East Quay, Watchet

One of the answers to renovating a location that has lost its raison d'etre is to build an eye-catching visitor attraction. The placing of something new alongside something old, it is thought, will drag up the latter and offer something original with the former.

 East Quay at the tiny harbour town of Watchet on the Somerset coast is just such an enterprise with its gallery, artist studios, education space, restaurant and accomodation pods. The shiny, blocky buildings look like a child's building bricks  casually tossed down. It is not without interest and I hope it has a long and productive life.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

The Shell Store, Hereford

During WW1 the government built around 240 "national factories" for the manufacture of munitions, of which about 20 were engaged in the filling of, mainly, artillery shells. One of the latter was at Rotherwas on the outskirts of Hereford where a very large building engaged in this work was called the "Shell Store". These buildings were, understandably, built very quickly.

The Shell Store took only four months. At the end of the war most munitions factories were closed. Rotherwas was one that was retained, and with the onset of WW2 it once again filled shells and bombs. In the years following the war these buildings were either demolished or used for light industry. The Shell Store lasted longer than most but eventually became derelict.

Recently it has been the subject of a major renovation costing over £7 million and is now ready to undertake its role as an incubator site for small businesses. We went to see it recently and got these photographs of the exterior.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300