(no subject)

[endlessrarities]

My assistant left today to go to pastures new (outwith archaeology, I'm afraid).  So we had many cakes to mark her departure.

As a final treat, I gave her a break from toilets and took her instead to a rather lovely 1903 farmhouse that sits within the munitions factory. We were planning to survey the exterior only: we were warned not to venture inside - the floor's rotten, and there's a basement waiting to trap the unwary.

Indiana Jones would have completed the survey without any difficulties.  He'd have skimmed through the rooms, with joists snapping beneath his feet as he progressed, then scooted up the stairs and jumped out of the window, onto the branch of a nearby tree, where he would have used his bullwhip to deliver him safely to terra firma.

I know for a fact that I'm not Indiana Jones.  I'm the poor schmuck of a loyal henchperson who'd wind up plummeting through the floor within seconds.  So I wasn't going to take any risks.  But I was very pleased to see that the front door was open, and that I was able to stick my nose inside far enough to take some photos of a very handsome hallway and stair, with most of its original features intact.

It's a shame I can't do any more.  But it may be possible to watch the actual demolition process and record the interior as the poor old building comes down.  This will not be pleasant.  But I'm a professional.  I suppose I'll just grit my teeth and get on with it.  And drown my sorrows in a glass of wine when I come home.

And now to Paisley Abbey...

As I intimated in an earlier post, the orginal abbey church was burned down by Edward I's troops during the Scots War of Independence.  So much of the surviving fabric is much later, built in the 14th or 15th century.

The architecture of the West Front is unmistakably Gothic:-

 

As is typical of Scots medieval religious buildings, it's very heavy and clunky in character.  This is, after all, the land that Perpendicular forgot!  It's also lacking in external sculpture - okay, what there was would have been trashed by the Reformers, but there aren't really that many niches where you could put statues in the first place.  The windows are very special, but I'll talk about them in greater detail in a later post.

And now a close-up of the doorway, with its very elegant mouldings:-