Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum US Map & Phone & Address
235 Wellesley St. Weston; (617) 894-6735
Stamp collectors will be thrilled silly about the four million postal specimens on display here. One of the nation’s top philatelic researchers and exhibitors, this museum will introduce you to a hobby which, for many, becomes an obsession. See President Eisenhower’s own stamp collection, as well as all kinds of rarities. Admission to the museum is free; hours are from 9 a m. to 4 pm. Tuesdays through Thursdays, and 1 to 5 PM. on Sundays.
Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum US Map & Phone & Address Photo Gallery
St Mary’s parish church was built between 1120 and 1145 and still has its three original Norman arches on the eastern side of the north aisle. There is a medieval tombstone decorated with a cross and sword on the north wall. In the 1700s, a small belfry was added to the church and this was totally restored in 1860. By 1550, after the dissolution of the Catholic church, Henry VIII was having a lot of trouble with the warring Scots so he built the small castle, based on a Tudor fort, to garrison his army on Lindisfarne; most of the stone from the by-now defunct priory was used for the castle. He then had ten line of battleships’ anchored in the harbour and the island became his front line of defence against the border enemy. The prior of Lindisfarne became Bishop of Berwick and it was shortly after a dispute with him that the king took control of the island. The Earl of Dunbar ransacked the remaining riches of the priory in 1613, along with the bells and lead from the roof, but his booty never reached its final destination: his ship sank without trace shortly after leaving Holy Island harbour (see dive site 20 in the Farne Sound). In a border survey of 1550, there is mention of the forte’ or castle as The Forte of Beblowe’, which is the name for the hill on which the castle was constructed. At the start of the civil war, the fort was used as a Royalist stronghold, but it soon fell to the Roundheads. Then, in 1715, when the garrison was reduced to just seven men, the castle was captured by two Jacobites, although they surrendered without a fight as soon as reinforcements arrived from Berwick.
