Poole (recorded in the Domesday Book as Pole) is a sea port and town in Dorset, England. It is famed for its pottery. A major medieval port, Poole is set on Britain's largest natural harbour. The old town suffered badly after the Second World War, with many old houses being demolished, however a few remain, particularly around the Church of St James, a new and rather austere building of 1820 with characteristic galleries inside. The guildhall, built in 1761 is handsome, but the quay is the most interesting area of the town, and has been the centre of Poole's prosperity from the Middle Ages. The port has moved just over the channel to Hamworthy, but pleasure craft still use the quay, and larger ships pass by. The Waterfront Museum has fine new displays on maritime history, and Scaplen's Court (a house of about 1500) has domestic displays. Most of the shores around Poole are muddy, and it never developed into a seaside resort. Inland was formerly heathland, it is now mostly built up. Poole Harbour is vast, with a tiny entrance to the sea which seems too small for the large ships passing through. The Poole side is heavily built up; the Purbeck side still wild and natural. Research Poole
Early English architecture was the first of the pointed or Gothic styles of architecture that prevailed in England. It succeeded the Norman in the reign of Richard I (1189), and continued to the end of the reign of Henry II in 1272, a period of 123 years when it gradually merged into the Decorated style - some argue that the early English style continued until 1307.
One of the leading peculiarities in this style is the form of the windows, which are narrow in proportion to their height, and terminate in a pointed arch, resembling the blade of a lancet. Throughout the early period of the style they are very plain, particularly in small churches;
but in cathedrals and other large buildings the windows, frequently combined two or more together, are carried to a great height, are richly and deeply moulded, and the jambs ornamented with slender shafts. On the eastern and western fronts of small churches the windows are often combined in this manner, with a circular window above and a richly moulded door below; but in large buildings there is often more than one range of windows, and the combinations are very various. Though
separated on the outside, these lancets are in the interior combined into one design, thus giving the first idea of a compound window.
The doorways are in general pointed, and in rich buildings sometimes double; they are usually moulded, and enriched with the tooth-ornament. The buttresses are often very bold and prominent, and are frequently carried up to the top of the building with but little diminution, and terminate in acutely-pointed pediments, which, when raised above the parapet, produce in some degree the effect of pinnacles. In this style, likewise, flying-buttresses were first introduced, and the buttresses themselves much increased in projection owing to the comparative lightness of the walls, which required some counter-support to resist the outward pressure of the vaulting.
The roof in the Early English style appears always to have been high pitched, and the towers surmounted by lofty pointed spires, as at Salisbury Cathedral. In the interior the arches are usually lancet-shaped, and the pillars often reduced to very slender proportions. As if to give still greater lightness of appearance, they are frequently made up of a centre pillar, surrounded by slight detached shafts, only connected with the pillar by their capitals and bases, and bands of metal placed at intervals. These shafts are generally of Purbeckmarble, the pillar itself being of stone, and from their extreme slenderness they sometimes appear as if quite inadequate to support the weight above them. Some of the best examples are to be seen in SalisburyCathedral.
The architects of this style carried their ideas of lightness to the utmost limits of prudence, and their successors have been afraid to imitate their example. The abacus of the capitals is generally made up of two bold round mouldings, with a deep hollow between. The foliage is peculiar, generally very gracefully drawn, and thrown into elegant curves; it is usually termed stiff-leaved, from the circumstance of its rising with a stiff stem from the neck-mould of the capital. The trefoil is commonly imitated, and is very characteristic of the style. The mouldings of this style have great boldness, and produce a striking effect of light and shade. They consist chiefly of rounds separated by deep hollows, in which a peculiar ornament, called the dog's-tooth, is used, whenever ornament can be introduced. This ornament is as characteristic of the Early English as the zigzag is of the Norman. Research Early English
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Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Corfe Castle
