St Michael & St George's RC Church, Lyme Regis, Dorset

This beautiful fairytale building is a Grade II* listed church and was built in the Victorian Gothic style; the foundation stone laid in 1835. I first came across it in the Spring of 2009 and just had enough time for a quick look around outside and take five photos. I always meant to go back and take some interior shots, as well as more exteriors, and finally made it seven years later in 2016!

Unfortunately, when I got there something had happened to my camera; I later found out that the depth of field viewing lever was stuck, and everything was very dark to view and I could hardly see through the lens. I bravely struggled on, lol, and took a fair few photos here and also of some of the buildings on Marine Parade. Expecting to see dreadful photos when I had my films processed, I was totally amazed that they all came out really well...all except for the interior of the church that is! ;)

So, still no interior photos I'm afraid.

The entrance end is gabled with octagonal buttresses at each side and the frontage comprises a rose window, a three-light lancet window and a gabled porch. As well as the church, there is also a presbytery adjoining the belfry tower.

The lovely octagonal belfry tower is connected to the side of the chancel. The photo below shows the north-west facade which consists of a tall single-light window, above which is a trefoil opening and the octagonal spire. The Presbytery is situated to the right of the belfry, consisting of a right hand bay with three-light windows on the ground and first floors, the entrance door to the left with an initialled plaque above and a single ogee window above that.  

 

The other side, to the left of the entrance, can be seen below. I don't know why I concentrated mostly on the higher regions, lol, but it might have been because there weren't any lower features of interest and/or perhaps the narrowness of the path made it difficult to get much in frame.

There is another entrance that side, as evidenced by the porch roof. Unfortunately, I don't have much information about the building at all. Despite being Grade II* listed there is very little written in the Listing.

The other side of the porch and a couple of other random photos at the rear.

 

And there was also this fabulous view from the path entrance.

I don't know what this building is used for but I came across a reference on someone else's photo that it was part of the old school. I loved this set of steps at the side and the sorrell flowers all around the base of the walls, which was really delightful.

I think I did go up them, the top of which might be a garden courtyard. I didn't take a photo so I don't recall it properly.

There were just these few gravestones, below - if memory serves, which it doesn't always! - with a lovely, old celtic cross on the upright one.

 
And to finish off with, I took a couple of photos looking from the church to the street with its shops and houses.

And there we go. Not a lot of information, or photos, but it's such a lovely building and there's no knowing if I can get back there again. I did manage to stand on a stool to reach a top cupboard shelf the other day, which I couldn't do for a long time after the back injuries earlier in the year. So that's something! Although I couldn't do it a second time so I daredn't risk getting on a bus yet. We can but hope, lol.

Anyway, I hope that's of interest and I'll add any additional info if I come across it. I only realised the other day that I've still got some more churches to write about, so I'll be getting those done inbetween other subjects shortly. I'm not what's next as I'm working on a few at the moment, so we'll have to wait and see. ;)

Cheers and a happy Friday! :)

 

Harepath Farm, Seaton, Devon

 

In late September 2020 I had a walk up to the junction to Seaton to take some photos at the bottom of Harepath Hill. Whilst there I had a look at these farm buildings too.

Starting with the fabulous farmhouse, which is a thatched Devon Longhouse and a Grade II listed building, it's traditionally thought to date back to 1480 built by the Starr family who also owned Seaton Manor. The dating, however, is only confirmed to be circa 16th century with remodelling during the 18th. One of its three fireplaces inside has the date 1613 inscribed upon it.

The farmhouse was used until recently as Bed & Breakfast accommodation. It is now on sale for a whopping £975,000! A little bit out of my price range methinks, lol.

Constructed with stone rubble it has a hipped roof with thatching and also a Tudor arched doorway. The end wall is roughcast with pilasters at each corner. There are also four anchor plates in a row, which are used to strengthen the wall and prevent it from bowing out.

Forming a quadrangle with the farmhouse and garden, the farm buildings were arranged around a cobbled courtyard consisting of the stables, silo, linhay, granary & root store, shippon and pillared barn. There were also peripheral buildings outside this arrangement of a pigsty, a cartshed and a derelict building which I think has since been demolished. 

I wasn't able to ascertain whether these were still farm buildings but I came across a photo of the inner courtyard in Historic England Archive and they look like converted private dwellings. For this article I'm going by a survey produced by the Devonshire Association and the Listed Buildings Register before any renovations were made. They are all Grade II Listed as group value along with the farmhouse.

     

The house and garden are separted from the courtyard by a wall and you can just about see some of the garden in the photo above. This first building along the roadside is the stables, constructed circa 19th century with stone rubble and quoins using either Beer Stone or greensand. There would have been a hayloft on the upper storey but later on the ground floor was used as a milking parlour and dairy.

The windows are rather nice and look as if they were once original open spaces for airflow and now glazed over. However, there is nothing on the photos or drawings of the original building to show any windows at all on the rear wall, therefore they must have been added later during renovations undertaken in 2001. The frontage on the photo online looks quite similar to the original layout of doors and windows but they're now internally separated into individual dwellings.

The western gable did have a window at one time but it's since been blocked up. It also has a pair of inscribed stones with initials and dates; M R originally, but which has been altered to P S, and the date is 1811, which also appears to have been altered to 1871 when it was rebuilt after a fire in 1870.

The photo below shows the western gable but the inscription hasn't shown up very well. The wall below that belongs to the farmhouse garden.

Adjacent to that is the linhay and the inbetween space behind the wall (seen below) was where the silo was kept. The linhay has a frontage with weatherboarding, although it's no longer the original. 

Used specifically in Devon and Somerset, the word Linhay is another name for a barn containing either animals or grains. Part of this one was also used for cider making, with an apple mill on the top floor and press below on the ground floor.

Looking through to the other side of the quadrangle is what was once the cart shed and a boiler & store room, seen below behind the gate.

Next along and opposite the stables is the pillar barn, the roof of which can be seen in the two photos above and one below, with its half hipped roof. Consisting of stone piers along the front and rear with openings between them, they were built using either local Beer Stone or greensand. Later, the openings were blocked up with masonry.

Next to that is the shippon, which isn't a name I'd heard before - despite being brought up in the countryside - but it's another name for cow barn or cattle shed. I didn't get a photo of that or of the granary & root store in the corner between the shippon and the linhay, as I didn't venture into the courtyard due to the pandemic restrictions at that time.

However, I did find part of the shippon and granary store on a photo of the nearby corrugated house, seen below. It isn't brilliant as I had to enlarge it a lot, but on the far left of the photo are three rooftops. The one on the left is the granary, built circa 18th century; a small square building with a pyramidal roof topped by a ball finial. The smallest of the two on the right is what used to be the shippon with the end of the pillar barn behind it.

I found another two online photos in the English Heritage listing showing the granary, shippon and pillar barn in their renovated state. They look really good, actually. I thought the stables look a bit twee but the others are really well done. There are original external stone steps between the granary and linhay, leading to the top floor of the granary, and the stonework and weatherboard cladding look great. The granary is now an AirB&B, and the others are either residential or holiday lets.

I also came across a reference to the Rolle Estate, which owned the land the buildings are on, and possibly still does as the name for this little estate is now called Rolle Court.

And finally, a bit of the orchard behind the farmhouse, seen on the left below.

If you'd like to read more and see the illustrations and photos of the survey produced by the Devonshire Association, you can access the pdf via the url below. It's well worth a read and to see the layout of the buildings. :)

https://www.devonassoc.org.uk/special-publications/harepath-farm-1998.pdf 

I was going to add links to the English Heritage photos but I can't find them at all. I don't know why, as I've put all the appropriate search words in, but they just aren't coming up again. Anyway, if I can I'll add any other photos later.

As I'm gradually getting stronger and able to walk a bit better, I might be able to go back and take my own photos to add - another one for the list! - but I've gone with what I have for now, just in case I can't manage it.

That's it for now. This one took a lot longer than I expected as there was such a lot of information. I'm not sure what's coming up next so that'll be a surprise for us all! Something a bit easier, hopefully, lol.

Meanwhile, I hope you all have a lovely Summer Solstice today. Cheers. :)

 

Mid Year Update

 

As it's just a few days over a year since I wrote an update - apart from the Christmas greetings one - it seems a good time to let you all know what's going on, especially as I promised to take more photos of the Infant School and add them to the Former Schools & Colleges post.

 

I did take the photos, along with photos for another article idea, and sent them away for processing. They came out really well, which I was chuffed about, but then delayed scanning them for a week as I was up to my eyes with other things.

What scanning entails is moving my large monitor to one side and bringing forward another one sat behind it, which is attached to a much older pc and scanner. Got it set up yesterday, switched on the pc and nothing. It was on (I could hear it!) but nothing else was happening. I kept on trying throughout the morning but still nothing. It wasn't the monitor, btw, and although the pc came on and continued making a noise the light went out immediately after the initial switch on. Another weird thing is that after switching it off the mouse light continues to stay on!

Anyway, as it happens I do have a new printer/scanner for it as my old scanner won't work with my current pc. So I need to clear the decks a bit and set it up before I can do any scanning. I can also use it with my current pc, even though I have a newer one with a later OS, which is good as it's the only one that runs my editing software. So not too much to do and it also means I can use the one pc set-up and have a bit more room on my already crowded kitchen table. No doubt I'll fill that with more books! ;)

Just a bit more news; I've almost finished the Harepath Farm article, although I'd really like to take more photos of that too. Other things coming up include more Useful Books, Odds & Ends, a part two of Weather Lore, several streets, three churches, a few more to rewrite from my old website and a few new things too.

Meanwhile, I decided to do the same as the previous June and add photos of the balcony garden, which I just took this morning with my little Fujifilm digi camera. This might become a regular feature every June. :)

Because I put my back out three times in the first part of this year I haven't been able to lift or carry much since, so I wasn't able to buy new plants locally. I went a bit mad ordering stuff online, though - which is horrendously expensive, by the way! - and I've overdone it a bit. Added to which my usual perenials and seeds have come up amazingly due to all the rain we had earlier. And now there's hardly any room to walk between the pots and planters.

So that's about it for now. I'll try and get the printer connected and set up as soon as possible and get some more articles posted up. So much to do and so little time, lol!

Have a great June, everyone. Cheers, Eileen :)