St George, Portland, Dorset

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The building of the church of St George was begun in 1754 and it was consecrated in 1766. It is the work of Thomas Gilbert, a master stone-mason. The influence of Wren is visible in the exterior which is mainly made of Portland ashlar. The roofs are lead with the exception of the sanctuary which is slate.

The church was built to replace the decaying St Andrew, and was itself replaced in 1917 by All Saints, Easton. St George fell into disrepair in the C20 and was rescued and restored by The Friends of St George. Today it is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It is open to visitors who can see the restored Georgian interior.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Ammonite street lights

These decorative street lights can be seen at Lyme Regis, a Dorset seaside town on England's Jurassic Coast. The ammonites reference the coast's fame as one of the places where the science of palaeontology developed from the study of fossils in the cliffs of the coast. The local herring gulls use them as a vantage point from where they can descend on food left by careless tourists.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Painting the lighthouse

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Portland Bill's largest lighthouse was built in1903-05 and began its working life in 1906. It remains a working lighthouse and has been modernised down the years, most recently in 2019-2020, when a non-rotating LED and a new omnidirectional fog signal were installed.

 

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On our recent visit to the lighthouse it was being painted, a daunting task for many, but just another day's work for the two men tasked with the job.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Yachts big and small

I noticed the diminutive "Freda" moored at the quayside in Wymouth harbour, the pristine paintwork, masts and ropes drawn sharply against the blue water of the harbour and the sky blue above.  I stopped to give her the "once over" in her relative isolation before I went on to photograph the forest of masts further into the harbour.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Turning the corner

Go through any large, British city and you will see Victorian buildings built around a corner i.e. with two main elevations that face two streets. Look carefully at them and you will see innovative ways to treat the corner of the building. One of the favourite methods is with a cylindrical, or part cylindical structure, often topped with a short spire, cupola, dome etc. I was reminded of this when we came across this block of flats, Olympia Apartments, in Weymouth, Dorset. Here the cylindrical feature works well visually: but what about practically? Rounded rooms can be restrictive in terms of furniture placement. It made me wonder whether there is a price to be paid for this particular solution to turning the corner.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Ships in Weymouth Bay

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During a recent stay in Weymouth there were four cargo ships waiting off shore. One eventually berthed at the Isle of Portland, but all were present during different kinds of weather and at different times of day. Through a strong telephoto lens the quartet presented as substantial vessels. But, through a normal to wide lens, against the expanse of water and sky, they looked much less significant.

 

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Pedaloes at rest

On an evening walk along the promenade at Weymouth, Dorset, we came upon these pedaloes at rest. They were securely fastened together, and after I'd photographed them I scanned the lines to see what names had been chosen to identify each boat. There were lots drawn from the phonetic alphabet (ALPHA, BRAVO, CHARLIE, DELTA etc). Then there were those named after local places (LULWORTH COVE, WEYMOUTH BAY, NOTHE FORT, FERRY BRIDGE etc). A smattering were named after people (WINSTON CHURCHILL, ROMEO, ELLIE, MURPHY etc) and the rest belonged to no particular group ( BLUEBELL, 60 DOWN!!) Unusual, but not as boring as a single or double digit number for each one.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Chapel of St Catherine, Abbotsbury

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The chapel of St Catherine of Alexandria, Abbotsbury, Dorset was built around the year 1400 on a small hill outide the village. It looks over the Dorset coast and more particularly, the 18 mile long shingle bank of Chesil Beach and, beyond, the distant Isle of Portland. It was probably an adjunct of Abbotsbury Priory and may have been used as a place of private prayer. It was always a visible beacon or sea mark that ships used for navigation, and there is a suggestion that in later times a navigation light was kept burning at the top of its stair turret.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Bridport harbour

Bridport in Dorset is a small market town two miles inland from a small harbour. This is often, unsurprisingly, called Bridport Harbour, but it also goes by the name West Bay. The harbour has the usual collection of pleasure craft and a small number of inshore fishing boats. It is something of a tourist destination and its desirability as a place to live is attested by the housing built on West Cliff, the 1885 terrace called Pier Terrace, and Quay West, two blocks of modern flats seen on the far side of the harbour in the photograph above.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

East cliff, Bridport

The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site that stretches 96 miles (154 km) along the south coast of England from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset. The cliffs along the coast date from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods of geological history. Their rich fossil beds were one of the places where palaeontology emerged as a discipline that explained the earth's past.

The cliffs of the coast vary considerably in age and stability. East Cliff, near the small harbour town of Bridport, Dorset, is quite unstable and visitors are requested by signs to keep away from the base of the cliffs. It is a popular place for dog walkers and fossil hunters, not all of whom comply with the warnings.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Unisex toilets, Weymouth

Public toilets have many names in the UK. It's almost as if we are so embarrassed by their existence that we must cast about for a word or words that causes least offence. The most basic names identify them by the gender for whome they are intended, and "Unisex", as on these nautical-look beach front toilets at Weymouth, Dorset, is considerably less common than the widespread "Ladies" and "Gentlemen". For more on this subject, and a reasonably comprehensive list of UK toilet names, have a look at my post of 2006 on PhotoReflect entitled "What do you call it?"

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Portland Bill lighthouse

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Portland Bill is a tip of land at the south end of the Isle of Portland. It sticks out into the English Channel and is the southermost point of the county of Dorset. Portland Bill's low, rocky limestone cliffs have long been a danger to shipping and the Romans used beacons to warn vessels of their presence. The first permanent lighthouses built there date from the early 1700s. In 1844 an obelisk daymark was erected and is still there. The tall red and white painted lighthouse we see today shone its light for the first time in 1906. It remains active today, though is fully automatic rather than permanently manned.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Corfe Castle

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Corfe Castle is the name of a village and of the ruined castle to be found there. The village was an area of occupation c.6000 BC and was probably still so c.50AD during the Roman occupation. It is an area of limestone in the Purbeck Hills, Dorset, and many of the the village buildings and roofs are made of this stone. The castle we see today was founded shortly after 1066AD. In the Civil War of the C17 Corfe Castle was a Royalist stronghold and after hostilities ended Parliament ordered that it be "slighted" i.e. deliberately wrecked with explosives. What we see today is the remains following the slighting with further damage by local people who saw it as a useful quarry for building stone. It was my misfortune to see it on an afternoon when the sky was virtually cloudless.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Trends in modern stained glass

The west window of the church of Lady St Mary, Wareham, Dorset, is a good example of one of the trends discernible in twenty first century stained glass. It is by the stained glass artist, Andrew Johnson, of Exeter and was installed in 2011. What do I mean by it exemplifying a trend? Well, the window is richly multicoloured, has a single composition spread across all the tracery, and exhibits some elements that are non-representational but a majority that depict recognisable (including local) subjects. So, at the bottom are town buildings including the other churches and the notable octagonal font of St Mary's. The shoals of fishes reference the two local rivers. In the centre is a large cross. The bird of prey and bull(?) are possibly two of the evangelists, though all four would be more usual. Like many windows of this period I think the details more interesting than the whole, and I find it a little odd that the focal point (the cross) has somewhat washed-out colours.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Quayside, Wareham, Dorset

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The Dorset town of Wareham has a long history with prehistoric finds and evidence of a  Roman settlement. The current town dates from Saxon times and Alfred the Great, and is unusual in having clearly defined Saxon-era earth ramparts or walls. It sits on raised land between the River Piddle and  the River Frome that connects to the east with Poole Harbour. The Frome was an important artery until the end of the C13 when it became silted up. However, it continued to be used locally with the South Bridge  (from where I took this photograph) being the point beyond which larger boats could not travel upstream. Today the quayside, boats, the old granary, pubs, houses and the tower of one of the town's three old churches, make a pleasant location on a sunny day.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Colourful houses and cars, Weymouth, Dorset

My wife spotted the possibilties for this photograph when she saw the colourful cars lined up in front of the colourfully painted houses on the seafront at Weymouth. Some of the buildings are guest houses, others looked like holiday flats and some seemed to be privately owned residences. The juxtaposition of the colours on a sunny day that accentuated details and caused the paintwork to positively glow was too good to miss.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Older small yachts, Weymouth harbour

Like many landlubbers I only have a passing acquaintance with yachts, large and small, new and old. And, like many such people, I have a preference for the smaller, older vintage yachts that have minimal fibreglass and maximum varnished wood. Walking round the harbour at Weymouth in Dorset recently we came upon a small group of such yachts and a photograph had to ensue.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Pink houses, Lyme Regis

This short terrace of houses on the seafront at Lyme Regis catch the eye, initially, because of their colour. They have been painted pink and given bright turquoise doors. Further examination shows them to have thatched roofs, a not uncommon feature on older seaside housing in Dorset and Devon. The forms of the decorative ironwork and the ground and first floor bowed bays tell of the date of their construction - around 1800-1820. This suggests that they may have been known to Jane Austen whose last novel, "Persuasion", includes scenes set in Lyme Regis. It was published in late 1817, six months after her death.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Herring gulls and scallop shells

This pair of herring gulls in the harbour at Lyme Regis seemed to be examining these scallop shells more in hope than expectation. All the shells had been opened and all seemed to have been there for a long time. What struck me most about this encounter was the combination of colours - the soft grey and white of the birds, and the white brown, orange and almost yellow of the shells all set against the lurid green of the algae/weed.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Harbour, Lyme Regis, Dorset

These photographs of Lyme Regis harbour were taken one minute and three seconds apart and illustrate a difference that a wider angle of view can make to a shot. Whilst the first shot offers information about the harbour and what can be seen there the second gives that information but in less detail. It also sets the harbour more in its geographical context and shows off the sky to better effect. It is, in my view, a better picture, more of a landscape than the first photograph.

 photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2