Time Travel

This is an old property that I live in - the buildings were originally put up in 1650 - so they are older than the USA:) The buildings actually form a square built around a courtyard, which is now a calm oasis of grass and flower beds - a lot different from when it was the hub of a commercial enterprise I'm sure!! The courtyard has also got some old timbers which form an enclosed seating area - these are old roofing timbers from part of the building that no longer exists.

Back in 1650, when Lynn was the second biggest port in England, this building was a shipping merchant’s home and workplace - what is now my tiny one bed room cottage was then the end part of the main warehouse which went right down to the water’s edge. Most of this has been demolished and is open, and when you look at the cottage knowing that, it’s easy to see the difference between the original brick work, and the later changes. As I sit looking out my window towards the river, on my right there is a moss covered 6 foot high brick wall which marks the boundary of what was the merchant’s property. The other side of that wall is our private parking lot, marked out into bays. There have only been private dwellings here for a relatively short amount of time (which in Lynn means less that a hundred years), and the parking lot was previously a coal merchant’s yard.

In the wall is a gate to the parking lot and next to that is a really old hand water pump - the original water supply to the warehouse!!! As you go through the gate, the house to the right seems like it’s part of the same complex, but on closer inspection it’s not actually attached to this building at all. This is another courtyard building - smaller in size than my complex, but actually owned and lived in by one family. Walking past this house there is another gateway in a wall that seems even older than the original walls in my cottage - these are the remnants of yet another Shipping Merchant’s home and warehouse - actually, this is almost all that remains of it, as it has been rebuilt into private apartments.

Going through the gate here, there is a private path through bushes, and then you come to a public right of way - if you turned left this path goes under the new apartments to the riverbank - and under the other part that remains of the older building - a wall with a low beam that you need to duck under if you are more than about 5 foot 10. In front is a raised garden, and again this is a private area for more old houses hidden away back there.

But turning right and going away from the river, you walk under an arch which is part of the building fronting onto Queen Street - and suddenly from the quiet country feel of the backyards, you are in the bustle of a busy street. It’s a two minute walk, but feels almost like time travel, from the 17th to 21st Centuries!