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| Stained glass painting by John Piper in Devizes Museum |
Yesterday I wrote a small blog with links in it, and then somehow tapped the wrong key and it vanished! But something had made me laugh with delight, a link to the Tate's collection of photographs taken by John Piper. Yes I am a John Piper fan. his strong paintings somehow echo in my soul and he has painted pictures of prehistoric stones but his photographs of churches, carvings and general humdrum aspects of life I had never come across. Well thanks to 'Smell of Water' blog yesterday which comes through my email, he uses it to locate churches and their wonderful carved stone fonts and effigies.
Does the world get smaller I wonder as we are introduced to some of its wonderful history, or does it become larger? leading us down more rabbit holes till our senses are blown away.
I notice in this trip to East Yorkshire he had stopped off at the great barrow of Duggleby Howe. 'Howe' by the way comes from haugr an old Norse word. Reminding me why we had gone that day to see the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy. The link below.
The word 'Howe' also remind us of the strong Scandinavian links that Yorkshire has. From the Vikings in York, to the beautiful drinking horn that went from the area of Normanby where I used to live, a furious Scandinavian father had disinherited his sons.
There are traces of strange foreign influences in Yorkshire, go to Lythe just outside Whitby and view the Hogback graves of the Berserkers. Yes they probably even used drugs in the olden days, magic mushrooms anyone?
A lovely but sad meander through my blogs, but I am glad it was written and the photographs capture the moments.
East Yorkshire Blogs:
Lots of interesting stuff in this post!
ReplyDeleteA sort of ragbag of links Tom, surprising what you pick up going through life ;)
ReplyDeleteNaturally, I went back and read your East Yorkshire posts. I may have mentioned this before but last year I discovered that the mound upon which Skipsea Castle used to sit was in fact there long before that castle was erected. It may be of a similar age to Silbury Hill and possibly a burial mound.
ReplyDeleteWell it goes back to the Iron Age Neil. Norman Motte and Bailey according to the wiki. I will have to rescue Silbury as being unique, though in actual fact there were two other similar mounds nearby. One stands in the grounds of Marlborough College. They took a 'core' out of Skipsea Castle which revealed the plants at the original ground level. Somewhere amongst all my blogs there is a similar paper on what was found in Silbury Hill, when they repaired it.
DeleteThey say that for every question they try to answer in science it throws up dozens more questions that need investigating. It seems to be true in other fields as well, I certainly started off investigating my home area of East Anglia thinking I might exhaust the possibilities, but there seem to be more places than ever that I want to see. I always wondered whether all those tales about giants and little people were inspired by eating the "wrong sort" of mushrooms.
ReplyDeleteNo John those folktales are really true ;) But the Fly Agaric mushrooms must have led some people down into a nightmare. Look at all those horrible effigies our churches are plastered with. I think the 'questioning habit' of our scientists keeps the human race going and just ahead of the 'big fall'. I am hoping they will be able to find answers for the Climate Crisis!
ReplyDeleteI love Piper too. I have 'Piper's Places' on my bookshelf - it often comes out when there is nothing on TV and my mind is too tired to read (and take in what I am reading') - his work is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI have been wondering how all those poets and painters of the 1930s managed to holiday so much. Was it private income I wonder? But yes Piper really worked hard. He lived in Wales and did some dramatic paintings of the scenery there.
ReplyDeleteI know that my world has gotten much larger since I started reading blogs from all over the world. I have learned so many interesting things and met people and seen places I would never have seen!
ReplyDeleteI suppose you could say Ellen that the internet has opened up our world so that we can travel with just tapping our fingers on the keyboard.
DeleteI too am a John Piper fan.. I had a signed print of his once but it started to fade and I gave to the national writing centre in Wales. He was one of our best painters of Pembrokeshire
ReplyDeleteI have Francis Spalding book somewhere - Myfanwy Piper. His paintings of landscapes in Wales always darkly dramatic, must try and find it.
ReplyDelete