Coal Tit and Marsh Tit

A recent newspaper article reported the RSPB's latest information about Britain's birds that are increasing and decreasing in numbers. One that I recall that is becoming more numerous is the coal tit. This is in part due to the effects of people feeding birds that visit their gardens. On a recent walk in the Forest of Dean we saw quite a few species congregating at a feeding station, and among them was the coal tit (first photograph).

The other species attracted by the mixed seeds on offer were the blackbird, robin, dunnock, chaffinch, blue tit, great tit, nuthatch and marsh tit (second photograph).

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

The back end of the year

When I lived in Yorkshire I often heard the last month or so of the year referred to as "the back end". The meaning of the phrase is self-explanatory. However, I never heard the beginning of the year referred to as "the front end", only "the new year". When I looked at this photograph it spoke to me of that Yorkshire "back end", a time when it is typically, cold or damp, when shadows are long, the bracken is dying down, and the brief appearance of the low winter sun draws a few more people away from their fire-sides and central heating. Of course, the dog walkers are out whatever the weather and this couple with their four animals, silhouetted against the woodland, made a nice composition for this passing photographer.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Oast House (or hop kiln)

Wall Hills House, near Ledbury, Herefordshire, is a former farm. The house is Georgian and nearby outbuildings include a cruck-framed medieval barn and a circular oast house. Both the barn and the oast house with its adjoining brick barns fell into disuse as farming changed, but it is good that they remain for us to see today. An oast house is a building designed for the drying of hops that are to be used in beer making. They can be square, oblong or circular and all have a characteristic pointed roof with a cowl. In Herefordshire, where hops are still grown in the Hereford-Ledbury-Bromyard triangle and the Teme Valley, oast houses are often called hop kilns. The oast house (or hop kiln) and attendant barns in the photograph haven't suffered the fate of many i.e. being turned into a desirable country residence.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

"So this is Christmas..."

John Lennon's opening words to his song, "Merry Xmas (War Is Over)", seem somehow appropriate at this strangest of Christmas times. The combination of the pandemic and the actions of the most inept British government of my lifetime (and possibly ever) have made it a Christmas like no other. But, in the small part of my life that is this blog, I will not dwell on such things. Instead I'll try and post images of interest that exist despite the gloom that surrounds us, such as this rain-speckled bauble on the public Christmas Tree in the centre of Ross on Wye, Herefordshire.

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

Gloucestershire College, Cinderford

As we walked round the large pond at the edge of the Steam Mills area of Cinderford we were surprised to come upon a large, shiny, modern building. It didn't show on our map. What was it? Peeping out from the trees on its site overlooking the water, it appeared to be modern steel and glass offices with attached factory buildings clad in wood. As we followed the footpath between the pond and the building we could see nothing to suggest its identity. It was clearly quite new, the landscaping barely established. When we were driving home a road sign suggested its possible identity. But not until I fired up the computer did I discover that it is the Forest of Dean campus of Gloucestershire College, a building devoted to vocational education.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

The Old House, Lydbrook

The Old House stands by the side of the valley road in Lydbrook, a straggling village in the Forest of Dean. Most of the picturesque structure dates from the 1500s though the extension on the right is later and is dated 1718. It is built on a slope and the stone cellar has doors and a window at ground level at the front.The wattle and daub infilling of the timber frame on the facade has been competely replaced on the street elevation by later brick noggin, but is present elsewhere. The slate roof and sash windows are also later but the other elevations and interior retains much work from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The house sign shows both its name as given above and the fact that it was once "Sarah Siddons' House". Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) was a noted Welsh-born actress, a tragedienne, a nationally known celebrity, and the subject of many painters including Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds.

Note: The photograph has had two bags of builder's gravel removed from the bottom left corner of the house, material to be used in some refurbishment of the Grade II* lListed Building.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Greylag Geese

The greylag goose, a species found across Europe and Asia, is probably the second most common wild goose seen in Britain after the introduced Canada goose. Like the Canadian species the greylag is very tolerant of people and can be found in urban parks as well as in open countryside. It is thought that the greylag was one of the first wild species to be domesticated by man, over 3,000 years ago, and today's domestic geese often interbreed with it. At lease one pair successfully hatched young on Cannop Ponds in the Forest of Dean this year where this very obliging group was photographed.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

An Abergavenny tomb

The Gwent/Monmouthshire edition of the Buildings of Wales describes the collection of medieval monuments in the church of St Mary, Abergavenny, also known as Abergavenny Priory, as "one of the outstanding series...in the British Isles". The photograph shows the memorial to Sir Richard Herbert of Ewyas who died in 1510. This canopied monument has been mutilated and restored over the years but much of the original structure can still be seen. The main figure shows a bare-headed, armoured knight, his legs straight rather than crossed, and at his feet a lion. Under the arch behind him is an albaster Coronation of the Virgin. A headless Sir Richard and his wife kneel in adoration at her feet. To left and right of Mary are the couple's six standing sons and two kneeling daughters. Monuments from this period are not too uncommon though quite a few suffer from over-restoration. That is not the case here and the structure is all the better for it.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Silhouettes at the quarry

On a recent walk in the Forest of Dean we went to look at a large, working quarry. Like all such places it was fascinating. It was a massive and deep undertaking that appeared to be supplying stone for a variety of purposes. At a number of locations were piles of rock that had been assembled by type: principally size, but also, it seemed, colour. The quarry was at the highest point of that area of the Forest and the very highest summit was a heap of relatively small stones. A couple of other walkers and their dog were using the heap as a viewpoint. We decided to do the same and as we approached I took this silhouette shot of them as they surveyed the distant horizon.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A cloistered chat

Tewkesbury Abbey, like almost all monastic buildings in England, suffered the depredations of Henry VIII. In the case of Tewkesbury, however, the main church remained largely intact because the town purchased the monks' part of the structure from the king for £453 and it became the parish church. The Lady Chapel, a detached bell tower, and the cloisters, along with a few other buildings, were pulled down. On a recent late afternoon we visited the grounds of the Abbey and during our circumnavigation of the church we came upon two ladies engaged in conversationon on a bench caught in the last sunlight of the day. They were having a literal and metaphorical cloistered chat (evidence of the site of the cloisters remain on the abbey walls around them).

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Derelict timber-framed house, Mordiford

On a recent walk near Mordiford we came upon this derelict old house. It is a classic Herefordshire, timber-framed structure, though quite a bit smaller than most such remaining buildings. It now stands in splendid isolation in a grass paddock but presumably it had adjacent outbuildings, gardens etc. What is interesting is the way it displays the elements of the structure that are usually hidden from view today. A stone plinth supports the timber framework comprising panels filled with vertical wooden staves. These were usually hazel, chestnut or oak. Interwoven horizontally are pliable withies or wands. Here unbarked hazel or ash was usual, the whole forming a basket-like structure onto which was plastered clay mixed with straw or hair. This type of infill is called wattle and daub.

The brick infill is very likely to be a later replacement of the older materials. Any other stonework is associated with a chimney which, of course, needed to be fire-proof. The slate roof will also be later and may have replaced tiles, or less likely, thatch. The brick extension at the back will also be later. When was the house built? It could be as late as the early nineteenth century but is likely to be quite a bit earlier than that. As far as I can see it has not been Listed as being of historic or architectural interest.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A quiet street, Tewkesbury

The Covid-19 lockdowns and the restraint shown by many people during the pandemic has produced many weeks of quiet streets where the only people visible are essential workers, people shopping for food or those taking some daily walking or cycling exercise. I took this photograph in Tewkesbury on one such day. It shows the corner of Gander Lane and Church Street. The main building is the end of a unique curving row of twenty three late 1400s timber-framed dwellings, probably constructed as a speculative undertaking by the monks of the Abbey.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Timber-framed house, Ledbury

"The Steppes" is a timber-framed house on New Street, Ledbury in Herefordshire. It dates from around 1600 and presents a fine example of the builder's art to the street. Why the "Steppes"? Because, like many such buildings it is stepped outwards (jettied) at first and second floor level. It is a close studded example of timber framing in an area where squares prevail. Over the years it has been modified and updated. The windows (with the exception of those in the right gable) are all later, as are the doors and, possibly, the bay. I photographed the building on a day when the autumn light was clear and sharp, illuminating the details of the building to perfection.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Hereford Cathedral from Victoria Bridge

Hereford Cathedral, like a number of smaller British cathedrals, is surrounded by a compact green and close that is bordered by buildings. It also, again like many smaller cathedrals, lacks prominent west towers. Consequently it is difficult to photograph in its entirety, or with most of its mass on display. Photographs taken from nearby tend to suffer from distortion whilst those taken from afar show only the main tower and the upper parts of the nave and chancel. This photograph was taken from the mid-distance as we stood on the ornate Victoria Bridge, a suspension footbridge over the River Wye. The intrusion of buildings and trees obscure all but the cathedral's tower, and the prevalence of evergreens in neighbouring gardens means that even winter doesn't reveal significantly more of the building.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A foggy Prospect

John Kyrle (1637-1724) is the renowned eighteenth century benefactor of Ross on Wye. The poet, Alexander Pope (1688-1744) called him the "Man of Ross" in his poem in the third of his Moral Essays "Of the Use of Riches"(1734). One of his many contributions to the town was the public open space above the cliffs near St Mary's church. It was called "The Prospect" for its fine view over the meander of the River Wye, and beyond. It is a place still visited and enjoyed today. We were there on a recent afternoon and, the view being cloaked with fog, I turned one hundred and eighty degrees to get this photograph of the tower and spire of St Mary behind the pines and the mistletoe decked trees.

Something of the extent of John Kyrle's philanthropy can be seen in this extract from Pope:

"Who taught that heav’n directed Spire to rise?
The Man of Ross, each lisping babe replies.
Behold the Market-place with poor o'erspread!
He feeds yon Alms-house, neat, but void of state,
Where Age and Want sit smiling at the gate;
Him portion’d maids, apprentic’d orphans blest,
The young who labour, and the old who rest.
Is any sick? the Man of Ross relieves,
Prescribes, attends, the med’cine makes, and gives,
Is there a variance? enter but his door,
Balk’d are the Courts, and contest is no more.
Despairing Quacks with curses fled the place,
And vile Attornies, now a useless race"

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Walking the dog

On a recent walk in part of the Forest of Dean that we had never visited before we found that the off-road cyclists substantially outnumbered the dog walkers. I tried to include some cyclists in a few photographs (for scale more than anything else) but was unsuccessful. This was due to their speed and their predilection for travelling in groups. No such difficulty with the dog walkers: this trio very effectively illustrated the size of some of the taller trees in Barnhill Plantation.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2