The Old Nunnery, Dunster

This building is a terrace of three dwellings. The ground floor walls are made of stone and the two floors above are timber-framed. The roof is slate covered and the first and second floor walls are finished with slate hanging - an uncommon feature in the UK. The name fixed to the ground floor wall calls it "The Old Nunnery" though there is no evidence of it having such a purpose. However, in 1346 the site was granted to the Abbot and Convent of Cleeve by Hugh Pero of Oaktrow, and there is speculation that the building was an almonry or guest house attached to the priory. Dendrochronology shows the of roof timbers were felled between 1453 and 1489.

 photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Vicars' Close, Wells

The vicars of Wells were minor officials of the cathedral. The street shown in the photograph housed them and was built as early as 1348. It is 456 feet long and most of the twenty seven residences (originally 44) are identical. The front gardens are an addition of c.1410-20. Improvements and modernisations have been applied to the buildings of the Close during every century between their initial construction and today. Despite this, it is considered to be the oldest purely residential street in Europe.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Sylvan Great Malvern

The Worcestershire spa town of Great Malvern expanded greatly in the nineteenth century to accommodate both visitors who came to "take the waters" and well-to-do people who wanted to live a genteel life on the tree clad slopes of the Malvern Hills. Today there are Victorian houses and hotels in abundance in the town, often with large, tree and shrub filled gardens that give the town a sylvan character. I spotted the tops of these buildings among the trees as we looked up the hillside. The mixture of evergreens and deciduous trees is quite typical of the area and means that greenery in profusion is still on show in the winter months.

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

Painted houses

Painted houses are not unusual in the UK. White, cream, pale blue, pink, ochre, green, primrose, dark red, and other muted colours are reasonably common. However, houses painted in what I consider strident colours are rare. So when I saw the acid yellow of this house in Abergavenny I went "Ouch!" Presumably it pleases the owner, although its not unusual to hear of people applying colour that looks different when on walls compared with how it looked in the can. The photograph shows the back of the terrace of houses that overlooks the fields adjoining the River Usk. The frontages are next to a road. The summit rearing up behind the houses is Sugar Loaf.

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

Houses in the evening sun

The word "photography" was invented by combining the Greek words for "light" and "drawing" and literally means "drawing with light". Remembering that helps photographers to recall the importance of light in the images that they make. Light can transform a scene and render the mundane memorable. In today's photograph the light of the low, evening sun has, I think, elevated the brickwork and solid forms of these mundane houses through colour and shadow.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Houses, Castle Street, Hereford

I've wanted to photograph this pair of houses for some time but I've always been thwarted by vehicles parked in front of them - until one September morning. The buildings date from the early nineteenth century and exemplify some of the characteristics of the style we call Regency. The French windows, louvres, the ornate cast-iron verandah with its sheet metal roof, are all of this period, as is the symmetry. One thing I find odd is that this recess, set back from the road, holds a pair of houses rather than a single, grander mansion. Another is that pink of the front doors.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Wye Street, Ross on Wye

I've posted a few photographs recently that feature colour-washed terraces of houses. Today's row includes some painted examples, but is more notable for the pleasing variety of designs that line the steep street. However, it's clear to me that this stretch of houses is elevated considerably by the yellow of the central building and especially by the chosen tint. A more lemon yellow would have worked less well than this hue that leans more towards orange.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Kyrle Street, Ross on Wye

I've photographed this street before, attracted by the colourful paintwork that draws the eye to this otherwise undistinguished row of nineteenth century workers' housing. On the day I took this shot the sun breaking through a dark sky that promised rain accentuated the brightness. Interestingly the number of houses that are adopting the deeply coloured facade is increasing, as a glance at Google Street view confirms.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Castle Terrace, Chepstow

Castle Terrace, on Bridge Street, Chepstow, gets its name from the fact that the medieval castle is immediately behind the row. It is a late Georgian development, dating from the early nineteenth century. Its principal interest lies in the 24-pane Georgian bow windows on the ground floor. Remarkably, nearly all of them remain. To the casual passer-by, as opposed to those interested in architectural history, the fact that no two adjacent houses are painted the same colour is what catches the eye.

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

Reflected houses, Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury is a town particularly rich in old, timber-framed buildings. These are mainly to be found clustered around the original heart of the settlement that stretches from the banks of the River Avon to Church Street, the High Street and Oldbury Road. This row, on St Mary's road, next to the Avon by the water mill, must date from the late C15 to the early C16. They make a picturesque group with their reflection in the still water below.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M1

Colourful houses

This terrace of houses in Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, probably dates from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. It would have been built as "worker housing". Over the years they will have needed maintenance, renovation and updating. And, somewhere along the line, probably in the second half of the twentieth century, one of the occupiers decided they needed an injection of strong colour. Other neighbours seem to have followed suit, each determined to chooses a different shade. I wouldn't choose any of these bright colours for my house, but I enjoyed seeing them together en masse, hence my photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Timber-framed houses

I once read that the order and symmetry of the exposed woodwork of timber-framed medieval and later houses revealed something about their age. Broadly speaking asymmetrical, seemingly (though not in fact) haphazard wok was usually an indicator of early work - say, the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. The more orderly, symmetrical timbers that were often arranged to form patterns and sometimes include ornamental quatrefoils and such were invariably later, usually dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By that reckoning this photograph taken in Lavenham, Suffolk, shows some reasonably early timber-framing.

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