Night Time at the Cathedral

Now, before I start this post properly, I need to say "don't shoot the messenger".  This post is about an event held at Peterborough Cathedral and after posting a couple of my shots on social media there were a couple of negative comments because the Cathedral hosted an event that was show casing cars.  I can understand if some find this a bit uncomfortable, however how I saw this was that the Cathedral was absolutely full of different faiths, ages, races etc all in awe of their surroundings.  The Cathedral was alive!  And, as a personal opinion, it was a wonderful sight to see.  So, please view this post through my eyes... someone who loves to see history up close and personal, not in books, someone who loves meeting people from all walks of life and enjoying their story, someone who will capture positivity and life that makes her smile.  So, to stop any debate on a negative front, I have decided not to have comments this week, my blog is a positive one, one about my photography and not one to bring my readers down.  A bit radical I know, but there is enough negativity in this world and I personally don't like to read about it.  So, if you are still with me, come along with me and let me take you by the hand to an event in Peterborough Cathedral, an event that was presented so well and very well attended...

My goal was to be on one of the Tower Tours, to climb the centuries old circular stairs while the events took place below me.  Mr Teen was going to drool over the cars which were currently shrouded, just giving a tempting glimpse of what was underneath.

It was heartwarming to see so many people descend on the Cathedral and to hear it filled with life.

The exquisite choir in their red robes getting ready for the main event.  I can't tell you how beautiful it was to hear them from above.

The Tower Tour is not for the lighthearted, it is a climb, it is very narrow in places and some negotiating will need to be conquered.  If you are tall it may feel as though you are in Alice in Wonderland with the small doorways and unforgiving stone archways where you may bang your head (I'm 5' 2 .5" and I did!!), but the view from the top is breathtaking!

Let's make a start up some stairs (around 156 altogether) and look at this magnificent building from above.  The centuries of different footwear treading these stairs as they circled around and around, feeling as though they are never ending.  Common sense not Health and Safety overkill reigns while treading in the steps of our forefathers.

Halfway up and a little breather,  I took full advantage of looking at the event from up high at the triforium and wasn't disappointed with the nave full and the choir in full song.

While going around the different levels, you come across various beautiful pieces of history, such as some huge templates for the different piers...

The views below are stunning, simply stunning!  The architecture is awe inspiring.  Almost 900 years of tactile history.

More stairs, hand rails helping, difficult negotiations and then onto the Crossing Tower!  Are you ready for a test of heights?... the shrouds ready to be removed for the reveal of the new BMW 5 Series and Mini Countryman...

But, the reason I was here was the view that you get from this level.  The Crossing Tower along with its beautiful ceiling was built in the 14th Century and then again by the Victorians.

In 1643 the Cathedral suffered as part of the Civil War and in 1883 restoration work began with the High Altar and mosaic floor being added.

And then, some more stairs, a small door... the main reason I came on the tour this evening... the top of the Cathedral, outside!  Peterborough in the evening!!  Stunning!!

I stood here for longer than I should really but I wanted to see this, to experience the beauty of this centuries old building knowing that I had walked around those turrets at the front (post here and here).  Sharing the moment with those who would really appreciate it.

Below us, the Cathedral was buzzing, cameras were busy and, amazingly, today two of my photos were used in The Times as part of a report on the Cathedral and the bold decision to host this event (the link is here)!  A very happy blogger!

The Tower Tour is £10.  Money very well spent!

Have a wonderful weekend and week ahead.

The Flirtation of Spring

As I type this post, the sun is streaming in, something that I haven't seen for days!  The sap has been rising, the birds are starting their dawn chorus again and the morning's light greets me a little earlier.  Spring is making an appearance after a very dark and damp winter however, winter's bony fingers still clutch for a little longer making me impatient for that magical turn of the month.

The camera has been quiet again this week with the greyness of the season which is never a good thing to capture.  How I wish there could be two doses of Autumn rather than the plain and emptiness of the last throes of Winter.

Winter's veil is slowly rising, the mist gradually revealing the light brown sap in the established trees branches.  The wildlife opening one eye very gingerly, then pressing the snooze button for a little longer.

Spring is deliciously close, flirting with me and less than a handful of weeks away.  The camera card will need to be emptied and a new season to capture with new places and experiences to explore!

If you are in the Peterborough area next week, the Cathedral have an event that you may be interested in (the link is here).  This is the launch of the latest BMW 5 Series and the new Mini Countryman.  For car lovers this will be a fantastic event with the portico doors being opened earlier in the day for the cars to drive into the Cathedral.  There will also be a rooftop tour if you have a head for heights!!  One for my camera I feel!

Have a wonderful weekend.

An Audience with Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon

It's been quite a while since I last blogged about the wonders of Peterborough Cathedral, and I apologise.  This weekend marks an important date in the Cathedral's diary, the date of  Henry VIII's first wife's burial.  Katherine of Aragon was buried on the 29 January 1536 and the Cathedral celebrates this with various activities and events.  With the new Visitor Centre now open, part of this Festival was to attend an audience with the Royal couple.  So, hold on to you heads, let's be careful how we tread around him, grab your flask of ale and let's go on a historical tour of this beautiful place.

If you visit Peterborough Cathedral, I would suggest that you visit the Visitor and Learning Centre first.  As you go through the Norman Arch from Cathedral Square and the magnificent Cathedral is set in front of you, walk towards it and you will see the Centre to your right.  Entrance is free, however with the amount of history you are about to see, don't forget a donation on your way out!

The reason I suggest to see this new gem on the Cathedral grounds, is because it sets you up to understand the history of the Cathedral, along with the story of Catherine of Aragon, Mary Queen of Scots, and the timeline of this area of Peterborough.  One amazing document behind one of the panels of glass is this, the original letter from King James I requesting that his mother, Mary of Queen of Scots, be exhumed so that he could bury her at Westminster Abbey.  I can only make out certain words, but there it is, a historical document that blows my mind!

As a result of this letter, his mother was exhumed and the grave in the Cathedral now lays empty.

Do you see now why I say to visit the Visitor Centre first?  

We were here for Katherine of Aragon though and one of the rooms in the Centre has a reproduction of a dress that she would have worn, handstitched in the same way that would have been created back in her day.  The room was plain, but excellently presented, the walls adorned with information on her life timeline, all surrounding the dress with its intricate detail.

Catherine of Aragon's grave lays proudly below her standard.  She was after all, Queen of England.  Her grave is usually adorned with one or two pomegranates which are depicted on her coat of arms, however, with the significance of this anniversary, candles were lit, many pomegranates and flowers had adorned her tomb stone.  Unlike Mary, Katherine is still here, below this marble slab which was placed over her grave in 1895 after donations were made to reinstate this (the original destroyed and by Oliver Cromwell's men and used in the Dean's summerhouse!).

Either side of the tomb were placed candles depicting the pomegranate, her heraldic symbol.

However, we had come for the main event, the Audience with King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon which was set in the Knights Chamber, built around 1220 and a place where the Knights Templar used to meet.  Once again the pomegranates were on show.

The audience was informative and the Q&A was incredibly interesting, varying from the shapes of the bonnets, the amount of clothes they wore from one outfit, how they whitened their shirts with urine and the lack of bathtimes they had!  The three of them, Henry VIII, Katharine of Aragon and the Lady in Waiting were asked questions and without a bat of an eyelid they gave the most interesting and detailed answers.  A really fantastic half an hour finishing off with a chance to photograph the pair of them.

Once finished here we headed down the stairs and across to the Cathedral, almost 900 years old!

This building is a kaleidoscope of wonders.  So enough of the commentary, the shots I took hopefully will give you their own story...

I leave you with a shot I took that made me smile!  The choir stalls, Old Scarlett's painting on the wall (the gravedigger who buried three Queens, Catherine of Aragon, Mary Queen of Scots and ... his wife!, and then can you make out the monks?!!



If you are in the Peterborough area please take some time to visit this amazing place, oozing history from every piece of stone and, if you don't mind heights, book a place on a tower tour, you won't be disappointed!

Have a wonderful week ahead.

A Night at Peterborough Cathedral

Last month, Peterborough Cathedral held a competition evening for amateur photographers to come along and capture the Cathedral in candlelight.  This magnificent building is stunning during the day let alone the evening, so I went along to capture different angles that I don't usually have time to do.  To share time with other photographers (all very quiet and concentrating hard) was incredibly enjoyable.

The above shot would have been my entry!  Old Scarlett through the choir stalls and their candles.  The Tudor gravedigger who buried three queens, Queen Katharine of Aragon, Mary Queen of Scots and his wife.  However, with the problems I was having with my viewfinder eye at the time, I didn't realise there was another photographer looking my way.  A shame, but with a bit of editing he isn't as noticeable.

The shadows that the light cast were a delight to capture, even better with photographer shadows too.

The ceilings of the Cathedral, in fact any Cathedral, are captured thousands of times per day.  Their intricate designs created by steady hands on high scaffolding towers.  I love capturing closer objects that make you look beyond, like this exquisite gate leading into the High Altar and one of the ceilings of the Cathedral.

And then further along through a screen.

The High Altar floor has had some restorations lately and I stumbled across a photo I took in the past which Google very kindly edited for me.  It shows the experts working tirelessly on the tessarae floor. (Click on the image to enlarge this)

Of course, we can't come to this Cathedral without visiting King Henry VIII's first wife, Katharine of Aragon's tomb.  Adorned with pomegranates and of course a candle to light the way.

Outside the quiet passageways by the side of the Cathedral.  Can you imagine all the centuries (nine of them so far) of people walking through here?  The fashions, the wars, the careful whispers (especially during Henry VIII and Elizabeth I's time).  My mind goes into overtime whenever I am alone in and around here.

Out into the Cloisters, the rain was falling (I love this saying... "that fine rain, you know the type that wets you through"), but weather never bothers me so I continued to try and capture something different.  For now, I just wanted to capture the building with the added bonus of a moving Miss Teen.

The rain was so fine that it danced around the chimney pots of a precinct building.

Back inside, it was heartwarming to see so many photographers with their different angles and equipment from smart phones, hand sized cameras, right up to the big boys.  

My camera is a bridge camera (Fujifilm Finepix HS50 EXR).  I'm proud of this fella and how it will pick things up (apart from that pesky photographer in my first shot!), and for now I see no need to change.  One day though, once photography courses have been conquered I may just have to make the decision between Canon or Nikon.

A beautiful and productive evening and the following day, a beautiful sunset on this wonderful building through the lens of my other camera... a Samsung S6.

Have a lovely week capturing moments both night and day.