Ornate pulpit, Huntley

St John Baptist, Huntley in Gloucestershire is a 1861-3 rebuilding of a medieval church by the architect, S.S. Teulon. He demolished everything except the west tower which he remodelled. For this work he was given plentiful funds by Rev. Daniel Capper, the rector from 1839-1865, and he delivered a no-expenses-spared building constructed with costly materials to give an opulent effect. Possibly the most lavish piece is the pulpit made of English, Irish and Italian marbles.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Coleford mural

The small Gloucestershire town of Coleford is located in the Forest of Dean, a former coal mining and iron working area. On a wall of one of the town's houses is a mural that celebrates three writers who lived in the area - Joyce Latham, F.W. Harvey and Dennis Potter. I imagine that I am quite typical in that I don't know anything of the first two names. I do, however, know quite a bit about Dennis Potter, particularly his innovative series for TV that include Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Sky, water and mud

click photo to enlarge
Today's photograph shows a view across the River Severn seen from near Lydney Harbour. The main subjects of the shot are sky, water and mud - the tide was out. It's fair to say that a couple of buildings and a riverside horizon also intrude, but not to a great extent. The sky make the shot and shooting into the sun gives the image a little more drama than was evident to the naked eye. I like this kind of photograph. Sometimes I prepare for them: other times I'm just grateful when I come upon them. This photograph is one of the latter.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Farmland interloper

On a recent frosty day when the sky was clear blue we spent a few hours walking a section of the long disused Hereford to Gloucester canal near Oxenhall, Newent. The fields in the area were mainly pasture for cattle and sheep, though there were some devoted to fruit - what looked like blackcurrants. The canal was crammed full of reedmace and at the point where I took this photograph (with the canal behind me) it was spreading to the edges of an adjacent long pond. I took my shot to show how the interloper plant was adding interest to the close cropped field, and was a welcome area of detail against featureless fields and semi-frozen pond.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Mossy forest floor

The Forest of Dean is a mixture of ancient forest and small plantations. The latter are mainly coniferous, and often so densely planted that the forest floor is little more than an accumulation of pine needles in which little grows. But, in a few places the light is able to illuminate the ground and that, combined with moisture leads to an attractive forest floor of moss, as in the photograph above.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Autumn trees

I can't imagine what it is like to live in a place where there are no clearly defined seasons. For the photographer spring, summer, autumn and winter can offer the same subject clothed in different ways and so a simple walk in the woods can differ markedly depending on the time of year. Trees the colour of those above can only be seen in autumn. In winter they will offer their black skeletons, in spring fresh, light greens filtering the brighter skies, and in summer dense foliage will block much of the light reaching the forest floor.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Memorial to Henry Skillicorne

It is common to find memorials to wealthy departed people in churches. Many convey only the basic details of the person - name and date of death are the minimum. Most, however, include more information such as the spouse's name, their occupation, notable offices held by the individual etc. These offer fascinating insights into the period and person they describe. Sometimes, however, the eulogising goes way over the top making the deceased seem like a latter-day saint and giant of the community. This memorial, in Cheltenham Minster, to a Manx sea captain, Henry Skillicorne, is reputed to be the longest memorial in the country and a fascinating insight into the busy life of someone who was instrumental in establishing Cheltenham as a spa town.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham

Pittville Pump Room in Cheltenham is a mineral spa building commissioned in 1825 by the landowner and developer, Joseph Pitt. It was to be the focal point of Pittville, his new town, and features Ionic columns based on the Temple of Illisus in Athens. The architect was John Forbes of Cheltenham. He completed the £90,000 building in 1830 just at the point when "taking the waters" began to decline in popularity. In 1889 Cheltenham borough council bought the Pump Room. After being used as a store during WW2 restoration work was undertaken and it was re-opened in 1960. Today it is a venue for concerts and other events and the mineral water may still be sampled.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Trabeated and arcuated

For much of human history significant buildings were either arcuated or trabeated. That is to say, the structure was dependent on either arches or posts and lintels to provide the walls and interior spaces. Romanesque and Gothic architecture, for example, are arcuated. Stonehenge, Ancient Greek and much early industrial architecture is trabeated. These two words came to mind as we walked past the John Lewis department store in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire recently. The concrete outer frame and columns of the facade appear to be trabeated. But then we have curves and pointed arches in each segment of the facade. As I studied the arrangement of the materials it occurred to me that probably neither word applied here and a modern steel and concrete frame underpinned the building. What ever the construction the building presents a welcome break from the rendered and painted Regency style that dominates the town.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

A timber-framed coffee house

The Gorsley Coffee House in Gorsley, Gloucestershire is a relatively recent building that forms part of a Baptist church. It is unusual in that much of the main structure is a frame made of timbers, fastened together with wood pegs in the traditional manner. If you were to transport a barn or house builder to the present day from the centuries prior to, say, the nineteenth, they would be very familiar with what they saw. It makes for a pleasant place to sit and enjoy a coffee or light meal. It is also a demonstration of how timber can be one of the answers to reduced carbon in architecture.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Yarn bombed bus shelter

Yarn bombing - the decoration of street furniture with with knitted objects, sometimes themed, sometimes not - has really taken off in recent years. I've grown accustomed to seasonal and event-themed displays appearing across the year in the market town where we live. On a recent visit to Tewkesbury we saw some more yarn bombing but I couldn't tell what had promted it. The largest piece was a glass and metal bus shelter where the seat and its sheltering canopy was colourfully decorated (above). Those waiting for the bus probably appreciated the warmer, cushioned bench. What seemed a less good idea was the yarn bombing on the seat of a slatted metal bench just out of shot to the right of the shelter. It occurred to me that any rain that fell on it would linger, making the bench unusable until the wool dried.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

The Wishing Tree

I recently became aware of "The Wishing Tree" near Cinderford in the Forest of Dean and we undertook a walk that included stopping off at it. It is a tree - in this instance a dead one - where people hammer a coin into the trunk and make a wish. Until I became aware of this example I didn't know that it is one of a number of such trees found in the British Isles. The idea of it sounds to be of great antiquity, and I suppose in some ways it is like the love token involving locks fixed to the railings of bridges. I had imagined that this Wishing Tree would be away from other trees giving it greature stature, but it was fairly closely surrounded by others and relatively hard to find.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Yachts, Lydney Harbour

Lydney Harbour is the name given to the lock and canal that connected the town and railway at Lydney with the River Severn. It is an early C19 undertaking that was built to ship coal and iron out of the Forest of Dean. Access to the Severn was possible only within half an hour of high tide. The historic harbour area is currently undergoing restoration as a tourist attraction. My photograph shows the old canal nearest the lock that is now a marina for yachts and launches. They are still able to use the lock to get out to the River Severn and the sea beyond the estuary.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Newent Lake

The small lake in the Gloucestershire market town of Newent was created from former medieval fish ponds as part of the grounds of Newent Court, a large house built c.1810. Much of this building was destroyed in a fire in 1942. Later, after it had been demolished to make way for housing, the lake and some surrounding land was given to Newent Town Council who developed it and now manage it as a public amenity. It is stocked with fish and large carp can readily be seen from the adjacent balustrade and other spots. Duck houses have been provided for use by the mallards that populate the lake. They can be seen in the distance of the photograph that was taken during a late afternoon in mid-November.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Abbey Cottages, Tewkesbury

This continuous, curved row of twenty three timber-framed cottages has been called "one of the earliest surviving English examples of uniform medieval town development". It is on Church Street in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, near the Abbey, which can be seen on the left of the photograph. The row is not perfect; a couple of inserted facades and buildings do mar it, but what remains gives us a good idea of the kind of street frontage that must have featured in many medieval towns. Today it is called Abbey Cottages and that may have been its original name since it was built in the early 1500s as a speculative venture by the abbey's monks. See a further image of the end of the row here.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Last Judgement, St Mary, Fairford

In the west window of the church of St Mary, Fairford, Gloucestershire (see previous post), the stained glass depicts The Last Judgement. In the bottom right is a portrayal of Hell and its denizens. Here the glazier seems to have indulged his imagination and as well as showing the usual horned creatures with pitchforks there is a fearsome two-headed Devil (?) swallowing the condemned souls. Against the dark red background of the glowing fires of hell it makes for an unforgettable image.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Crucifixion, St Mary, Fairford

The stained glass windows in the church of St Mary, Fairford, Gloucestershire, are unique. They fill all the windows of the building in a planned sequence of religious subjects, were made around the same date (c.1500-1505), and were probably designed and made by the same glazier - Barnard Flower, the King's Glazier. The people of the town managed to protect them from the puritanical iconoclasts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and so we are able to appreciate them today. The crucifixion scene above (often called The Passion) is in the top of the east window above the altar.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

St Mary, Fairford, Gloucestershire

The church of St Mary in Fairford, Gloucestershire, can be dated by documentary evidence to a rebuilding of c.1490. Its style is what architectural historians would describe as Late Perpendicular. Noteworthy are the distinctive and very individual sculptures of the exterior, and, on the morning I took my photograph, the warm, creamy Cotswold stone. However, what informed visitors usually come to see at this church is the most complete sequence of stained glass windows of its date in England (see next post).

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Hartpury bee shelter

Hartpury bee shelter was built of Cotswold stone in the mid-1800s by the stonemason, Paul Tuffley, for his house in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. Its purpose was to house the coiled straw bee skeps that were used before the widespread adoption of wooden hives. For protection from the weather and cold skeps were often placed in wooden shelters or in recesses in stone walls. The Hartpury example is believed to be the only extant stone shelter in Britain. It was very nearly destroyed in 1968 when it was in the grounds of Nailsworth police station. Its removal to Hartpury Agricultural College, its restoration and siting in Hartpury churchyard has ensured that this unique structure is available for all to see.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Hartpury tithe barn

The original purpose of the tithe barn was to hold the produce paid by farmers to the local church. One tenth of a farm's production was paid to the priest and went towards his and the wider church's upkeep. A number of tithe barns still remain in Britain, and many more are remembered in street names. The fourteenth century tithe barn, built by the Abbey of Gloucester at Hartpury, is one of the largest in the country, measuring 161 feet by 36 feet. It is made of stone and may have originally had a thatched roof. The present roof is tiled. In the eighteenth the large main door was supplemented by five smaller doors. Further adaptations - inside dividing walls and adjoining walled yards to manage cattle - were added in the nineteenth century. Interestingly, on one end of the roof is a Welsh dragon finial (facing towards England) and on the other is an English lion (facing towards Wales).

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2