Humberston Fitties 2021

Here we are again.

Having visited in 2008, I returned in April 2021 to wander this magical area and take some more snaps.

Previously on Modern Mooch.

In the interim the ownership of the estate has changed hands, passing from the local authority to private ownership.

Tingdene are now responsible for the site.

Council chiefs remain tight-lipped on how much Northamptonshire-based Tingdene paid for the site but it is estimated to be more than £2 million.

Grimsby Telegraph

Accordingly costs have risen, some tenants are displeased.

During Covid restrictions the demand for coastal property has increased, the gentle gentrification has begun.

New build, restoration and the national pandemic of home improvement are all apparent, changing the nature of the formerly informal architecture.

Take a look

Great Yarmouth to Cleethorpes

You’re getting three for the price of one – Larry and Johnny only offered two between them.

Friday 5th September Great Yarmouth to Cromer.

Saturday 6th September Cromer to Skegness.

Sunday 7th September Skegness to Cleethorpes.

The royal we however are unable to display the fine array of snaps to which you have become accustomed – normal service will not be resumed as soon as possible.

How so you ask – I’ll tell you how so, you may recall the seafront snaps taken on Great Yarmouth prom under the cover of darkness.

Well you see, I inadvisedly rested my camera upon sandy surfaces in order to steady the shot. I subsequently discovered that sand and photographic technology are a poor pairing.

I killed my camera.

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.

I think not.

There’s only one thing for it – two Tesco Value disposable cameras!

With diminished means the royal we hurried on, with diminished returns in view, it is with heavy heart and sand filled socks that I present such thin gruel.

No pearls from this grit filled oyster, all chaff and no wheat – that’s me.

It was hard work editing these images – resembling archival material discovered at the bottom of a 16th century tar barrel.

They’re not even in the right order.

And I’m unsure of many of the locations.

Please accept my profound apologies, I’ll never do it again – I promise.

Appleby’s Famous Farm Ices – Main Rd Conisholme Louth LN11 7LS

This is all the information we have available, if you pop in, please ask them to get in touch with Big Barn to add more.

Stymie Bold Italic aka Profil double whammy coming right up!

Gammon is a traditional gentlemen’s hairdressers in Long Sutton, call into Gammon’s and experience the atmosphere of Long Sutton’s only male hairdressers.

We are exclusively a traditional men only salon, catering for all ages. Running a drop-in system, and with two chairs available waiting times are kept to a minimum.

At Gammon Traditional Gentleman’s Hairdressers you can also purchase a range of Electric Razors and Toiletries along with a large variety of Gifts. 

Gammon Traditional Gents Hairdressers also stock fragrances for him and her that include:- Chanel, Safari, Polo, Ghost, Opium, Quorum, Tabac, Lacoste, Calvin Klein, Dolce and Gabanna, Poison, Davidoff, Iceberg Twice, Jazz, Aramis, Sergio Tacchini, Azzaro, Farenheit, Giorgio, and many more.

Welcome to Giles Bros located in Kings Lynn town centre. Established in 1921 and still trading from the same premises offering MOT’s on all makes of vehicle in the centre of King’s Lynn. If your looking for a reliable and friendly service you have come to the right place. Please feel free to look around our website and see just what we offer.

Although modern motor vehicles have changed so much since the early days our customer commitment hasn’t.

There has been a pier in Cromer since 1391, but history really relates from 1822 onwards.  In this year, a 210 foot wooden jetty was built, but unfortunately it was washed away in 1843.  It was then replaced with another slightly longer one, 240 foot, which lasted until 1890.  This one was also destroyed by the stormy seas and the remains were consequently sold at auction for £40.

Following this, very sensibly, an iron jetty was built that was 500 foot long, together with a bandstand which was eventually extended into a pavilion.

During the war Cromer Pier was sectioned for defence purposes.

The poor Pier also had its fair share of being damaged too, which I suppose is understandable, being stuck out in the sea!

Explore Norfolk

St Magaret Witton-by-Walsham one of the enchanting Norfolk churches I passed by and the only one I entered. It had provision for an unattended brew and home made cake, just the job.

The church is an elegant, well-kept, peaceful building, but it is also rather quirky. There are two splayed round windows in the lower north side of the nave it seems reasonable to think that they are genuine Saxon windows, and this is a genuine Saxon piece of wall. As is the lower part of the south wall, for both sides have long and short work ironstone blocks forming the corners with the west wall.

In the early 14th Century they began to expand the church, but rather than rebuild it they heightened the existing walls, which is why the tower and the church still make an awkward juxtaposition even today. There is a clerestory on both sides of the church, but an aisle only to the south, contemporary with the clerestory, rather than with the 15th century crowning of the tower with a bell stage and battlements.

When the Tudors extended the tower, they needed a way for people to get up to the bell stage. Rather than build a stairway inside the tower in the conventional manner, they built a stair turret inside the church, against the west wall of the nave, which is at once awkward and intriguing. Tucked in beside the stair turret is a large converted barrel organ. I remembered the late Tom Muckley observing that small villages like this usually owned just one barrel organ, which was used in the church on Sunday and then moved to the pub for the rest of the week.

Norfolk Churches

Well there you are an unfitting end to a grand tour.

What have we learned along the way?

Everyone I met along the way was both helpful and friendly – save for a minor rebuttal in Southend.

The coast is plural and singular, whilst there may well be typologies to be found, the variations within are manifold.

It pays to take time to look around, slow down from time to time, rest your legs, open you eyes.

Sand and cameras do not mix.

Good night John Boy, good night Ma, goodnight Pa – night night Steve.

We all learned a lot today on the Modern Mooch

I’ll let Bobby Bland have the last word.

Central Library – Grimsby

This is Grimsby Central Library – a proud public building of real quality, reflecting the cautious optimism and fierce civic pride of the Sixties. Built to last, in the modern manner – gently monumental, softened by the easy grace of the restrained decoration and a refined palette of stone, glass and concrete.

By the Borough Architect – JM Milner ARIBA assisted by E L Shepherd 

This image was used as the Mayor’s Xmas card in 1969.

The bold exterior grid is enhanced by a honeycombed grille above the entrance, along with a mosaic depicting the town’s seal.

The mosaic is the work of Harold Gosney – who is also responsible for the Abbey Walk reliefs

The Guardians of Knowledge which adorn the south facing elevation of the library are the work of Peter Todd former head of Grimsby Art School

To the rear of the building is a modular relief.

Inside the entrance porch a commemorative plaque.

Once inside, what a pleasure it is tread upon this interstellar inset stone flooring.

Either side of the lobby display case there are two vertical tapestries.

Along with a further plaque commemorating the opening on the 3rd September 1968 – by the then local MP Anthony Crosland.

Crosland looked ahead to a time where “personal freedom, happiness and cultural endeavour; the cultivation of leisure, beauty, grace, gaiety and excitement… might be pursued.” After he was elected MP for Grimsby in 1959, he referred to the above passage in an early speech, insisting – to much laughter, cheering and applause from the audience, that “it is possible to achieve all these things in Grimsby, and especially at Blundell Park.”

May I take this opportunity to thank the ever so helpful library staff – for kindly granting me permission to photograph the main body of the library.

Many original fittings and fixtures are intact – particularly the distinctive vertical suspended lighting system and the steel and wood stairways.

The facilities were well used and lit by the expansive window space.

Let’s take another final look outside, and say a fond farewell to this fine building – go on treat yourself, take a trip to the East Coast and feast your eyes, heart and mind on this beauty.

Ta-ra Grimsby!

I’ll be back real soon.

Abbey Walk Car Park – Grimsby

I was in town, just looking around, just looking for modernity, just looking.

I found you by chance between the railway and the high street, so I took a good look around, fascinated by the concrete sculptural panels on your fascia columns, those facing Abbey Walk.

Research tells me that they the work of Harold Gosney – born in Sheffield, he studied at Grimsby School of Art and London’s Slade School of Fine Art.

The majority of Gosney’s early commissions were collaborations with architects and he has made a significant contribution to public art in Grimsby. He is the artist responsible for the reliefs on the Abbey Walk car park, the large Grimsby seal by the entrance to the Grimsby Central Library and the Grim and Havelok themed copper relief on the side of Wilko store in Old Market Place.

Wikipedia

The car park has been the subject of some speculative repairs and refurbishment:

In total, the scheme will cost the council £1.54 million.

The authority will borrow £1.34 million to fund the project with a further £200,000 coming from a local transport grant. But the council said that the improvements made could help increase revenue from the car park of around £34,000 a year.

Councillor Matthew Patrick, portfolio holder for transport at the council, said that the work is essential to “brighten up” the building and attract people into Grimsby.

“It’s one of the largest car parks in the town,” he said.

“It will attract more people into the town centre and help to improve the offering of the car park.”

Lincolnshire Reporter

So here we are faced with a rare, precious and beautiful example of municipal modernism, a bold and brave attempt to decorate what is often the most functional of functional structures.

Owing something to the work of both Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso the imagery is derived from automotive parts, along with it seems to me, vague intimations of figuration.

Let’s talk a look!

Humberston Fitties

Betwixt and between the two world wars, the shortage of housing for the homeless, hopeless and dispossessed lead to an acceleration in the building of an informal architecture – the so-called Plotlands.

One such area and precious survivor from the last century is the Humberston Fitties – situated to south of Cleethorpes, preserved in time by the happy homesteaders.

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Though under threat from Local Authority negligence or intervention, three hundred and twenty chalets prevail – against the incursion of planning regulations, building specs and a lack of respect.

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I feel a real affinity for all Plotlands, having spent many summers in the converted Pagham railway carriage, belonging to my Aunty Alice and Uncle Arthur. They relocated to the south coast seeking cleaner air for Arthur’s ailing, industrialised northern lungs, thus prolonging his life.

tamarisk

Tamarisk – Pagham

So here are the photographs I took on a visit to The Fitties in July 2008, I walked the home made roads, amazed by the vigour and variety of shape, size, personal affectation and practical pragmatism, of this all too human architecture.

This is a particular form of independent minded Modernism – hand-forged from the vernacular.

It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are, than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

Henry David Thoreau

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