Medieval fortified bridge, Monmouth

The medieval bridge over the River Monnow in Monmouth, Wales, is one of only two remaining examples in Britain that is fortified (the other is at Warkworth, Northumberland). It links parts of the town at a point about 500 metres above the Monnow's confluence with the River Wye. Building began in 1272 to replace a timber bridge. It remains in use today as a pedestrian bridge and in the intervening years it has been used as a toll gate, gaol, munitions store, lodge and support for advertising hoardings! It was a subject much loved by seventeenth and eighteenth century artists and notable works depicting it were produced by Turner and Cotman.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Almshouses, Ross on Wye

Almshouse, humble dwellings for the poor, are not uncommon in the towns of England. They were often built and paid for by a wealthy merchant or landowner, and it is quite usual to find them still fulfilling this charitable function. The individual dwellings of the Webbe's Almshouses in Ross on Wye, built in 1612 and enlarged in the eighteenth century, originally housed 7 people (or more likely families). Today the properties have been enlarged and are home to fewer people. The curved steps in the foreground form an entrance to the churchyard from which I took my photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

A May landscape

On one of a recent series of unseasonally hot days we visited a number of places in and near the Forest of Dean. A bright blue sky, the absence of cloud and a significant haze encouraged me to point my camera down. A location at the top of one of the ruinous walls of Goodrich Castle near Ross on Wye provided this photograph of an oak tree in a field of wheat, the carefully tended crop contrasting with the pasture, trees and woodland beyond.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100