The Chequers Ale House, Leominster

We came upon this timber-framed building as we walked along the oddly named Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. The leftmost part of what is The Chequers Ale House (a pub), with the leftmost gable, after a cursory glance, appears to be Victorian, but  closer study reveals original box framing, barge boards and bressumer. All the building to the right has close studding, is underbuilt, and could have been erected at the same time, or slighty later, around 1600. The change from plain tiles to Welsh slate on the roof suggests it was divided in terms of ownership, and the rightmost door, with number 67 on it makes me think it still is. It's a difficult building to read without going inside: perhaps we'll drop in for a drink when we are next in Leominster and try and unravel the puzzle. 

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

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

Ducking stool

The ducking stool was an instrument of punishment from medieval times until the early nineteenth century. It was administered to cantankerous women, dishonest tradespeople, those who brawled in public, and others guity of minor misdemeanours for which the stocks, the pillory and the cage were deemed unsuitable. Originally the guilty party was fastened in the stool and lofted on high, but later the person was chained in the stool or chair and dipped under water in a nearby river. Leominster's example dates from the eighteenth century and was last used in 1809 on one Jenny Pipes who was guilty of using foul and abusive language. This is thought to be the last example of ducking in England. Today this ducking stool rests in Leominster's ancient church.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A Green Man

The Green Man is a folklore figure that appears in carvings and other depictions across Europe and the Near East. Most often it is represented by a face made of leaves, or with leaves sprouting from the mouth, nose, eyes or ears. It may represent fertility or a mystic Man of the Woods. In England the Green Man is most often seen in carvings in wood or stone in churches. Medieval masons and wood carvers, and medieval clergy if it comes to that, had no qualms about reproducing images of pagan figures in Christian buildings. This example is the decoration of a capital in Grange Court, the former market house that was converted into a habitation in Leominster, Herefordshire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Garden statues

Leominster is known for the number of antique shops that have been established in the town. We recently spent a few hours looking around them, finding as much interest in the labyrinthine interiors of some of the Georgian houses in which they were based, as in the contents themselves. A couple of the shops had overflowed into garden outbuildings and even the garden itself. The two statues here were in one such garden, cast versions of ancient Greek models, designed for the shopper looking to give a focal point to their bit of greenery.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Mermaid

This mermaid capital resides in the seventeenth century Grange Court in Leominster. Whether it dates from that time or is a"Jacobethan" addition of the nineteenth century I don't know. What I do know is that it is a charmingly composed piece with the mermaids hair echoing the volutes of an architectural capital and the net of caught fishes looking very swag-like. Of course, one is bound to ask why, given that mermaids can swim wonderfully well, they need a net with which to catch fish.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Grange Court, Leominster

The ornately decorated house known as Grange Court was, unusually and remarkably, created from Leominster's old market house of 1633-4. It was bought and moved to the present location in the 1850s. The open arches of the ground floor were filled in and rooms created in the space. Today it has a modern community building - cafe, meeting rooms, exhibition space, interpretation rooms etc - attached to the structure and much of it is open to the public.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100