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- Sep 27, 2002
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Well, I took the boys to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, in another attempt to view the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard. Unfortunately, although we arrived 30 minutes before the museum opened, the queue was already 2 hours long and we abandoned the attempt 
.
However, it turned out that today is the 175th birthday of Birmingham Town Hall, which was opened on 4th October 1834. The Town Hall is not a local government building, which activity takes place here:
but was built specifically as a concert hall and was modelled on the Temple of Castor and Pollux at Rome:
The architect who won the competition to design and build the Town Hall was Joseph Hansom, perhaps more famous for his invention of the Hansom Cab, star of many a Sherlock Holmes story.
Many famous names have performed here including Charles Dickens, who gave a reading of A Christmas Carol.
More recent performers include the Beatles, the Stones and many other famous names. I myself saw the Fall supported by Cabaret Voltaire in this building in the 90's!
Mendelssohn came here in his heyday and mentioned that he thought the organ would sound better if it was in an alcove. Mendelssohn was the Elton John of his day and his opinion carried some weight. The city fathers promptly made a compulsory purchase of the necessary land, pulled down the rear wall of the building, built an alcove and the enormous instrument was dragged and levered bodily rearwards, eighteen feet into the new space.
The pipes of the organ, in it's alcove, this thing is about 40 feet high and has 6,000 pipes!
Having missed the famous Anglo-Saxon treasure from Staffordshire we went to see our own local Anglo-Saxon treasure, the ancient church at Wootton Wawen.
The main surviving Anglo-Saxon part is the central tower, which is almost enclosed in later, post-Norman Conquest building. The tower is also topped with a late medieval belfry stage,
External view of the north side of the tower. The church was originally cruciform and there was a porticus, or small transept, on this side of the tower until the 18th century. Fragments of it's walls still remain, tidied up to look like buttresses. The ancient window half way up has been tidied up with brick at some point and the blocked belfry opening just below the moulding can just be made out.
The nave is to the right, this is mostly very early Norman but the first few courses were laid during the time of the last Saxon thegn of Wootton, Wagen, who is immortalised in the village name. He is named in Domesday Book as Waga. His rebuilding was interrupted, for reasons unknown.
This is the original Anglo-Saxon Chancel arch, looking from the tower into the chancel. The original Anglo-Saxon chancel was replaced later in the middle ages with a much larger structure. Against the wall in the chancel is a nice medieval tomb surmounted by a knight in armour.
The upright-and-flat stone reveals and simple semicircular arch mark this out as Anglo-Saxon work.
This slightly smaller arched opening once led into the south porticus but now opens into a large Lady Chapel which runs alongside the south side of the chancel and the tower. It is a twin to the partially filled in archway on the north side, visible from outside.
The stone quoins of the reveals are of a size and weight you never see in Norman building.
This is the largest arch in the tower, leading westward into the Norman nave. It is partly obscured by a 15th century oak screen on the east wall of the nave, with an ogive arch covering the Anglo-Saxon stone arch. The west window is 15th century in style.
An information panel in the lady chapel describing the origins of the church.
More info
Hope you like!
Andy
.However, it turned out that today is the 175th birthday of Birmingham Town Hall, which was opened on 4th October 1834. The Town Hall is not a local government building, which activity takes place here:
but was built specifically as a concert hall and was modelled on the Temple of Castor and Pollux at Rome:
The architect who won the competition to design and build the Town Hall was Joseph Hansom, perhaps more famous for his invention of the Hansom Cab, star of many a Sherlock Holmes story.
Many famous names have performed here including Charles Dickens, who gave a reading of A Christmas Carol.
More recent performers include the Beatles, the Stones and many other famous names. I myself saw the Fall supported by Cabaret Voltaire in this building in the 90's!
Mendelssohn came here in his heyday and mentioned that he thought the organ would sound better if it was in an alcove. Mendelssohn was the Elton John of his day and his opinion carried some weight. The city fathers promptly made a compulsory purchase of the necessary land, pulled down the rear wall of the building, built an alcove and the enormous instrument was dragged and levered bodily rearwards, eighteen feet into the new space.
The pipes of the organ, in it's alcove, this thing is about 40 feet high and has 6,000 pipes!
Having missed the famous Anglo-Saxon treasure from Staffordshire we went to see our own local Anglo-Saxon treasure, the ancient church at Wootton Wawen.
The main surviving Anglo-Saxon part is the central tower, which is almost enclosed in later, post-Norman Conquest building. The tower is also topped with a late medieval belfry stage,
External view of the north side of the tower. The church was originally cruciform and there was a porticus, or small transept, on this side of the tower until the 18th century. Fragments of it's walls still remain, tidied up to look like buttresses. The ancient window half way up has been tidied up with brick at some point and the blocked belfry opening just below the moulding can just be made out.
The nave is to the right, this is mostly very early Norman but the first few courses were laid during the time of the last Saxon thegn of Wootton, Wagen, who is immortalised in the village name. He is named in Domesday Book as Waga. His rebuilding was interrupted, for reasons unknown.
This is the original Anglo-Saxon Chancel arch, looking from the tower into the chancel. The original Anglo-Saxon chancel was replaced later in the middle ages with a much larger structure. Against the wall in the chancel is a nice medieval tomb surmounted by a knight in armour.
The upright-and-flat stone reveals and simple semicircular arch mark this out as Anglo-Saxon work.
This slightly smaller arched opening once led into the south porticus but now opens into a large Lady Chapel which runs alongside the south side of the chancel and the tower. It is a twin to the partially filled in archway on the north side, visible from outside.
This is the largest arch in the tower, leading westward into the Norman nave. It is partly obscured by a 15th century oak screen on the east wall of the nave, with an ogive arch covering the Anglo-Saxon stone arch. The west window is 15th century in style.
An information panel in the lady chapel describing the origins of the church.
More info
Hope you like!
Andy
