C18 cartouche gravestone

To my mind the design of gravestones hit a peak in the C18. In the C17, as gravestones grew in popularity, they exhibited a naivety of subject and execution. In the C19 mass production, Gothic influences and grandiosity overwhelmed the original and innovative designs that can still be seen. C20 gravestones are usually more modest, machine-made and make use of too wide a variety of stone. The C18 used a limited palette of (usually local) stone, ornament and lettering. The example above, at St Michael, Walford, Herefordshire, has the typical winged putto head and foliage arranged as a cartouche. Rising damp has obscured the lower lettering, but above it is crisp and shows interesting abbreviations. If you look carefully you can still discern parts of the faint, scratched, guide-lines to keep the lettering level and of the correct height.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

The Triumph wordmark

The first time I became aware of the design of the name of the British Triumph motorcycle company was when I glimpsed it on Bob Dylan's T-shirt on the cover of his 1965 album "Highway 61 Revisited". Thereafter my eye was drawn to it whenever I saw this make of motorcycle parked  in the market town where I lived. What I particularly liked was the way the letter "R" was extended so that it met up with the horizontal bar of the "H" and in so doing formed a curved underline. It forms a distinctive wordmark* that, very wisely, the company retained and still uses today. We came across this new Triumph motorcycle in a Hereford car park. Two things prompted my photograph - the strong colours and the water droplets from a light shower that had just passed over.

* A wordmark is a type of logo that uses only text to distinctively represent a particular organisation. It is usually copyrighted to protect its use.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Tiled pub facade

What is now the Eagle Vaults pub in Worcester was built as a private house around 1740. It was bought in 1764 and in 1779 was converted into a pub known as Young's Mug House. From 1814-1817 it was known as the Volunteer pub and subsequently the Plummer's (sic) Arms. In 1859 it became The Friar Street Vaults. Some time around 1890-1900 it had the decorative and lettering tiles applied to the ground floor of the facade and its name at that time (as now) was the Eagle Vaults. The tiles have lasted very well and the whole scheme looks almost as good today as when it was first installed over a century ago.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

A modern stone circle

A henge is, properly, a prehistoric banked earthwork in the shape of a circle or oval. When it is accompanied by standing stones it is more accurately described as a stone circle. Stonehenge is not a typical henge, but such structures - reasonably common in the British Isles - are often referred to as henges.

Part of the landscape gardening of Hellens Manor at Much Marcle includes an oval 21st century "henge" with inscriptions on each of the standing stones. Its purpose is to add interest and size to the available grounds and its location in a meadow beyond the formal gardens adds to the attractiveness of the feature.

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