent in saris and traditional jewels, and shouted ‘The Princesses are here, the daughters of Maharajah Duleep Singh.’ Others shouted ‘We are with you, we will give you the world.’ In the end the police dispersed the crowd.

Sophia had both pride and sympathy for the Indian people, writing in one letter, 'I was delighted to see the house of my ancestors, but oh dear how primitive it all is.'

SOPHIA THE SUFFRAGETTE

Sophia was a long-time supporter of the Women's Suffrage movement and a leading campaigner in the fight for women's rights in Britain. She was an active member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), becoming a prominent member of the Richmond and Kingston-upon-Thames district branches.

Sophia was often seen selling The Suffragette newspaper at her pitch at Hampton Court Palace. Indeed, much of the information we have about Sophia's activities come from The Suffragette and Votes for Women newspapers.

BLACK FRIDAY

Princess Sophia was present on 'Black Friday', 18 November 1910. On this day, more than 300 suffragettes marched from Caxton Hall to Parliament Square and demanded to see the Prime Minister.

When the Prime Minister refused to see them and the protestors refused to disperse, the police responded with brutality. Over six hours, 200 women were physically and sexually assaulted. Two would later die from their injuries.

That day, Princess Sophia was in the vanguard with Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Emmeline Pankhurst herself. When violence erupted, the Princess rescued a suffragette from a police officer, who was treating her extremely roughly. She then pursued the officer until she discovered his identification number (V700), in order to make a formal complaint. She stated: "The policeman was unnecessarily and brutally rough and Princess Sophia hopes he will be suitably punished."

Home Secretary Winston Churchill was blamed by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for encouraging the police in their violent response — an accusation he later denied. Over 100 protesters were arrested on Black Friday, but all were released the next day without charge on Churchill's orders. The Home Secretary refused an official enquiry.

NO VOTE, NO TAX!

Sophia is even better known as a member of the Women’s Tax Reform League (WTRL), which campaigned on the principle – 'No Vote, No tax!'.

In May 1911 Sophia was summoned to court and fined £3 for keeping a man-servant, five dogs and a carriage without a licence. In 1913 she was summoned again to answer for keeping dogs and a carriage without a licence.

The Princess protested that taxation without representation was tyranny: "When the women of England are enfranchised and the state acknowledges me as a citizen I shall, of course, pay my share willingly towards its upkeep."

Sophia was fined £12 10s. with costs. Her refusal to pay resulted in some of her jewels being confiscated and auctioned at Twickenham Town Hall, when both were purchased by Miss Gertrude Eaton, The Honourable Secretary of the WTRL.

Later that year, a further diamond ring was confiscated when Sophia likewise refused to pay a fine. When auctioned the ring was bought by Mrs Jopling Rowe, who presented it back to Princess Sophia to much applause.

SISTERS IN ARMS

Sophia's older sister Catherine was also an active member of the suffrage movement and a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), which was founded in 1897.

Catherine frequently attended events promoting the Suffrage cause, and in November 1912 opened an event in Birmingham promoting 'Constitutional women's suffrage work’.

Catherine and Sophia continued to attend dinners and gatherings of the movement, even after women had won the right to vote.

WARTIME

During the First World War, the WSPU and WTRL temporarily ceased activity to support the war effort. Princess Sophia was part of the 10,000 strong Women's War Work Procession led by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1915.

During the war Sophia was particularly keen to emulate and help the thousands of Indians who were fighting for the Allied Powers. In 1916 Sophia raised money for the Red Cross selling Indian flags at Dewar House in Haymarket. She did this with other Indian women, as part of the 'Our Day' celebration of the anniversary of the British Red Cross.

In 1918, the YMCA War Emergency Committee, of which Sophia was Honourable Secretary, organised a flag day in London and later 'India Day' for the support of India's soldiers and Labour Corps. The latter event provided 50,000 huts for the comfort of Indian soldiers.

The Princess visited and even nursed troops at Brighton Pavilion and other hospitals for Indian soldiers. Many soldiers were amazed to see the Princess, and granddaughter of the famed Maharaja Ranjit Singh, in the flesh, and she gave out mementos of signed photographs and little ivory mirrors.

LATER LIFE

During the Second World War Sophia moved to Coalhatch House, Penn in Buckinghamshire with her sister Catherine. There she took in evacuees, siblings John, Michael and Shirley Sarbutt from West London.

The children remembered the stay fondly, recalling oriental ornaments, ample food and a parrot called Akbar. During air-raids they would squeeze into the air-raid shelter surrounded by the Princesses' dogs.

Princess Sophia died in her sleep on 22 August 1948. On her instructions, a full band played Wagner's 'Funeral March' at her cremation and her ashes were taken to India for burial.

LEGACY

Although not a fan of public speaking, and often anxious not to draw attention away from fellow suffragettes, Sophia's celebrity status was ultimately an important asset for the Suffragette movement.

In 1918 the Representation of the People Act gave some women over the age of 30 the right to vote in British parliamentary elections. However, this was not the end of the matter for Princess Sophia who continued to campaign for equality all her life.

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While we are in Folkestone ...

Although we were going to visit Folkestone this week anyway, it was brought forward, as a tyre was needed! However, we spent time exploring, so no time lost. Folkstone is the terminal for the Eurotunnel, the rail link to Calais in France. Just 35 minutes away it says. Needless to say, we kept away from that side of the town. Although these images were not all taken the same day, they blend together quite well, starting at the Hythe end and progressing along to Folkstone. Then a short hop to Dover.

After starting our walk from Hythe, one of the first things to catch our attention were the beach huts.

I couldn't believe that there was no system in the display. I was right, as we came across a notice advertising `Creative Folkestone Artworks`. These beach huts were part of this display which covered all areas of Folkestone. If I had only known earlier!

Rana Begum - No. 1054 Arpeggio

Commissioned for Creative Folkestone Triennial 2021 in partnership with Folkestone & Hythe District Council

No. 1054 Arpeggio is the title of Rana Begum’s extraordinary colourful design that transforms around 120 beach huts on the seafront between Folkestone and Sandgate along Lower Saxon Way. The number refers to the sequence of the artist’s completed artworks, while an ‘arpeggio’ is a sequence of notes from a chord played in a rising or descending order.

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s decision to refurbish its entire stock of beach huts presented Creative Folkestone Triennial with a challenging and idiosyncratic opportunity to commission an artist to make a major artistic statement. Rana Begum’s response to the invitation was both extremely ambitious and also generous, an astonishing blossoming of her studio practice (and its concern with geometry, colour and light) on a vast scale. Her superimposed, graduated colour scheme, and the insistent rhythm of her trademark chevron design, have turned a half-mile marching rank of beach huts into notes of colour on a keyboard, certainly one of the largest and most joyful artworks in the country.

Although No. 1054 Arpeggio is clearly an articulation of colour, it is in fact the play with light itself that is key to Rana’s work – the absorption and reflection of varied densities of light to produce an experience for the viewer that is both temporal and sensorial.She has a talent for the distillation of spatial and visual experience into ordered form, blurring the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture.

This I believe was part of the same work.

Pablo Bronstein - Beach Hut in the style of Nicholas Hawksmoor, 2014

Pablo Bronstein is one of the most exciting artists of his generation, combining interests in art and architecture with performance, installation and sculpture.

Bronstein has described his Beach Hut in the style of Nicholas Hawksmoor as a ‘monument to architecture’, paying homage to the quintessentially English architectural vocabulary of the 18th Century Baroque architect, Nicholas Hawksmoor. In the 18th Century the use of this heroic style was chosen deliberately for lighthouses along the south east coast because of the defensive nature of the line of ports and castles from Hastings to Dover. This architecture no longer exists in Folkestone, therefore Bronstein’s work will take the form of a lighthouse, filling a gap in the town’s history. Situated next to other brightly coloured beach huts on the waterfront, alongside the Council's mundane arrangements for park maintenance, Bronstein's sculpture's dramatic presence invokes a delightful and piquant sense of folly

Jason Wilsher-Mills - I Am Argonaut

In recent years Jason Wilsher-Mills has focused on using digital painting using technology such as iPad and Wacom tablets. The use of these technologies, in place of the more traditional artistic mediums, came about through the convenience and accessibility of tablets which allow him to produce large scale sculptures and augmented reality experiences, despite the physical challenges presented by his disability.

For Creative Folkestone Triennial 2021 the artist has drawn on his experience as a disabled artist to create a contemporary figurative sculpture (monumental in ambition but relatively intimate in size) – I Am Argonaut – to be placed ‘in conversation’ with the monumental statue of William Harvey, son of the Mayor of Folkestone, Royal Physician and discoverer of the circulation of the blood. This dialogue has a very particular and personal significance for Jason, since his disabilities have been caused by a disease of the blood in his childhood. For him it has been an opportunity to pay his respects to a great scientist whose studies paved the way for some of the great advances of modern medicine.

Major themes that consistently run throughout Jason’s work include his experience as a disabled person and the struggles he has endured through illness since childhood up until the present day, trying to translate his daily experiences and challenges to the audience. A major aspect of his work also focuses on the treatment and perception of disability and disabled people in society, as well as social history and the democratic process.

Mark Wallinger - Folk Stones, 2008

Mark Wallinger’s ‘Folk Stones’ at first appears like an almost banal numbering exercise, a “significant yet pointless act” as he puts it, recalling the labour of a modern-day Sisyphus. Yet the precise number of beach pebbles collected and laid out into a massive square reveals a profound underpinning: 19,240 individually numbered stones stand for the exact number of British soldiers killed on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

The work is inspired by the millions of soldiers who left from Folkestone Harbour to fight on the battlefields of France and Flanders, and is located adjacent to other older war memorials. But, by using metonymy to create the idea of a crowd ‘numberless as the pebbles on a beach’, Wallinger has created a very different form of remembrance monument in which numbers replace names.

Folkestone was the main point of departure for hundreds of thousands of soldiers leaving for the battlefields of northern France during the First World War. The poet Wilfred Owen spent a night at the Metropole hotel before embarking for France, and later described its lush carpets as being as thick as the mud in the trenches. For countless other soldiers too, Folkestone must have provided some final home comforts, and its beaches and cliffs would have been the very last glimpse of England many would ever see.

This one certainly makes you think.

Before moving along the coast to Dover, another church with an interesting story in Hythe.

The church itself was open but the crypt which houses my interest had just been shut for winter. St Leonard’s Church has the largest and best-preserved collection of ancient human skulls and bones in Britain. The collection consists of shelves in four arched bays that contain 1,000 skulls in total, and a single stack of bones and skulls measuring 7.5m in length, 1.8m in width and just over 1.8m in height. The stack of bones was reassembled on its brick base in 1910. To read more about research being conducted, Click Here. (Safe - it's an internal link!)

Dover Castle commands the Strait of Dover, the shortest sea crossing between England and continental Europe, a position of strategic importance throughout history.

Castle Hill was shaped into massive defences capped by medieval walls and towers and later, from the mid 18th century, by the earthworks of a garrisoned infantry and artillery fortress. Beneath the surface, cut into the chalk of the North Downs, are networks of tunnels to enable the garrison to move, plan and live in safety.

King Henry II began to build the present castle in the 1180s, and over the next 800 years its buildings, defences and tunnels were adapted to meet the changing demands of warfare, right into the era of nuclear weapons. Its use during C20 two great wars is as follows:

THE FIRST WORLD WAR - When Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, Dover Harbour became the home of the Royal Navy’s Dover Patrol to defend the Dover Strait, particularly against German submarines, and to protect communications for the Army in France and Flanders.

Dover had a garrison of around 16,000 troops, with the castle as headquarters, to defend a perimeter occupying the high ground around the town for up to 1.5 miles distant. Within the perimeter were many training camps for soldiers destined for the Western Front.

The harbour approaches were defended by coast defence guns, while the new threat from airships and airplanes was addressed by anti-aircraft guns, including two near St Mary in Castro. Entry to the harbour was regulated and the control building, the Fire Command Post (established in 1905) and Port War Signal Station (1914), survives in Dover Castle, with a commanding view over the Channel.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR - In 1939, Dover resumed its former role when war came again, with the castle as headquarters, but for the Army garrison defending the town, and for the re-established Royal Navy base. The empty underground casemates were re-commissioned as bomb-proof offices for the vice-admiral in charge of the naval base, and as headquarters for army units co-ordinating coast artillery and anti-aircraft defences and for the units defending the Dover fortress.

These commands expanded throughout the war, as Dover became the nearest town to enemy-occupied territory in June 1940. Vice-Admiral Ramsay’s naval headquarters played a central role in Operation Dynamo, with the evacuation of 338,226 British and Allied troops from Dunkirk.

Two new levels of tunnels were built (the old ones were now called Casemate level). The first, called Annexe, was completed early in 1942 as a small hospital. The second, called Dumpy, opened in 1943 as a Combined Operations Centre with provision for large-scale communication transmission. The latter played a significant role in Operation Neptune, the naval side of the plan for D-Day, and also in a successful deception operation known as Fortitude South, which convinced the Germans that the main invasion of Europe would be in the Calais area, not Normandy, and that it would be launched from the Dover area.

The Romans built an octagonal tower-like lighthouse (pharos) on Castle Hill. This lighthouse supported fire beacons to act as navigation lights for ships approaching the narrow river mouth, enabling them to find a quayside outside the fort. I think that this is one of only two left from that period.

The pharos was later reused for the church of St Mary in Castro as a chapel and bell tower, and can still be seen in the above image.

The church of St Mary in Castro (meaning inside the castle) dates to around AD 1000. Its exceptional size hints that it might have had a royal patron – Godwin, Earl of Wessex (r.1020–53), father of King Harold (r.1066), is one possibility. A cemetery discovered during archaeological excavations in 1962 indicated that a community lived nearby.

These were the main places we visited, although a round of Crazy Golf and some shopping mustn't be forgotten. All in in all - a great week!

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Elham in the depths of Kent

A few days during the school half term to charge the batteries before the darkness of winter descended. Although we had been to Kent before, the village of Elham was a new area and allowed us to show Hayley and Izobelle some of the places we had visited before. The village of Elham was a picturesque and a very quiet place, and the house we had for the week was very well equipped, having plenty of room and a beautiful garden. Shame it wasn`t summer time! The only minor problem was getting to anywhere else was rather slow, as all surrounding roads were so small and potholes everywhere! 

The village sign.

Our holiday house with the view from part way down the garden.

Looking toward the bottom of the garden.

View of St Mary`s Church from the bedroom window.

The village itself was full of historic buildings. After the Conquest, William I granted the Elham estates to his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and, following Odo’s disgrace, to William d' Aubigny. Later John, Earl of Eu, a relative of the Conqueror, established himself in Elham by building a palace near to St. Mary's Church.

South view of the current 800 year old, Grade 1 listed building. The porch has just undergone additions of new doors, toilet facilities with baby changing, new access aids and also fitted new central heating. All paid for by donation! Brilliant! Obviously an important hub for this pretty village.

The rectangular piers of both north and south arcades with their pointed arches and boldly carved stops are of late C12 date. Between them hang some C18 text boards. The character of the church is given in the main by late C19 and early C20 work. Typical of many of our churches.

Nearby, in the main street, sits `The Abbot's Fireside`- originally built as an inn called the Smithie’s Arms in 1451. The pub still retains features from the 15th and 16th centuries - including a huge medieval fireplace. It was sold in 1671 and some time after was converted into four cottages. This remained the case until the tavern was re-opened in 1939 and at some point before 1965, the inn’s name was changed to the Abbot’s Fireside.

It has its share of legend. One being that King Charles II hid from the Roundheads in a “priest hole” within the main fireplace, and another being that the Duke of Wellington is reported to have been based here before the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Who knows? but it adds to the atmosphere.

Timber framed Old Bakery. It consisted of a house and shop dated around C18 or earlier, with C18 alterations. This is in the Square, Elham and illustrates some of the beautiful buildings in Elham.

One of the lanes running past the church. Obviously someone with a sense of humour!

And finally, it's Halloween soon!

A great place to stay and to explore. As for those narrow, potholed roads I mentioned - it's off to Folkestone and Hythe tomorrow to get a tyre replaced. Just what we needed!

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