When we visited Blickling Hall in Norfolk recently, I was rather taken with this huge door. I love thinking about someone making a good strong door and then dating it.
The house itself, according to the website, dates from 1624, but I dare say that it took (much) more than one year to complete and that they finished the middle bit, with this door, first. And I suppose it probably wasn't the door-maker who decided to add the date.
But whoever made the dating decision was clearly thinking of future generations, which is quite a difficult thing to do other than in the most general terms. Who could really imagine that a door would last nearly 400 years (and counting)? Who can think 400 years ahead?
I was listening to a radio programme the other day about technology, and they were discussing "Back to the Future", part of which was evidently set in 2015. We watched it with our children when they were small, and 2015 was a long way away. Why, our children would be grown up by then - amazing thought, and quite hard to imagine. Quite a few of the technological predictions made by the film have actually come true - a surprising number. And we are growing old - which used to be an unlikely scenario.
I predict that the door - never mind the Hall itself - will outlive us by quite a long time!
Oh yes, it certainly will. I have an oak door which is now thirty years old and, every day faces the western weather; I doubt it will last many more years.
ReplyDeleteIt is strange to watch movies from the past which are set in the future, which is NOW. I'm always interested to find out how close they are to reality. :)
ReplyDeleteWow -- what a beautiful and amazing door! Maybe we should all carve dates in our doors! I've been thinking about watching Back to the Future again -- like you, I remember watching it years ago and thinking 2015 would never get here. And we would certainly never be THAT old!!!
ReplyDeleteI didn't see that film, but have been hearing about it recently. Wasn't it Leonardo da Vinci who invented things on paper that weren't made in his lifetime but are now commonplace?
ReplyDeleteI love seeing your photos of historic buildings, blows my mind to think how old they are and what they could say if buildings could talk...