The Paper Girl

I don’t often scan postcards for places outside Canada, but some places—like The Old Mint House and the other English locales listed here—caught my eye for some reason or another. I enjoy history! I especially enjoy writing about history.

I do have to be a bit selective in what I preserve, mostly because I don’t trust my external drive (don’t buy a drive with a micro b connection if you value your sanity). I keep waiting for it to cease to be.

Let’s do a little exploring!

The Old Mint House: A Pevensey Haunt

The first location in our tiny tour is the Mint House in Pevensey, a 12th century home with a rather sordid—and lengthy!—history.

The house itself was built in 1342 on the site of what may have been a Norman mint. Coinage was struck here from at least 1076 to the coronation of Henry the Second in 1154. Rumours state that there was a tunnel leading from the mint to the nearby castle.

Whyfor? Why not?

There are eighteen rooms in this house, and one room boasts lovely oak carvings as seen below.

We can trace the current configuration of the Mint House to Dr. Henry Borde’s renovations of 1542. Dr. Borde had the fantastic job of being King Henry the VIII’s Court Physician, so I’m sure he lived a splendid life that wasn’t at all stressful.

It isn’t clear how long the good doctor lived in the home, but we do know that King Henry’s son, Edward, spent time there as an infant (for health reasons).

That’s pretty much how the English dealt with any vague matters of wellness: go to the seaside, dammit.

Mint House has some murder in its history, too, with the most common story being that of Thomas Dight and his mistress. In 1586, Thomas apparently visited the area and stayed at the Mint House for a hunting trip. When he returned, he found his mistress in bed with someone else, and in his rage, killed them both. Of course.

Another story claims that a man jumped out a second-storey window and was promptly killed by several horsemen in 1607. Two different websites mention the incident, but use slightly different names for the victim each time—and I cannot find references to the man under either name!

Strangers’ Hall: A Norwich Gem

Strangers’ Hall in Norwich has been in use since the 14th century. A beautiful, Tudor-style home, it has seen centuries of merchants and politicians within its walls—all of whom made their mark in their own ways.

The name “Strangers’ Hall” comes from the efforts of Thomas Sotherton, a mayor of Norwich during the 16th century. At this time, the city’s textile industry was suffering and, at the same time, refugees from the low countries were fleeing persecution and arriving in England.

These Dutch, Walloon, and Flemish workers were weavers—Thomas naturally saw opportunity, and so encouraged them to settle in Norwich, too.

Prosperity returned to the textile industry thanks to the arrival of these ‘strangers’.

This, and a total of 700 years of history, would have been lost in the late 1890s as the Hall was threatened with demolition. It had been neglected for years before Mr. Leonard Bolingbroke purchased the sprawling home and gave it the love it deserved. In 1900, Strangers’ Hall opened as a folk museum with antiques collected by Bolingbroke. The museum was gifted to the City of Norwich in 1922.

As a museum of domestic history, Strangers’ Hall remains a most beautiful feather in Norwich’s cap and allows visitors a glimpse of how everyday citizens once lived.

Last, But Not Least…

Some bonus spots for you lot.

This postcard shows a view of Elm Hill, a cobbled street in Norwich that’s known for its many Tudor-era buildings. The oldest building on the street is The Britons Arms, which survived the massive fire of 1507—an inferno that destroyed over 700 homes. I’d say the owner at the time had a horseshoe lodged firmly up his arse, but there’s no way to prove it.

London’s Marble Arch looks nothing like its original plans. You see, King George IV loved to spend money and had John Nash design the monument with all sorts of reliefs and detail. Unfortunately for George, he died before the project was completed and construction was put on hold for two years under his successor. Poor William was utterly flabbergasted by the cost of the Arch and tried to dump it into Parliament’s lap, which probably resulted in a lot of annoyed grumbling around London.

You can see John Nash’s vision of the Arch in all its glory, as his architectural model (get it, get it) is on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Westminster Abbey, or the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is home to the oldest door in Britain. More importantly, there are over 3,300 people buried here and it’s been the host of every single Royal Coronation since 1066. The Abbey contains countless artefacts of British history and even survived the Blitz during WWII.

In short: a complicated, fascinating place that I need to visit post-haste.

Lastly, The Foreign Office, which you all can research yourselves as I ran out of steam at this point and instead became distracted by Urbain Grandier and his relatively short life. So. There we are.

Is there someplace you’d like me to explore with postcards? Let’s have it. Until then…

xoxo,

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