Author: Seb Palmer

Just a few snaps of the old-fashioned green and cream paint scheme, at March railway station. I took these pics whilst awaiting Teresa’s arrival, with her head injury, on our 15th wedding anniversary.

Sold another Zildjian China cymbal. Buyer paid yesterday. But I was out working till late. So I ‘shipped’ it to him today.

For the first time since buying her – she’s stayed looking remarkably good all this while – I had Flo’ washed today.

My older smaller cars (MX5s, Ford Fiesta) were £8 a pop. This SUV sized beast is £12. Can’t really afford it. But gotta look smart for work!

Plus it always feels good to have a shiny sparkly car for a while.

Whilst the Eastern European folk – the boss was very friendly – washed Flo’, I sat inside her, and read the article I reproduce above.

It covers All Saints church, on Jesus Lane, and 183 Gwydir St, both in Cambridge. I’ve visited the former. And marvelled at the Arts & Crafts interior (indeed, a photo of part of one of the walls was once my phones’ wallpaper!).

The latter, also know as David Parr House (visit their website here), however, is entirely new to me. Parr actually worked on All Saints, as a young apprentice. And 183 Gwydir St was his final home. Which, we are told here, he decorated amazingly over his lifetime/tenure.

We must visit! Or in my case re-visit All Saints, and take the guided tour (hmm!?*) at David Parr’s House.

* I’ve never been too keen on such group activities. I prefer to explore on my own.

St Paul’s, Gorefield

I’ve stopped and photographed the exterior of this church before. It’s always been locked, on previous visits. Today I called the Churchwarden, a local lady called Joy. She very kindly opened the church for me.

Once inside, I was immediately struck by some details at the altar end…

One more gallery, of misc pictures. This church is much more modern than most I vvisit.

The roof is magnificent. And there are lots of light, delicately proportioned pillars, with terrific carved capitals.

Also of interest are the circular wall paintings. How old these are, I have no idea.

All told, this is a very interesting place. With a lot to comment it to the avid church-crawler.

And here’s one final gallery…

A fairly grim grey day, today (14th). But lots of ecclesiastical architecture, which brightens things up for me. The above, and the first gallery, below, focus on the separate tower.

From the tower, I made my way to the porch of the main church. After which, the church being locked, I went and got a key.

In the next post, we get to look around inside…

We’ve suddenly acquired a ton of Simpsons DVDs. And the best thing? Free!

We already had the Season One box. Now we have all of Seasons One to Ten, or rather all but Season Eight. And this also means I now have two sets of Season One and Season Four.

I’ll most likely gift the spares to Sofi and Ali, if they don’t already have them?

Pic

I binge watched disc one of the third season this evening. Reckon I’ve seen ‘em all before. But, still… good relaxing fun.

Phew!

After the orgy of wood-carving in the previous gallery/post, it’s onwards and upwards, to the altar, for a look back…

Up at this altar end of the church, is where the only real concentration of stained-glass occurs. There are also many little mini-corbels, which are quite entertaining to study.

At this juncture I started to wander back down the length of the church, on the northerly side. Working my way back down the church towards the large and ornately carved font/font cover.

Once back at the font/organ end, I shot a few more sundry images, including some interesting pipe work – not just organ pipes – some of which skirts around yet more fascinating cornel work. This time larger and higher up (and correspondingly harder to see/photograph).

And so… we come to the final gallery! In this third, and probably largest, of these posts on St Peter’s. Which is mostly stuff I shot in the graveyard, working my way back to the car, through the underpass thingy. The latter has metal rings set in the walls. Poss’ for tethering horses?

I originally tried posting all the contents of these three posts in one single blog entry. But it was slow to load, and very glitchy. Hence breaking it up.

And ok, it is a lot of pictures. But then, as already noted, it really is a stunning church. In fact I’m still not done with it! I’d love to come back on a really sunny day, and snap away in brighter conditions.

And/or, maybe at the ‘magic hour’, of dusk or dawn? I guess I’d need access to the keys for that? We shall see…

After the short introductory Pt. I post, we can start to really dive in. The next batch of images focus on bench-end carvings, and some armorial memorials. The latter seem to include lots of bunnies!

Another galleroid: pulpit and stuff.

And now for a deep dive into more woodworking wonders…

And we’re still far from done!

So… yes, it’s to be three posts on one church. And we’re only on post II. I did take a lot of pics! But St Peter’s really is a stunning church.

I’ve visited Walpole St Peter’s before. I adore it. It’s full of beauty and riches. I’ll definitely be coming back here. Maybe bring folk with me?

This first gallery is all shot in the porch.

Next, some images from the area around the inner area, adjoining the porch, where the organ is situated.

This church has such an abundance of riches, it’s going to take a couple more posts to cover them all. And that’s by no means everything St Peter’s has to offer. Of that I’m certain!

In fact this post isn’t a great deal more than a recapitulation of my previous visit here. It’s only really in the next couple of posts that I look deeper and harder at the wealth of treasures this place has to offer.

Love it!

I stopped down a little lane, as I prepare this blog post. It’s a cool grey, cloudy day. Raining lightly. The wind wafts a faint perfume of Spring on the air.

I’ve been utterly miserable, and completely without energy, for several days now. Fortunately for me, getting out to do my ‘umble delivery work, and when I’m done with that, stopping to appreciate beauty, mostly in nature or churches, is therapeutic.

As the pictures in the gallery above load, the church bells chime. They sound small, and not entirely tuneful, in a rather parochial and sweet way.

This church has two rather modern doors, that don’t look at all original. And once inside, the peculiar ravages of time are both ample and immediate.

This is another ageing edifice in the care of the CCT, Churches Conservation Trust. If I could afford it – and, sadly, currently I can’t – I’d take out a modest monthly subscription, to support their work. When I can, I believe I will.

I took a copy of what I imagined might be the latest issue of the CCT’s members’ mag. But it turns out it’s from way back… the Summer of 2019! Isn’t that pre-Covid?

Several Days Later…

Reading Pinnacle, at the Amazon Depot car park, in Peterborough, waiting to start my second shift of the day (15th May, now), I came across the above article.

Now I know why this particular somewhat out of date copy of the magazine is stocked here…