Kitchen garden path

English country houses generally have three types of garden. The best known is the landscape garden, the remodelling and improvement of the middle distance and far distance landscape by, for example, creating lakes, planting trees in clumps and as individuals, and adding "eye catchers" such as classical temples, Romantic ruins and interesting follies. Then there is the formal garden that can be seen from the house windows and when walked through. It will have plants, shrubs and small trees, all arranged in beds that frequently organised geometrically. Then, usually hidden behind a tall wall all around, there is the the kitchen garden where vegetables and fruit are grown for the table of the owners. This may have small workshops and glass houses to enable tender and non-native foods to be grown. Today's photograph shows part of the kitchen garden at Croft Castle, Herefordshire. The rustic path is made of bricks, pebbles and tiles, and on either side, with name tags dangling from them, are different kinds of apple trees.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Fog at Croft Castle

There was a familiar tale recently - the weather forecaster said unbroken sun but we, the weather observers, saw nothing but fog (until the afternoon). Consequently our day out at Croft Castle produced photographs that I hadn't imagined. For much of the time the details of the building's facade were lost and it became a monochromatic, looming pile.

Only when we walked round to the terrace on the south side did we see something of the structure we recognised.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Gothick staircase hall, Croft Castle

By country house standards the staircase hall at Croft Castle, Herefordshire, is modest in scale. However, size isn't everything as the architect and interior decorator responsible for the work, Thomas Farnolls Pritchard (1723-1777), knew. The Gothick plasterwork in the form of ceiling rose, waterleaf cornice, wall arches, shell recess and quatrefoil dado rail is masterly and gives lightness and delicacy to the space. The slender balusters and clustered newels of the stairs perfectly complement the walls and ceiling.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

The Dining Room, Croft Castle

The Dining Room at Croft Castle was originally the West Hall and changed its use in 1913-14 during the restoration by Walter Sarel. The recess framed by fluted Ionic columns was designed to hold the food and utensils required for dining. The nineteenth century table has chairs in the style of Chippendale.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

The Saloon, Croft Castle

The Saloon (also known as the Drawing Room) is the largest room at Croft Castle. It has Early Georgian panelling but the ceiling and doorcases are by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard (1723-1777), an architect and interior decorator, who is best known as the designer of the world's first iron bridge at Iron Bridge. The fireplace is by the architect, Walter Sarel (1863-1941), who did extensive work on the Castle in 1913 and 1937.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Sit and contemplate

This chair is one of several placed in the woodland around Croft Castle, Herefordshire. They were put there by the artist, Edie Jo Murray, an invitation to sit and contemplate in solitude. Their ornate eighteenth and nineteenth century design is intended to reference furniture found in the Castle. The very bright colours are intended to "alter the aesthetic presentation of the chairs and create an incongruous and distinctive intervention in the landscape." In case you were wondering.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Croft Castle, Herefordshire

The first impression the visitor gets of Croft Castle is a seventeenth century house with decorative rather than functional corner turrets that received remodelling in the eighteenth century. Further examination reinforces this idea and it is a real pleasure to walk around the house (it isn't a castle in the usual sense) and work out what was added and when. The medieval St Michael, only a few feet from the main building, emphasizes the importance of the collective power of nobility and the church in seventeenth and eighteen century England. An early arrival at the house, which is in the care of the National Trust, gave me some deep shadows with which to layer my composition.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300