History and buildings!

Norman Doorway

Well as I mentioned in the blog yesterday I did look up Bardsea church and was surprised to see it was only designed in 1845 - not even two hundred years old compared with Ulverston Parish Church. I googled our village church St Cutherberts in Kirkby and discovered it has a 'fine Norman doorway' so a walk up to the church was the order of the day to investigate further. I think that perhaps we have a project in the offing, certainly something we can dip in and out of and build up our historical and architectural knowledge as we travel round the local villages!


I could see immediately that the doorway was older than the porch that surrounded it and the door was round rather than arched at the top. The windows on the outside looked different though so I have decided I will have to do some more reading to 'get the picture'. One thing I did learn when I googled the church was that the Tower fell down one Sunday when the bells were being rung.Two of the three bells smashed but there is no record of what happened to the bell ringers!Now I'm on to a roll I'll take a picture of the Norman tower in Ulverston too when I'm next there. My son tells me that the Norman period was around 1000-1100 AD. Not bad for a twelve year old! What did intrigue me was that one of the windows in Ulverston was apparently designed by William Morris. I'm not sure if its THE William Morris (I've never really read much about him) so that's another avenue to pursue. It amazes me that a chance comment can lead to so much 'education'!