Ancestral Roofs

"In Praise of Older Buildings"

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

And then THIS happened

Tattershall Castle 1430-50
It's been ages since I posted anything on Ancestral Roofs. A very good reason for this is that Den and I are just recently returned from a fifty-day holiday in England and Ireland, during which time I absorbed enough of the architectural treasures of a great number of great places that I have been struck quite dumb.


Hampton Court Palace, begun 1515 (previous visit) 












Hardwick Hall 1500s


The layers of history recounted in a single place - Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight is but one example - render my little observations about our 150 year old treasures ('borrowed' architecture, I opine) in this province just a bit lame. (But I shall persist, nonetheless.)




Hardwick Old Hall 1587-96
Carisbrooke Castle - 1200s stage
We visited loads of Tudor sites, and were spellbound at the gloomy great halls and forbidding parapets, imagining medieval intrigues at every dark turn.
more Carisbrooke - great hall and keep


But I'm going to plunge right in with one of the visits that delighted me most. This particular little house enthralled me - and I knew what was coming, having longed to see it for years. But let me put us back in time, to its arrival. England had long become used to great houses, castles and palaces. Brick, stone. Massive and solid. Not a delicate touch anywhere.

And then, this.
Queen's House, Greenwich 1616