Churchyard compositions

Unusually, the medieval church at Weston under Penyard was closed and so, after a cup of coffee on a bench in the sun, I cast about for some churchyard compositions. The first I came up with reminded me of a shot I took many years ago in which I, broadly speaking, found a composition that clearly emphasised separate areas. In the example above the areas intersect more via the bold diagonals. So, top left is the tower, top right is the Scots pine, bottom left is the shaded chancel wall, and bottom right is the aisle tracery.

The second composition has a void at the centre of the composition and gives no particular emphasis to anything -  a cardinal sin in photography!. But, what it does do is give a feeling of what the churchyard is like and points out the attractive light that is falling on the scene. The shot was taken a couple of yards from the point where I took the first photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Herefordshire fields

Herefordshire is an agricultural county. Where it is known elsewhere in the world it is usually for its breed of cattle. On a recent walk we looked north from the slopes of Penyard Park woods at the chequerboard of fields bordered with hedges that stretched away to the horizon and considered what we could see. Rows of blackcurrant bushes, tree nurseries or orchards, pasture with cattle and sheep, wheat, barley, bright yellow oilseed rape and polytunnels, probably over strawberries, were all visible. And, here and there, prepared but unplanted fields of characteristic red soil added contrast to the landscape.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Weston Hall, Weston under Penyard

 
Most of Weston Hall at Weston under Penyard, Herefordshire, is said to date from around 1600, though it has been suggested it is a later build of c.1650. The arms of the Nourse family and the symmetrical plan, mullioned windows, characteristic doorways, drip moulds and finials all point to the seventeenth century. There are later additions of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, with the most recent structure (dated 2000) a circular, ornamental gazebo with a tall ogee top. This photograph, that shows one of the formal gardens, was taken through a gate in the roadside wall.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Hawkshaw Memorial Window

It's not unusual to see memorials to long-serving vicars in churches. I've seen memorial tablets, lecterns, tablets and more. What I don't remember seeing before is a stained glass portrait window like this example (detail above) in the church of St Lawrence at Weston under Penyard, Herefordshire. It shows the Rev Edward Burdett Hawkshaw, rector of the parish from 1854 to 1912. He is dressed as St Paul, and his wife, Catherine Mary Jane, is depicted as Dorcas.The portrait likeness of the vicar is clearly based on a photograph held by the church, and I imagine his wife is also based on a contemporary image.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

The blue Malvern Hills

As we walked along the side of the the prominent wooded hill known as Penyard Park, near the village of Western under Penyard, we kept getting views of the the autumn coloured Herefordshire landscape below. Fields of ploughed red soil contrasted with the fresh green of sprouting winter wheat and sheep-cropped pastures. Russet and yellow tints marked the hedgerow trees and small copses as the green leaves took on their final colours of the year. And above it all was the blue ribbon of the distant Malvern Hills, about fifteen miles away as the crow (or local raven) flies.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A hollow way or sunken lane?

This narrow road leading up from Weston under Penyard to the woodland of Penyard Park has every appearance of being a hollow way or a sunken lane (both names mean the same thing). Such a feature is a lane or footpath that looks like a wide trench, often with hedges on each side. It is worn down below the level of the surrounding land by the passage, over centuries, of people on foot, animals, carts and the action of heavy rain and frost. Many such lanes are thousands of years old and their existence over time can be confirmed by archaeological finds and references in early documents. At this point the old yew tree on the left has blocked the light sufficiently to prevent any growth beneath it. Consequently rainfall has cleared soil from around its roots.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Birches Barn, Weston under Penyard

We came upon this Birches Barn on a walk that took in the edge of the woodland near Ross on Wye known as Penyard Park. It has the characteristics of quite a few old barns I've seen in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire - two-storey, stone built, slate roof, full height doors on both long elevations. What was odd, however, were the two lean-to extensions and the fact that the pointing (and the roof and timber) looked quite recent. A little research suggests that the barn was part of an old farm site that had been the subject of a planning application (refused) to turn it into a dwelling. That could explain the work done on it. Barns such as these provide landscape interest and a tangible link to the past. It's good that some of them endure. Incidentally, the splash of blue on the wood edge is bluebells and the nearby white, ramsons, also known as wild garlic and stinking onions.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2