That’s what I thought when I recently returned to the UK on a flying visit to spend some quick time with my family left on the shores of Britain. Britain is old. Really, really old.
The first house I remembered living in on Beech Avenue in Worcester, was considered new, and maybe it was at the time. A new house could have been built in the 1940’s! The second house I liven in was 100 years old at the time I was living there (1980’s). That house was not considered old, it was merely Victorian. But then I did live in a city in which there were many buildings built in the 1000 and 1100’s – a thousand years ago – still standing, and being used as homes and businesses.
When I left art school and began a career in photography, the studio I worked at on Friar Street was built, along with many other buildings on the road, during the Tudor period of Henry VIII. The wattle and daub between the great blackened oak timbers was still there and after a thousand years of drying, had gaps which, in the winter, we would plug with newspaper to stop the wind from rushing in and the heat rushing out! The floor twisted and buckled and was decidedly not flat and even! Now, Friar Street being pedestrianized, you could almost walk passed these buildings and think you had traveled back in time – almost!
The wonderful and vibrant Worcester Cathedral houses the tomb of King John (d. 1216), but his is not the oldest tomb. If you go to the Norman crypt which Wulstan II began in 1084, one can find older tombs. Worcester Cathedral began as a priory in 608 and was visited by Bede; the cathedral survived the wrath of Henry VII during the Reformation because his older brother Arthur Tudor (who died prematurely aged only 16 and married to Catherine of Aragon), was buried there. The Victorians restored this and many other cathedrals in the mid to late 1800’s which had been destroyed by Henry Tutor.
I have photographed weddings in Worcester Cathedral and heard the Requiem sung there. It is an amazing place to be inside.
The Civil War of 1642–1651 between Oliver Cromwell’s ‘Roundheads’ and Charles the First and Second’s ‘Royalists’ began and ended in Worcester. Charles I lost his head to Cromwell, and Charles II was in exile until he was allowed back and crowned king in 1660. The pub I used to frequent and play at with my band, the Golden Lion on the High Street, had horse hair seats in the smoking room. You knew because the leather was split or cut in places and you could see the horse hair and pull it out! There were other pubs which had similar aged furnishings! I grew up surrounded by history, taking for granted the age of where I lived and what it all meant.
Whilst in the UK this February, I also went to Lincoln Cathedral and Castle. Lincoln Cathedral and Worcester Cathedral are of similar design and have similar features. Salisbury is a third with similar traits. The cathedral in Lincoln was hit a lot harder by Henry the VIII than Worcester and, I think, despite it’s Victorian and current restoration, Lincoln does not have the vibrancy and life that Worcester has. Still, it is still breathtaking, and it’s fellow castle which stands on the other side of the square, has much to offer in the way of old! One of the things which struck me in all of these places is the amount of work and minute detail that went into building and decorating. The castle has remarkable stone heads cut with flat tops to support the beams of the floor of the room on a higher level. There is true craftsmanship here, craftsmanship which has lasted for almost 1,000 years. Look at the photographs above and observe the details of the stone work of the interior and some of the exterior. Some has been renovated and fixed from the Restoration, but much is original. Amazing feats of work.
The castle is mostly the walls and a couple of towers, but within some of these towers can be seen graffiti which is almost as artful as the work in the cathedral (and now protected by Plexiglas)! There are few happy faces on the walls and in the decor of these buildings, but the monkey struck me and I loved it! If you get a chance to visit Lincoln, do so! It will transport you to another time and place. Even the pub where I had breakfast was as old as the older parts of the town! And I wondered what secret those walls held!
One of the things I always try to do on a visit to the UK is walk, or at least see close up and personal, on the Malvern Hills. These hills are a sort of spiritual home for me. Ancient, so ancient the forts hewn from the hills predate even the oldest cathedrals of Britain. The Malverns overlook three counties – Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire, where the Three Counties Showground has one of the largest agricultural fairs in at least the UK. My grandfather would take me and my brother Colin there as kids and was an event I looked forward to, mainly to spend time with Grandad!
Every time I visit ‘back home,’ I am struck with the history. Yes, the Victorian era has beauty to it, as does the Edwardian period, but the Medieval period still stands in the middle of these old towns, and hundreds of others, London too. These really, really old buildings blend in, or stand out among newer buildings, and have proved that they are here to stay. Now I like to take my own children to the places I loved as a kid and hope that they may grow to love them too, and the history that goes with these remarkable places.
simon brooks 
Someday, seems so very far away, but someday I will get across the pond and see such sights with my own eye and lens, until then this was a lovely trip!
I need to put up some more photos of another castle we went to! Ludlow.
What about the Forest of Dean, didnt you enjoy?
I did, but I have not posted the pictures yet!
It was a wonderful day. Thanks, Dad.
Simon