Ducking stool

The ducking stool was an instrument of punishment from medieval times until the early nineteenth century. It was administered to cantankerous women, dishonest tradespeople, those who brawled in public, and others guity of minor misdemeanours for which the stocks, the pillory and the cage were deemed unsuitable. Originally the guilty party was fastened in the stool and lofted on high, but later the person was chained in the stool or chair and dipped under water in a nearby river. Leominster's example dates from the eighteenth century and was last used in 1809 on one Jenny Pipes who was guilty of using foul and abusive language. This is thought to be the last example of ducking in England. Today this ducking stool rests in Leominster's ancient church.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Stretton Grandison church

The approach to the mainly fourteenth century church of St Lawrence at Stretton Grandison, Herefordshire, is charming. The narrow west tower and spire of the church are accompanied by a tall pine, a nineteenth century lych gate and a thatched, partly timber-framed cottage. The latter was probably built in the seventeenth century though its red sandstone wall is unlikely to be later than the early nineteenth century.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Industrial lighting

Industrial lighting? Well, not quite. Christmas lights  on an industrial estate in Ross on Wye courtesy of one of the businesses located there. Mercifully traditional green and red was chosen and we were spared the very unseasonal dark blue that has proliferated in recent years. My first sighting of these lights made me wonder whether a competition between companies for the "best" Christmas lights will spring up to match the rivalry between householders that can be seen at this time of year.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Nativity

In the period of Christmas a nativity scene seems more than appropriate. I came across this one by accident as I scanned the five lancets that make the east window of the Lady Chapel at Hereford Cathedral. The stained glass dates from 1851-2 and was installed by the firm of C. A. Gibbs to the designs of Nockalls Johnson Cottingham (1823-1854). It is a very mosaic-like approach to stained glass that draws heavily on medieval precedents in terms of figures, overall composition and colours. The glass works very well in its location and is an example that was, regrettably, ignored by some of the glass designers in recent years at the cathedral.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Tiny chocolate Santas

A family Christmas beckons so, from me and the chocolate Santas a Happy Christmas and an eclectic new year to everyone who stops by.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Almshouses lights, Ledbury

St Katherine' Hospital, Ledbury, was founded in 1231 and parts dating from the C13 and C14, including the chapel, survive. The almshouses that we see today are the joint work of Robert Smirke (1822-5, the south end and central tower) and William Chick (1866, the north end). They are in the Tudor style of stone with half-timbered gables and an iron veranda at the rear. Here they are seen with Christmas decorations and trees with lights. In the centre is the cenotaph and to the right the clock tower of the Barrett Browning Institute.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Library, Wells Cathedral

Dendrochronology dates the time of the cutting of the roof timbers of the library at Wells Cathedral at about 1450, so it is likely that the building was erected shortly afterwards. Like many such libraries had, and still have, a number of chained books that cannot be removed without being unlocked. This practice dates from the time when books were rare and expensive. One of the oldest volumes in the library is Pliny's "Natural History". It was printed in Venice in 1472 five years before Caxton printed the first book in England.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Time-worn steps

The time-worn steps in the photograph above tell the story of the repeated passage of Wells Cathedral's Bishop and Chapter up and down, to and from, the chapter house for their regular, formal meetings. The wear on the stone must have been considerably increased by the tourists who visit the cathedral to experience the architecture of this beautiful building.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Looking down...

The heavy rainfall of the past month or so has left the ground in my part of the world sodden such that pools of water have formed that are reluctant to go. This is especially so in parts of the Forest of dean. Quite a few of our recent walks have involved negotiating sloppy mud and making detours around extensive puddles and pools. We came upon an elongated pool recently that gave a good refection of the trees above while also showing something of the leaf covered ground beneath the water's surface.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Looking up...

A walk through the Forest of Dean means encounters with a quite wide range and age of trees. The landscape combines what is known as "ancient woodland" with areas that are more recently planted, and the whole is managed by the Forestry Commission. Some of the newer trees are stands of larch, a deciduous pine that turns orange in autumn when it sheds its needles. My photograph shows the view above my head in a group of these trees.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Autumn becomes winter

The photograph above was taken in Penyard Park woods near Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, on the morning of the first of December, the first day of "meteorological winter". Yellow tinged winter sunlight was penetrating the woods through trees almost stripped of leaves, and still illuminating the conifers, the dying bracken and the leaves of the undergrowth. The orange remnants of autumn together with the sunlight are what elevates the picture. As winter progresses it will be interesting to see if such a photograph is possible before the spring growth appears.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Black-headed gull

When the dark chocolate brown (not black) cap of the black-headed gull disappears and is replaced by a couple of dark, scuff-like makings I know that summer is past and the colder months lie ahead. Similarly, when those disappear and the hood makes its re-appearance in stages until the striking hood is complete, by the end of March, I am reminded that sun and warmth are on their way. This young example of the species caught my eye when it was lit by the low winter sun against a dark watery background on Newent Lake in Gloucestershire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Extinction Rebellion

On a recent visit to the Shropshire town of Ludlow we came upon an Extinction Rebellion demonstration. It seethed with people, demonstrators, shoppers, sight-seers, market stall-holders and more. So, I only got two shots of the three red and three green women with mime-like white faces and red or green, diaphanous robes. They looked like otherworldly echoes of the Three Graces of antiquity. I'm sure they weren't, but what they represented I don't know.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Bracken in morning light

Morning light has the power to make even the most prosaic of subjects something special. When the vigorous plant, bracken, starts to die off in autumn its green fronds go limp and turn brown, orange and black. It looks past it, dishevelled and slowly slumps to the ground, the strong green and symmetrical jaggedness of its maturity gone. But, when seen with a low, late autumn sun behind it the dank vegetation comes alive and it exhibits a dark, marmalade glow.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Cormorant wing drying

One of the characteristics of the cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is to perch on a tree, rock, buoy or some other place above water with its wings outspread. The purpose of this is to dry the bird's feathers which become very wet when it dives to catch its principal food, fish. Why, you may wonder do tufted ducks, dabchicks, gannet, terns and other diving birds not adopt this posture too? Apparently the cormorant's feathers are more "wettable" because they have less air trapped in them. This allows them to dive deeper and swim underwater for longer. This young cormorant was enjoying the late November sun that bathed Cannop Ponds in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Nave, Wells Cathedral

The nave of Wells cathedral in Somerset dates from the late 1100s and is an example of the Early English style of architecture. For anyone who has visited other English cathedrals of this period the main piers of the nave arcades, each with its twenty four columns and lively stiff-leaf capitals further enlivened by birds and other creatures, offer visual delight but hold few architectural surprises. What does immediately catch the eye, and instill awe as well as surprise, are the enormous scissor (or strainer) arches that brace both the tower arch facing us and the arches facing the transepts (not visible above). These were inserted shortly after the construction of the tower in 1315-22. The builders could have chosen other methods of bracing but decided on this elegant, uncompromising solution that must have impressed when it was built, and continues to do so today.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Chain mail in stone

This tomb effigy of a recumbent knight in chain mail can be found in Worcester Cathedral. A brass nameplate identifies it as Guillaume de Harcourt (d.1223 Lord of Stanton Harcourt), first son of Robert (d.1202 Sheriff of Warwick and Leicester) and Isabel Harcourt. From what I can find out, some or all of this may be wrong. Pevsner describes him as a member of the Harcourt family in the fourteenth century, and many other dates are ascribed. Multiple members of the family called Robert or William don't help. His missing nose was probably the result of a zealous puritan. The tomb seems to have been repainted in 1805, probably following the traces of original paint that survived.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100