We had a sneaky day off yesterday as Chris had a dental appointment in Lancaster, and decided to be tourists for the day. We both know Lancaster very well, having lived in or nearby the city for many years, but we rarely visit the heritage sites.
Our first destination was St Mary’s Priory. Lancaster's Priory Church of St Mary's has been a site of worship since the 11th century. The current building is the result of major rebuilding in the late 14th century onwards. Work continued into the 15th century with much work in the 1530s. The tower was rebuilt in the 1759. In 1903 Austin and Paley added the two storey porch and the grand chapel on the northern side of the Priory. The Priory is well known for its wonderful stained glass windows, all of which are from the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of them are quite beautiful and fill all of the windows throughout the church.
The other star attraction of the Priory is the medieval oak choir stalls that date from 1340. Pevsner described them as being, "about the most luxuriant canopies in the country". The pulpit is Jacobean, the pews are Victorian and the chandeliers are just gorgeous. There is also a magnificent west gallery which Austin and Paley didn't destroy when the organ was installed. There are some Anglo Saxon remains in the Priory including a replica of the Lancaster Cross. This late 8th-century Anglo-Saxon stone cross fragment featuring an old runic inscription was discovered in 1807 in the churchyard of Lancaster Priory. The original now resides in the British Museum.
Our next destination was the Castle where we had a cup of Atkinson's delicious coffee and explored the magnificent building. We also enjoyed the wonderful display of flowers at the gateway of the Castle.
We explored some more of Lancaster and had lunch and another cup of Atkinson's coffee at the Music Room. This is a garden pavilion from about 1730 with a Baroque interior of the highest order. The building today has long since been separated from the rich lawyer’s town house it once graced, but recent restoration has left it in beautiful condition.
On the walls are the Muses: eloquence, history, music, astronomy, tragedy, rhetoric, dancing, comedy and amorous poetry; with Apollo over the fireplace. A fruitful goddess with a torch presides over the ceiling. One Muse had vanished entirely and was recreated by the plasterers from Sutton Coldfield as a modern girl, big and busty, with a cheerful eye; she makes an excellent Muse of dancing.
Our final destination, as we walked back to the car full of heritage and history, was the jewellery shop Down to Earth. Down to Earth is a Lancaster institution which has been in the city since the early 1980s. Chris bought me a beautiful necklace: an amber studded silver treble clef. This will be a lovely memento of a very memorable day.
We had such an enjoyable day, exploring heritage right on our doorstep. We felt like tourists for the day!