England: A day in Exeter

Steeped in history, with a stunning cathedral and the lure of river-side cafes, Devon’s county town of Exeter is well worth a visit.

Exeter Cathedral facade

We drove to the outskirts of city then opted to park ‘n’ ride as parking is expensive in the city centre – indeed, in most English city centres. The heavens opened as we hurried from car to bus stop and as my jacket was only shower-proof I got rather soggy, not an auspicious start to the day’s sightseeing. But I soon dried off, the sun came out and the weather continued good for the rest of the day.

First stop, Exeter Cathedral, where we mooched for the better part of an hour. Entry wasn’t cheap at six quid each, particularly considering they’d run out of free guidebooks, and the organ was being renovated and parts of the cathedral’s exterior were being restored, meaning photo opportunities were restricted by the cumbersome scaffolding inside and out, by areas of the cathedral being roped off and by the truck parked in the entrance. I was not particularly impressed at being charged full price in those conditions. But my moaning ends there, as it is an incredible structure, one of England’s most noteworthy cathedrals and as fine an example of Gothic architecture as you’ll see anywhere.

For me, the delight is in the details. First, the ceiling bosses – a long way up to be sure but worth craning your neck and zooming in with your camera to see the intricate designs, all finely carved and coloured with subjects including biblical stories, human figures, naturalistic and fabulous scenes.

And, if your neck’s arthritic or your lens doesn’t zoom, there’s a replica boss to admire. Rather than weighing two tons, like some of the largest on the ceiling, the replica is almost as light as a feather, made from papier maché over a wood and wire frame and then finished with acrylic paints. It’s an almost exact copy of the 700-year-old boss in the centre of the crossing between the transepts and its subject, three dragons and a knight, apparently represents the Christian soul trampling on the world, the flesh and the devil.

The cathedral contains more statues, memorials and effigies than I’ve ever seen in one religious building before and the variety is such that, when we visited, one corner of the building was devoted to an exhibition explaining the changing fashions in grave markers over the centuries. The photo above shows two of the more grand memorials. On the left lies Bishop Qinel, the 13th bishop of Exeter, who’s credited with initiating the construction of the cathedral we see today. He died in 1291. On the right, the fabulous woman with the skull, who died in 1614, was Lady Dorothy Dodderidge.  Her inscription translates as follows: ‘Here lies Dorothy the wife of John Doderidge, knight, one of the Justices of the Lord King assigned at the Pleas held before the King, and daughter of Amisus [Latinised form] Bampfield, knight, who died on the first of March in the Year of Our Lord 1614’.

I couldn’t help but feel I was constantly being watched as I strolled Exeter’s hallowed halls and it was nothing to do with a religious presence. There are human heads and faces everywhere, not only on the effigies and memorials but seemingly carved into every available surface, stone and wooden. And then there are the animals – elephants, eagles, crocodiles, you name it – the place is a veritable Noah’s Arc of creatures. 

Designed by George Gilbert Scott in the 1870s, the choir stalls, in particular, are alive with beasties. And don’t even get me started on the misericords – Exeter has the earliest set in England, dating from the mid-13th century, or the owls – one of the side chapels is full of these, in wood, stone and tapestry. I’ll leave you to discover why.

One thing I didn’t expect to see in the cathedral was the magnificent clock that hangs on the north wall. Gifted by Bishop Courtenay in 1484, at its centre is a globe representing the earth, around which revolves the moon, turning on its axis to show the phases. The motto, ‘Pereunt et imputantur’, at the bottom of the clock, is from the Latin poet Martial and can be translated ‘the hours pass and are reckoned to our account’ – or, in more modern parlance, ‘time passes, spend it wisely’. Good advice!

So far, I’ve focused here on the cathedral’s interior but the exterior is equally magnificent. The façade is particularly imposing. As regular readers will know, I am a huge fan of gargoyles so, for me, the gargoyles were a special highlight – those around the exterior of Exeter Cathedral are some of the finest I’ve ever seen. The oldest ones have deteriorated badly through time and are almost completely eroded away in places but there are newer ones that have some incredible expressions on their faces. The modern sculptor obviously had a keen sense of the bizarre and the fantastic.

A lovely square and old buildings surround the cathedral. We discovered a couple of wonderfully carved wooden doors, the black-and-white half-timbered buildings date from the 1500s and, in one corner, sits St Martin’s Church, dating from the Norman Conquest.

We lunched in the square at an outdoor café, enjoying the sunshine and people watching, before walking along a couple of streets to RAMM, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum – another splendid building, with a new construction butting on to its rear; an elegant foyer, with pink painted walls and a life-size statue of Prince Albert in pride of place halfway up the grand branching staircase; and interesting exhibitions about the local area, from Neolithic and Roman times (the town has about 70% of its Roman wall still extant) to the modern day (clay mining and pottery works, tin mining, etc).

To finish our day, we headed down to the quay via two of the oldest buildings in the city (one of which, below left, had been moved to make way for a modern road) and made a quick visit to nearby Cricklepitt Mill (the mill wasn’t working that day but two of its three wheels are used to generate electricity and it boasts a lovely wild garden which we explored).

The quay sits alongside the River Exe and the Exeter Ship Canal, where ships would have loaded and unloaded their cargoes in centuries past. The old warehouses are now being converted to apartments and shops, restaurants and cafes, like the one where we enjoyed drinks and cake. Kayakers, peddle-boaters and rowers were enjoying the waters, and one rather quirky feature was the hand-powered ferry that was doing a roaring trade carrying folks across the canal (30p for adults, 20p for kids). And these were just a few of Exeter’s attractions. I’m obviously going to visit again – and so should you!

England: Manchester – who knew?

An eclectic mix of old and new

What a great city! Vibrant and pulsating, full of colour and energy – these were my first impressions after spending just one day in Manchester.

It has quite a large, spread out city centre – or, at least, it felt like that after we had spent several hours walking from one end to the other and criss-crossing back and forth. Manchester is known as the first modern industrial city, built during the Industrial Revolution, and so is synonymous with cavernous warehouses and towering mills. For me, this is one of its attractions and I enjoyed its unique mix of old and new buildings, with their wonderfully eclectic architecture.

I saw more gargoyles than I’ve ever seen in one day before, as well as carved stone heads and full figures and other ornate sculptural ornamentation. I was warmed by the overall red tinge to the urban landscape, created by the red brick used to construct most of the older buildings. And, though there were many tall modern buildings, I didn’t feel overwhelmed by concrete-and-glass skyscrapers, as I sometimes do in big cities. The transport system also seemed very efficient – there are modern trams, rather than an underground, which were cheap, fast and efficient.

We caught the train from Northwich to Manchester, an hour each way as it stopped at several stations along the way (there are express trains for commuters), then the tram from Manchester’s Piccadilly Station to Deansgate to visit the Museum of Science and Technology. It’s a huge place, spread over five old buildings which are worth a look for their own sakes. One is the first railway station ever built, the former Liverpool Rd station, which opened in September 1830. Its interior has been restored and refurbished so you can relive the glory days of rail travel.

One of the museum buildings and a Langton-JAP speedway motorcycle

A 1911 Vulcan 4-4-0 locomotive and an Imperial Touring Car, dating from 1904

The exhibition spaces at the museum are large, well explained and have good hands-on activities for kids young and old. There is lots of working machinery, particularly in the Power Hall, which is full of engines and trains. In fact, transport is one of the major themes, with lots of transport-related exhibits, and, naturally enough, there are many displays related to Manchester’s industrial past, dominated by textiles and mill machinery. I can also report that the café had good food – yummy lunchtime pizza, and I was impressed with the museum shop – I bought a very cool tshirt that lists all the components of the human body on the front.

 

The John Rylands Library, side and front views

Next stop on our Manchester meander was the John Rylands Library, a truly magnificent building that has recently been restored and refurbished. John Rylands (1801-88) was, at one time, the owner of the biggest textile-manufacturing business in the UK, became Manchester’s first multi-millionaire, and was also an unpretentious philanthropist, sponsoring orphanages, homes for the elderly and public buildings. The library was founded, in 1900, by Ryland’s wife, in memory of her husband.

The Reading Room, the staircase, the cloisters - all magnificent!

The neo-Gothic building, with Arts and Crafts details, is like a cathedral that pays homage to the book. It has cloistered walkways with carved stone bosses, some in the shapes of flowers or leaves, others with dragons and griffins. It boasts double-height reading rooms, full of glass-fronted cases of wonderful old books – its Special Collections are reputed to be the best in Britain. Its ‘nave’ is an enormous reading room with stained-glass windows at each end, towering above and illuminating statues of Mr and Mrs Rylands. The staircase is more grand than any I’ve ever seen, with huge Gothic arches and a view up to the Lantern Gallery above.

Barton Arcade

And the exterior of the building is just as impressive, with an ornate façade on Deansgate and gorgeous gargoyles of all sizes and designs, sometimes sitting atop guttering hoppers and downpipes, other times perched at the junctions of window arches. The whole place was simply amazing, right down to lamps shaped like inverted cotton flowers because that’s how Rylands made his money. Highly recommended if you ever get the chance to visit!

After admiring the library we continued down Deansgate to the area of the city that was severely bombed by IRA terrorists on 15 June 1996. First, we detoured through Barton Arcade, a winding covered arcade with an ornate roof of glass and wrought iron that was built in 1871 and is still home to fashionable shops, cafés and bars, then wandered past the lovely medieval Music School building, built on the site of Manchester Castle.

Where the older buildings were destroyed by that massive 1500-kg IRA bomb, a huge shopping centre now stands but there are also plenty of open spaces, populated by benches where Mancunians can enjoy the open air and sunshine. We walked through Shambles Square, home to the extremely popular Old Washington Inn – the oldest pub in town, which was relocated to this site in 1999 – to Manchester Cathedral, another grand old building with fantastic gargoyles.

Shambles Square

Manchester's Anglican Cathedral

The pulpitum

Originally constructed in the late 15th century, the Anglican cathedral was extended and remodelled in the Victorian period, and received further repairs and restoration after the 1996 bombing. The interior is now a mix of old and new, which didn’t particularly appeal to me – colourful dangling decorations in a centuries-old doorway is not to my taste but does, I assume, make the building more appealing to the younger generations of worshippers. 

There were many wonderful old features, though – the choir stalls were intricately carved and rivalled Chester’s in magnificence, the screen (pulpitum) that separates the nave from the quire is particularly fine, as are the carvings on the misericords.

From the cathedral we headed to Albert Square where an area roped off for a jazz festival didn’t help with getting photos but I still grabbed several of the impressive Victorian Gothic Town Hall, a monument to Prince Albert and a gargoyle fountain that was erected for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria – presumably, no resemblance intended! 

Our route from there to the railway station, to catch the train home, took us through Chinatown, with its Asian restaurants and signs and a very grand archway. By then, I was footsore, a little sweaty and rather weary, but very impressed with Manchester. I will be back!

Manchester Town Hall