We had intended to just drive through the small Essex town of Thaxted but decided to stop to take some photos when I saw this unusual building. It’s the Guildhall, it looks even stranger in this photo but the steeple belongs to the church which is situated behind it.
The place is just full of Tudor half timbered houses like this one, all very higgledy-piggledy but still standing after about 500 years and still sheltering people from those cold East Anglian winds. No doubt they cost an arm and a leg too.
Then I noticed a plaque on a house just to the left of the guild hall. Gustav Holst’s house, I hadn’t even realised that he had lived in Essex, but there he was, bang in the centre of Thaxted High Street.
Holst is most famous for his Planets Suite so in the hope that after the recent news from Libya the poor souls of that country will now have some peace in their lives, I thought this You Tube rendition of Holst’s Venus – The Bringer of Peace would be appropriate. Fingers crossed for the Libyans.
I’ve lived in old houses all my life but I still worry a bit if there’s a new dip in the floor or crack in the wall. When I look at houses like these, I figure that if they are still standing, mine’s not going to fall down any time soon!
What a lovely thought that is, Katrina. Wouldn’t peace on Earth be amazing? If only.
Joan, I know how you feel, there are old mines all over Fife and that can be a bit of a problem too even if you have a new house!
It seems to me that as soon as peace comes to one part of the world then mayhem breaks out in another part, as if there has to be a balance of chaos on Earth. We still have a long way to go before we catch up with animals like ants, the thought of them makes me shudder but apparently they have learned to co-operate with each other and are now spreading like crazy as they don’t kill each other off. Maybe that’s why we don’t learn ! It seems like a drastic way of controlling the human population though!
They are lovely tudor houses imagine what they have seen and been through.
Jo,
Yes, I always think about all the things that my own house has ‘lived’ through and it’s just around 109 years old. I’d love to see inside one of those really old homes.
Lovely! I used to live in a mock-Tudor and thought it was so cool. But my house is the oldest I’ve ever lived in – built in the 1960s.
I love Holst. We played the suites in E-flat and F when I was in the band in highschool. But my favorite has always been The Planets.
I worry for Libya. If they replace Ghadaffi with Sharia law, as recently reported, I’m not so sure they’ve made that much of an improvement. Especially for the women…
Pearl,
This is our 6th house and the others were all newish but the next move is going to be modernish too because we want a smaller house which is easier to heat. I’m fed up with high ceilings. I love music but only had a brief fling with a violin, my parents were so happy when I gave it up!
I just hope Libya isn’t going to be another Afghanistan. I looked at the hats of the men during the revolution and I know this is clutching at straws but I was happy to see that lots of them were wearing baseball caps and floppy sun hats. They seemed more western to me than men in Middle East countries. Sharia law would be terrible but I have hope for them – at the moment!