Tag Archives: Southwell Minster

The Longest Day

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It was an active start to the day, with both of us needing to do things today, in contrast to our normal relaxed Wednesday starts. Let’s face it, all my starts are relaxed these days, even the ones where I take Julia to work – even on those I amble down, eat the breakfast she has prepared and do a bit of cardio by shouting at other drivers on the road. This experience has recently been enhanced by a number of road closures, which gives me a lot more scope for vocal exercises.

Julia had to go to Southwell Minster with one of the neighbours. I had to go to the garage.

Julia’s day involved a queue to get into the Minster, followed by a slow semi-queue as she went round an exhibition, and another queue on the way back when they were stuck in a jam waiting for the emergency services to clear cars from a collision. They were stuck for an hour, but the driver made up time and they were only have an hour late getting back to town, though slightly scared by the driving.

On arriving home late, and finding me still out, she texted twice and rang once to see where i was. When she texted the first time I was just pulling out of the garage in my newly fixed car. When she rang, I was in a queue at roadworks with a police car behind me. Neither are good places to answer phone messages.

The story with the car (I think I told you about the neighbour knocking the housing off my wing mirror) is that they were able to use the original parts (last time someone hit it a following car ran the bits over before I could get back to them), reconnect the electrics, stick on a new mirror glass (£30 for a small bit of mirror glass!) and get me through the MOT. You can pass the MOT without a nearside mirror, but if the mirror is designed to hold your repeater indicator, you can’t. Madness in both logic and design, as I had a perfectly good indicator in each corner. I don’t know why you need side repeaters.

Julia, meanwhile, had enjoyed most of her day. It is the 140th Anniversary of Southwell Minster being declared a cathedral. They also have a visiting exhibition – 80 scenes from D-Day to celebrate the 80th Anniversary. So far, I hear you say, so good. But what made it worth queuing for. Well, it’s an international cooperation between knitters. Yes, all 80 scenes are constructed by knitting. However, I suppose you can tell that from the pictures.

The pictures are, of course, a knitted homage to D-Day 6th June 1944. The lighting wasn’t great, the cases were reflective, and the processional nature of the exhibit prevented too much stopping or any going back, so she is apologetic about the images. They are better than I could have managed in the circumstances, so I am happy with them. There will be more tomorrow.

Hard Day at the Shop

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Obviously “hard” is a comparative term. Six hours sitting in a heated shop packing parcels and chatting to customers is not hard compared to some of my previous jobs, and they weren’t hard compared to working on a trawler or building skyscrapers.

However, from starting to finishing, there was scarcely a moment when we didn’t have a customer in, often two or three at a time.  We sold quite a lot in the morning, spent over £1,000 buying during the afternoon and ended up selling some more. We did all this with just two people as the boss was off at the York Coin Fair. We often have busy days when he’s away.

Souvenir Medal Castle Rising Norfolk

Souvenir Medal Castle Rising Norfolk

This is one of the medallions we put on eBay. At this sort of magnification you can clearly see  the reflection of my camera and a large quantity of dust. It’s not a stunning level of professionalism is it?

Southwell Minster Souvenir Medallion

Southwell Minster Souvenir Medallion

I see we’ve already sold seven items on eBay, so we will have to get a move on, as the Post Office closes at noon.

Stone Faces of Southwell

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We had a walk round the outside of Southwell Minster yesterday. We’ve never looked round the outside properly before, and we didn’t have time for a full tour.

The Minster is actually the cathedral for the Diocese of Nottingham, but it keeps the old title as part of what seems to be a policy of keeping itself hidden. Even its own website refers to it as ” the best kept secret among the forty-two English cathedrals”.

As The Association of English Cathedrals lists 44 on its website I have a suspicion that there are two English Cathedrals that are kept even more secret than Southwell. This might be explained by the presence of Royal Peculiars in the longer list. But it may not. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is full of examples of why it’s a good thing to keep out of church business, so I’m not going to dig any deeper.

Ram’s head gargoyle – Southwell Minster
Pig Gargoyle – Southwell Minster
Fish Gargoyle

Seen from the winding country roads that serve Southwell, it is a breath-taking building. I will cover it more fully in the Spring, when the light is better for photography, but for now, here is a selection from the carvings scattered around the outside, some from the 12th century, some from more modern restorations.

The ones at ground level are on the wall of the Bishop’s Palace, though I’m not sue if they started off there.

The ones from the Minster look quite crisp so I suspect they are from recent restoration work.

Carved head – Southwell Minster
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Carved head – Southwell Minster
Carvings on the Bishop’s Palace – Southwell

To round off the visit we visited the tearoom for parsnip soup with artisan bread from Welbeck. Unfortunately, for a man looking forwards to a chunk of traditional bread, it was a rather thin panini that arrived, cut to a point at one end then baked crisp before serving. It was more like a crusty weapon that a meal. The soup was excellent though.

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Soup and a dangerous panini

The misty effect was unintended, it was actually condensation on the lens as the warm air of the cafe met the cold of the camera. The perspective makes the bread look bigger than it really was, and the soup bowl look smaller. That’s what happens when a hungry man decides to photograph his food.