The Saloon, Croft Castle

The Saloon (also known as the Drawing Room) is the largest room at Croft Castle. It has Early Georgian panelling but the ceiling and doorcases are by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard (1723-1777), an architect and interior decorator, who is best known as the designer of the world's first iron bridge at Iron Bridge. The fireplace is by the architect, Walter Sarel (1863-1941), who did extensive work on the Castle in 1913 and 1937.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

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

The White Lion

Anyone who has visited Britain cannot fail to have noticed the names given to pubs. Some are very unusual, such as "The Five Alls", a Chepstow establishment with a self-explanatory pub sign. This appears to be one of only a small handful of that name in the country. The Red Lion, on the other hand, is the name of about 520 pubs in England alone, and since it is an emblem of Wales, must count many more in that country. The White Lion is the name of around 150 pubs. Its name comes from the frequently used colour of the lion that forms part of the royal coat of arms. Like the Red Lion, and many other pub names, it is a name of long standing, certainly in use for hundreds of years.

The White Lion shown above is in Upton upon Severn, Worcestershire. The building dates from the mid-eighteenth century and is reputed to be "the inn at Upton" that features in Henry Fielding's novel, "Tom Jones" (1749). The Automobile Association (AA) sign, indicating a level of quality offered by the inn, dates from the some time in the twentieth century.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Eighteenth century town houses

Eighteenth century English architects and builders got a lot right with the exterior elevations of their buildings, but in particular they understood proportion and how to arrange the parts in relation to the whole and to each other. They also completely assimilated the lessons taught by the architects of classical antiquity about how to use moulding and shadow to make a facade come alive. That is best exemplified in the English country houses of the period but can also be seen in more modest town houses such as these on St Mary's Street in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100