Friday, August 05, 2016

Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire

click photo to enlarge
Woolsthorpe Manor, near Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, is a manor house built in the early 1600s with early eighteenth century alterations and additions.Its walls are constructed of courses of squared limestone rubble with ashlar quoins. All the mullioned windows, drip moulds, chimneys and other details are made of carefully finished limestone. The roof is made of Collyweston slate and is protected by raised stone coped gables with kneelers. It is a two storey building with a basement and attic rooms. The plan is T-shaped with a projection and external stone stairs to the first storey at the back. It has three principal rooms including a kitchen on the ground floor. The bedrooms above are reached by an eighteenth century wooden staircase

The manor house is not untypical of its time, and has features that can be found in other similar buildings. However, it has one distinction that can be claimed by no other building - it was the birthplace, on 25th December 1642, of Isaac Newton, the eminent English scientist.

The building is in the care of the National Trust and open to visitors. It has been sympathetically restored and the interior rooms feature furniture, fixtures and fittings typical of the time as well as connected with Newton. The agricultural buildings are now used for a range of visitor  purposes - cafe, toilets, bookshop, displays etc, and the grounds feature grassed areas, a small orchard and some borders with flowers. On the day of our visit it was teeming with people but I managed to get this shot of the front of the house without a single person in sight.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 9mm (18mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On