Parp and Blart

 

It's England, it's 52.6 deg. North, the City Hall clock reads 3:28PM and the sun disappears below the horizon.

All's well and peaceful at the castle. The nasty modern materials in the picture will become the roof over the much needed wc block. The new stuff outside the keep is Gabriela, Erin and Dan's kingdom. I tried to persuade them to put a proper lead roof on the wc block but they pointed out that it would cost many thousands more and besides, you cannot see the roof from anywhere (unless you actually jump off the battlements directly above it).

Inside the keep (my kingdom), the archæology is protected and the old floors cleared out ready for the restoration of Henry 1st's palace.

I decided on a whim to have the boys make up some alpenhorns …

Actually they're the connectors between the rainwater downpipes and the existing sewer but we all enjoyed parping and blarting down them … as you do.

At Bloody Last …

Finally …

After weeks of faff and blather and daily commuting to bloody Cambridge, we've moved into our temporary orifice while the builders bugger up our old building.

I still have no interweb at home but at least I can post from the orifice now.

This is our little side office off the main room. That's Simon on the left, looking uncharacteristically stern, then Dan the mad Viking with his man-bun and David D with a head even shinier than mine. Emily and Erin couldn't be arsed to turn up and unpack their boxes.

I've got my mug of coffee and my little wooden cathedral so I'm settling in nicely. It's only a three minute walk to the castle from here so expect an update soon.

Normal Service Will Be Resumed &c …

 AUGH!

If anyone's been wondering why I've not responded to emails of late, my broadband has been as dead as a Norwegian Blue for the past couple of weeks. BT (British Telecom) have been living up to their anagram (Besmirch Toilet) by doing fuck all to help.

In the meantime, our temporary office (while our proper  office is being refurbished) is furnished and ready to move in to except BT (them again) are two weeks late in laying on our interweb so everyone is having to work from home.

Everyone except me of course, with no smegging broadband …

So I've been commuting to our Cambridge office where I can get work done but have no access to my personal stuff and will continue to do so until probably next Friday when BT have promised they will have sorted out our new office.

Hence the crapness of today's photo, taken by Alan, the Clerk of Works on what might be a pinhole camera. Having lifted part of the 1960s floor they have discovered a previously unknown seascape with island … or it could just be a damp and manky old piece of plywood.

Anyhoo, while I'm out of contact, feel free to play amongst yourselves and if BT ever get around to fixing my broadband I'll be back with you once I've waded through the gazillion junk emails that wait in ambush.

WTF Monday - You Know You Want One

In our last comments-fest, the subject of this peculiarly specific item came up. Too late to adopt this one but there are many other fascinating items to adopt up at the Castle.

If you want one of your own, ask at your local kitchen shop; I am sure they will oblige.

Notes from the Tudor Torture Chambers

Hokay … so the Boardman floor is almost totally removed and revealing hidden secrets.

While two of the Norfolk Museums folk play the "You look down; I'll look up, then we'll change round and start a nod-a-thon" game, Tim notices some Tudor graffiti that was hidden within the floor thickness and inexplicably gives a Nazi salute.

Looks like I'll be putting in yet another section of glass floor to display this from up above. Some nice sideways lighting to bring out the relief more sharply and an explanatory touch-screen doohickey.

There appear to be two sets of figures kneeling at a crucifixion, one with the traditional Catholic Christian cross and one with the Greek Orthodox cross, plus an angry-looking man brandishing a sword above his head. No doubt we'll learn more once it's carefully cleaned and recorded.

More scratchings from the Tudor torture chambers, including what looks like Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar on the way to the Life of Brian film set … "Following a star? Following a bottle more like!"

Plus some swords, crosses, heraldic devices and a couple of unfortunate cement plaques from "10/9/31" which would have been the tenth of September, 1831 just as Salvin was re-facing the keep.

More from the pages of history as we turn them …

Wide Open Spaces

 

Enjoy these. For the first time ever we now have the complete keep stripped out and it's BIG!

No more prison buildings, no more Tudor torture chambers, just lots and lots of wide open space.

Just a few more pieces of Boardman's floor to be removed and we can begin reconstruction.

Once the Great Hall is complete you'll be able to walk in through the main arched doors from the Bigod Tower (top right) and not fall to your death. Groovy!

Innovative wiring solutions!

Boardman's roof-supporting stone columns and arches sit on top of the remains of the original spine wall, destroyed by Soane to make way for his prison cell blocks.

It's a fantastic space to just stand and gawp.

Unfortunately it will never be seen like this again (at least for many more centuries) so make the most of it. I just wish you could stand there and breathe it all in with me.

Next time: Tudor torture victims' graffiti uncovered at last!

Floating Æthereally

Gabriela gazes up at the top of the Bigod Tower, Britain's first flat-roofed porch extension.

Nobody's been able to see this properly since the 1700s but we're changing that. Where I'm standing is in the upcoming, glass-walled Education Centre atop what was the old 1960s block (currently being smashed to bits for which HUZZAH!); Gabriela is floating æthereally in the air just outside.

Hokay, so she's actually standing on some scaffolding and leaning on a safety rail but were that not there she'd be floating somewhat æthereally … or falling with a scream … er …

Betwixt us and the keep, one floor down will be a spiffy glass-roofed atrium so visitors will be able to see the east keep wall and the Bigod Tower in all their glory once more.

While we're here, let's nip up on the roof and see what we can see …

Quelle surprise: it's Norwich Cathedral.

This is from the south-west; I usually see it from the east end out of my office windows.

…and here's my office from the castle keep roof.

An award-winning 1969 Brutalist "masterpiece" overlooking the river and Pull's Ferry. I'll be moving out of at the end of the month as it needs a complete overhaul which will take at least a year.

 

The temporary office we're renting is only a two-minute walk from the castle which should make things a whole lot easier for my creaky old hips. It also has the unheard of luxuries of heating and cooling! No more scarves, woolly hats, thermals, lap-blankets and hot-water bottles in the winter and the ability to breathe in the summer. 

When we - eventually - move back those amazing things will have been added to our old office. I can't wait! In the meantime, look out for more Norwich Castle updates.

More Progress at the Castle

The unfeasibly small hammer from the previous post has at last done its work (each flint had to be recorded before being removed for storage while we tunnelled through the wall) and so here's a photo of the interior of the keep as never seen before.

All the prison era crap and Victorian tat has been stripped out of the keep and we're ready to get mediæval on its ass.

Hey, Let's Tunnel Our Way In To The Prison

Sounds like a plan …

Hell, the wall's only ten feet thick; hand me that unfeasibly small hammer.

And lo, they tunneled their way into the prison to find that it had ceased to be a prison a-hundred-and-fifty years ago.

We've been removing Boardman's floor to reveal the full volume of the keep.

See that door way up there on the right, with the fire exit sign? That's the original doorway into the Great Hall and pretty soon it will be restored to its original use.

You can make out the floor level of the Great Hall running round the keep walls.

And way over yonder, that big dark arched opening is the kitchen fireplace at the other end of the Great Hall. That's the door to the garderobes to the left and above those will be the minstrels' gallery.

That huge stone arch shape was going to support the main floor as part of William Rufus' original build in 1086 but it was abandoned when the east wall began to fall down the mound and was replaced with a massive spine wall (see the first couple of posts in the Norwich Castle link).

Just the other side of the three yellow guys is another yellow guy who's just crawled through the re-opened doorway in the top photo. That will be the main entrance to the archæological display area.

Tim, Gabriela and Erin wander off in search of coffee …

Nearly all the stripping out and archæological investigations have been done; it'll soon be time to start putting the Royal Palace of Henry the First back to how it should be. 

 

More to come … Don't miss it!

Twelve Cellists Play the Chase music from Butch and Sundance … Who Needs A Reason?

Radio 3 played this at me on my drive home just now and it cheered me the hell up. Hope it does the same for you.