Ye Olde Starre Inne in York
For three hundred seventy years
has been licensed as a posting house
and the serving up of beers
In the yard of Starre Inne passage
Beware of whispers stirred
As from the Minster’s tower
Conversations can be heard
But this afternoon was quiet
No secrets divulged there
As alone I sampled Yorkshire brew
And wrote more verse to share
One of the towers of York Minster can be seen from a corner of the courtyard of the Starre Inn and it’s claimed that, on a favourable day, whispered conversations in the courtyard can be overheard at the top of the Minster tower.
Photo – Jempics
[“York II” was first posted to Jemverse in March 2015]
Took a trip to Mordue’s
North Shields in Tyne and Wear
Rather rude I thought to not
So I bought an Amber beer
Caught a Metro down in Jarrow
But I’ll not be walking down
Three hundred miles, tad far for me
To get to London town
Sat a while at Central Station
Had a coffee, wrote again
Whiled away an hour or so
Whilst waiting for my train
In October 1936, with the Shipbuilding industry in severe decline, 207 workers marched from Jarrow to Westminster in London, a distance of over 300 miles, to lobby Parliament against unemployment. It became known as “The Jarrow Crusade”
Photo – ‘Spirit of Jarrow’ by Graham Ibbeson – Viking Centre, Jarrow, Tyne & Wear
[“Whiling away” was first posted to Jemverse in January 2015]
In the valley shadow cast
By the Castle Acre walls
Castle Acre Priory rests
Its ruins proud and tall
And where once Clunaic monks trod
Its cool aisles in silent prayer
Tourists wander slowly
While sheep graze safely there.
[‘Castle Acre’ in Norfolk is the largest and best preserved Monastic site in England dating back to 1090. Home of the first Clunaic order of monks, established by William de Warrenne and dissolved by King Henry VIII]
Photo – Jempics
“Castle Acre” was first posted to Jemverse in July 2014
Deconsecrated hallowed walls to commercial gain
Shamefaced the stone walls weep
The ageing tower crenels kiss the sky
and now glazed windows
arch to residential pews
Adjacent still, forlorn the church school doors
etched into stone now hide
the jubilant voice of eager learning
faded into silent time
closed to commercial mind
Yet still an echo calls from passing years
religion's words still cry
to this edifice, a monument to former days
saved from demolishment
from those now re-interred
[St Lawrence’s church was built in the 15th century with 18th and 19th century additions. It was deconsecrated in the early 1960s and had become derelict until 2021 when it became part of the Ballymore led Brentford re-development project. As a part of the re-development, 850 bodies including the Commonwealth graves of two First World War heroes, victims of the 1642 civil war Battle of Brentford and builders of the Grand Union Canal in the 19th century were exhumed and re-interred in a Woking cemetery. The ex-church building has now been remodelled to provide luxury housing].
It rained for the Coronation, puddles everywhere
but that didn't stop the nation with its pageantry to share
Most of us just stayed indoors to watch it on TV
a rarity in fifty-two but not in twenty-three
I heard that on Hove lawns a giant screen erected
but the precipitation meant that just a few selected
to brave out there the elements early May has gifted
though on this special day most spirits still were lifted
And it really didn't matter if you were Royalist or not
for this was history in the making and for all of us our lot
A once in almost any lifetime thing upon this day
the Coronation of a king on this the sixth of May
From the Saltings 'cross old oyster beds
the town of Shoreham lay
steeped in ancient history
and yet familiar today
The Norfolk (then suspension) bridge
to fore of course long gone
and the brewery chimneys now replaced
by newer builds upon
The High Street of the new town
with St Mary's to the rear
a town that lives in history
which we all hold so dear
[Photo – from a postcard in the author’s collection – circa. 1912. Shoreham-by-Sea viewed from ‘The Saltings’ bank of what is now the new Mackley’s sea defence wall adjacent to the Houseboat community on the river Adur; Shoreham Beach side]
Forlorn now this iron leads to nowhere
save to a shortsighted whim
synonymous to abandoned towns
where Beeching's blunder echos still
Yet testament still here they lie
as memory fades with brittle truth reminder
tracking to long lost connections
and a politician's gain
Part of the ‘Past to Present’ series from Jemverse
Four spans across the Adur
at its mouth at Shoreham town
on the road on into Lancing
at the foot of Sussex Down
Four spans of steel construction
admired for sixty years
'til Norfolk Bridge mark II's demise
'midst many local tears
Four spans across the Adur
not forgotten yet now lost
to progress and the march of time
no matter what the cost
Photo – from a postcard in the author’s collection – Jempics
[The second Norfolk Bridge in Shoreham was opened on 4th July 1923 by Lord Leconfield. A four-span cantilever design, it was initially a toll bridge until 1927. It was replaced the third (and present) Norfolk bridge in 1987].
Part of the ‘Past to Present’ series from Jemverse
Saturdays in the seventies
and me in middle teens
caught the bus oft into Brighton
forty-nine from Southwick Green
then went up to the Clock Tower
through the door and up the stairs
to listen to the music long
on cushions sprawled up there
Virgin Records, ah those halcyon days
for some a misspent youth
but the music that I heard has brought
a lifetime hence of truth
[Virgin Records moved into the building on the corners of North and Queens Roads by Brighton’s Clock Tower early in 1973. Next door was the old Regents Cinema, by then empty and disused. Both buildings were demolished in 1974 to make way for a new building now housing Boots the Chemist. Curved and on the corner, Virgin Records (the second in the country after London’s Oxford Street branch) was a three-quarters circle with a further semi-circle on a raised level behind. This raised level was covered with floor cushions with headphones for private listening. For a return fare of 20p I could take the 49 bus from the Green in Southwick (where I lived at the time) into Brighton where most Saturday mornings were spent lounging on Virgin’s listening floor cushions simply soaking up the sounds].
Part of the ‘past to present’ series from Jemverse
Parallel to Oxen Avenue
the ancient trackway lay
from Mill Lane to Upper Shoreham
as a pedestrian way
Elm trees at its southern end
stood by the kissing gate
which though the trackway is still there
has long since met its fate
Photo – from a postcard in the author’s collection
[The picture of the kissing gate in this postcard dates to around 1900. Both the elm trees and the gate have long gone now but the pathway remains beside the old flintstone wall just visible in the bottom right. A ‘kissing gate’ allows pedestrian passage but prevents large animals like horses and cattle from passing. As only one person can pass at a time, tradition has it that a kiss was required as right of passage when a girl followed a boy (or a boy a girl)].
...all about me and my life in words. I write most days, carrying an ideas book around in which I capture a word snapshot of life around me. So there's a lot here about Sussex and the sea and anything else I see that inspires.
The pictures are mine too. Some taken to match a poem; some poems written to match a pic; others chosen because they work well with words written.
Jemverse is life in words. Hope you enjoy the reading as much as I enjoy the writing...
Jemverse 