Peter de Grandison revisited

About five years ago I took a photograph of the tomb of Peter de Grandison (d.1358) in Hereford Cathedral. It is a typical of its date having a sculpture of the deceased on a raised, panelled tomb chest with rib vaulting and canopies above. The smaller figure carvings depict the Coronation of the Virgin and four saints (Cantilupe, Ethelbert, John the Baptist and Thomas Beckett). My focus this time was the depiction of Peter de Grandison and his armoured upper body. This probably received repairs after damage by iconoclasts. However, it outshines many tombs of its date due to the fine detail that was recoloured in a restoration of the 1940s. Incidentally, the surname can be spelled with a single or double s.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

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

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

Peter de Grandisson

The tomb of Peter de Grandisson, who died in 1358, can be found in the Lady Chapel of Hereford Cathedral. It is an architectural confection of sculpture, arches, buttresses, canopies etc that reaches high above his resting place. Visitors to English churches soon become used to tombs that show no colour because they predominate. This tomb, re-painted in the 1940s, reminds us that once all tombs glowed with colour as this one does. However, many seemingly colourless tombs often reveal, to the inquisitive eye, faint traces of the paint that was applied centuries ago. I wouldn't be surprised if the twentieth century restorers used such fragments to inform their choice of colours.

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