Former Cottage Hospital, Ledbury

click photo to enlarge
The former Cottage Hospital on The Homend, Ledbury, is a brick and half-timbered building: not proper timber framing, but decorative, in the gables and porch only. It is the work of the architect Henry Haddon and was built in 1891. The effect he sought was a slightly picturesque asymmetry. Today it appears to be divided into separate dwellings. Of itself it isn't much of a photograph, but with its magnolia tree in blossom it is a real eye-catcher. The magnolia flowered early this year: my photograph was taken on 14th March. When passed it again on 22nd most of its blossom had fallen.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Ledbury lights

I've always thought that Christmas celebrations should not begin until the month begins with "D". This year they were in full swing well before Halloween and Bonfire Night. Herefordshire's towns have got in on the acttoo. This year Ross on Wye and Ledbury (to name those I know), were singing Christmas carols and turning on the Christmas lights on 26th November!

photo © T. Boughen

Beautiful tiny gardens

This terrace with cottage-like fronts is on an urban street in Ledbury, Herefordshire. I've often walked by it and enjoyed how so much has been made of so little. The small canopy porches break up the essentially flat facades and give a focal point to the exterior of each dwelling. Rather than fill the space between the public pavement and the house with solid material - stone, concrete, gravel etc - a very modest garden strip, about two feet deep, has been created and the owners have used it for conifers, annuals, perennial, shrubs, climbing and rambling roses, and pots with plants. This has transformed the buildings and given them a pretty, homely, almost rural character that is a pleasure to behold.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

The Talbot, New Street, Ledbury

The Talbot is one of Ledbury's several timber-framed public houses. It dates from c.1536 and much work was done on the main, north-facing, elevation in the C17. The close studding is filled with plaster at the front, with brick infills on the rear elevations. One of the finest features of the exterior is the canted bay on the first floor. It is reached by the stairs that are expressed on the main elevation to the right of the bay. Below the bay is the main entrance flanked by Ionic pilasters. The white painted building with the brick gable end, to the extreme left of the black and white work, is also part of the pub and dates from the eighteenth century.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Angel and Shepherds

The stained glass window from which this detail is taken can be found in the church of St Michael, Ledbury, Herefordshire. It dates from 1913 and is by the celebrated firm of Morris & Co. These panels depict the part of the Christmas story where an angel visits the shepherds to tell them of the birth of Christ. It is based on a design by Edward Burne-Jones and was used elsewhere by the firm. It is a beautifully drawn and composed piece with sparing and subtle colour, refreshingly eschewing the detail upon detail that often overpowers religious stained glass.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Organ practice

Recently we were in Hereford Cathedral at a time when the organ was sounding. The organist was playing a fiery piece on the massive instrument and at times it felt like the old Norman columns would give way as the deep notes and heavy reverberations filled the ancient space. A few days later we were in the church of St Michael, Ledbury, where an organist was playing gentler tunes on the more modest instrument. The dullish day required illumination so that the music score could be seen and it made a nice pool of warm light to emphasise the focal point of the scene.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

The Feathers Hotel, Ledbury

The oldest parts of the timber-framed Feathers Hotel, Ledbury, date from c.1560-70. This comprises the first three floors of the leftmost part of the building. The fourth floor of this section, with the five small gables, is an addition of the early 1600s. So too is all of the rightmost part, from the coffee shop sign. The hotel is close-studded throughout with none of the box-framing that is a characteristic of Herefordshire and adjacent counties. The building is quite deep with timber-framed extensions accessed from within the building, and through carriage arches. It must always have been the town's premier hotel and it remains so today.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

St Katherine's Terrace, Ledbury

How do you give the front of your modest house a visual "lift"? Answer: paint it a bright or strong colour. How do you give it a further lift? Answer: find a way to to get your neighbours to do the same. The truth of this can be seen at St Katherine's Terrace in Ledbury, and at many other locations across the country. If you don't believe me, just imagine the doors in the photograph were painted white!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Restored timber-framing

The former Master's House in Ledbury was the residence of the person in charge of the adjacent St Katharine's Hospital (founded 1231). The present building mainly dates from c.1488 and the eighteenth century. Today, following a major restoration, it serves as the town's library. At the back of the building some timber-framing from the fifteenth century can be seen. It is unusual in that the infill is pillowed and stands proud of the woodwork. The colour of the framing and infill is the same: something that was more commonly seen in the past than today, though current examples are not difficult to find. On the day I took this photograph I was drawn to the raking light accentuating the details of the construction.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Burgundy gloves

I regularly take photographs where a person or people are the main subject. However, most of those are family shots, hardly any of which feature on this blog. Consequently I have few photographs featuring masked people, a prominent marker of photographs taken in the Covid years of 2020, 2021 and 2022. Recently we were in a coffee shop and, as my wife was geeting the drinks, I noticed the low sun was producing brightly lit areas and deep shadows, as well as recording the masked and unmasked customers. So, I took this photograph making my wife's burgundy leather gloves the nearground subject.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Ledbury superstore at dusk

Recently, as we were walking back to the car in Ledbury when the light of the day was being replaced by darkness, I began to wonder. Is the period between the setting of the sun and the time when the sky has no remaining light from the sun properly called "dusk" or "twilight"? A quick search through the OED revealed that the words are almost synonyms, with dusk cited as "the darker stage of twilight", and being used only in connection with evening whereas twilight can also refer to the morning. So, which word is most appropriate to describe the scene above? The title of the post shows my preference.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Look up to see the past

On 5th January 2006 I published an early blog post entitled, "The best is often over our heads". The theme of the piece was that the original architecture of commercial buildings has often been replaced by cheap, plain, fashionable work and that if we wish to see the best of what remains we must look at the upper storeys. I was reminded of this when looking at the timber-framed upper storeys of the Boots shop in Ledbury. The ground floor is C20 corporate in style with the late 1500s work exposed above (the sash windows excepted: these are C18 or C19). But, I now ask myself, is this what was on show in 1600? It could well have been covered in stucco quite soon after construction and the woodwork revealed centuries later. Many Herefordshire buildings have timber framing hidden under later modernisation. Incidentally, these upper storeys can be seen in this photograph of the High Street

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

High Street and The Homend, Ledbury

Ledbury's town centre main street has two names, the High Street and The Homend, the change coming at Bye Street, a side street by the clock tower across from the Market House. High Street is one of the two most common road names in England (the other being Church Street). However, The Homend is the only such named street that I can find, though the name is used by a cottage in the nearby Herefordshire village of Stretton Grandison. The Victoria County History says this about the probable derivation: "The name of The Homend is first recorded in 1288 derived from an Old English word 'hamm'  or 'hom' probably meaning ‘land hemmed in by water or marsh’, or perhaps ‘river meadow’. Interestingly, the other end of the High Street connects with a road called The Southend.

 The first photograph shows the Market House and part of the north side of the High Street. The second shows the Market House and The Homend.

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

Ledbury church chancel

There are a number of reasons why church chancels are usually more lavishly constructed and decorated than other parts of the building. They hold the high altar. It is also the place where the clergy and their assistants do their work and it is where the choir usually sits. In the past it was the part of the building that was funded by the church. In contrast, the larger nave was funded by and used by the people of the parish. Chantry chapels sometimes equalled or exceeded the chancel in their ornamentation but more often than not the chancel was, and remains, the most decorative part of the church. That is the case at St Michael and All Angels at Ledbury (above).

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Church House, Ledbury

One of my favourite photographs of Church Lane, the most picturesque street in Ledbury, is this one taken from the opposite end to that most favoured by photographers. On a recent visit I tried to take a photograph of the imposing timber-framed house that features prominently in that shot. It is called Church House and may well have acquired its name because it housed clergy or due to its proximity to St Michael & All Angels. It was built c.1600 and features close studding rather than the cheaper square studding more favoured in this part of western England.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Hop kilns near Ledbury

What are known as oast houses in Kent are, apparently, called hop kilns in Herefordshire. The photograph above shows two hop kilns (one behind the other in this view) adjoining Kiln Cottage near Frith Wood, Ledbury. The purpose of oast houses/hop kilns was to dry the hops grown for beer-making which are then sent to the brewery. Today this is done in machines and the distinctive buildings that formerly punctuated the landscape in hop growing areas have fallen into disuse or been converted into additional living accomodation. The examples above are now picturesque parts of a cottage that may well have originally been a functional building associated with hops. The spring woodland is showing a variety of subtle colours and the prominent mistletoe ball, above the cottage's gable end, that has been revealed all winter will soon be hidden by leaves.

photo © 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

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

Patientes igitur estote fratres

I am ambivalent about the work of the stained glass artist, Christopher Whall (1849-1924). At his best his work is admirable: the beautifully coloured, well-drawn and composed windows match those of the best of the Arts and Craft Movement. However, he too often descends into windows that have the maudlin characteristics of Victorian childrens' story book illustrators. A piece that is otherwise fine in every respect can be spoiled by a group of child-angels with "cute" faces. The example above, a detail from a 1905 window in St Michael's, Ledbury, is an example of his better work. The inscription translates as, "Be patient then Brothers and Sisters".

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A basket of flowers

Walking along one of Ledbury's main shopping streets I was prompted to ask myself, "If you are a shop selling brassieres how do you advertise yourself to the passing public?" What prompted this odd query was a shop solely devoted to selling that particular undergarment that was using the device of a traditional bicycle with a wicker basket full of flowers. It was approaching the problem - as advertisers are often wont to do - by coming at it from an oblique angle. Time will tell if it works. I took a photograph of the basket of flowers and found that a strong vignette added considerably to the image.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2