Colourful quayside houses, Weymouth

This terrace of houses on the quayside of Weymouth harbour shone in the light of the summer evening, and revealed details that suggest they date from the early nineteenth century. The bowed oriel windows, the fanlights and open-book keystones, the parapet hiding the low-pitched roofs all say early 1800s. The colour wash does too, though not the royal blue and turquoise - they are painted after the fancy of someone nearer in time to us.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Shire Hall, Monmouth

The administrative headquarters of English, Welsh and Scottish regional government is (or was - some have acquired different uses) the Shire Hall or the County Hall. These usually date from the eighteenth, nineteenth or twentieth centuries. Monmouth's Shire Hall is quite a typical example. It is an imposing Baroque-style limestone building of 1724 - quite a late date for this particular look - that was built on the site of its 1571 predecessor. The architect of the main elevation was Fisher of Bristol. Work in 1828 by Edward Haycock remodelled the courtrooms and added rear stairs. The Shire Hall lost its purpose in 1974 when the county of Gwent was created and the courts were moved to Abergavenny. The building hosts Monmouth Town Council and is currently in the process of accommodating the exhibits of the town's museum which was formerly housed in the old market hall of 1837-9.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Abbey Mill, Tewkesbury

 

Abbey Mill (also known as Fletcher's Mill) stands on the bank of the Mill Avon, a watercourse that connects downstream with the River Severn. The earliest mill on the site was built in 1190 by the monks of nearby Tewkesbury Abbey. The building we see today dates from 1793 and accommodated 4 water driven wheels. It ground corn until 1920 when the owners found they could no longer compete with the bigger, more modern Borough Flour Mills (also known as Healings Flour Mills) upstream from the Abbey Mill. The Borough Mill now stands empty and the Abbey Mill has been converted into flats (apartments). I have photographed this mill on several occasions with this photograph from 2011 being the best of the crop.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Shell hood, Castle Hill House

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries shell hoods were a fashionable enhancement of a main doorway. They were not used on the biggest houses but did find favour on smaller town houses and those where the main door was on or adjacent to a street. They were seen as giving stature to the house by drawing the eye to the entrance. The example above, at Castle Hill House in Monmouth, is on the street that leads to the grandest house in the town which is next to the remains of the medieval castle. The "shell", very typically, rests on console brackets above the transom light and the door. These hoods can never have provided much protection against rain: ornamentation was their main purpose.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

House martins, Berrington Hall, Herefordshire

A few weeks ago, in early August, we visited the National Trust-owned Berrington Hall near Leominster in Herefordshire. This Georgian mansion is set in typical landscaped surroundings including gardens and lawns, a ha-ha, then acres of pasture with specimen trees and a lake. What struck me most on this visit (that was made at a time of year we hadn't visited before), was the flocking of house martins around the pediment of the house's main elevation. There were dozens. Many had clearly fixed their mud nests to the undersides of the architectural mouldings, and most had raised young which were now flying. I had never seen such a density of house martins before, and was particularly surprised to see an albino bird among the navy blue and white of the majority.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Rotunda, Croome Court

The rotunda (or garden temple) at Croome Court dates from c.1760 and is probably the work of Robert Adam. It stands on a rise a couple of hundred yards from the main house and is almost surrounded by conifers that are thought to be contemporary with the building. The exterior is made of Bath stone. It has a shallow dome, five pedimented windows and one entrance, each of which has a swag above. 

The interior has fine decorative Rococo plasterwork featuring egg and dart, paterae, cartouches, masks and swags, with coffering above. The floor has a central circled sunburst with Greek key edging the room.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Upleadon Court, Gloucestershire

Upleadon Court is a large brick farmhouse with nearby barns that forms a visual group with the church (see photograph below). The main building has a hipped roof, dormers, and modest windows and door. It dates from the eighteenth century. The adjoining timber framed wing is of the seventeenth century. There is a suggestion that the farmhouse was rebuilt after a fire, something that would explain the awkward juxtaposition of the older wing if it was all that remained of the original building. The framing of this structure is typical of the west of England with its square layout of timbers and absence of close studding.
 

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

Church Lane, Ledbury

The most photographed street in the town of Ledbury, Herefordshire, is undoubtedly, Church Lane. Too narrow for cars, lined for much of its length with old timber-framed buildings, framing a view of the medieval church of St Michael, phones and cameras frequently capture its charms. From the west end looking east, that is. I've taken this shot myself. But recently, when we were in the town one early evening, I thought I'd try for a photograph of the east end looking west. I'm pleased with the result, particularly the contribution that the sky makes to the composition.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Queen Square, Bath

The north side of Queen Square in Bath is the work of John Wood the Elder. It dates from the early eighteenth century and follows the Palladian style for a grand front of a large house. The innovation here is that Wood designed the facade but he sought other builders to erect the individual dwellings behind that make this into, not a single large dwelling, but a terrace of houses.

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

Royal Crescent, Bath

The Royal Crescent is one of Bath's great Georgian terraces. It was built on on a high point overlooking the city between 1767 and 1774 by John Wood the younger, son of the architect of Queen Square. The facade is 500 feet (150m) long and features 114 Ionic columns on its first floor. Lawns and parkland form the space immediately in front of the crescent. Interestingly, in contrast with the repetitious uniformity of the front of the building the rear of each dwelling is invariably different from its neighbour.

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

The Circus, Bath

The Circus, Bath, is a circular arrangement of three curved terraces of town houses, separated by three entry roads, with a circular park area at its centre. This layout was conceived by John Wood the Elder and constructed by his son between 1754 and 1768. It is said that Wood got his idea for the circular composition from Stonehenge which he had surveyed. Its diameter closely approximates to that of the prehistoric structure.

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

Hollyhocks, Monmouth

The hollyhocks are flowering in profusion in my part of the world. They are towering over everyone, imposing their large, bright blooms on us, inviting our acclamation. Hollyhocks are popular because they are easy to grow, reappear each year, and make a big, colourful impact. Of course, for many gardeners those qualities can be negatives, particularly where subtlety and a reasonable scale for a small garden are required. However, in a garden that looks after itself because the owners are too busy doing other things they have their place, as appears to be the case in front of this Georgian house in Monmouth, where the local newspaper is produced.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Faded elelgance, Wisbech

There's an attraction in faded elegance. Perhaps it's glimpsing and still enjoying something of what was in what is.This late Georgian (early 1800s) building in Hill Street, Wisbech, must have been a town house for a well-to-do family. It is tastefully composed, well-proportioned, and uses brick and stone dressing in a minimalist sort of way. In fact, theses features contribute most to the success of the facade. More money and more decoration was, quite appropriately, given to the entrance with its Doric columns and Greek key pattern. Gentle subsidence and desultory maintenance have left it looking somewhat neglected, but its style still manages to shine through.

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

North Brink, Wisbech

In "The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire", the architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, describes the row of buildings on the street known as North Brink (above) as "one of the most perfect Georgian streets of England". He might have added, "and one of the least well known". The buildings are not entirely Georgian - a few from the Victorian period are there too - and they don't have the variety within uniformity that can be seen in, say, Bath or Stamford. And that may be where the pleasure of this street lies, in the marked difference between each building and its neighbour. For the photographer there are only two ways to photograph the whole street - from one end or the other, and I prefer the classic view from the bridge with the River Nene on the left of the composition.

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

The Pilot Office, Hull

In the city of Hull, by the old pier and overlooking the River Humber, stands the Pilot Office. This reserved, but stately, building is the work of the architect, John Earle. It was erected in 1819 and received further work in the mid-nineteenth century. Its distinguishing feature is the strong contrast between the relatively modest but stylish painted door and window surrounds, with the red brickwork. Like many Georgian buildings the first floor is the most important and the larger windows and higher ceilings here reflect that. However, arguably the most important is the top storey with the small windows for it is from here that the organisation would see the comings and goings of pilots and ships on the river.

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