Bridlington Priory

Monday 5 June 2023. Staying for a few days in Bridlington, we went for a look at the Priory.

Bridlington Priory was established as a monastery of Augustinian Canons Regular in 1113. It was built over the site of a former Saxon church and nunnery.

It held the earthly remains of John Twenge, otherwise known as St John of Bridlington. Born in the nearby village of Thwing in the year 1320, he joined the monks after studying at Oxford. He held several offices during his time there, serving as Prior for 17 years before his death in 1379. Several miracles have been attributed to him. He is supposed to have changed water to wine once and on another occasion he appeared to a group of 5 fishermen from Hartlepoole whose ship was in danger of being swamped in rough seas and he brought them safely to shore, whereupon they left the ship at the harbour and rushed off to the Priory to thank him. I'm being careful not to comment... Anyway he became the last Englishman to be canonised as a saint before Henry VIII split up from the Catholic Church.

There is an appliqué of twelve panels, depicting the history of the Priory. This is an embroidery technique, but with the panels in 3D rather than a flat embroidered surface like the Bayeux Tapestry for instance. Having survived the Dissolution and the destruction of some 3/4 of its buildings, it was lucky to survive its use as an arsenal just over 100 years later. Buildings and explosives do not tend to go well together...

The organ dates from 1889 by Belgian firm Anneessens and was originally a three-manual organ. It came complete with a spectacularly large low-toned pipe for Bottom-C, the reed being 32 feet long and the pipe two feet in diameter. Rebuilds were necessary at various times during the 20 century and it was fully restored and enlarged 2004-2006.

A mind-boggling pedal board - the most I've ever played was a 25-key two octave pedalboard on a Hammond organ whilst I was learning to play in the practice rooms at Swanns shop in Manchester during the early 1970s. An octave is 12 keys but the extra one was to allow a lowest note of low C and a high note of middle C.

The Priory plays host to a few other musicians too...

All that music has soothed this savage beast by the looks of it.

We found several of these little mice - the trademarks of Robert "Mouseman" Thompson.

The great west window brings our exploration to an end.

Bridlington, 2023 Index
English Churches and Cathedrals Index

Halifax Minster

This article is an edited version of a larger article covering a visit to Piece Hall in Halifax, during which we decided to visit Halifax Minster. This was more down to curiosity than it was to any prior knowledge of the Minster. I can recommend a visit though - it doesn't disappoint.

This is no York Minster - it is the size of most parish churches - unsurprising as that was its role until it was raised to Minster status only as recently as 2009. It dates mainly from the 1400s, but includes some stonework from a Norman church previously on the same site some 300 years earlier.

"Old Tristram", carved circa 1701 by John Aked, holds the alms box and is thought to be an effigy of a real beggar of the time.

The font is thought to be as old as perhaps the 15th century and the undoubtedly medieval cover was once painted and generously gilded.

The tomb of Archdeacon Charles Musgrave lies underneath the church tower. He was vicar of the parish church from 1827-1875 and was instrumental in improving the town's sewerage system from an open sewer and a single privy which had to cater for 221 people. The average lifespan of a labourer in the locality at the time was a mere 22 years!

Standing in front of the organ pipes is a pulpit on wheels. To the left is the chantry chapel of William Rokeby who was vicar here from 1502-1521 and who from 1511 also became Archbishop of Dublin and who baptised King Henry VIII's first daughter, Mary Tudor, later "Bloody" Queen Mary. On his death, Rokeby's heart was sealed into a lead box and buried within the chapel. The box also contains his bowels... There was an English language class being taught to some Afghanistan refugees in the chapel so we couldn't go in. We'll have to sniff out the bowels at some more convenient time.

The organ was rebuilt in 1928 but still contains pipes from the original Snetzler organ of 1766. The church's first organist was L. William Herschel before he became King George III's personal astronomer and became famous to this day and forever as the first person to discover the planet Uranus.

To either side of the chancel gateway are carved heads on bench ends. Happy-looking souls...

The Wellington Chapel in the south east corner of the church contains the Duke of Wellington's Regimental Colours - the flags seen here, carried by standard bearers onto the battlefield.

A set of chairs in the Wellington Chapel were made by the famous furniture maker Robert "Mouseman" Thompson - also known as "Mousey" Thompson. In the 1920s he had started carving a mouse on each piece of furniture. Even on a set they would be placed in different positions and were not always easy to spot. On this one, modelled by Miss Franny, the mouse is on the front right-hand chair leg.

Fran buys one or two things from the shop and we thank the guide who had come down to point out the mice on the chairs. The sky is not promising too much as we come out to look at the external features of the church. The clock and sundial on the tower and the gargoyles.

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Halifax Piece Hall and Minster

Wednesday, 7 September 2022. We had been invited as guests of friends, David and Jeannie on a coach trip to the Piece Hall in Halifax. We said "yes" immediately without any clue as to what the Piece Hall was, because we have never yet had a bad trip with this particular group which is made up of pensioners who used to work for British Gas.

The Piece Hall is the only surviving example of a Cloth Hall - a market place for handloom weavers to fetch their woven cloth or woolen "pieces" to display them for sale. It is in the form of a quadrangle and dates from 1779. It has the look and feel of an Italian Piazza and would not look out of place in Trieste or Venice. There are 315 rooms for traders. After the Industrial Revolution the larger mills sold their products direct to buyers and it fell into disuse, being bought by Halifax Corporation for a wholesale market hall in 1868. Many of the small rooms were combined to form larger spaces.

Our first priorities on arrival were a toilet and then a drink! The ladies decided we could have some dinner, so they had cake and David and I had a sandwich each.

On the left in the foreground is a statue of Anne Lister (1791-1840), generally known as Gentleman Jack whose diaries revealed her as a lesbian and contained coded accounts of her affairs and techniques of seduction. She is buried in the nearby Halifax Minster that we shall visit shortly. The Clicky Monster was keen to fill up his camera storage card, but we decided that we would head for the Minster before exploring the Piece Hall at closer quarters.

This is no York Minster - it is the size of most parish churches - unsurprising as that was its role until it was raised to Minster status only as recently as 2009. It dates mainly from the 1400s, but includes some stonework from a Norman church previously on the same site some 300 years earlier.

"Old Tristram", carved circa 1701 by John Aked, holds the alms box and is thought to be an effigy of a real beggar of the time.

The font is thought to be as old as perhaps the 15th century and the undoubtedly medieval cover was once painted and generously gilded.

The tomb of Archdeacon Charles Musgrave lies underneath the church tower. He was vicar of the parish church from 1827-1875 and was instrumental in improving the town's sewerage system from an open sewer and a single privy which had to cater for 221 people. The average lifespan of a labourer in the locality at the time was a mere 22 years!

Standing in front of the organ pipes is a pulpit on wheels. To the left is the chantry chapel of William Rokeby who was vicar here from 1502-1521 and who from 1511 also became Archbishop of Dublin and who baptised King Henry VIII's first daughter, Mary Tudor, later "Bloody" Queen Mary. On his death, Rokeby's heart was sealed into a lead box and buried within the chapel. The box also contains his bowels... There was an English language class being taught to some Afghanistan refugees in the chapel so we couldn't go in. We'll have to sniff out the bowels at some more convenient time.

The organ was rebuilt in 1928 but still contains pipes from the original Snetzler organ of 1766. The church's first organist was L. William Herschel before he became King George III's personal astronomer and became famous to this day and forever as the first person to discover the planet Uranus.

To either side of the chancel gateway are carved heads on bench ends. Happy-looking souls...

The Wellington Chapel in the south east corner of the church contains the Duke of Wellington's Regimental Colours - the flags seen here, carried by standard bearers onto the battlefield.

A set of chairs in the Wellington Chapel were made by the famous furniture maker Robert "Mouseman" Thompson - also known as "Mousey" Thompson. In the 1920s he had started carving a mouse on each piece of furniture. Even on a set they would be placed in different positions and were not always easy to spot. On this one, modelled by Miss Franny, the mouse is on the front right-hand chair leg.

Fran buys one or two things from the shop and we thank the guide who had come down to point out the mice on the chairs. The sky is not promising too much as we come out to look at the external features of the church. The clock and sundial on the tower and the gargoyles.

And so back to the Piece Hall, where I gratefully sink into a chair again and we have a drink. (A lot has happened since my last post - I was sent for a repeat of some routine blood tests in June this year and in short order over the next month was told that I had cancer on the liver, that it was too large to remove and that it was incurable and would mean regular visits to St James Hospital in Leeds to keep tabs on it.) Life has become precious!

As we walk around the balcony of the second storey we are treated to the sight of our waitress of a few moments ago, waving David's jacket and trying to get our attention... The balconies are lined with the doors to the old trading rooms, all now containing artisan and craft or specialised shops, such as the Christmas themed products. I walked around a few of the shops and then went back down to let the others complete the circuit of balconies whilst I sat down and nodded off. "Is John alright?" asked David. Fran apparently looked over the balcony to see me head down and said "Yes, he's asleep..."

The tower and steeple of the Square Church, a non-conformist church dating from the 1850s are all that remain of the church which suffered from two fires and gales and which was demolished in 1976, leaving the tower and steeple, now incorporated as part of the new Central Library of 2017. A spot of rain wakes me up - trust a bald man to know when it is raining... Then back to the coach for the trip home which includes a very good meal at the Calf's Head near Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley.

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