I visited North Yorkshire a few days back, just for the day which I spent in and around Ripon a city that historically was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Ripon is the fourth smallest city in England and after a period of building projects under the Plantagenets, the city emerged with a prominent wool and cloth industry. Ripon became well known for its production of spurs during the 16th and 17th century, but would later remain largely unaffected by the Industrial Revolution.
Ripon is noted for Ripon Cathedral which is the seat of the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds and the mother church of the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds.
I like Ripon because although it is a city, in reality it is much more like a market town.
The key in the photograph was handed to me when I wanted to visit a small chapel in Ripon. I had found the door locked with a notice that the key was available from a cottage nearby. I knocked on the door and the old lady produced this key. I laughed because of its size and promised to sign the visitors book and return the key when I had looked inside the chapel.
I just had to take a photo of the key, so I placed it on a rug on a pew in the chapel with a 10p coin for reference. The UK 10p is about the size of a quarter dollar US, I happen to have a Minnesota commemorative quarter-dollar coin handy to compare the two coins.
I will post about the chapel on the Leeds daily photo tomorrow.
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I was immediately attracted to your giant key! I remember seeing them reasonably often in Paris, usually in monuments like Notre-Dame...and the occasional hotel room. Those were the days when keys were keys, not to be lost.
ReplyDeleteCool photo - like an artsy "still life."
ReplyDeletei think this key is for keeps, nice of you to take a photo of it... ^-^
ReplyDeleteIt certainly would be hard to lose a key that size! No use putting it on a keychain either!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up in a small village called, Gordon, Ohio, the homes there all had the same kind of locks on their front and back doors. And the locks all required keys exactly like your key. Only smaller. The people named them, "Skeleton Keys." I don't know why but that was the name. You could buy them at variety stores for about 10 cents or less. And, odd as it seems, any key you bought and used on your front or rear door would work just the same on every door in the village.
ReplyDeleteTimes have changed a lot.
That key has substance. I like the way you posed it on the red carpet. Like the plain but solid companion of a glamorous movie star.
ReplyDeleteBlimey! You wouldn't lose that one!
ReplyDelete