Archives » Oliver Cromwell

Huntingdon

On the way up from the ferry back from The Netherlands last year we stopped off to have a look at Huntingdon – a place we hadn’t visited before.

Town Hall in main square:-

Town Hall, Huntingdon

Old building also on square:-

Old Building, Huntingdon

All Saints Church lies beside the main square:-

Ghost Soldier, Huntingdon

It has nice arched windows glass and statuary in niches.

Stained Glass All Saints Church, HuntingdonaAll Saints

View from other side:-

All Saints Church, Huntingdon

Huntingdon was where Oliver Cromwell was born and the constituency he represented in Parliament. A bench in the square (with All Saints church in background) and a rubbish bin seems an odd way to commemorate him though.

Cromwell Bench and Bin, Huntingdon

But they do have a Cromwell Museum:-

Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon

The bench with the yellow heart on it in the first photo of the Church above is a memorial to the victims of Covid:-

Covid Memorial Bench, Huntingdon

 

Constitutional Coup d’État?

Well.

Don’t we live in interesting times?

I had been planning a post about the demise of Bury FC. (OK they’re not dead quite yet but it does seem inevitable.)

But our new Prime Minister’s decision to ask the Queen to prorogue Parliament – a request she cannot refuse even though it places her firmly in the political spotlight, a situation she ought not be subjected to – in the midst of the biggest crisis to hit British politics in my lifetime (I was alive during the Suez debacle – only just – but that wasn’t anything like as bad as this) beggars belief.

Parliament has not been sitting for weeks due to the summer recess. The blustering buffoon has been subject to its scrutiny for only a day or so after replacing Theresa May. Yet now – if his plan cannot be thwarted – there will only be opportunity to do so for less than a week before it will be prevented from operating for another five weeks beyond that. And this at the most dangerous time for the prospects of the UK since 1940.

If this is democracy then what on Earth does dictatorship look like?

The Leave campaign in the EU Referendum employed the slogan, “Take Back Control.” If that meant anything it could only mean bringing power back to Parliament, not to the Prime Minister – nor to a small, rabid clique of ultras. It has always been the case that a Prime Minister can only do what Parliament allows him or her to do. A restriction of Parliament’s rights to hold him or her to account is a denial of control, a denial of democracy. If leave voters see Parliament as the problem here then they can not be described as democrats, either that or they misunderstand the UK system of government. (And constitutionally, the last General Election (elected 2017) overrode any previous votes – on anything – as no Parliament can bind its successor. Technically the EU referendum was a creature of the previous Parliament (elected 2015) rather than this one.)

The English Parliament – of which Brexiteers, I suspect, tend to see the present UK one as being a continuation (though in that they are wrong) – once fought a war against a King who stood in the way of its rights, precisely for the point of ensuring those rights. (The fact that the succeeding dispensation under the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, also ran roughshod over the same Parliament’s rights shows how fragile those rights can be.)

It is the duty of Parliament to scrutinise proposed Government measures or intentions and if a majority in Parliament does not like them then to vote them down. A Prime Minister who seeks to deny it that right, for however long or short a time, can not be called a democrat – and is a danger to us all.

Ely, Cambridgeshire

Ely Cathedral

We hadn’t intended visiting Ely but when we discovered it was only twelve miles from Cambridge we thought we might as well.

Its most striking feature is of course the Cathedral (see left.)

Almost the first house we encountered was in a highly traditional style. We had been forewarned by signs in the car park – and the streets up from it – to “Oliver Cromwell’s House.” This surprised me as I’d always thought Cromwell was a farmer from Huntingdon till the Civil Wars dragged him from hearth and home to military fame – not to mention notoriety – regicide and the Lord Protectorship. Anyway the tacky figures outside put us off entering.

Cromwell's House, Ely, Cambridgeshire.

I had expected the town would contain mostly traditional architecture. There was nothing extremely modern but I was pleasantly surprised to find not one, nor two, nor even three, but four buildings showing deco styling.

The first had “Coronation Building” and a crown inscribed on it. I suspect this would have been the 1937 Coronation (George VI) rather than that of 1953.

Coronation Building, Ely, Cambridgeshire.

The second now hosts WH Smith’s – I had to stitch two photos as the street wasn’t wide enough to allow me to frame the whole thing in one shot.

Smith's, Ely, Cambridgeshire.

The third looked as if it had once been a Woolworths.

Old Woolies? Ely, Cambridgeshire.

The fourth was on another street (Lynn Road?) just off the main one.
Art Deco style building, Ely, Cambridgeshire.

The War Memorial was unostentatious, restrained and dignified, set into a niche in the wall that backs onto the cathedral.

War Memorial, Ely, Cambridgeshire.

There was also a street market which looked pretty thriving. Whether it’s there everyday or merely Wednesdays I don’t know.

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