July 12 – Southampton, England. Our hotel is well located for getting to old town. The only trick is you have to negotiate your way across a very busy street leading to the port facilities. There's two ways to do this, walk down to the traffic circle and use the crosswalks in which case you have to stop traffic on two busy streets, or cross the road right by the hotel and from there cut through the gardens of the hotel across the street and then a very small quiet street. We used the circle way going and the hotel garden way coming back and I prefer the garden path. It's prettier and you only have to cross one busy street, albeit not at a crosswalk.
The first thing you encounter at the wall is a monument to the Pilgrims, who in 1620, August 5 to be exact embarked on their voyage to the new world from Southampton. Following the wall to the left you come to a small gate, the Westgate. This gate was right at the waterfront in earlier times. In 1415 the army of Henry V boarded the boats to take them to Agincourt and as already mentioned the Pilgrims left the city and boarded the ships to the New World.
Next to the Westgate there's a pub that's part of the wall aptly named The Pig in the Wall. Not open this early but it looks like a nice place. Following the wall around you come to an even smaller gate that leads to the fairly steep Blue Anchor Lane. On the sidewalk near the small gate is a large rhinoceros painted green with blue and yellow flowers and leaves on it. About 35-40 or these plastic rhinos are on temporarily displayed all over the city to draw attention to the rhino's endangered status. Each is painted by a different artist.
At the top of this lane is the Tudor House and Garden. This local attraction is very interesting. The house was built by Sir John Dawtrey during the Tudor Period. The thing that makes it interesting is that various areas of both the house and garden are shown as they would have been in the various periods that the house has been around from the Tudor to the Victorian Eras and a bit into the 20th Century.
In addition the grounds have several historical features that were moved here to preserve them when the places they stood were being leveled to build something new. One is and archway, now built into part of the garden wall, from Saint Deny's Priory that was in the north of Southampton. Founded by Henry I in the 1100s and closed by Henry VIII in the late 1800s this medieval arch was brought here. Next door to the Tudor House is a ruin of what was once King John's Palace. This grand stone house was one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in Britain but is now an empty, roofless shell. It was built by John Wytegod, a rich merchant not a king, in the 1300s. And atop King John's Palace is another of the objects moved here. In this case it's a Norman Era Chimney, one of the very few surviving. It was moved here from a bombed out Norman building on Southampton's High Street after WWII. It's nice that the found a Norman structure to attach it to. It looks right at home.
You enter the house through the gift shop and go immediately down a short hall and into the Great Room. Here they have a multimedia show that introduces you to the house. It's narrated by the visiting spirits of various past residents of the home. They talk about their lives and the parts of the house the built, added or remodeled. As they discuss various aspects of the Great Room those areas are lit by floodlights. A projector flashes images on various walls to add to the effect. The fire in the fireplace lights and goes out. It's a nice display.
From the Great Room you go out to the gardens for a self-guided tour of the grounds. They have signs at various places that interpret what you're seeing there. These signs have numbers that you enter into an audio guide to hear further explanations. It's a well-organized and clear presentation.
They have examples of layouts of formal gardens, flower gardens, vegetable gardens and medicinal gardens (herbal). From the gardens you go through the priory arch to view the ruins of the palace next door. There are quite a few surprises as you tour this house. On a patio overlooking the palace ruins they have a very nice bronze cannon made in 1542 for King Henry VIII. Who da thunk it?
After spending some time in the garden you enter the house to continue the tour. There's a display device they use inside that is really informative and yet simple. They have a timeline with the following periods across the top: Medieval, Tudor, Stewart, Georgian, Victorian, 20th Century, 21st Century. Under each of the period name they show people dressed in costume of the period, some carrying implements or objects typical of the time. Under the pictures they have the names of the owners of the Tudor House interspersed with trades people. For the time before the house was built they show the owner of King John's Palace. One some displays one of the eras is printed darker than the others so you know the display or room is representative of that period. It helps you keep things straight as to their chronological relationships. Very nice touch. On some displays the timeline is larger and they have items from that era displayed under that area of the timeline. For example, one display shows typical hot beverage glassware for each period starting with fairly crude clay cups in the Medieval Era to a paper Starbuck's cup for the 21st Century. In one fairly compact display you can get an overview of the evolution of cups over the centuries. I'm pretty sure that the 21st Century item is almost always supposed to be humorous starting with the Starbuck's cup. In the display of a typical meal they start out with a Tudor meal of Manchet bread, quail, asparagus, and lemon slices and finish up with a double burger, very reminiscent of a Big Mac, and fries in an open Styrofoam box. At least I laughed when I got to each of the final objects.
They had two different kitchens one in the basement done as a Tudor kitchen and one in the house as a Victorian kitchen. If I'd seen them separately the differences might have gone mostly unnoticed but since I saw them within a few moments of each other they were easy to spot. In the later Victorian times part of the house was a dyeworks and they had a display in that area showing the process and tools of the workshop.
In 1900 the house was scheduled for demolition but it was bought by William Spranger who set about to restore and preserve it. While doing the restoration they discovered graffiti from as early as the 1400s scratched into the plaster of one of the basement walls. This wall was preserved and you can see the sailor's marks today. Some are they typical names and dates of graffiti artists throughout the ages but some are well drawn ships and symbols of the sea. Hard to photograph because they're just scratches on the wall. This is not the only link between the sea and the house. In the 1700s the second floor was rebuilt, replacing the medieval wood with timbers from a large ship.
At some point the house was ornately decorated. You can still see the remnants of painted vines and flowers on some of the wooden ceiling beams and designs are etched into the half timbers that show inside the house. It was an interesting and informative visit.
Right outside the Tudor House it a large plaza with another rhino very near Saint Michael's Church. So we decided we would walk over and take a look at both. Saint Michael's is dedicated to Michael the Archangel and it's a low, wide and not very large stone church. The design is simple with straight lines, unadorned façade, slim undecorated spire and simple window tracery. An ordinary parish church from the 1600s although I have no idea when it was actually built. The inside is much the same, the walls are not carved or decorated, the windows are clear except for the three at the sacristy end, those are stained glass and the main window in the entry façade, it's also stained glass. This widow is dominated by a large image of Saint Michael surrounded by heraldic shields.
About three-fifths of the way to the apse there's a heavy stone structure with large arches to allow you to see through it to the main altar. I'm sure this served at the choir in previous times. It appears that now what used to be the main altar and sacristy as well as the choir is no longer used for regular services. A small altar with a curved, low wooden railing that's open in the middle appears to serve as the sacristy. A pulpit is at the first row of pews on the right side. At the first wall of the stone choir area there are wrought iron grills with gates that used to separate the two sides for use as chapels.
The one on the right has been walled up and from the look of it is currently used as storage. The area on the left is a chapel is a Lady Chapel, dedicated to Mary. I'm basing that on the stained glass window in that area. It shows four main scenes, the Annunciation, the Nativity, the presentation at the temple and Mary and Joseph returning to the temple in Jerusalem after having left Jesus behind and finding him discussing deep matters of Scripture with the priests. That would have been roughly when Jesus was what is now about Bar Mitzvah age, signaling the end of Mary's control.
The images in this window are especially nice. The design is beautiful and symbolism included is rich. For example, the first two pictures both include lilies, the symbol of resurrection and new life. We even call them Easter lilies. In the Annunciation pane they have included not only the angel delivering the message but the dove of the Holy Spirit is hovering over the scene. In the presentation at the temple scene there's a caged bird that would have been the acceptable sacrifice for a family without much money. There's also a bit of humor. In the Nativity scene the choir of heavenly angels is not only singing but also playing instruments. One has a fairly traditional harp but the other is playing an medieval lute. Made me laugh when I first saw it.
By going through the chapel you can get to the old sacristy area. As with the rest of the church it's very plain but the window is very nice. At the bottom of each light of the window is a church in Southampton. St. Michael's is in the center and to the immediate right is the church of the Holy Rood, destroyed in WWII, is now a seaman's memorial that we'll visit later.
It's a very gracious little church and made more beautiful by the contrast between the grey stone and the bright windows.
When we walked out of the church I noticed that a well-dressed couple was standing over by the Tudor House. The lady was wearing a very Ascot worthy hat. I'd read that the Tudor House is a favorite venue for weddings. So we sat on a bench outside the church to see what developed. Sure enough in just a short time here came some men in tux and tails, after they walked down the street a taxi showed up carrying three girls in exactly the same dress, obviously bridesmaids. We almost gave us a couple of times but eventually the bride showed up and, after the bridesmaids sorted out her dress, she was whisked into the house before the men came back. That was our cue to leave so Diana posed for a picture with the St. Michael's Square rhino and we walked down to the High Street. Seems a funny phrase, "down to High Street" but it's accurate.
When we got there we were at the intersection where the ruins of Holly Rood (Rood = Cross) Church. The church tower and external walls are mostly intact. Inside the walls to the right there's a memorial to the Titanic. In front of the memorial there's a metal cylinder with buttons on the top. When you press the buttons the cylinder plays recordings of peoples first hand recollections about the Titanic. One man talked about when his grandfather took him to see the Titanic when he was age 5 so he could see the largest passenger ship in the world. He talked about watching the people board, some well-dressed with loads of luggage headed for the first class gangway. Others were not so well dressed and carrying their own luggage headed for the third-class gangway. Those in between, the second-class folks, boarding more or less the way we all board now. He remembered the whole town being silent except for the sounds of people crying when they got the news that Titanic had sunk with great loss of life.
Attached to the outer wall of the church was a plaque memorializing the efforts of the Southampton merchant seamen in the 1982 Falkland's War. This church was built in 1320 and more ornate in its ruined state than Saint Michael's. It had a large bell tower with chiming clock and most likely a set of bells, much less severe lines and more ornate window tracery judging by the small amount that survived. There were carved elements on the stone window frames and columns with ornate capitals. It was probably a very handsome building.
We walked down High Street toward the old Bargate. On the way we stopped at a small coffee shop for a little snack. Diana had a double chocolate muffin with a large mocha and I had the cranberry cream version with a small latte. They looked great and tasted better.
The Bargate was part of the old city wall. It was the place where taxes were levied and collected for good and people coming into and leaving the city. It's a two story structure with a large gate in the center and two rooms with doors on either side. The second floor is a large space that was used as the city hall. It was described in a letter written in 1540 as "Fyrst Barre gate by north large and well embatelid. In the upper parte of this gate is domus civica (town hall) and undernethe is the toun prison. (all the spelling and grammar are courtesy of John Leland) The Bargate was used as a courtroom until 1930 as well as a venue for civic functions and entertainment. In 1593, Lord Strange's Company of Players performed here. William Shakespeare was a member of that company at the time.
We went into a large shopping center that held a display of about 20 rhinos of all colors and styles. After a little window shopping we headed for the hotel to get ready for boarding the QM2 tomorrow.
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