Car door sculpture

I'm no fan of cars - nothing would please me more than to see the back of them and then witness their replacement by a comprehensive system of public transport that complemented proper provision for walkers and cyclists. We would gain so much and lose only a little - such as witnessing the work that automobile manufacturers and designers put into making the inside of a car door look like the output of a sculptor. This is a shot I took with my iPhone when I noticed the forms and textures of my car's door.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Salt-water rusted door

On a walk around Knightstone Island, Weston-super-Mare, we came upon a metal door that must have been regularly lashed by waves and spray for years. The builders had obviously known that the door would be subject to extreme conditions and therefore selected metal for its construction. They must also have known that salt-water corrosion leading to replacement was inevitable and they will have reckoned on a reasonable life-span numbering years for the door. What they probably didn't do is predict that as it started to succumb to the environment it would develop beautiful complementary colours, textures and shapes.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Illustrated front doors, Tewkesbury

On the basis of a couple of recent walks around Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire I have come to the conclusion that the fashion for painting an illustration on your front door is spreading. The leftmost door above has, to my recollection, been painted for a couple of years. However, the rightmost appears to be recent - or at least I haven't noticed it before. On the day I photographed these two doors I saw another newly painted example featuring a couple of silhouetted giraffes against an orange sky. Is this a local phenomenon or is it country-wide? Or even world-wide?

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Front doors, Fleetwood

In 2006, when this photograph was taken, I worked in Fleetwood, Lancashire. It was a visually interesting place with the sea, the port, the town, the marina, the River Wyre, and distant Barrow in Furness and Lakeland across the bay. Unsurprisingly I was frequently to be seen there with my camera. However, this particular photograph could have been taken anywhere in England. It shows part of the front elevation of a couple of houses composed of ready-made building components - bay windows, door surrounds, gate posts etc - that date from the late C19 or, more likely, early C20. It wasn't these that caught my eye though. Rather it was the beautifully painted red and green doors, probably contemporary with the rest of the structure, and the word "Ribblesdale" (the area of my upbringing) imprinted on the leftmost gate pier.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus E-300     2006

A purple door

Wilson Street in Newark, Nottinghamshire features a plain Georgian terrace, brick-built in Flemish bond, with colourful doors. The fact that each door is a different, very bright colour, makes me think the row has a single owner. Another odd feature of the terrace is that each door bears two numbers and two doorbells, indicating that it serves as the entry to two dwellings. I've photographed the terrace before because of the doors and the way it is lit by the sun. The photograph above was taken solely because of the impact of that purple door.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100     2017

Hollyhocks

Lest the sturdy but ill-fitting door should convince anyone otherwise the owner has fixed a notice to it saying "Private". And, as if to seal the matter, has planted hollyhocks in front of the door. Now hollyhocks are not pyracantha: there are no needle-like spines to deter an intruder. And yet, it must take a particularly heartless interloper to break through a screen of such imposing blooms.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Europe's oldest castle doors

It is remarkable how well-made wooden doors can survive the ravages of weather, man and wood-boring beetles. During my travels I've come across several church doors that date from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and one that may be even earlier. Castle doors, of course, have more to contend with than zealous parish clerks pinning notices on them. Battering rams, cannon shot and more mean that not only do they have to be strongly made, they must also be ready for an onslaught at all times. The doors in today's photograph hung in Chepstow Castle's main gateway until 1962 when they were replaced by copies and the originals displayed under cover. Dendrochronology dates them no later than the 1190s, making them the oldest castle doors in Europe.

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