Some Things Just Make You Want To SCREAM!!!!
It started out as an ordinary day at work. Got to rummage through some medieval pottery, scratched my head over whether I was looking at a grey form of gritty ware, a reduced form of redware, or some anaemic-looking Post Medieval Reduced Ware (hey, that's what a SPECIALIST is for!!!) and figured out that our recent clay tobacco pipe find from an urban site in Ayrshire was dated somewhere between 1670 and 1700 and probably not from Scotland.
Then it was Desk-Based Assessment time. Absorbing and Totally Irrelevant fact #1 was this: the parish I was studying originally belonged to the Abbey of Holme Cultran in Cumbria, but they supported the English against David Bruce (?David II) in the Second Scots Wars of Independence and so their lands got forfeited and donated instead to some other local lords in Galloway.
Hmmm, thought I. Holme Cultran? Never heard of it. How interesting. Tell me more.
So I hopped onto wikipedia, as you do, and discovered that the abbey church survived the Reformation and is in use as the parish church of a town in Cumbria called Abbeytown, which I'm afraid to say I've never actually visited.
Correction. Shall I rephrase this slightly? The abbey church survived the Reformation and was in use as the parish church.
Until someone burned it down.
When was this act of senseless depravity? 1640s, perhaps, around the time of the Civil War? 1940s, when a few German bombers decided to empty their bomb bays before heading home and accidentally totalled an ancient ecclesiastical building?
Nope. It was 9th June, 2006. Some little f**k-wit loser decided to torch the place, causing £3 million pounds worth of damage and destroying the medieval cartualary at the same time.
Sigh.
Needless to say, the abbey is seeking funds for its restoration. Also needless to say, I'll be paying a pilgrimage to the poor stricken abbey next time I'm down in Cumbria so I can give them a contribution for the War Effort.
You can read more about this sorry tale by clicking the link below:-
http://holmecultramabbey.org.uk/
There are no Mood categories for 'Devastated' or 'Beside Myself with Rage' but hey, you get the point!!
Then it was Desk-Based Assessment time. Absorbing and Totally Irrelevant fact #1 was this: the parish I was studying originally belonged to the Abbey of Holme Cultran in Cumbria, but they supported the English against David Bruce (?David II) in the Second Scots Wars of Independence and so their lands got forfeited and donated instead to some other local lords in Galloway.
Hmmm, thought I. Holme Cultran? Never heard of it. How interesting. Tell me more.
So I hopped onto wikipedia, as you do, and discovered that the abbey church survived the Reformation and is in use as the parish church of a town in Cumbria called Abbeytown, which I'm afraid to say I've never actually visited.
Correction. Shall I rephrase this slightly? The abbey church survived the Reformation and was in use as the parish church.
Until someone burned it down.
When was this act of senseless depravity? 1640s, perhaps, around the time of the Civil War? 1940s, when a few German bombers decided to empty their bomb bays before heading home and accidentally totalled an ancient ecclesiastical building?
Nope. It was 9th June, 2006. Some little f**k-wit loser decided to torch the place, causing £3 million pounds worth of damage and destroying the medieval cartualary at the same time.
Sigh.
Needless to say, the abbey is seeking funds for its restoration. Also needless to say, I'll be paying a pilgrimage to the poor stricken abbey next time I'm down in Cumbria so I can give them a contribution for the War Effort.
You can read more about this sorry tale by clicking the link below:-
http://holmecultramabbey.org.uk/
There are no Mood categories for 'Devastated' or 'Beside Myself with Rage' but hey, you get the point!!