Nina's Blog - Wednesday 14th August 2024

Wednesday 14th August 2024, 10:04

Left Paignton on my way to Newquay. But yesterday's impromptu trip to Dawlish left me without enough charge to get to Penhale (the nearest charger to Newquay) with enough margin for me to feel comfortable.

So I'm at the Tesla Service centre charging the car.

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ninalanyon · 61-69, T

Wednesday 14th August 2024, 12:58

Before the café I strolled around Launceston Castle. I say around deliberately because English Heritage wanted 10.50 GBP to go 'inside'.

Here's a selection of pictures of Launceston and the castle taken on the stroll

The south gate of the castle

The view from inside

The north gate?

A pair of fine gate posts

The church that the clock tower belongs to has a lot of carving on the walls

And seen in the window of an antiques shop

Musicman · 61-69, M

@ninalanyon Beautiful pictures 😍😍😍

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@Musicman Thank you. I have loads of pictures taken over the last week that I haven't posted yet. I've been slacking a bit.

Time to get back to my car and drive to the next charger. I don't need the charge to get to my destination but it's convenient to have it as nearly fully charged as possible so that I don't need careful planning for any side trips.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@ninalanyon Lovely scenes! I wonder who or what the carving of the prone figure represents - it is a very unusual pose for an effigy.

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@ArishMell It's the Church of St Mary Magdalene.

It has a page on The C of E's A Church Near You site: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/2739/

That site doesn't say much about the building but has a link to Launceston Then's page which has a fair amount of detail: https://launcestonthen.co.uk/index.php/the-place/churches-and-chapels-of-launceston/st-mary-magdalene-church/

Above a picture of the effigy it says this.

Superstitions concerning the figure of St. Mary (below) which lies outside and under the east window, state that whoever can, in one cast, cause a stone to lodge there will be rewarded with good luck.

I think my picture is slightly better :-)

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@ninalanyon Thankyou! Rather curious, a superstition that risks damaging a holy effigy!

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@ArishMell I do wonder sometimes whether our modern feeling that important things must be either preserved or destroyed with little in between was not shared by our forebears. Perhaps they regarded the church, to some extent, as a consumable item that could be renewed as needed.

Or perhaps the belief was a relic of pagan times like the belief that sitting on the eye of the Uffington White Horse would promote a woman's fertility. Or is that 'belief' a modern invention too? Or have I completely misremembered it and confused it with some other fertility belief?

Hmm, perhaps I'm drifting off topic now. :-)

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@ninalanyon If we dig around enough we will find all manner of peculiar local superstitions.

Many supposed ancient beliefs probably are modern, or at least developed in Victorian times when archaeology was in its infancy and anything unidentifiable tended to be given some sort of religious or mystic meaning without the slightest evidence for it.

I doubt the pebble-chuckers intended to harm the effigy at all, but to us it is an odd thing to do.

I doubt too they regarded church buildings as "consumable". Though they sometimes did some appalling things to them over the centuries, the basic structure was far too valuable and difficult to replace on a whim. This is why we have so many nearly a thousand years old, still in use.