Font, Hereford Cathedral

Fonts are frequently the oldest feature in a church, often surviving refurbishments and rebuilds. Congregations and clergy seem to value the continuity that the font brings to the building. Hereford Cathedral's stone font dates from the Norman period (C12), as does much of the building itself. It is circular with twelve figures (the Apostles) under arches that rest on spiral carved columns. Above is a key pattern. The base is simpler, made of different stone and features four carvings of lions. The coloured mosaic looks to be nineteenth century.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

43 Portland Street, Cheltenham

My first thought on seeing 43 Portland Street, Cheltenham was "Why would you do such a thing?" Here we have a pleasant enough stone-faced villa in the classical style, dating from around 1830 or 1840, with a plain pediment above a three-bay front, four full-height Ionic pilasters, a central entrance and ground floor rustication. On to this carefully composed building someone, probably in the C19, added rendered wings that in no way complement the original building and succeed in making it look like it is being squashed from both sides. The perpetrator of this crime didn't even make it completely symmetrical - spot the first floor drip-mould on the left wing that is missing from the right wing. Amazing!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Red Crane, Portland Bill, Dorset

Red Crane is a hoist on a disused stone loading quay on Portland Bill, Dorset. The quay was used to serve the nearby Bill Quarries. This was active in the nineteenth century and the last loads of stone were hoisted onto ships by Red Crane in 1893. Fishermen took over the crane as a convenient means of launching and recovering their boats on the rocky shore. Steel cranes replaced the wooden structures in the late 1970s. On the day of our visit the only visible fisherman was using a rod and didn't seem to be having much luck.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Thatched cottage, Deeping St James

This unusually small thatched cottage (named Clematis Cottage) stands by the road in Deeping St James, Lincolnshire. It sits uncomfortably next to a taller, later neighbour, with a narrow space between the two buildings to allow maintenance work on the walls. Like many thatched or timber-framed buildings it has a brick chimney for safety, this one relatively tall and braced with a strip of metal. The keystone/datestone shows it to have been built in 1819 using local stone featuring the area's "signature" courses of irregular width. The thatch has wire netting over it to lessen the impact of weather and birds. Access to the back of the cottage is via the gate which is probably shared with the adjacent neighbour. There appears to be a (necessary these days) extension and I wouldn't be surprised if the narrow plot stretches back quite a way.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus E510   2009

Time and stone stairs

There is a dilemma concerning the stone stairs of Britain's cathedrals, castles and other historic buildings: are they to be left alone to show, through their wear, the passage of time and many feet; or are they to be restored, made safe and level, and consequently never cited in a court case involving an accident to one of the many visitors who pass up and down them? The stairs above, can be found in Chepstow Castle. They appear to be untouched since being installed. But have they been so expertly renovated so that the wear appears to be the result of centuries?

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

Old roofs, Stamford, Lincolnshire

There is something pleasing about the aged, worn materials that form these roofs in Stamford, Lincolnshire. Just as there is something attractive about the way they all differ, all cluster together, and collectively make a jumble that the eye finds fascinating. Collyweston stone tiles, slates from Wales and Westmoreland, bricks from locally dug pits and Peterborough, stone from nearby Barnack and elsewhere, and clay chimney pots from who knows where, can all be seen and all make a contribution. The constituent parts of the buildings look timeless but few, if any, date from before the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and quite a bit is nineteenth century.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100