Secret places in Colchester

I can't concerntrate on anything at the moment..

My sweet friend is in the St Helena Hospice...

So on this grey day I took myself off into Colchester to meet up with the girls at the Contemporary Craft group meeting held at the Firstsite gallery in Eld Lane. (More about that another time).
On my journey into town, I wander up Queen St, to my right is St Botolphs church it just peeps through the buildings, looking very grey and austere.....As luck would have it  I had my camera with me today.....And...No, I don't know the man in the hat!

 

Continue walking down towards it and your in for a treat.

I love the doorway it smiles at you in an upside down way... Inviting you to come and have a peek...

The surprise is when you round the corner to the left...

 

It is an wonderful early Norman  priory, built in flint and reused Roman brick, the church displays massive circular pillars and round arches and an elaborate west front.

The Priory was granted a charter by William Rufus, son of William the Conqueror, in C.1100. (He is buried in Winchester Cathedral if you needed to know).

It was the first House of the Augustinian Order in England

At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries the Priory suffered badly and in 1536 was largely demolished. 

It was later badly damaged by cannon fire during the Civil War siege of 1648. 

All that history..... And it's just around the corner from my bus stop.... How amazing is that!

Colchester never ceases to amaze me, how lucky I am to live just 20 minutes or so from all of this fabulous history and architecture... Inspiring... Collagraph knife at the ready...

A castle and an ancient house...

We went to a wedding at the weekend......It was wonderful, a candle lit ceremony  held in Heddingham castle, which was build in 1140AD,  it is still owned and lived in by the descendants of the original owners, the 
de Vere family. 

The reception was held in the the Queen Anne House, which was constructed in 1720. 

Everything was perfect....a fairytale wedding.

 

Now let's get on with the important stuff, I know that your not interested in my friends wedding... Lovely as it was...

 

..So... here are some of the amazing pictures all painted on wood several hundred years ago, they still look as fresh and as the day they were painted. Don't you just love this guy above, he was my favorite. 

Wouldn't you love to know their stories, just sitting there on the walls watching us....I know I would.

The house is not usually open to visitors so we felt very privileged to see them...

Lastly... I couldn't resist showing you this lion who helps prop up the mantle-shelf, how great is he? He looked as if he'd been carved last year instead of almost 400 years ago.  I think he looks a bit like an ape... with human cheeks... I don't suppose the stone masons of the time saw many lions....

Now as you may have guessed I want to paint on wood... another thing to add to my ever growing list of things to do...

Ps.  

You should see the bathrooms.... Amazing....and bigger than my lounge!!! 

...I'm now off to get more needles stuck into my neck.... my final acupuncture treatment... I hope that it works this time. No doll making or painting today, more's the pity.

Ipswich

I finally got to Ipswich to take a look at the Suffolk Craft Society Christmas Exhibition which was lovely so many things to look at, so many things that I wish I could afford, and all set in the wonderful Town Hall building.

The stair way in the entrance hall

Looking in to the Suffolk Craft exhibition

View of the market from the steps of the Town Hall

This is the building used by Lakeland plastics
- its a shop that sells kitchen paraphernalia

We also went in to a very posh shop that sold amazing things at even more amazing prices, but the best thing was the building that it was in, it was so old, a very crooked ancient house that was fascinating, so we had a good look around, mainly at the building and it's construction. (As we couldn't afford the furniture or the one off designer clothes, which we would have loved.) Then in the attic we came across these amazing wall stencils that had apparently been done at least two hundred years ago- according to the man in the shop.

'You never know what you might find' is our new catch phrase, we are planning a new adventure to find hidden gems in our local buildings..... I will keep you posted.. perhaps in another blog?