It's Monday, It's November, My Back Hurts.

So here's a photo of a doorway just for the heck of it.

Norman south doorway at Heckingham St.Gregory's Church, just across the river from me and down a bit.

Somewhere in one of my old drawing folios is a view I made of the church, many decades ago. When my back gets well enough to move around without screaming I might dig it out and post it.

Or I might forget …

Friday Morning Wood - Viking Era Picture Door

The "Viking" door at Stillingfleet St.Helen's.

While the current church dates from 1150, it replaces an earlier Saxon church, the original south door of which is now preserved inside St.Helen's to protect it from the elements.

The door itself is thought to be tenth-century and is of a Scandinavian style of "picture door".

The C-Straps have dragon's head terminals, a popular Viking motif, reflecting Stillingfleet's century or so under the Danelaw.

Some beautiful Scandinavian knotwork.

Happy, dancy Viking people …

at least I HOPE they're happy and not attacking one another with axes.

 

Last up: a glorious Viking longship, complete with dragon's head prow and stern and steering rudder.

Life under the Danelaw wasn't all like The Vikings TV show or the old Kirk Douglas / Tony Curtis movie from 1958 (classic though that one was).

Blacksmiths didn't spend all day hammering out axe-heads and swords; they could have fun with story-telling on church doors.

Friday Morning Wood

Little Hormead Church door, looking like I feel most mornings.

Friday Morning Wood

Disco!

Haddiscoe, that is …

I designed the new Haddiscoe Hall a few years back and it became known in the orifice as "Disco Hall".

This is Haddiscoe St.Mary's south door, visible from the Hall.

Take a close look; that blacksmith was trippin' balls!

This is a surviving Saxo-Norman door from pre-1100 CE.

When the Normans first invaded they embarked on a crazy castle, cathedral and church building campaign and used the Anglo Saxon craftsmen already living here, hence the twirly, Norse and Celtic influences found on these rare, very early doors.

Spiffy, huh?

Home Improvements for the Historically Misinformed

Got a nice, damned-near thousand-year-old Saxo-Norman door, but want to cheer it up a bit?

BUNTING!

Works for me.

Meanwhile, Round The Back

Just as with humans, old doors don't have to be gussied up in ornate bling to be beautiful.

The original Norman north door at the back of St. Margaret's Church at Hales reassures me that 'old, knackered and worn out' is still a good look, so that's what I'm going for.

What's The Time? Buggered If I Know; The Sundial's Stopped Working.

 

Here be Tim and Erin on a church-crawl, peering out from behind the shamelessly over-the-top south door (which dates from around 1120 CE) at Kirby Bedon St. Andrew's Church.

Dig those doubled-over C-straps! That blacksmith was trippin' balls!

Anyhoo … That's not why we're here. Take a look to the right of the cushion capital of the right-hand pilaster and you'll see what was quite common on mediæval churches: a sweet little sundial.

Here's a closer look at it.

To check when to start the service, they'd stick a stick in the hole and read off the time, though only of course if the sun was shining.

Trouble is, someone built a porch over the door in the fifteenth century and the poor little sundial has not worked since. Starved of sunshine it has sat sadly these six-hundred years, recklessly robbed of its raison d'être.

Sometimes, I surprise even myself at the sheer, mind-numbing dullness of things that fascinate me.

A Door Fetishist Writes …

Hokay …

So as I'm back on the Planet I felt it about time I started (yet) another photo-post series. This one is inspired by Lynn, who you may recall has a penchant for fondling ancient doors.

Check out the blacksmith bling on this beauty!

According to Jane Geddes (who wrote the Bible on the subject), the door and ironwork for this, Haddiscoe and Hales churches (you'll see them another day) were made around 1100CE by the same joiner and blacksmith.

This one is the south door at Raveningham St.Peter's Church, (about half-an hour's drive from Lynn's parents' house next time we get to enjoy a Norfolk day out).