White Hart and Green Men

The thirty two choir stalls of the church of St Laurence, Ludlow, have been described as the best of any parish church. They date from the early 1400s. Each of the stalls has carved stall-ends, armrests and misericords. The photograph shows the carving of one of the misericords (a hinged seat - this is the underside when it is folded up). In the centre is a white hart with a green man on each side. The white hart was a symbol of purity, a beast not to be hunted, and also the badge of King Richard II of England. The flanking green men are a little unusual. In their place is more often an item of vegetation, usually a leaf or flower.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Looking up in Ludlow

The Shropshire town of Ludlow has many interesting old buildings with a cluster of them visible in this photograph taken from Broad Street near its junction with the High Street. From left to right they are: The Butter Cross, a classical-style market hall of c.1746; No.1 King Street, a plain, brick-built late Georgian (c.1829), former house, now with a ground floor shop inserted; the tall and imposing C15 crossing tower of St Laurence, the parish church of the town; and Bodenhams, an ornate, timber-framed shop and dwelling of c1462.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Extinction Rebellion

On a recent visit to the Shropshire town of Ludlow we came upon an Extinction Rebellion demonstration. It seethed with people, demonstrators, shoppers, sight-seers, market stall-holders and more. So, I only got two shots of the three red and three green women with mime-like white faces and red or green, diaphanous robes. They looked like otherworldly echoes of the Three Graces of antiquity. I'm sure they weren't, but what they represented I don't know.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Feathers Hotel, Ludlow

I've seen old timber-framed buildings in many places in England and Wales but I've never seen one anywhere as ornate as The Feathers Hotel, Ludlow. Every piece of wood on the double-jettied facade is embellished in one way or another. Standing in front of the building it is impossible to stop your eye wandering across its facade in search of each carved delight. The frontage was added to an existing building in 1619. The hotel gets its name from the crest of the Prince of Wales.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Pediments and mistletoe

The pediment, the triangular shape above windows and doors that derives from ancient Greece, is common throughout Britain. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the popularity of the classical styles of Greece and Rome ensured that columns, capitals, balusters, and classical moulding of antique origin proliferated. This facade, in late afternoon sunlight at Ludlow, Shropshire, is quite typical of those years. What is less typical in this photograph is the balls of mistletoe visible in the leafless tree nearby. This is very common throughout the Marches but quite unusual elsewhere.

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