Images of Ipswich waterfront

The Ipswich waterfront has been transformed in recent years and is a now a thriving area with eating places, flats, the Dance East studio and, of course, the UCS. These first few images are looking across the harbour toward the UCS and old Custom House. A great place to have a stroll and large enough to hold successful public event, which are now quite frequent.

Looking across the harbour toward the UCS and old Custom House.

Two views of the massive building, (The old Mill House) housing the Jerwood Dancehouse. Due to be opened in September, the £8.9m Jerwood Dance House, is a major new international centre for dance developed by DanceEast. It will be the first cultural development to be opened in Ipswich in over a decade and provides 2,500 square metres of dance facilities at the heart of a £70m renewal programme in Ipswich. The centre will offer free taster workshops over its opening weekend including Egyptian belly dancing, ballet, hip hop, and musical theatre, to encourage Ipswich residents to get involved in dance. 

Ipswich eyesore, as the locals call it. Waiting to be redeveloped, as is scheduled in the not too distant future. 

Windows symmetry

Reflections on the waterfront.

University of Suffolk. 

At the time these picture were taken it was the University Campus Suffolk (UCS) and was established in 2007. Because UCS did not have degree-awarding powers, its students received their degrees from either the University of East Anglia or the University of Essex via a cooperative agreement] The institution was later granted degree-awarding powers by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in November 2015, and in May 2016 it was awarded University status by the Privy Council. As a consequence, UCS was renamed The University of Suffolk in August 2016 and began awarding degrees in its own right.

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Adam and Nana share a story

This is three year old Adam, at Nana`s house asking Nana a question! He is a lovely child and, like all three year olds, full of questions. Rightly so.

Not sure now what the question was, but he decided to have a snack and ask Nana.

Nana started to explain the answer to him, and Adam smiled and appeared happy with the answer

Very happy it appears as they both had a laugh!

 Then came the " what if?" ....

.... followed by the " I think Nana is stumped Grandad"!

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Lindisfarne or Holy Island

Holy Island has a very special place in history as the birthplace of the Lindisfarne Gospels, among the most celebrated illuminated books in the world. 

According to an inscription added in the 10th century at the end of the original text, the manuscript was made in honour of God and of St. Cuthbert by Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who died in 721. 

Eadfrith played a major part in establishing Cuthbert's cult after his relics had been raised to the altar of the monastery church on 20th March, 698, the eleventh anniversary of his death. The Gospels may have been made in honour of that event.

The book's original leather binding was provided by Ethelwald, who followed Eadfrith as bishop and died about 740. He had been associated with Cuthbert in his lifetime. An outer covering of gold, silver and gemstones was added by Billfrith the Anchorite, probably about the middle of the 8th century. 

Both covers have long since vanished but the manuscript itself has survived the thirteen centuries associated with Cuthbert's relics at Durham during the Middle Ages and preserved from destruction after the Reformation through the scholarly interest of Tudor antiquaries. 

The Lindisfarne Gospels is now part of the collection of Sir Robert Cotton, (d. 1631), in the British Library in London, where it is seen by visitors from all over the world.

Lindisfarne Castle is really two buildings; the comfortable Edwardian holiday home with the Lutyens features and the cosy atmosphere is the obvious one as it is what we see today. But hiding behind all this is the old fort, dating from Tudor times and taking up three quarters of the Castle's history.

Lindisfarne Castle as we know it first appears in about 1550, but wasn't in any completed state until 1570. For the next three hundred years, the fort (as it was known then) was home to temporary garrisons of soldiers on detachment from the larger force based at nearby Berwick. Their main job was to man the guns, watch the horizon for trouble, and try and stave of boredom with gunnery practice. Aside from a couple of incidents, the Castle could be said to have had a quiet military history through this period. The fact it was still standing when Edward Hudson discovered it in 1901 is testament to that. His friend the architect Edwin Lutyens was soon to dramatically change the building over the next few years, from a fort to a holiday home.

Another view of the castle.

On the grass area near the sea, we stumbled upon, what looks like the work of many busy children! Near the castle entrance, there are also some fascinating sheds, now owned by the National Trust. See BELOW

Local fishermen on Holy Island apparently considered it a sin to send boats to the junkyard. They instead found a way to transform their old herring boats into perfect little storage sheds for their nets, tools, and other equipment. Tip them over and use them as sheds!

Very clever indeed.

Looking toward the ruins of the Priory.

Why Holy Island? Lindisfarne was the name given to the Island by the first Anglo-Saxons to live here and we don`t know the meaning of the word. But the monks of Durham, after the Norman conquest, added the words Holy Island when they looked back over the story which began with the coming of Saint Aidan and the building of the first monastery in 635 AD, continued with the ministry of the "very popular" Saint Cuthbert and then received a staggering blow from the Viking attack in 793. 

The period of the first monastery is referred to as the "Golden Age" of Lindisfarne. Aidan and his monks came from the Irish monastery of Iona and with the support of King Oswald (based at nearby Bamburgh) worked as missionaries among the pagan English of Northumbria. In their monastery they set up the first known school in this area and introduced the arts of reading and writing, the Latin language and the Bible and other Christian books (all in Latin). They trained boys as practical missionaries who later went out over much of England to spread the Gospel. Aidan also encouraged women to become nuns and girls to receive education but not in this monastery. In time Lindisfarne became known for its skill in Christian art of which the Lindisfarne Gospels are the most beautiful surviving example.

After the Norman Conquest (1066) the Benedictine monks of Durham possessed the undecayed body (?) of St.Cuthbert and saw themselves as the inheritors of the Lindisfarne tradition. Here on the Island they built the second monastery, a small Benedictine house staffed by Durham monks. This monastery was beset by a number of troubles, especially during the border wars between England and Scotland. It was finally dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536. 

The ruins of the second monastery can be seen on the Island today. The first monastery, originally built entirely in wood, has disappeared.

Let's have lunch, watched over by St Cuthbert.

A manuscript copy of the Gospel of St John, the St Cuthbert Gospel was produced in the North East of England in the late 7th century and was placed in St Cuthbert’s coffin on Lindisfarne, apparently in 698. The Gospel was found in the saint’s coffin at Durham Cathedral in 1104. It has a beautifully worked original red leather binding in excellent condition, and it is the only surviving high-status manuscript from this crucial period in British history to retain its original appearance, both inside and out.

In 2012 The British Library has announced that it has successfully acquired (For £9 million) the St Cuthbert Gospel, a miraculously well-preserved 7th century manuscript that is the oldest European book to survive fully intact and therefore one of the world’s most important books. 

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Bamburgh Castle

Bamburgh written history begins in the times of the Anglo-Saxons with one chronicler citing Bamburgh as probably the most important place in all of England. But even before this there were people living here, there is archaeological evidence that as early as 10,000 BC there were people here. There are Bronze Age (2,400 -700BC) burials nearby and pottery sherds dating to the Iron Age (700 BC – 43 AD). With little evidence of their occupation only the name Din Guayrdi gives us a hint that Romans were sometime between 43 AD and 410 AD. 

Spanning nine acres of land on its rocky plateau high above the Northumberland coastline Bamburgh is one of the largest inhabited castles in the country. 

Patterns on the seashore, made by the retreating water.

As the castle is in fact privately owned, we were restricted as to where we could roam, but I managed a few images to give a sense of the scale of this `private residence` !

Hopefully these are not needed anymore.

This bell was in the grounds but I am unable to find why it was there. The names on it are all churchmen of 1800`s.

It was during the early medieval period between 411 AD and 1066 AD that Bamburgh grew in stature and importance. With the arrival of the Saxons, the creation of an important Christian site and the coming and going of the saints Oswald, Aidan and Cuthbert, it was a pivotal time. Following this period we saw the arrival of the Normans and the construction of our Great Tower, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses with the siege of 1464. The arrival of the Foster family, gifted the ruins by James 1 with the subsequent acquisition by Lord Crewe and the formation of the Crewe Trustees. A resurgence in stature as under the guidance of John Sharpe the castle became a leading surgery and dispensary for the poor and sick. 

Finally the castle passed into the hands of the First Lord Armstrong, with the intention of creating a respite home he passed away before its restoration was complete and became the Armstrong family home. It is still owned by the Armstrong Family who opened it up to visitors in the mid 1900’s and remains to this day an icon of the North East of England.

War memorial in Bamburgh. Portland stone cross with figure mounted on square plinth. Set within a rocky niche which has bronze plaques set into it. Designed by Messrs Hicks and Charewood with sculpture by Mr Milburn. Unveiled 1921

According to Bede, St Aidan built a wooden church outside the castle wall in AD 635, and he died here in AD 652; (a wooden beam preserved inside the church is traditionally said to be the one on which he rested as he died). The present church dates from the late 12th century (though some pre-conquest stonework survives in the north aisle). The chancel, said to be the second longest in the country (60 ft), was added in 1230; it contains an 1895 reredos in Caen stone by W.S. Hicks, depicting northern saints of the 7th and 8th centuries. 

For the uninitiated, a reredos is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images.

The church contains a 14th-century tomb recess with an effigy of a Knight. There are wall monuments to: Sir Claudius Forster, 1st Baronet of 1623, the Forster family of 1711, the Sharpe memorial 1839 by Chantrey. 

The north aisle contains an effigy of local heroine Grace Darling dating from 1844 by Charles Raymond Smith. This formed part of the original Monument to Grace Darling in the churchyard but was later replaced due to deterioration of the stonework. The memorial is placed so that it can be seen by passing ships

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Berwick-Upon-Tweed

Berwick-upon-Tweed sits at the most northerly tip of Northumberland, just 3 miles from the Scottish Border. A coastal town with four sandy beaches and beautiful riverside walks, Berwick is perfectly situated for a relaxing break and a haven for walkers and cyclists.

This peaceful town is a far cry from Berwick's turbulent past; Berwick’s great Elizabethan walls were built to keep invading Scots from entering the town. Apparently, artist L.S. Lowry was a regular visitor to Berwick but I saw no matchstick people on my visit! 

There is no doubt that Berwick can claim the distinction of being the Border Town, as it has changed hands between England and Scotland thirteen times. Its history is inextricably tied up with the struggle for the Anglo-Scottish frontier. Berwick, with an English name meaning ‘Corn Farm or trading place’ began as a small settlement in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria, in which it remained until the Battle of Carham of 1018 when it was taken by the Scots. From then on Berwick became a hotly disputed territory. In 1174 Berwick was retaken by England in a ransom following the failure of a raid into Northumberland by the Scottish king, William the Lion. 

The town returned to the northern side of the border in the reign of Richard I (1189-1199), who sold it to obtain money for the Crusades. At the beginning of the following century Berwick returned once more to England, after Richard’s brother, King John sacked the town, but Berwick continued to change hands until 1482 when the town finally became part of England within which it still (technically) remains. 

A Town Hall has stood on this site since at least the 16th century. Begun in 1750, this building stands majestically at the south end of Marygate. Until the 1830s, the Guild of Freemen governed civic affairs in Berwick from this building. 

The Town Hall was the hub of the town's municipal life and is still used for Town Council Meetings. There is a public function room that was used as a courtroom, and the gaol which is located on the building's second floor and remains virtually unchanged since it was last used in 1849.

A quaint cobbled street

Archway over a cobbled road leading into the town, through the Elizabethan wall.

Berwick-upon-Tweed `Old Bridge`

The iconic Royal Border Bridge, built by Robert Stevenson and one of the finest bridges of its kind in the world, apparently!

Royal Tweed Bridge

Berwick's town walls are among its most famous piece of architecture and still stand strong today, hundreds of years after they were built. Berwick actually has two sets of walls, the first set (of which only fragments now remain), commenced by Edward I, was two miles long. The later Elizabethan Walls (which are still complete) are a mile and a-quarter in length. The ramparts completely surround the town, with four gates through which entry to the town is enabled.

Berwick's Elizabethan Walls are the only example of bastioned town walls in Britain and one of the best preserved examples in Europe. When built in 1558 - designed to keep out the marauding Scots who regularly laid claim to the town - it was the most expensive undertaking of England's Golden Age. It is only 2.5 miles from the border! 

The walls were built to an Italian design and contained bastions which were designed to allow gunfire covering every part of the wall. Outside the curtain wall and bastions, there were wide water-filled ditches to deter potential invaders. 

The Church of the Holy Trinity is a Church of England parish church in the center of Berwick-upon-Tweed and is a rare example of a church built in the Commonwealth era. 

In 1641, King Charles I gave money to replace the dilapidated old church in Berwick. In the following year, however, the Civil War began. Despite this, more money was collected and stone for building the church was taken from the old Berwick Castle. In 1650 John Young of Blackfriars, a London mason, was contracted to build the new church, and by 1652 the church was complete. This makes it one of the very few churches to have been built during the Commonwealth of England; other examples include Ninekirks, Holy Trinity, Staunton Harold and St Matthias Old Church in Poplar, London. 

The design of the church is based on that of St Katharine Cree in London. It has a side aisle on each side of the nave, and the arcades are of the Tuscan order. The church was built with no chancel, altar, organ, tower or bells. However the church interior was surrounded by galleries on all four walls. 

In 1660, two years after the Restoration of the Monarchy, John Cosin, Bishop of Durham, consecrated the church. He demanded that a chancel should be built at the east end to accommodate a communion table. However, this was not done until 1855 when the present chancel was built and many original Gothic windows were redesigned in the Classical style. The 1855 west window is particularly fine and includes 16th- and 17th-century Flemish roundels formerly in the private chapel of the Duke of Buckingham at Canons Park, Middlesex. 

Well it is warm sitting here!. Seen in the car park near our vehicle.

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