Ordnance Survey Benchmarks

Colin brought my attention to this the other day on one of his Heritage Walks when we were walking around St John Timberhill.  They can take many shapes and sizes but fundamentally they mean the same thing.  Many think it is War Office-related, but it is in fact an OS benchmark (BM) and a means of marking a height above sea level. Surveyors in our history made these marks to record height above Ordnance Datum Newlyn (ODN – mean sea level determined at Newlyn in Cornwall). If the exact height of one BM was known, the exact height of the next could be found by measuring the difference in heights, through a process of spirit levelling. They can be found cut into houses, churches, bridges and many other structures. There are hundreds of thousands of them dotted across Great Britain, although we no longer use them today.

New Buckenham Castle

I came across this castle a couple of years ago when walking with the Ramblers.  The remains are quite impressive including the keep and the circular moat.  It is well worth a visit.  The castle was built in 1176 by William d’Albini, a Norman Baron and supporter of William The Conqueror.  D’Albini also built Castle Rising and he built a new town to service his new castle but what was it called and how did this town become wealthy?  To find out more, please access the following link:

https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/norfolk/castles/new-buckenham-castle.htm

Britains Most Valuable Treasure Hoard

You may have seen this story on the national news recently.  In early 2019, seven metal detectorists found a cache of 2,584 coins dating to the Norman Conquest  in southern England. Now, the nearly 1,000-year-old silver pennies have sold for £4.3 million—making them the most expensive treasure ever found in the United Kingdom.  To find out more, please select the following link:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/an-astonishing-trove-of-coins-dating-to-the-norman-conquest-just-became-the-most-valuable-treasure-ever-found-in-britain-180985313/

Norfolk Village Signs

Here is an article to supplement Andrew Tullet's talk of two weeks ago.  It outlines his quest to log and photograph all the Norfolk village signs - there are supposed to be 520 in all.  Please select the following link:

https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/norfolk/22613808.norfolks-village-signs-one-mans-quest-discover/

Norwich Hidden Street Tour

Here are some pictures from the above which I did for the first time this week.  It’s a worthwhile tour and you get to see an original medieval street sitting under the Shoe Box on Castle Meadow.  This street was built in a time when London Street and the Back of the Inns was the castle ditch.  You can see from the pictures how narrow the street was.  The tour can be booked out of the Shoe Box.  

5th Duke of Portland

One of the characters that stuck in my mind from John Vigar’s talk is William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, the 5th Duke of Portland.  He was a man who was a recluse who liked tunnelling, he even built a tunnel from his house, Welbeck Abbey, to the local railway station.  By all accounts he oversaw the digging of over twelve miles of tunnels in and around his home.  Here is an article if you would like to find out more about this strange man:  

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-duke-who-loved-tunnels-so-much-he-was-immortalized-as-a-literary-badger 

St Michael at Thorn

You may recall that St Michael at Thorn on Ber Street was badly damaged during the Baedeker Raids in 1942 and then taken down and replaced with a car park, well here are some pictures of what it would have looked like if it was still standing now:  

https://www.invisibleworks.co.uk/blitz-ghosts-st-michael-at-thorn/