Hiding in the Cloisters at Cleeve Abbey

I visited Cleeve Abbey in August. Like my trip to Blakeney, visiting Cleeve provided a welcome respite during a week of frantic cooking and preparing activities, this time near Minehead.

Cleeve was a Cistercian Abbey. The Cistercian Order was formed at the very end of the eleventh century in eastern France and spread across Europe in the twelfth-century. Cistercians were characterised by their white habits and dedication to manual labour. Famous abbeys of the order in Britain include Fountains, Furness, Melrose, Rievaulx and Strata Florida. During its lifetime as an abbey, Cleeve wasn't very important -  it was the daughter house of Revesby Abbey in Lincolnshire, but located in a fairly remote Somerset valley. However, as a heritage site it is remarkably well-preserved. And by 'remarkably well-preserved' I mean that some of the buildings still have roofs.

The church was demolished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but the other buildings were converted into a manor house. Over the centuries, the importance of the tenants decreased until the 19th century when it was occupied by farmers. Its importance as an historical site was identified by George Luttrell of nearby Dunster Castle in the 1870s, who acquired it and conducted archaeological excavations, making the site into a tourist attraction. Today it is managed by English Heritage. I am a member, so got in for free.

It was a wet day and I ignored the instructions of the man in the ticket office and explored outside first, while there was a break in the rain.

This photograph shows the recovered foundations of the abbey church, into the cloisters with the dormitory as the two-storey building on the left. It was very peaceful outside, I think the rumbling sky and the fairly isolated location had put off most visitors.

Beside the abbey site were fields filled with sheep - a reminder that the Cisterican order didn't just pray and copy manuscripts, but were also manual labourers. Though the spiritual importance of the site was removed by Henry VIII, it still remained a fertile valley where sheep could be reared.

Although most of the inside of the abbey consisted of cavernous, empty rooms with descriptions and pictures of what they might have looked like when the abbey was operating, there were still a few gems. A medieval wall painting in one of the rooms, sealed off from visitors so that the environment could be controlled to preserve the painting, and a carved ceiling in the refectory. In the long dormitory, several of the window sills were covered with medieval tiles and outside, beneath a marquee, there was a whole uncovered floor of heraldic tiles. 

Cleeve Abbey isn't a grand palace that demands your attention. Instead, it is a quiet, peaceful place, with cracked tiles and vast empty rooms. Stripped of its wealth, it has still retained its dignity. Elsie J Oxenham, author of the 'Abbey' series was inspired by the site and so was I.

Bunting and beverages in Blakeney

If you've heard of Blakeney, it's probably because of the seals. Those marine mammals actually reside in Blakeney Point. Blakeney village itself is separated from the sea and the habitat of the seals by miles of salt marshes. Once a bustling a seaport, encroaching silt made it impossible for larger boats to reach the town. Now its principal visitors are tourists, who can go on boat trips out to see the seals, walk through the marshes or climb the hill, passing the characteristic Norfolk flint-and-brick cottages.

I found myself, lacking funds to go on a boat trip and lacking suitable footwear to go on a walk, in the third category. The part of Blakeney that I explored is principally a narrow street, with houses on either side and picturesque little alleys leading across to more cottages. 

As you can see in this photo, most of the road is marked with double-yellow lines. When we first explored this street, the whole road was blocked by an Adnams lorry delivering to the pub. We had to slide down the side of a queue of cars, unable to do u-turns due to the narrow nature of the road. When I returned to take these pictures, the lorry and the queue had cleared and peace had returned.

Many of the doors, and door and window frames were painted in eggshell blue and grayish tones of red, pink, purple, blue and green. 

The harbour was filled with crabbers - children dropping nets down the harbour wall and into the stream in the hopes of catching some Norfolk crab. 

It was a windy day and the bunting that stretched all the way down the harbour was flapping wildly. 

I was visiting with some women who I was cooking with on a camp in Holt (yes, the same place as I went last year). As a student, my friends and I would never consider going up to a posh hotel and having tea there - we have the assumption that such a place will be out of our price range. But visiting Blakeney with some women who are older than I, they had decided that they wanted to have tea at the Blakeney Hotel. It turned out to be less expensive than Costa Coffee and we found a little sitting room to ourselves with views across the terrace to the harbour. Having spent a week slaving over a hot stove (or at least, cutting up salad for 250 people), it was a great place to relax and feel pampered. 

The shopping in Blakeney left much to be desired when compared with nearby Holt, but it was sufficiently picturesque and peaceful to calm my soul.

Isle of Wight

I've been to the Isle of Wight over the weekend. My parents are on holiday there for the fortnight, I joined them for the middle weekend and together we attempted to visit most of the English Heritage properties on the island (we're members). I also got my Dad, with his fancy camera, to take some pictures of the revamped Esmée. I'm going to start drawing the charts tomorrow, but I won't be able to publish it properly at least until next weekend as I have to wait for my parents to come home to get the photos - it took my Dad nearly two hours to send me just three photos.

There are more photos of the Isle of Wight on my flickr.

Osborne House










Carisbrooke Castle







Esmée Cardigan

Where July went

This is a short post with a few photos. My July has been full of graduation, holiday with friends, family gathering, helping cook on a summer camp for teenagers in Norfolk, and working on the Esmée pattern. Aside from Esmée, most of my crafting time (which was few and far between) has been limited to knitting a laceweight shawl - an easy, small, travelling project which is far from finished.

The Esmée pattern is going well - I've written up everything except the arm instructions, and am halfway through making a 42in sample. The most exciting part of this sample is that I've just measured it, and the bust measurement comes to 43in - exactly what I was aiming for, so hopefully these new instructions are right. They seem to be working so far, which is very encouraging.

Here's a few photos from Norfolk to appease skim readers, both were taken at Weybourne beach:

York

My Mum and I went to York last weekend. It was lovely - really sunny, so much history. We were able to spend the whole weekend going to 'medieval' sites: York Minster, Jorvik, Micklegate Bar, Barley Hall, the Yorkshire Museum, Clifford's Tower, the York Castle Museum. I was really impressed by the high standard of the museums - nearly all were recently renovated or renewed, with passionate staff and informative, sensible displays.

I was also able to buy some Yorkshire wool in a grey colour, which will hopefully make a summer birthday gift for my brother. His favourite colour is 'sludge', but he will wear grey as well.

In the meantime, I'm remaking my Esmée cardigan for me, and am recording my progress on Ravelry.

Here are some pictures:

York Minster:





Ruins of St Mary's Abbey:


River Ouse:

Wisley and Dover Castle

I hope photos of knitting and crocheting will come soon. I am paused with the knitting - it has reached the length where I have to decide whether I want to stop and make a buttoned cowl, or if I keep going and make a proper scarf. I have worked out the lace pattern, I am no longer making mistakes and I am confident that I could complete a scarf. But I have yarn coming, hopefully this week, for a big crochet project, so it would be good to finish the knitting before that comes.

In the meantime, here are some photos from Dover Castle, which we visited last weekend, and Wisley, which we visited yesterday. As you can see, I rather like the macro function on my camera, and having things in focus in the foreground with an interesting background. Oh, and not taking photographs of castles.

Dover Castle:

Wisley: