Month: November 2023

More Jacobean splendour, and a crafting update

stitchesoftime1 Comment

There are many houses that I have visited that look very similar to each other. Sometimes, as with Hardwick and Wollaton Hall, as well as Gawthorpe, it is because they were designed by the same architect, Smythson. Others are similar as they were built in a style that was fashionable at the time.

To me, Felbrigg Hall, near Norwich, looks very similar to Hardwick, particularly the top of the original façade.

You may notice, if you are familiar with Latin, that the carving on the top of the hall reads differently to how you might expect it to. We are familiar with, ‘Gloria in Excelsis Deo’, partly from the hymn of that name. The phrase means, ‘Glory to God in the highest’. The carving at the top of the house reads, ‘Gloria Deo in Excelsis’. I am not sure why this is, and neither was the guide. it may be that was a more familiar phrase when the house was built.

The hall was extended, so it has a very different feel at the rear, far more Baroque in style. The original part of the hall was my favourite, partly due to the stunning ceilings again. I am not sure if this one was originally Jacobean, or from the remodel they had later but it it very beautiful.

The hall was full of books, and beautiful works of art, collected by the family on their travels, and they had remodelled rooms to display their collections of stained glass and art, as in this room, specifically decorated to look like an art gallery.

The last squire of Felbrigg, Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer was a keen historian, and I thought that one of the loveliest things in the house was his desk.

I particularly love that book with the beautiful cover. I have visited so many fantastic places this summer, but have had to stop myself from buying notebooks at every one, I already have too many unused, but I do love a gorgeous notebook. I can just imaging him sitting in his sunny study writing using that gorgeous inkwell.

I love the human touches in these houses. More than the grand paintings, or the splendid architecture, the thought of someone sitting in the rooms, and appreciating them, is wonderful. As Robert had no heirs, and his younger brother died in WW2, he made sure that the house was safe by passing it on to the Trust in 1941. There are also gorgeous gardens, including a very colourful kitchen garden.

As for textile treasures, I think the prize has to go to these two lovely fire screens in one of the library areas, now sadly faded, but what hours of work must have gone into these.

They look like the sort of thing that would have been bought in kit form, possibly late 1800s, but I am guessing as there was no provenance. They have a look of the kind of paintings people saw on their Grand Tours, then replicated for use in their houses.

I had an amazing time in Cordoba last week, so many things to show you, but I must stick with the timeline and finish the UK posts before I even get to the wonders of France and Spain. It is now probably only little day trips in Katy until end of Jan, so I will have plenty of time for updates on a more regular basis. Katy is loving being in the sunshine, and driving around La Marina, and I am loving the freedom to travel to all those places that are too far for my bike.

I have been busy with some finishes. I have finally put together a set of reindeer for a friend who really loved the ones I did for the fundraiser last year. These I have named Rudy and Ruby.

This year’s fundraiser will be a knitted mouse, I have been knitting dresses while I have been away, so just some shoes to finish and the making up to do.

It has been great to be back at my knitting and sewing groups and catching up with everyone, and practising my Spanish again! We have had the first of a few workshops that we are having this ‘term’, a ribbon embroidery one led by Vivien. I didn’t get it finished, but am pleased with what I did.

I am running another embroidery workshop next week, this time with added bits of fabric applique. The lovely thing is that a couple of people who have never embroidered before the last one really enjoyed it, and have been doing lots more over the summer. These are Lynne’s mandala designs which are fantastic, especially as she had never stitched before. She has used children’s colouring books and traced the designs, as they are a great source of inspiration.

It is still sunny and warm here as well, unseasonably so as it has been around 24 degrees this week. Apologies to all my UK friends and family who are freezing, damp and cold!

I had a very nice, and unexpected visitor last week before going to Cordoba, a fellow van owner, and solo traveller, Debbie, who I met in the summer at a festival in Worcester. She was in my area, on her way to Morocco, so she spent a few days parked up at my house, enjoying, and hiding from, the 29 degrees we had that week. It was brilliant to see her, and I am following her adventures now, as she has just arrived in Morocco. That has been one of the very best things about my travels this summer, meeting so many other people who enjoy van life as I do. Being at home is great, but I still have very itchy feet 😉

I need to stay in one place for a while though, if only to have time to plan the next trips! I will be back soon with more of my textile related adventures in Norfolk. Hope you are all having a good time, wherever you are. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Blickling, a paradise of plasterwork

stitchesoftime2 Comments

I have long wanted to visit Blickling Hall in Norfolk. Ellen visited many years ago, as part of her role at the Trust, a their textile conservation studio is based there. It was a brilliant day out, the drive there was beautiful and the hall looked stunning.

It was built in the early 1600s, and the house that it replaced was believed to be where Anne Bolyen was born. It is the most stunning piece of Jacobean architecture, and the ceilings are amazing. I have rarely seen such ornate ones in any of the Trust houses that I have visited, of particular note were the very large finials on the designs, the ones in the lounge were huge.

The library, in the bottom two photos, was one of the most ornate ceilings that I have ever seen, this was originally the Long Gallery, until the 1740s when it was remodelled.

Because of the royal connection there were some gorgeous portraits, again with such stunning lace details. There were portraits of Henry 8th and Elizabeth 1st, as well as some other Elizabethan nobles.

I was very interested in this one, of Anne of Denmark, many years ago Mum and I visited the castle where she was brought up when we went to Copenhagen. The castle was a very beautiful place but in quite a remote coastal location, and I remember wondering at the time what she felt about her marriage and moving to Scotland and England. She was the wife of King James 1st of England and mother of Charles 1st, and by all accounts led a very tumultuous life.

One of the things that I love about visiting historic places is how it allows me to fill in the gaps in my historical knowledge, and make connections between people and places. Anne appears to have no direct connection to Blickling, but no doubt the portrait was acquired for its own sake, as it is beautiful.

There were some lovely beds on display, this first one dates from the Jacobean period and is in beautiful condition, with the colours on the crewel work so vibrant.

This was a very unusual set of bed hangings, on a bed in the fashionable Chinese bedroom. It has a mixture of heraldry and embroidered flowers, and looks as if it may have been pieced together from separate components.

There was also a very impressive state bed, which has recently been extensively restored. It dates from the late 1700s, and has the heraldries of King George 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

There is no information that I can find about whether any of the kings ever slept in it, but I loved the information about where the component parts came from, taken from this link at The National Trust collections site.

‘The tester and headboard (which bear the Royal Arms as used 1714 – 1800) are said to have been made out of a canopy of state given to John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire in 1762 on the occasion of his embassy to St. Petersburg whilst serving as envoy to the Russian Court, a post he held between 1762 and 1765. Throughout the eighteenth century, every British ambassador representing the monarch abroad was supplied by the government with a state canopy, a chair of state, a pair of portraits of the king and queen as well as an allowance for ambassadorial silver.‘

I love the idea of this textile travelling to Russia and back again and ending up in Norfolk!

As well as the very impressive beds there were many gorgeous pieces of hand worked textiles, such as this cushion, and the fire screen in the photo below. As always when I see pieces like this I think of the hours of work by someone in the house to make these items.

There was some active conservation work happening at the time with the cushions in the lounge. I do like the way that the Trust are making this work more explicit now, rather than closing houses for deep cleaning. I know it must make it more difficult to do all the necessary work, but I really love to see all this in action.

I have been doing a lot of deep cleaning myself, it’s amazing how dirty the house gets even when I’m not here. The cockroaches are partly to blame for that, did you know that they poo? It’s like little mouse droppings, so I have to have a good clean out of all of the cupboards whenever I return. Luckily I don’t have any precious textiles here that are at risk.

Mum and I have been out, making the most of having Katy here so we went for lunch at the beach, and then an exciting trip to the DIY shop to buy new taps for the bathroom sink 🙂 We are off out again to some of the gorgeous coastline today, then off to Cordoba next week for a little city visit as it is so long since I have been in a historic Spanish city 😉 I will back as soon as I can with more of Norfolk, until then, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Back in the land of sun and palm trees!

stitchesoftime2 Comments

I have arrived back in La Marina after my epic adventures. I have had an excellent time in France and Spain, it took two and half weeks to get here, and there were many brilliant stops along the way. I am not quite sure how many miles it was, but possibly about 1800. As everyone who had been previously advised me, driving in Europe is very straightforward, and in most cases was an absolute pleasure. We won’t talk about the first trip on French motorways, where I inadvertently caught the tail end of Storm Babet !

This is screen shot of my route. I am so grateful to have Google maps, as although I had a route planned and stops identified, I did change a lot of them, so it was invaluable for the planning on the road as well.

I will do more detailed posts about the last couple of weeks, as well as finish off telling you all about the adventures in Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent. I have seen, to paraphrase Carter on his discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb, ‘many wonderful things’, and am so lucky to have done this journey. It really was a trip of a lifetime.

Katy is very happy here as well, she had to have a couple of rest days as the last day of driving was about five and a half hours, but she is enjoying the early morning sunsets from her park up across from the house.

I have had lots of house and van sorting to do as well, the usual replanting all of the pots on the terrace and re-establishing dominance of the house over the cockroaches 🙂 We have had a couple of little trips out though, one to the beach for lunch and today I went to the mountains nearest our house. I had promised myself that my first bigger trip would be to get closer to these lovely mountains that I see every day, and always cycle towards.

So this afternoon I went to the Palmeral, in the town of Orihuela, which is at the foot of the mountains, and spent a lovely hour having a picnic and a wander around, It is 25 degrees here still, and the sky was beautiful. I do love the contrast of the palms and the clouds.

I have lots more trips planned, again Google maps has been brilliant for that and these green pins are the places I am planning to drive to over the next couple of months.

I am looking forward to catching up with all my friends here as well, and generally enjoying a slighter quieter pace of life than the last four months. I have to say that having a bed, and a double one at that, and your own bathroom, is a luxury much appreciated after 4 months living in Katy 😉

I will return as soon as possible. Meanwhile have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.