Simon Knott

Simon Knott

@simonknott.bsky.social

'dust in the air suspended, marks the place where a story ended' Find me at http://www.simonknott.co.uk Also available on X/Twitter. All 📷 by me unless otherwise stated.

3.2K followers85 following8.6K posts

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Palladio and Wren representing Architecture, a relief in Burnhamtofts faience tiles by Edward Caldwell Spruce, 1903 on the Midland Hotel, Manchester. #TilesonTuesday

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

3/3 One more of Edward Caldwell Spruce's tiled reliefs on the Midland Hotel, Manchester. Homer and Shakespeare representing Literature. #TilesonTuesday

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Sylvia Plath, born #OTD 27 October 1932, with her bike on the wall of the Shoulder of Mutton, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Today would have been her 94th birthday. She's buried in Heptonstall extension churchyard on a hill above the town.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Blinking in the Sun, by Ralph Hedley, 1881 in the Laing, Newcastle. I'd been wondering who the bloke behind the cat was, and what was his significance, but then I realised it was my reflection...

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

The screen, Worcester Cathedral by Francis Skidmore, 1873. Few English Cathedrals feel as important as Worcester. In most countries it would be the most significant church building. This is one of the great medieval cathedrals of England, secure in its lovely city, imposing and full of confidence.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

'Hiking' by James Walker Tucker, 1936 in the Laing, Newcastle. The 1930s was the great era of popular hiking, fitness and fresh air. Railway companies and local authorities published walking guides, and there was a pub, a B&B or a youth hostel in every village to put you up!

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

'Southern Rambles for Londoners' and 'Rambles in Hertfordshire', published by British Railways just after the War when Austerity and the return of freedom to travel sparked a new wave of hiking enthusiasm. Increasing prosperity, affordable air travel and new holiday camps would gradually eclipse it.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

St Cedd, brother of St Chad, whose feast is also today, in glass by William Lawson, 1930 at Salcott-cum-Virley, Essex. Like his brother he was a participant in the Synod of Whitby and evangelist to the East Saxons. He's the patron saint of the county of Essex.

Simon Knott@simonknott.bsky.social

Today's the feast of St Chad, 7th Century abbot and bishop in turn of both Northumbria and Mercia. He stands outside of Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire, where his shrine was until it was destroyed at the Reformation. His brother was St Cedd, evangelist to the East Saxons.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Today's the feast of St Chad, 7th Century abbot and bishop in turn of both Northumbria and Mercia. He stands outside of Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire, where his shrine was until it was destroyed at the Reformation. His brother was St Cedd, evangelist to the East Saxons.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

The Miracle of the Gallows by Thierri Bouts, c1450 in the Laing, Newcastle. In the Golden Legend, a family are on their way to Santiago de Compostela when the son is falsely accused of theft by an innkeeper. St James appears and supports the boy on the gallows to keep him alive until he is released.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

'Holy Motherhood' by Thomas Cooper Gotch, 1902 in the Laing, Newcastle. An early member of the Newlyn Colony, Gotch studied in Antwerp and Paris. In the 1880s under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites he moved away from landscapes to the romantic scenes tinged with mysticism which made him famous.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

2/2 Thomas Cooper Gotch's 'Holy Motherhood', 1902 is displayed prominently on the mezzanine in the Laing, which opened two years later. Newcastle Corporation bought the painting direct from the artist in 1905.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

An attractive 1881 memorial with bunches of wheat and a broken stemmed flower to the youngest son of the Bishop of Norwich, tucked away by the vestry at St Thomas, Norwich. I wonder if it might have come from St Philip in nearby Heigham Road, demolished in 1975? #MemorialsMonday

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

I'm currently going through a phase of 'things that make me feel old', and here's another. As a 15 year old I was was there on the opening night...

Modernism in Metro-Land@modinmetro.bsky.social

The National Theatre on the South Bank was opened OTD 50 years ago. Designed by Denys Lasdun with three separate theatre spaces, the building is constructed of board marked, reinforced concrete. Read more about this uncompromising building here buff.ly/24tsr6m

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Today's the feast of St Crispin and St Crispinian, traditionally 3rd Century Roman twins who were martyred under Diocletian. They're the patron saints of cobblers and leather workers, and here they are busy at work in a roundel of collected continental glass now in Kings College Chapel, Cambridge.

Simon Knott@simonknott.bsky.social

2/2 'The Battle's Won, Britannia's Sons are free, and Despots Tremble at the Victory - We are all True to the Last' A banner of the Duns Shoemakers Society, 1832, celebrating the passing of the Great Reform Act, with a pleasing pun in the final sentence. People's History Museum, Manchester.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Today is St Crispin's Day of Shakespearian renown. St Crispin is the patron saint of cobblers and leather workers, and his name appears on this c1830 apron worn by members of the Shoemakers Society of Duns, Berwickshire, now in the People's History Museum, Manchester. 1/2

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

2/2 'The Battle's Won, Britannia's Sons are free, and Despots Tremble at the Victory - We are all True to the Last' A banner of the Duns Shoemakers Society, 1832, celebrating the passing of the Great Reform Act, with a pleasing pun in the final sentence. People's History Museum, Manchester.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Glass of c1900 from the Socialist Institute, Nelson, Lancashire, now in the People's History Museum, Manchester. ILP was the Independent Labour Party, founded in Bradford in 1893. It was one of the groups that formed the Labour Party in 1906, but it disassociated itself in 1933. #StainedGlassSunday

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Art uniting Sculpture, Painting and the Decorative Arts. Glass on the stairway at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne by J Edgar Mitchell, 1904. It was removed during a gallery modernisation in the 1960s, but found in store and returned to its original setting in 2004. #StainedGlassSunday

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

2/2 Here's the whole window on the Laing Gallery staircase. Above the figures of Art and her muses is the Arms of the City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Glass by J Edgar Mitchell, 1904.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

St Michael, Brantham, by a whisker Suffolk's most southerly* parish church. Almost all that you see's the work of John Hakewill, brother of the more famous Edward, in the 1860s. #SteepleSaturday *Bures St Mary and Nayland churches are nearly as far south, but a few metres short.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

St Mary, Ashby, since 1974 Suffolk's most northerly parish church. The tower is octagonal with a round lower stage, both of c1300 when the whole church was rebuilt. By the churchyard, a memorial to those lost in two WWII plane crashes in the nearby marshes. 1/2 #SteepleSaturday

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

2/2 Ashby, Suffolk. A scattered parish with no village, A population of 50 on census Sunday 1851 when the clerk claimed an average attendance of 20. The rector Edward Thurlow was also incumbent of nearby Lound and far off Langham, receiving the equivalent of £200,000 annually for his three parishes.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

The Glutton! A poster produced in 1909 by the Budget League, a pressure group formed of Liberal Party members to campaign for the passing of Lloyd George's 1909 budget, which faced fierce opposition from the Conservatives. Seen in the People's History Museum, Manchester.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

2/3 'Ye Old Trafford Habitation', a c1900 banner for a 'habitation' (branch) of the Primrose League, a movement of Conservative Party members to widen the appeal of the party. It was the largest voluntary mass movement in British political history, peaking at over two million members by 1910.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

3/3 'Family Allowances started 6th August 1946 by Labour' A 1950 General Election campaign poster, now in the People's History Museum, Manchester. Labour won the election, but by a greatly reduced majority. The government would fall the following year, and Labour would be out of power for 13 years.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

This building on Cheetham Hill Road in Manchester neatly illustrates changes in this area over two centuries. Built in 1840 as a Congregational Chapel, it became the Central Synagogue in 1894. That congregation moved out in 1928, and since then it has been a Mosque and now offices for a law firm.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

2/3 Further up Cheetham Hill Road, the former New Ashkenazi Orthodox Synagogue, 1894 by WS Ogden, with a striking Star of David central window. It closed in 1964 and is now part of a retail warehouse with the former public library next door ('horribly altered and stripped out inside' noted Pevsner).

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

3/3 At one time there were 8 synagogues for different traditions on or just off of Cheetham Hill Road. All closed as communities dispersed and congregations moved to new buildings, but the best known is the former Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, now part of the brilliant Manchester Jewish Museum.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Manchester Art Gallery, Opened in 1835. Designed by the young Charles Barry for the Manchester Institution for the Promotion of Science, Literature and the Arts founded twelve years earlier. It would remain the only Grecian building by Barry who is best known for the Palace of Westminster.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

A Torah scroll cover presented to the Central Synagogue, Manchester in memory of Henry Burton QC on 19 Tishri 5713 (8 October 1952 in the Gregorian Calendar). It's now in Manchester Jewish Museum.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

The gatehouse entrance to HMP Manchester, more commonly known as Strangeways Prison, by Alfred Waterhouse, 1868 for #ADoorableThursday and #ThursGates. Best to stay on this side of the gates. Construction started on Waterhouse's Manchester Town Hall the same year.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

'Say an Ave Good Christian for the Soul of Matthew Ellison Hadfield, sometime of Sheffield, Architect' Hadfield's memorial in St Marie's Cathedral, Sheffield, designed by his son Charles. The Pieta was based on a mould that Pugin had given Hadfield as a gift forty years before.

Simon Knott@simonknott.bsky.social

2/2 St Marie, Sheffield also by Matthew Hadfield, opened 1850. It was elevated to cathedral status for the Diocese of Hallam in 1980. This was a busy time for Hadfield, his Salford Cathedral was completed just two years earlier. His assistant was the young George Goldie, whose time was to come.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

The west doorway of St Mary, Mulberry Street, Manchester, better known as the Hidden Gem, by Matthew Hadfield, 1848 based on a design by the Salford architect Richard Lane. Hadfield's St Chad, Cheetham Hill had opened the previous year. He also designed Salford Cathedral. #ADoorableThursday

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

2/2 St Marie, Sheffield also by Matthew Hadfield, opened 1850. It was elevated to cathedral status for the Diocese of Hallam in 1980. This was a busy time for Hadfield, his Salford Cathedral was completed just two years earlier. His assistant was the young George Goldie, whose time was to come.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

Today is the feast of St Ursula, perhaps a 4th Century Romano-British princess, if she existed at all. In a roundel of glass at South Elmham All Saints, Suffolk, she holds an arrow and the ship in which legend says she took 11,000 virgins to Cologne where they suffered martyrdom. 1/3

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

2/3 St Ursula on the c1500 screen at Eye, Suffolk, holding an arrow and with her 11,000 virgins under her cloak. Her legend first appears in the 10th Century with no authentication and the 11,000 virgins are in any case likely the result of a translation error.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

3/3 St Ursula in a fragment of glass at Burnham Deepdale, Norfolk, wearing a crown and with arrows in her hand. Her relics, and those of her virgins, were claimed by Cologne Cathedral, but were likely the collected remains from a forgotten burial ground.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

'Here Nelson Fell' A brass plate attached to the deck floor of HMS Victory commemorates the spot where Admiral Nelson fell #OTD 21 October 1805. In the immortal words of Spike Milligan, I'm not surprised, I nearly tripped over it myself.

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

At the 1951 census, Blackburn had a population of 150,519 while that of Cambridge was 78,680. By the 2021 census Blackburn's population had fallen to 124,983 but Cambridge's had ballooned to 145,674 and continues to grow. 1/2

Simon Knott@simonknott.bsky.social

Blackburn's elegant Town Hall in King William Street, by James Patterson, opened in 1856. Big, Italianate, an imposing square block,' thought Pevsner. The wide pedestrianised street here has been reinvented as a pleasant square, but trouble looms just to the right... 1/2

Simon Knott
@simonknott.bsky.social

2/2 It's a mark of how some relative populations have changed in the 70 year transition from heavy industry to modern high tech industry. In fact, Cambridge only surpassed Blackburn in 2011.