London’s Forgotten Cathedral
Southwark is the third Anglican cathedral in central London and the least visited.
Southwark Cathedral with the Shard Behind
But to me, it will always have a strong place in my heart, as it is where the memorial service was held for C and all the others, including that great humanitarian Chad Varah who gave their bodies to medical science in 2007. The service was non-denominational and very moving.
Forgotten and ignored it may be to many but not to me and my family.
The Second Great Fire of London
Today is the seventieth anniversary of the night when the Luftwaffe made some of their heaviest raids of the Blitz and almost destroyed St. Pauls. The survival of the cathedral is immortalised in one of the greatest photographs ever taken.
St. Pauls in the Blitz
Today I went to B & Q at Peckham and stopped off at the monument to the Great Fire in 1666.
The Monument
There isn’t really a monument to the second fire, except perhaps for Wren’s magnificent cathedral, which replaced the medieval one after the Great Fire.
But there is a memorial to the firemen who died in the Second World War and whose heroic efforts probably saved the cathedral.
The Fire Brigade Memorial, St. Paul's
Holy Smoke!
The new heating system in Norwich Catholic Cathedral is causing people to dial 999 because they see a fire, according to reports on the BBC.
Bury St. Edmunds Abbey Gardens
The abbey at Bury St. Edmunds was one of the largest in England. Litt;le remains today except for the ruins, although part of it is now the cathedral.
These are some pictures of the ruins and the Abbey Gardens,
A Date in My Diary
Last night, the BBC repeated the program about the Coventry Blitz. It reminded me that I shall be going to see Ipswich at Coventry on New Year’s Day. I shall of course visit both cathedrals.
I was talking to an Italian tourist at that I met at Mallaig about other places to go in the UK and I suggested Coventry. He mentioned that the verb to coventrate, or lay waste by areial bombing, is now incorporated into the Italian language.
Newcastle Cathedral
Newcastle Cathedral would not be considered a large church.
Newcastle Cathedral
I didn’t get a chance to go in as it was shut.
Outside is a typical statue of Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria Statue, Newcastle
There seem to be lots of statues of Queen Victoria, many of which have a very similar pose. Did some sculptors do job lots?
Live Longer in Bury St. Edmunds
Or in fact one particular area, Moreton Hall. This is according to statistics from the Care Quality Commission, published in the Daily Mail. That’s twenty-six years more than in a deprived area of Middlesborough.
Now, I don’t live in Moreton Hall, but I do live in St. Edmundsbury, which is the local authority including the town. Strangely Bury is not a city, despite having a cathedral, which was part of one of the largest abbeys in England.
So why is the health better round here?
The hospital in the town is not particularly eminent, but most people don’t have too many complaints about it. My GP service is very good and I’ve not heard many complaints of others either. I can remember years ago, that it was a common topic, when we lived in North London, but it’s seldom heard here.
But that is only about the service you get when things go wrong.
Bury is an affluent town and that obviously helps, but it is also a town which has had virtually full employment for many years. I can remember an article in the 1980s, where it had the highest employment levels in the country, despite all the problems elsewhere.
It is also a town, where you tend to walk around the compact mediaeval centre, as parking is difficult. But everything you need is there and it is a thriving centre, with lots of shops, a market and interestingly many new houses and flats crammed into every old yard and space. I know of few towns of 50,000 people, which are so busy with such a good atmosphere. Perhaps it all helps.
You also tend not to see as many obese people in Bury, as you do in other places. As obesity is linked so closely to cancer and heart disease, this must have an affect on life expectancy.
And then there is the weather. We have one of the mildest, calmest and driest climates in the UK, in West Suffolk. Rarely do we get snow and we get a lot of fine days in the winter, where in a nice walk or a bit of gardening, you can get your daily dose of sunlight and it’s life-enhancing vitamin D. You don’t get too many cold, depressing days.
But Suffolk as well, is unique amongst English counties in that, it is the home of real ale, with two of the major brewers, Greene King and Adnams, within its borders. Greene King is one of the largest employers in Bury. So whereas most of the UK has been seduced by gassy, over-advertised, chemical lagers, in Suffolk, the long drink of choice of many is a proper pint of real beer. It used to taste good, when I could drink it!
So is this a factor? Note sure. But there is nothing better than winding down with a good pint and perhaps that is very good for you.
But why is Moreton Hall at the top of the list?
It is an unusual estate in that most of the two thousand or so houses there are quite large. So there must be a high proportion of the affluent and we know that there is a relation between lack of wealth and lack of health. I would also suspect that if you surveyed Moreton Hall, you’d find very few smokers and heavy drinkers. It’s just that sort of place.
But it also has a unique factor that may or may not affect health.
It lies to the east of the sugar beet factory and for a large part of the year, you know of the factory’s presence by its not-unpleasant smell. So does it bathe the area with a health-giving elixir?
Probably not!
Peterborough Cathedral
On Monday I had to visit Peterborough and went over the cathedral.
Peterborough Cathedral
Peterborough has this reputation as a rather grim overspill town, but it has a beautiful cathedral, which like several in the UK are old Abbey churches. In fact when Henry the VIII dissolved the monasteries it was the sixth richest in England. The cathedral has one of the largest mediaeval painted ceilings in Europe.
But Peterborough is also the birthplace of my paternal grandmother. She was a Spencer and her father was a builder, who according to legend build some of the city. I’ve recently met a distant Spencer cousin, whose ancestor was also a builder, who built part of Armley in Leeds.
The strange thing about Monday’s visit was that I’ve just looked up Whitsed Street, where she was born on Google and I parked the car in the next street.
The Destroyed and the New
I went to the football at Coventry today and as I was a bit early, I went into the city centre to see the two cathedrals; the destroyed mediaeval one and the new building created in the late 1950s to replace it.
The Two Cathedrals
The new one was designed by Basil Spence and is unusual in that it is aligned north and south, so that it is at right-angles to the old cathedral.
The New Coventry Cathedral
The sculpture is by Sir Jacob Epstein and portrays St. Michael’s victory over the devil.
Inside the Old Coventry Cathedral
The tower still functions as a bell tower, but only it and the walls remain after bombing of the 14th November, 1940. One notice on the walls said that one of the reasons it all came down, was that the heat was so intense the iron supports put in to make it stronger, twisted and destroyed the roof. So perhaps ancient builders did know a lot more than we give them credit for.
Ecce Homo - Sir Jacob Epstein
This is another piece of sculture by Sir Jacob Epstein. It is called Ecce Homo.
Reconciliation - Josefina de Vasconcellos
This is another of several pieces of sculture in the nave of the old cathedral. One poingnent piece was made by an 18 year old schoolbay, who lost his life in the war.
Alain John's Statue of Christ
The inscription under the statue reads.
This is a second casting, in concrete of a statue at Blundell’s School in Devon. It was created by an 18 year old pupil, Alain John. The Headmaster, Neville Corton, later became Bishop of Coventry and on the death of Alain John, an RAF navigator, in 1943 at the age of 23, the statue was recast for Coventry as a memorial to those who lost their lives in the war.
The Window Between the Two Cathedrals
As it was Sunday, I didn’t venture into the new cathedral, but I did take this shot of the window that effectively separates the new from the destroyed.
Let’s hope we do not see such destruction again. But I suspect we will!
Churches in Old Goa
I’m putting up some of the pictures of my holidays in the last few years.
These are the churches in Old Goa.
It is a World Heritage Site and well worth visiting.
The Anonymous Widower 