Grime’s Graves: Young People’s Guide

1964

The neolithic mines at Grime’s Graves are in the care of English Heritage. Barbara Green prepared the Young People’s Guide to Grime’s Graves (1964), in parallel to the souvenir guide to the site. The cover is by Alan Sorrell, and the guide was printed by Brown Knight & Truscott Ltd., London and Tonbridge.

The guide poses a two questions before addressing wider questions:

• why were the mines dug?
• what was the flint used for?
• mining at Grime’s Graves
• Exploring the mines (‘… it is often necessary to wriggle on one’s stomach’).

There is little in the text to make it more accessible for the younger visitor.

Inside the cover is a note: ‘Visitors wishing to crawl along the galleries are advised to wear old clothes and take an electric torch’. Those galleries are now closed to the public.

My copy was a handwritten note of the opening times on the back cover. The site was open until 7.00 pm from May to September (5.30 pm, March, April, October; 4.00 pm, November – February).

Thetford Priory: Chapter House

Thetford Priory, Chapter House © David Gill

The chapter house at Thetford Priory lies on the east side of the cloister and adjacent to the sacristy and south transept of the church.

Thetford Priory, Chapter House © David Gill

The original 12th century chapter house had an apse on the east side, but this was remodelled in the 14th century and replaced with a straight wall.

Thetford Priory, Chapter House © David Gill

Zenobia and the trade in cheese

Zenobia figurehead © David Gill

One of the figureheads displayed at the Cutty Sark, Greenwich is from the Zenobia, wrecked off the Norfolk coast in 1882 (further details). The Zenobia was built to carry fruit, but was sold and then based in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk to carry cargoes of cheese to Holland.

The vessel was named after Zenobia of Palmyra (Syria).

Thetford Priory Gatehouse

Thetford Priory Gatehouse © David Gill

The priory at Thetford, Norfolk was founded in 1103, and moved to the present location in 1107. The 14th century gatehouse lies to the north-west of the priory (in the grounds of private houses). The property is in the care of English Heritage.

Thetford Priory © David Gill

Thetford Priory © David Gill

 

North Elmham Chapel

North Elmham Chapel © David Gill

In the late Anglo-Saxon period North Elmham was a focal point for the Bishops of East Anglia. The bishopric was moved to Thetford in 1071.

Bishop Herbert de Losinga [ODNB] founded a church, after 1091, on the site of the earlier Anglo-Saxon cathedral. At some point after 1388 Bishop Henry le Despencer turned the former chapel into a castle. Part of the walls within the inner moat can be seen to the right of the chapel’s apse.

The chapel is now in the care of English Heritage.

The MPBW published a short paper guide by S.E. Rigold (1960) using the site’s then title of ‘North Elmham Saxon Cathedral’.

1960 (repr. 1966)

Grime’s Graves: Canon Greenwell’s Pit to open

Canon Greenwell’s Pit, Grime’s Graves © David Gill

English Heritage has announced that it will opening up Canon Greenwell’s Pit at Grime’s Graves. A short video is available from the BBC (“Neolithic flint mine to open to public for the first time“, BBC News 11 March 2017). Access will be by guided tour. Pit 1 will continue to be open.

Canon William Greenwell (1820-1918) excavated at Grime’s Graves in 1868, following earlier work at the flint mines at Cissbury in Sussex.

Castle Rising: Guidebooks

1978

Castle Rising was placed in state care in 1958. Prior to this it had been in the estate of the Hoard family. During this phase William Taylor wrote his History and Antiquities of Castle Rising, Norfolk (c. 1850).

1929

Harry Lawrence Bradfer-Lawrence prepared Castle Rising: A Short History and Description of the Castle with Illustrations (1929). This continued in print until 1954.

R. Allen Brown produced the Department of the Environment guide in 1978. This was reprinted in 1984, and then issued by by English Heritage in 1987, with reprints as late as 1996. R. Allen Brown also wrote the guides to Dover Castle, Orford Castle, and Rochester Castle.

1987 (1992)