a step into the past

Current work: various fiction and nonfic
Listening to: David Coverdale
Reading: next on my TBR (some of which is buried on my desk - I really MUST make time to tidy it, today)

Have been busy over the last couple of days doing location research. DH has been incredibly patient about this – because when he’s with us we go to the more obscure places on my list (I’m navigating - the kids aren’t quite up to map-reading, or at least not to the standard I need for the really out-of-the-way places). The kids have also been pretty patient, especially as they’ve realised that the ‘stop at a café every couple of hours’ rule applies only when they’re with me and not when they’re with both parents.

First stop yesterday was at Beachamwell.

Partly I wanted to see the famous graffiti, but mainly I thought we should all go because this is where son’s 5x-great-grandfather, who shares his name, married Frances Rudd in 1791. (I haven’t been able to trace DH’s paternal family tree any further back – yet – but am working on it.)

The tower is particularly unusual; the top bit (octagonal) is mid to late 14th century (Perpendicular), but the lower part of the tower is Saxon, as you can see by the balusters in the window just above the thatch. (The ones on the other side have triangular heads, making it even more obvious that they’re Saxon.)

And after that it was for pics for the book. So in our travels yesterday we looked at an ossuary (Madam was most disgusted when son explained it to her), a Peter’s Pence lectern, a gorgeous Easter Sepulchre carved in chalk, and a set of royal arms for James I (a little naïve in form, but utterly charming).

Something else that caught my eye yesterday was a detail from the memorial window to the poet William Cowper, in St Nicholas (East Dereham). These are Cowper’s three favourite things: his two hares and his dog. I adored the dog.


Plans for today: depends on the weather. If the s-word is involved, I’m going nowhere. Otherwise, I’ve promised to take Madam to get her birthday pressie. And as I had an unexpected royalty cheque yesterday, I think I can justify one teensy thing for me. (It involves Murano glass.)

Have treated DH to the new Peter Green anthology; he more than deserves it for his patience this week. Actually, he enjoys churchcrawling, and I think it amuses him when I get a bit squeakily excited about something. (And, hey, it’s not every day you get to see the keyboard removed from a church organ during restoration. So he does get to see… um… unusual things when he joins me on research trips.)

Am planning to take my best friend churchcrawling next weekend, as I’ve been promising to take her to see some wallpaintings for ages. If the weather’s good, we’ll go see some really early ones; but if the s-word cometh, we’re staying in with good coffee and home-made cake. Lots of.