A whistlestop day trip to Stamford

If you love to look at mellow limestone buildings, and feel as if you should be wearing a long dress and a bonnet, then look no further. Stamford in Lincolnshire is the place to visit. You've probably seen glimpses of it though in so many period dramas on television.

 

It's a quirky place, oh so historical, with more than six hundred listed buildings and a number of fine churches, including five mediaeval ones.

 

Reminders of the past are all around you, from the 15th century Brownes Almshouses, to one of the oldest provincial theatres in the country, and only a mile away, the beautiful, and awe inspiring Burghley Hall, a triumph of an Elizabeth house with stunning gardens.

 

But this visit to Stamford, on a gloomy wet day earlier this week, wasn't about sightseeing, it was to lunch and to shop with Susie, Fiona and Laura.

 

Now, if there's one thing Laura and I love to do, that's to mooch about in search of antiques ,so our first port of call was to the St Martins Antiques Centre. To step out of the rain into somewhere with over fifty dealers displaying their treasures under one roof, is a joy.

The siren call of the kitchenalia attracted me like a homing signal. Laura got lost in the silver section...she's a collector of silver made by her great grandfather.
 

No such luck on this day but she did come away with two fine silver ladles, after we'd managed to drag her away out of this cutlery corner.

 

 

 

By now, we were feeling peckish, and our lunch stop was at The George Hotel just down the hill. I cannot pay a visit to Stamford without nipping into the George, whether just for a drink or a snack.

 

 

 

It's incredible to think that the origins of this  old coaching inn began over a hundred years before William the Conqueror beat King Harold at the Battle of Hastings.

four to five hundred years later, the neighbouring Hospital of St John and the house of the Holy Speulchre became part of the George .

The courtyard is stunning at any time of the year. Formerly a cloistered quadrangle belonging to the old church, in high summer, there's nothing nicer than having an afternoon tea here, amongst the profusion of hanging baskets and containers all packed with flowers.

Last week Christmas trees were already in situ here and fairy lights were uplifting in the gloom.

 

 

 

I also always have to have a peek at what is known as the Monastery garden. Past its summer best, even in November it's a charming, restful place

 

My friends Tessa and David had their wedding reception here a number of years ago, and in my mind's eye I remember the garden filled with guests,waiting staff weaving expertly through the crowds with huge trays of canapés to the sounds of popping prosecco corks and  a chamber quartet playing .

 



But this was years later, a winter day ,and we were hungry so we went straight through to the Garden Room. Wine of course, and lunch...

The wild mushroom risotto was full of flavour and the salmon from the buffet was a very generous size, all served expertly.

It would have been so easy to stay for another glass of wine, to gossip - after all Laura was only here for a week's flying visit from the States. But we needed fresh air and a brisk walk  ...so we walked and talked past the almshouses and up the hill into the other part of town.

Past lovely quirky mediaeval houses and alleyways  and the grandeur of the gothic.

We strolled into St John the Baptist's church on the High Street, a designated Grade 1 listed building which originates from the 12th century.. Unfortunately this is now a redundant church...but it's looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust. Although it wasn't full of worshippers, there were quite a few people perusing the aisle full of charity Christmas cards.

All too soon it was time to stroll back to our car, over the river by the alms houses....

A whirlwind four hours in what many believe to the be the finest town in England. It really is in a  league of its own.  I love coming here, each time I see something new, different, and make a promise to myself to return soon.

 Next time I hope my visit is longer, hopefully overnight, to really make the most of what this quintessential English town has to offer.



A day of roses, cockleshells and the sea

I visited a rose garden the other week. Late October isn't the ideal time of year to do this of course. The sheer headiness and intoxication you get from inhaling the scents of  scores of rose bushes was sadly lacking.



There again, I hadn't planned this visit to the Southsea  Rose Garden. My daughter, husband and I were walking our three dogs along the beachfront on a sunny Monday morning....

 

 

that was when my daughter said the magic words "rose garden", and there was a sudden detour to the rose garden.



 

Actually, it's the ideal time of the year to see the bones of a garden.

I liked the simple design, the weathered brick , the trellises,  the clean lines of the paths and the fact that there were lots of benches to sit down in different parts of the garden.

Of course at the end of October, you expect patches of brown earth, and true, many of the roses were had lost their blossom, but there was still enough colour to gladden my heart.

 

I do like this ruby wedding rose even if it only has a faint fragrance 

 

 



This beauty, which I don't know the name of, was a vision of pastel prettiness...and its scent was just as subtle.

It's not a huge rose garden, but it's a perfect place to sit and ponder, away from the harsh winds of the sea front and the noise of the cars, to just relax.



But there's so much more to the site of this rose garden. It was previously an eighteenth century fortification called Lumps Fort. After a chequered history, in World War II, this area was used as a training base for the Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment.



 Have you ever heard of the Cockleshell Heroes? It's the title of a film made in 1955, which honoured the incredible bravery and fortitude of the men who trained here before launching a raid by canoe, on the harbour in Bordeaux a mere thirteen years earlier. They were an elite squad housed in two nissen huts , and trained for their mission in the Solent a few yards away.



The raid was called Operation Frankton, and back in those days Bordeaux was a key port for the Germans. The mission for the men was to attack all the cargo ships  which kept the German army supplied after paddling into the harbour by canoe.



Five canoes and ten men managed to not only sink one ship and badly damage four others with limpet mines, but they succeeded in curtailing the use of the harbour for months. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be taken to France by submarine, then sailing into a heavily guarded German occupied port in the depths of December?



Such a daring plan, but it was one which cost eight of the men their lives. Six were executed by the Germans and two died from hypothermia. Major Hasler and Bill Sparkes were the only two to survive.

 

It's said that Winston Churchill believed that their mission shortened the duration of World War II by six months. What a feat of courage, and how wonderful that this site wasn't built on in the post war frenzy of building.



I love the fact that this small rose garden, just a minute away from the rush of modern life, has been created as a place of tranquillity, of quiet beauty, where we can remember those heroes of World War  II.

 

Festival days in Fotheringhay

Fotheringhay. Until a couple of months ago, I knew only two things about this Northamptonshire village . The first was that Mary Queen of Scots was incarcerated and later executed in the castle there in the 16th century, and secondly, it was where King Richard III was born in 1452.

During the last few months though I've visited Fotheringhay a number of times and am increasingly attracted by its charm, its church and some lovely people who live there.

It began with a phone call from a woman called Claire . " Would you be willing to take part in a garden quiz in a  local church for charity?"

 Well I've hosted quite a few of those for BBC Radio Leicester's gardening quiz called Down to Earth so I said Yes. The next thing was,  I found myself on a committee which is organising the very first Fotheringhay  Festival which is taking place from 4 July until 8 July.

There's events every day of the week, ranging from water colour painting classes during the day led by the oh so talented Norma Gregory , plus felt craft workshops  during the afternoons of the 4th and 6th.
There's three evening events too, all very different.

The first is "Quiz the  Gardeners" which takes place on Tuesday 5th July in Fotheringhay Church at 7pm.  It's very similar to Radio 4's Gardeners Question Time, and several of the experts from that  programme will be at this event. This is not the local church quiz type thing I was first expecting!

Mind you, Lady Victoria Leatham is the Chair of the Friends of Fotheringhay Church - she's assembled a wonderful panel, consisting of  garden designer and writer Bunny Guinness, writer and broadcaster Nigel Colborn , and Lady Ursula Cholmeley, who has transformed Easton Walled Gardens, across the border in Lincolnshire. The quizmaster is Lord de Ramsey, and I will be there too, introducing the panel and being in charge of the roving mike.
A drink and canapés are included in the ticket price of £12, plus you get the chance to ask the experts about anything gardening related. All are extremely knowledgeable and likeable, so it should be a really good evening.

The following night in the church, there's a music recital , costing £10, which features James Parsons, an internationally known church organist, and solo harpist Eleanor Turner.

And then on Thursday, there's Fizz and Jazz in the private grounds of Garden Farmhouse, with, yes you've guessed, fizz , canapes and a brass band, with the chance to look at the lovely gardens which are being opened to the general public for the first time. Tickets are £18 each ...oh, and there's s an auction too, including artwork such as this beautiful original painting by Norma Gregory

 

and featuring the vibrant artwork of Market Harborough based artist, Mikki Longley, which always cheers me up.



So why has the festival come into being? Firstly, it's being held to raise money for the beautiful and historic St Mary and All Saints Church in the village. Built in the 15th century, there's now serious issues with damp , and a major programme of general refurbishment is underway costing £1.5million
Even though that's a lot of money for such a small village to raise , well over a million has already been promised and donated. Hopefully , this festival will attract more money and interest in the church.

This is the most important Plantagenet church in the country. I first saw it one evening in March. the sun was about to go down, and I crossed the bridge towards the village, the church seemed to rise out of nowhere, bathed in a rosy glow. It was such a stunning sight, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up...

Simon Jenkins describes it as "the church seems to float on its hill above the River Nene, a galleon of perpendicular on a sea of corn"

There's only 105 people living in the village of Fotheringhay these days, yet the church looks so grand.  Why? Well, Fotheringhay was an important place strategically in mediaeval times,  inhabited by around 1,000 people. Kings of Scotland had owned the Castle there before the Plantagets. In fact the church of St Mary and All Saints was far larger when Richard III was alive, with a staff of 34, including 11 chaplains, and choristers who sang all of the services.

 Richard III would have known this church very well, as a young boy he would have come here often, and indeed this is where Richard III's mother, Cecily Neville and his father Richard, 3rd Duke of York are buried.

After the Reformation though,  the Duke of Northumberland removed the lead from the Quire Roof and several of the Collegiate buildings before dismantling them. Even so, what remains is an important church with impeccable Royal connections. 

 And that Richard III connection means that , like me,many visitors who love history are now making their way to the church from all over the world, to see where Richard was born.

Fotheringhay Church isn't just for tourists to come and look at though, it's a focal point of the community, a working church, and in former times, had a reputation as  a cradle of sacred music. It's hoped that what will be an annual festival , will not only raise money to keep the building in good working order, but celebrate its musical heritage and attract even more visitors to the church.

If you're interested in any of the events above, please email  friendsoffc@btinternet.com to book tickets or find out more.

I'm looking forward to this first festival in Fotheringhay, and I'd love to see some of you there, especially at the Quiz the Gardeners event!.

It's interesting where one phone call  and saying Yes can lead you. I've learnt more about Richard III's birth place, I've fallen in love with the special calmness and light of Fotheringhay Church, and I've also made some lovely new friends, namely Claire McFadden, Lady Victoria Leatham, Simon Leatham, Michelle Dalby and Tim Stimpson.

Here's to a manic week in July!

 

A day remembering the reinterment of Richard III

Saturday marked the first anniversary of the reinterment of King Richard III here in Leicester.

Services were held, exhibitions opened and books launched as we remembered the heady, exciting yet reverential and remarkable day twelve months ago.

I've blogged before about the events leading upto the occasion itself....but I've only just realised how much I've done so...here are the links

http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-day-they-found-king-richard-iii.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.com/2013/02/richard-iii-days-of-hype-and-hope.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.com/2013/02/more-days-of-richard-iii-mania.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/a-day-of-spitting-feathers-more-about.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/a-day-in-land-of-king-richard-iii.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/days-of-richard-iii-fever.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/richard-iiisunday-22-march-2015.html


But yesterday was a day of celebrating and remembering. Kirsteen Thomson who lives a few miles from Leicester opened her art exhibition at the Guildhall.

She's been fascinated by Richard III for many years. In fact, the King passed by the back of her garden over five hundred years ago. She painted the spot twenty years ago, ...and behind the green door in the painting lies the intact drawbridge to the old castle in Kirby Muxloe.

 

She's painted Leicester Cathedral, the Guildhall and other local landmarks as well as other places associated with the last Plantagenet King. Fotheringhay, where he was born, Edinburgh, Yorkshire and Wales. There's also a book about Richard III filled with her paintings ...

 

 

Another book launched yesterday was "How to bury a King" by the Reverend Pete Hobson. He's the man who was given the responsibility of  doing just that...the redesign of the cathedral and preparing it for the reinterment.

And that's something that has never been done before , so it really was a step into the unknown. Pete though is so calm and level headed , and in the build up to the pomp and pageantry of last year,
he remained quite serene every time I interviewed him.
His book tells  the inside story of what happened behind the scenes .

A CD was also launched on Saturday featuring the music during the services at Leicester Cathedral last March performed by the choir from Leicester Cathedral. I still remember the shiver at the back of my neck during the Sunday service when they sang.....

And a new, different portrait of Richard III was unveiled on Saturday at the King Richard III Visitor Centre. Back in February, the centre asked people to send in their photographic memories of the reinterment in Leicester. Over ten thousand images were sent in from all over the world, and the result is this, a rather stunning , three metre high , photo montage portrait of Richard.

I love it.....and when you look closely, you can  see some of the original photographs

Local dignitaries laid white roses at the statue of Richard just outside the Cathedral on Saturday too with quite a crowd there to watch.

The effect of  Richard's reinterment on Leicester and the county is huge - symbolically, historically and financially.

Working so close by to the cathedral, I'm amazed at the numbers of visitors there over the last year. To hear American, French , Canadian and even Australian voices as I walk past would have been very unusual a couple of years ago. Not now though.

Visitor numbers in Leicester and at the Bosworth Battlefield centre where Richard III was killed remain high, hotels are running at eighty per cent capacity,

It's been estimated this week that the reinterment  has brought £59 million worth of business to the city, and that's a conservative estimate.

But let's not just talk about money...there's a buzz about Leicester now. Our Midlands city has been put on the map historically, there's a pride about the place, and that's due to the 'Richard III effect' as it's known locally.

Of course our football team, Leicester City, have also been hitting the international headlines. The stuff of dreams, the story about our team who were languishing at the bottom of the Premier League in March last year, has now become a global phenomenon. Little Leicester City, are now at the top of the league, inspiring everyone ....and it's been suggested that Richard III , even though he died over five hundred years ago, could be responsible.

I'm not kidding. Some fans say since Richard was reinterred, the football team has had a runaway success, and that the facts speak for themselves. Is it a coincidence ? Or is it a form of "King Power" which incidentally is the name of  the stadium where Leicester City play?

Whatever, Leicester has changed since a dead king was found in a city car park and was reinterred at Leicester Cathedral. And it's a very positive change too.......





 

Richard III...Sunday 22 March 2015

It's a day I will remember for a very long time. Richard III's cortege made its way slowly around Leicestershire before finally arriving in Leicester. There, crowds were gathering...it's estimated that 35,000 people were in the city itself.

The sun shone, there was such a happy atmosphere as people watched the progress of the procession on big outdoor television screens and on a corner of Jubilee Square, Morris dancers stamped their feet, clicked their sticks to music which would have sounded so familiar to King Richard III.

Outside Leicester Cathedral, the crowds waited patiently, many clutching white roses for Richard

While Mabon the police dog did a last minute sweep of the  Cathedral Gardens

It was time for me to put on my lanyard and walk into the cathedral for the service of Compline with the rest of the invited guests.

Once in the Cathedral, I saw Simon Dixon who is the Special Collections Manager at the University of Leicester...he was in charge of the Bible which was later placed on Richard's coffin.

This is no ordinary bible. It a Latin Vulgate bible printed in 1481 during Richard III's lifetime. At the time of Richard's reign though, no Bible had been printed in England,- this one was printed by Johannes Amerbach in Basle, Switzerland.

It is beautiful ....




It was then time to sit and wait  for the service to begin, to admire the Cathedral ,which I see so often, all dressed up, to watch the lights flicker on the polished brass and wood, to chat to my neighbours sitting next to me, and to have a look at what form the service would take.

 Suddenly there a hush, all we could hear was the whirring of a helicopter overhead, and the sound of horses hooves outside the cathedral

We all stood as the Tower Bell began to ring. The coffin was led into Cathedral by servers and clergy including the Very Reverend David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester, His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols , Archbishop of Westminster and the Right Reverend Tim Stephens, Bishop of Leicester.


I was positioned near to the entrance so the King's coffin passed within touching distance. It was a surreal moment, being aware of being so close to the mortal remains of  a King slain on the battlefield five hundred and thirty years ago and to be surrounded by the strong  scent of incense.

The service itself was memorable ,with the soothing ritual of Compline and the cathedral being packed with everyone from royalty and descendants of peers of the realm who fought at the Battle of Bosworth  to members of the public from all over the world .

 There was genuine emotion and a sense of a unique occasion, and above all there was the mediaeval and renaissance music from the organist Simon Headley, the Leicester Cathedral Choir and the Leicester Cathedral Chamber Choir. It was spellbinding as their voices rose to the rafters of the cathedral, especially during The Motet.

The hairs on the back of my neck tingled as I listened to this haunting, moving work which was composed for the memorial service of John F.Kennedy using the words of Prudentius who lived in the fifth century.

At the end of the service, I had to hurry back to the real world, to work. To interview people at the service, to interview the remarkable Pete Hobson who had been in charge of the whole Richard III project. He couldn't stop smiling. "Are those smiles of joy or relief that everything went so well?" I asked. "Both!" he replied with another huge grin.

Then it was back to the BBC studios, a hop, skip and a jump away from the Cathedral, to go on air describing what I'd seen and to edit some interviews to be used later that night and the following day.

And on leaving work, my friend Victoria Hicks, who is a television journalist for BBC East Midlands Today, and I walked back into the Cathedral Gardens just to stand for a while and reflect on the day, and to have a photo with Richard III's statue....

And for a final look at the Cathedral in the quiet of the night.

What a day. What a wonderful day.

Days of Richard III fever

It's here...the week when the world's eyes are on Leicester and the Richard III events taking place.
We've been waiting a long time for Richard to be re interred here at Leicester Cathedral  ...since 2012 in fact, when his body was discovered under a council car park.

This is a still from the TV documentary of the press conference in Leicester's ancient Guildhall when it was announced that it could be Richard. I'm the one with brown hair in the cream jacket, frantically recording and writing notes.

A week of events began yesterday at the University of Leicester.....where hundreds of people attended talks by some of the key players in the finding of the last Plantagenet King of England. There's numerous other events taking place within the next seven days including the actual re interment ceremony on Thursday.

But today is all about a journey. A journey which started within the last hour. Richard 's remains have been taken from the university and the cortege will drive to Fenn Lanes farm which is now known to be the actual battlefield on 22 August 1485. There will be a short private ceremony held there, before the cortege arrives in Dadlington.

I was out around the county last week looking at the route of the cortege and chatting to organisers of events along the scheduled procession.

The village of Dadlington is an important one, because the church there is the only one where soldiers who died on the battlefield are buried. On the left of the photo , just inside of the church wall they lie, about two hundred of them. No one knows who they were individually or even if they were soldiers fighting for Richard III or Henry Tudor - it doesn't matter, they are buried here and are remembered.

Richard's cortege will pass through here just after 1pm, stop at the church briefly and then go through the village, where villagers will be marking the occasion with a hog roast, music, and a specially brewed beer .So, some merrymaking as well as a dignified sense of occasion.


Richard's journey continues  onto Sutton Cheyney, a small village a few miles away. It was here at the beautiful St James Church that Richard was thought to have heard mass on the eve of the Battle of Bosworth.

The cortege will be led into the village by a guard of honour in full plate armour before stopping at the church for another short service

It's then onto the Battle of Bosworth Heritage Centre for a service conducted by the Bishop of Leicester, the Right Reverend Tim Stevens in front of two and a half thousand people, and then through to the village of Market Bosworth for a short service, and then past the park opposite Bosworth Hall  where there'll be huge numbers of re enactors in  mediaeval costume, mediaeval music and entertainment for everyone.

The cortege then goes through the villages of Newbold Verdon and Desford, before arriving later this afternoon at Bow Bridge which marked the mediaeval boundary between town and county.

The old mediaeval bridge has long disappeared , replaced in Victorian times, but this place has a real significance in the Richard III story. Legend has it that when the King left Leicester on the day before the battle via Bow Bridge, as he rode across , his spur caught the parapet of the bridge.After the battle, when Richard’s body was brought to the town, along the same route, apparently his head struck the exactly the same place where his spur had hit it on the way out.

And of course there's the legend that Richard's body was thrown into the river here...as this Victorian  plaque states, but of course, now we know better!

200 schoolchildren will welcome the cortege here along with the City Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby and the Lord Mayor John Thomas, and the procession will make its way up a slight hill to St Nicholas Church, the oldest one in the city. Another short service, and Richard's coffin will be transferred to a horse drawn carriage for the procession around the streets ofLeicester.

There's ten horses in the parade, some of them have come from the City of London Police and thousands of people are expected to line the route and welcome the king. A far cry from his last journey back to the city 530 years ago.

Finally, the cortege will arrive at Leicester Cathedral where 650 people will be waiting inside to welcome King Richard II to his final resting place and mark the event with  a very special Compline Service. I shall be one of them waiting inside....and I cannot wait to witness what is sure to be a very moving and unforgettable service.