Thursday.

Just got back from a few days away. Drove up to the Norfolk Coast on Monday. Stayed at a farmhouse a few hundred yards from the North Sea, near Happisberg (pronounced Hazeburgh - this is in accordance with the one invariable rule of English pronunciation, which is, of course, to confuse foreigners !).  Just been looking through the photos taken, and really, instead of round towered churches in abundance, huge fields and early flowers, decided to concentrate on this one building. It is Burgh Castle, built a few miles inland from what is now Great Yarmouth. It was built by the Romans circa the year 300 A.D. and abandoned a century later, i.e. about fifty years before the Romans deserted us to the mercies of uncivilised Angles, Saxons and Norsemen. The side of this incredible building nearest to the broad river, which was the harbour of the 'castle' has long since fallen into the river, but the other three walls are still standing, much as the Romans left them.

They are around fifteen feet high, which is roughly the original height of them.

The place is known as Burgh Castle, but it is not so much a castle, as the town walls of a fairly large, well organised,  settlement.

There is a circular walk of around a mile to get from the car park to the 'Castle' then back to the Car Park, via the round towered Church. I warn you though, it is what used to be known as a 'Norfolk mile'. There were very few people about, and we had the place more or less to ourselves. Well worth the effort.  There are a good many Castles along the Suffolk coast, and I've always wanted to visit this one, which is easily the earliest of them. And we've finally done it.

I'm now going to have a look at Burgh Castle on Google, and will amend any details I've got wrong.

Friday.

This morning we motored down into Essex (Halstead) to attend a meeting of the Highdale U3A Collector's Club. After an early lunch (a very light one- our own choice) at the end of the meeting with the Club, we motored home and decided to make a short detour to have another look at the Little Maplestead Round Church. There are four of these strange little buildings in England, and one in Scotland - which is in ruins.
     The Little Halstead one is a pretty little building, which has been (according to the guidebook in the Church) in its present form since around the year 1240.

The top photo is of the west end of the Church. The lower one is of  the South side of the Church. It's well worth a visit. It can be found by running North from Sudbury, and a few miles south of Halstead, turning right towards Little Maplestead, where the church may be found in a tangle of lanes.

     There is a WW1 memorial inside the Church on the North side wall - only three men of the village  died in that war (which is the least I've ever seen!!!!!). Later we talked to an elderly man, working in the churchyard  (he described himself as the general dogsbody of the church) and he said this was because the whole surrounding area is agricultural, and farm working was a protected (?) occupation, all of this was true enough; but I know of far too many country churches in similar circumstances which have twenty or so names on the WW1 memorial.  He also told us that most Sundays the congregation consists of between twelve and fifteen people, even now.

     Ann is calling me up to supper, so must close now.

Thursday.

Our young siskin (probably a last year's bird) was back just after mid day today. It appears to be a hen bird - no trace yet of a dark cap or 'beard', but otherwise very nicely marked. Still very much on its own, too (which is a little worrying).  Will keep an eye out for further sightings, although they're usually around for a very few days,  a little later in the year than this.

Tuesday.

Been very busy today, working on an early Dutch flintlock pistol, which is in need of fairly major restoration. May show it on blog (if I make a good enough job of it).

Just before lunch decided I needed a break so took the camera, set it at fairly long range, and waited in the kitchen window for birds. The  wren in the lower picture turned up first. They're easy to spot, despite their small size,  in that when the eyes are adjusted for movement a wren moves like a mouse, and the movement shows up.

The bird in the top picture I took for a greenfinch, but when I'd developed the photo, and judging by his size, I'm fairly sure he's a young  siskin. They usually move in groups, though, and this chap was on his own. He'll probably be about for  a day or so,so will keep an eye out for him, and, hopefully, his relations.

Ann's just gone up to bed,  so must follow her good example: So

                                           Goodnight every one.

Thursday (2)

Two more pictures of this week's mystery object to try and give a better idea of the size of the item.

Thursday.

                                                   This Week's Mystery Object.
                                                    _______________________

The object is three and a quarter inches high, and two and a half inches across the mouth.

I have had it for some years having bought it from a dealer in antiquities. He told me that it was dug up in South Suffolk in the 1970s. The main body of the item has a waisted (or concave) line to it, that doesn't seem to show in the photoes (well not much). It is made of  'sheet metal', sits very well in the hand, and is of an elegant simplicity.
This object is of a serious 'ask' in that I only know what I was told at the time of purchase, although I've learned quite a bit since then; but I'd appreciate any information you can give, or indeed any opinions you can give.
When do you think it was made, where was it made, and its purpose?
                                       _______________________________

                                    Good guessing, and Good Night to you all.

Sunday.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but a week or three ago your blogger was having a winge about the fact that there don't seem to be as many early clocks craving the attention of a keen antiquarian Horologist as there used to be. Well, since then the situation seems to have picked up a bit, and I've been hard at work on the work bench on them both. They are both simple Black Forest clocks, mainly built of wood.  Wooden plates, wheel arbours, etc., and both fairly unsophisticated artifacts. Both, too, are quite attractive in their simplicity.  Both are now ticking away again, but there's a good deal of work to be done still, mainly of a cosmetic nature.

I've also got what sounds like an early (circa 1660-70) flintlock pistol in the offing requiring fairly major restoration.  So I'm now potentially quite busy again - for the next few weeks anyway, which is the way I like things.

                                                     ______________________________

                                                     Good Night, everyone.

Monday.

 All three photographs here are of the same item. It is an English version of a so called 'Nuremberg kitchen'. For those of you with good memories, yes, you have seen it before. I used it as a blog entry a few years ago (say three or four). I think it was probably 'estate made' i.e. by the estate carpenter of a village manor house, for the squire's daughter, NOT as a toy, but as a reference work, and  instructional tool to acquaint a young girl with her coming housewifely duties.  I bought it (the cabinet, I should say) some years prior to that on the Lincolnshire showground at Newark (at that time a massive antique fair). The cabinet was  empty, save for the tinned iron cooking range in the chimney piece, and a built in cupboard or so. Since then we've redecorated the kitchen, I've done a good many necessary repairs, and we've kept an eye out for well made miniature household items to furnish it. When we considered it complete, we were coming up to Ann's seventieth birthday (so it was six years ago) and I'd not found a birthday present for her, so asked her what she wanted. At the time I was considering an offer I'd had  for the above item, and it turned out that what Ann wanted was NOT to sell the kitchen with the maids' bedroom above it, but to keep it:  so I gave it to her as a birthday present. Before that time, I'd been treating it as potential stock; so then we carried on furnishing it.

Now, if you look at the top photo, there are two rooms; the lower one a complete kitchen, and the upper one a well fitted out bed chamber.

This is much the same photograph but with the doors open. Everything on the kitchen range is working, even the tap on the left of the fire bars in the  range can be turned so that water trickles out of the tank to the left of the range, and every one of the copper kettles and saucepans are tinned inside so that if used the young mistress would not suffer from copper-poisoning (in other words, if the young lady desired a dolls' tea party, it would be quite feasible, in theory).

Almost all of the metal items are of copper, brass, iron, or pewter. Most of them are of early nineteenth century date, although some of the pewter is rather earlier. Easily the earliest item is shown to the extreme right of the second photo on the upper floor. It is a guilt brass miniature casket, and dates from a few years either side of the year 1600. I purchased it at the Long Melford Antique Fair about three or four years ago.

The photo above shows a close up of the right hand side of the kitchen (the lower floor). A pretty good idea of scale can be got from this picture. The two candlesticks on the table top are both just under two inches high, and the clay pipe on the table top is just over an inch long. It could, of course, be smoked. In front of it is a brass candle snuffer dating from about the year 1790, and less than an inch long. As I've never been able to find a snuffer tray small enough for the snuffers, I eventually made one to complete the birthday present; Ann didn't seem to mind. It's the only piece of metal ware in the  'English Nuremberg kitchen' that I made. All the rest is original.

                                                     
                                           Good Night All.

Thursday.

This really is the last rose of summer (last summer that is).  Been watching it as a tiny bud since a week or so before Christmas. Realised this morning that it is now in full flower. The garden has snowdrops in profusion, a few daffs, four different colours of hellebore (Christmas Rose) one or two crocii, a quince bush(japonica) full of white flowers, and one last rose illustrated above. Our small garden is now giving us flowers the  year round!

P.s. Roses in flower through from April to January.

monday.

This is a sort of continuation of yesterday's blog entry. Above photo shows Ann holding up a photograph of herself as a baby.

Above photo is of meself  holding a seventy year old photo of meself (to left of photograph) and Crowbard, to the right.

Sunday.

No, these are not 'Mystery Objects'. Just been sorting through some old photos, and came across these two. If anyone thinks they recognise them (and I think my offspring might if they  see this blog entry)  when do you think they were taken?

Been out to lunch today with friend Heather. When Heather 'phoned a week or two ago to invite us, she asked Ann if she thought I'd mind being the only bloke.  Ann said she thought I wouldn't, and how right she was. I don't think any man in his right mind would mind that. Anyway, in the end, the score turned out to be six ladies and meself.  A good time was had by all (except that I broke a wine glass - very embarassing!)    Hostess Heather behaved perfectly though, as she always does, bless her- that reads as if I break Heather's wineglasses regularly, and I didn't mean that at all, this was the first time I can remember doing it. Must try not to let it become a habit.

                                       ______________________________

Ann's just gone up, so I suppose I'd better join her.
                    Good Night, everyone.

Thursday.

At about ten o'clock yesterday evening, whilst putting the car away, I realised there was a lovely clear moon. On Christmas day I realised there was a full moon and took a photograph of it which pleased me, which I thought was something of a fluke, so I got my camera and photographed last night's  moon, quite successfully I think, and using the same method as on Christmas day, except that I used the garden gate to keep the camera steady.

This morning we took the clock movement I illustrated on my previous blog back to its home, replaced it in its case, and set it going. The owner was pleased to have it back, and allowed Ann to photograph me with clock in situ,  to give some idea of what a tiny, but well proportioned clock it is.

                                                    ______________________

On our way home we stopped and had lunch with friends Jill and Keith (fellow antique dealers). Bought from Keith a very nice eighteenth century brass chamber candlestick which needs a small amount of restoration (some of which I've done this evening - it's good to keep busy).

                                                   Good night everyone.

Monday.

I don't seem to be working on clocks quite so much as I used, more on early guns and mechanical antiques generally; but this past weekend I've been working on the above long case clock movement. It's an English thirty hour clock about two hundred and fifty years old. I've had to find a clock rope of the correct size,  and splice it. It seems to be running nicely. I then had to dismantle, clean and polish the dial, resilver the chapter ring and, then relacquer  the dial. The movement lives in its original oak case, which is under six foot high, but as the dial (original to the case and movement) is only ten inches square (on a taller clock it would be a twelve inch square dial) it is a well proportioned neat little clock which I've know for ten years or so (since I sold it to its present owner in fact). It's been very satisfying to work on.  

                                                 __________________________________

Saturday.

Walked into town yesterday morning to do a little shopping , and stopped for a coffee. As you can see from the above snapshot of Saint Mary's Church, it was a fine, sunny morning. It was cold though, with the wind in the North. Still, that doesn't matter too much at this time of year, as long as it's bright and sunny.

The two (above and below) photographs are both of a short, sturdy (16 inch barrel) coaching carbine which I bought in December at Bonham's, and have been cleaning and putting into good, working order since then. It was built around 1780, by Robert Wogdon, who was born in 1734, apprenticed to Edward Newton in Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1748, and then worked in London as a gunmaker until his death in 1813, at the age of 79. It has a very thick barrel, as can be seen from the next photograph.  The odd  thing is that Robert Wogdon is best remembered for making very high quality, sophisticated pairs of duelling pistols.

In view of that it is all the more surprising that he was still prepared to make this sort of solid, workmanlike  tool.

                                                   Goodnight everyone.
                                                   _________________

Thursday.

Quick snapshot of the first snow here for the last three winters, taken a few minutes ago.   Our garden using flash. Gives a fair idea of the weather.

                                          Good night, everyone.

Thursday.

Very short blog entry, but must record that just after midday yesterday , for perfectly good reasons which I won't go into because it would spoil the story, I found meself telephoning home to Ann :-
"Hello Darling. I'm in Felsham Post Office. Where aught I to be?"

Shades of G.K. Chesterton?

Saturday.

Above is a snapshot of Hilary, meself and Ann, taken by David Atkins. Hilary is, as you can see, at the same time taking a snapshot of David Atkins taking a snapshot of H..............Oh well, I'm sure you get the idea. We are in a nearby Golf Club, having the Christmas Lunch held annually by the Highdale Mothers' Union. I am there because all the Mothers are allowed (even expected) to take a partner. After all, if the mothers didn't have partners, they probably wouldn't have become mothers in the first place, although I'm told that it isn't altogether necessary to stick to the traditional methods these days, although I'm glad I'm a traditionalist. The meal is invariably traditional, though, and all the better for that- choice of roast beef or turkey, with all the tradional fixings. There were ten of us at our table, and we all know each other, so the conversation flowed like the wine. Although at one point I made a bit of a booboo, I'm afraid. The lady to Hilary's right is Ruth, who, although as well smitten in years as the rest of us, still continues (professionally) to do very complex (and quite exquisite) embroidery, so of course, I asked her what she'd been doing lately? "Oh", she said, "I'm afraid I've been spending rather too much time in Ladbroke's of late."  Now, this rather surprised me, because, although Ruth is a thoroughly sporting old darling, I wouldn't have thought she'd know one end of a horse from the other.
 "Ah", I said, by way of giving her a let-out if she needed it "And have you broken even, or have the bookies skinned you?"   This seemed to stop her in her tracks, and it became obvious that she was floundering.
"Tell you what, Ruth," I said  "Let's start this conversation again. Where did you say you'd been spending a lot of time lately?"
"I said, I've been spending a lot of time in Addenbrooke's of late. What did you think I'd said?"

So I told her, and she joined in the general laugh, bless her.

There are times when it's quite fun being deaf.

                                          _________________________

                                             Good night, Everyone.

Tuesday.

 This morning had to go into town to our local opticians to have my annual eye check up. Got there a bit early so sat and chatted to various acquaintance, swapping 'what we did over Christmas' stories'. Very pleasant too. Then went in to see the eye specialist, and all went well, until he looked at the x ray pictures he'd taken of the back of my eyes, as a totally new service they provide. Then his face dropped a bit, and he spotted something he wasn't very happy with, and decided he'd like to take more x ray pictures and have a think about matters. Would tomorrow be alright ? he asked.
     "Fraid not", I said. "I shall be in Long Melford all day tomorrow."
He couldn't make Thursday, so in the end we agreed on Friday morning.
"Now, don't worry about it" he said. "It's probably nothing much."  Those are the two silliest remarks (and the most frequent) that the medicos make.  Oh well, we'll see. Ann and I then decided (by way of cheering ourselves up) to go and have lunch in the above photographed hostelry, which has recently been opened by our friends Simon and Ros (the Cooks - yes, that is their surname, as well as their profession).  Went there soon after they opened, before Christmas,  and liked it.

Given the season, we decided on a light lunch to try and restore the intake to average, and Ann had the top plateful in the above photo, a duck pate, of some sort, with salad; and I had the plateful nearest the camera. Can't remember what it was called, but it was in fact a lamb shank, with the plate of vegetables shown in the centre of the above picture. Very good they both were, too.

Above shows Ann getting stuck into her light lunch. In view of our resolution, we decided against pudding, but did have coffee.   If you ever come to Highdale, and feel peckish, I'd recommend the place. It's the White Hart, and it's the first hostelry you'll see after coming off the by-pass; but that's only if you've forgotten to let the Horners know you're coming,  so haven't arranged to share their family fodder first.

Got an early start ack emma, so will bid you all a very Good Night.

                                        __________________________________________

Thursday, New Year's Eve.

Just nipped upstairs from my workshop and found Ann busy finishing off a woolly jacket for Great Granddaughter, Elsa; so I took the above snapshot - looked very domestic.

This blog entry is to wish all our readers a very Happy New Year - 2016  from us both.

                                                  _______________________________

Sunday.

These four photos were all taken on Boxing day, when Sarah, her husband Mikey, their four children, and one grandchild, spent the day with us; as did our son, Jonathan, and his partner Jude. Lunch was a cold meal, consisting of cold meats, cooked by Ann, and carved and arranged by me. They consisted of baked gammon, sausages in sliced bacon, and roast turkey breast. There was also roast vegetables, salad, and a large cheese board. Together with puddings, and fruit. As our table couldn't take eleven of us, everyone was given a plate, and expected to help themselves, which they did, and find somewhere to sit and eat. Actually things organised themselves to some extent, in that the teenagers took over the kitchen, and the adults gravitated through to the sitting room. The baby, great granddaughter Astrid, seemed to be able to go where the pickings were richest. As she doesn't yet walk, or crawl to any extent, I'm still not sure how she managed this - probably hitched lifts from whoever was going for refills.

Above shows senior daughter Sarah, with three of her four, left to right, Lucy, Guy, and Sophie.

Above is Guy ensconced in a corner of the kitchen, and obviously feeling that he's made a good choice of venue, and is about to make a good choice of provender.

Sarah took the above snapshot of Ann and meself, the senior generation.  It was a very pleasant day, enjoyed by all (certainly by us).