Journeying over to Shepherd's Crook Farm on Saturday morning, we stopped off in a Lincolnshire village called Laceby. As Shirley nipped into the village shop to buy some edible gifts for our friends, I mooched around and snapped three pictures.
The first of them is shown above. It was on the door of the Laceby Chinese Takeaway. Sadly, the business was not open at the time so I could not test out the shockingly loud door. Mind you - at the age of sixty seven - I may have counted as an "elder customer". Perhaps the "vey loud" din would have caused me to collapse in a heap - denying me the opportunity to purchase some sweet and sour pork balls with Shanghai noodles. How kind of the proprietor to leave two kisses after the "Thank you".
Above, the little market square in Laceby. I doubt that a market has been held here since the second world war. Just around the corner it was sad to see that the main village pub - "The Nag's Head" was all boarded up and like the market, will probably never do business again.
Below is the delightful twelfth century village church - dedicated to St Margaret and built from stone derived from the quarries at Ancaster - some fifty miles away. Imagine that - in the middle ages - transporting many tons of stone by cart or coastal barge to build a church. It's really quite amazing in my estimation. I often think about that when viewing an old church. Where did the stone come from, how did they get it there and at what cost? Another relevant question might be: Why?
I wonder if the application of a little oil might have reduced the noise of the shockingly loud door?
Our villages show such a gentle way of life, Laceby looks lovely. My daughter who goes to work in Manchester through Victoria Wood Station, talks of armed police always in the station, two totally different scenarios.
ReplyDeleteThis is a multi-faceted land.
DeleteLet me haggertise a little: Read "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett to understand the motivation for building churches and cathedrals in Medieval times. Probably much like the crusades, motivation varied quite a bit from one person to the next.
ReplyDeleteAs for the shocking loud noise, it's a shame you weren't able to test it! I really would have liked to know. Doesn't it sound a bit like the title for some indie theatre play or modern novel? "The Shocking Loud Noise of the Takeaway Door", written by Neil T., listed for some prize or other, 2021. Maybe Part I of the Laceby Trilogy.
The German sisters approached the Chinese takeaway, chattering away like parrots
Deleteas usual. They failed to notice the sign on the door and then... THE END
Surely you are not suggesting that the German sisters are old...
Delete...er than you'd think.
DeleteI love notices like that. Something to make people smile.
ReplyDeleteIt's okay for you to say that JayCee. You wouldn't hear the shockingly loud door noise!
DeleteI love the librarian's suggestion of a trilogy. Sounds right up your alley, pun intended:)
ReplyDeleteI fear I am too lazy to write The Laceby Trilogy but if I did there would be a mischievous pixie in the churchyard.
DeleteI am never sure about Lincolnshire - or to be more honest, I reckon large parts of it are pretty dull. I went cycling there in the wolds a few years ago and stayed at the iconic Woody's Top youth hostel, but aside from that I was constantly wishing myself elsewhere - unfair perhaps, and not especially generous on my part, but deep down, I couldn't help thinking 'It's better up north or out west'...
ReplyDeleteI think that parts of Lincolnshire have a quiet, subtle beauty - especially around the wolds. It's like the land that time forgot and of course there is much history there.
DeleteIt's such a classic English as second language sign 😊
ReplyDeleteI think about how solid old buildings are, how decorated, how expensive. We just don't value anything so highly these days
Today it's usually about speed, cost and functionality.
DeleteI sort of love that sign and whoever wrote it. So very thoughtful and the necessary information is all right there. Sealed with two kisses. What a disappointment it was not open. I really would like to hear your report of what a very loud and shocking noise sounds like.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting how so many cultures spent so much time and energy building churches, monasteries, and temples in the names of their gods? I certainly do not understand but am continually impressed at the architecture and workmanship they've left to us.
I am the same. Puzzled but also enthralled.
DeleteYoung industrial workers in the Midlands explored Lincolnshire on bicycle and on foot. Postwar Britain. Like my father, many people worked Saturday mornings.
ReplyDeleteI picked up a novel by Alan Sillitoe, describing such rambles, and was enthralled.
The novel was, I think, The Death of William Posters, or A Tree On Fire.
The year was 1970. I was 19 years old. Many workers had Saturday off.
And here I am in 2021, lucky to be alive when so many are gone, and I am enthralled to read your posts, using a technology no one dreamed of in 1970.
The little market square in Laceby looks so quiet. The only pub boarded up !
I still remember Sillitoe's description of the Lincolnshire plain, and the big wide skies. His stories are dotted with Joycean epiphanies, like your rambles.
See YouTube: *Alan Sillitoe Heart of the Midlands.*
A video essay by the writer's son, photographer David Sillitoe.
Haggerty
I will definitely have a look at that John. Thanks for the pointer.
DeleteSo what's the quote, "You can do anything with god!" That's how they got the stone to build the church. Simple! Isn't it.
ReplyDeleteGod must have had a big truck.
DeleteIt's good that they are thoughtful enough to caution people politely, and consider us oldies in particular. Some sudden noise might cause a heart attack, and that would never do - not before we'd ordered our food! Perhaps you could go back soon and check on the noise for us? If you had a smart phone, you could make a short video for us. Then we'd be able to give the noise marks out of ten.
ReplyDeleteYou really know how to bring out the best of the subjects in your photos, YP. These country villages look so appealing, and the sunshine and deep blue skies add to the attraction.
Oh Carol, I am but a fool. Thanks for calling by again. Sadly, I cannot see me heading back to Laceby in the near future.
DeleteThe sign might have been a mistake causing even more people to test it out. I know I would have tried it.
ReplyDeleteWhere I live there is no rock. It is topsoil and endless clay down 20 or 40 feet to solid bedrock. So like you, I have had similar ponderings on old stone structures.
Glad to hear that I am not the only one who ponders upon such matters Ed.
DeleteFamous novels have been written on that theme (cathedrals, at what cost and why...) Back in my university days (English lit) we read The Spire by William Golding. I've also read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (oops I see Meike already mentioned that one) and Cathedral of the Sea by Idefonso Falcones.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these signposts DT.
DeleteThey to get a round tuit. Where do you buy one?
ReplyDeleteYou get tuits from the tuit shop of course!
DeleteQuite an attractive church anyway.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was lovely and would have enjoyed seeing the inside of it.
DeleteI really think we need an audio recording of the shockingly loud door. Can we compel you to return to Laceby and gather the evidence? That's an especially beautiful village church.
ReplyDeleteMay I suggest that you undertake that mission yourself Steve?
DeleteSome of us really are jumpy about loud noises and would be thankful for the warning. My whole family knows not to approach me from behind without giving plenty of warning; otherwise they have to scrape me off the ceiling :D
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos of lovely buildings ... although like you I wonder at the reason why and the various costs of building old churches. And new ones.
Tippy toe, tippy toe, wait for it...BOOOO!
DeleteIt should have been investigated. I am disappointed in you. Could you maybe go back to Laceby tomorrow and test that door? And then report back to us with all due haste?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, my crowded appointments diary does not allow for this.
DeleteI love those little villages. My sister-in-law lives in one in Lincolnshire. If our jobs had not been in London, Greg and I would have loved to live there too. House prices were insanely low.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am sure. relatively speaking, that that is still true. You could sell up your West London house and buy a mansion in Lincolnshire complete with a large paddock for your horses and accommodation for your manservant.
DeleteThat's a clever sign and I'm very curious about the noisy door!
ReplyDelete