Anglesey Abbey

click photo to enlarge
Anglesey Abbey, a country house near the village of Lode, Cambridgeshire, is now in the care of the National Trust. Much of the building, the 98 acres of garden, and the nearby eighteenth century Lode Water Mill, are open to the public. The house, as its name suggests, began life as a religious foundation. During the reign of Henry 1, i.e. between 1100 and 1135, Augustinian monks built a priory here. It continued as a religious building until the expulsion of the monks during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1535. Around 1600 it was taken into private ownership and converted into a house. The ruinous remains were extended and improved in subsequent centuries, taking on the appearance of a building of the C17 and C18 with earlier remains. In 1973, on the death of the owner, the building and gardens were left to the National Trust.

The great temptation with a subject such as this is to fill the frame with a main facade or perhaps a corner, giving emphasis to one side of the building, letting the light model the walls, window bays, doorways, roofs and chimneys. On my visit I took some shots that did this. However, an image that gives a house context is also desirable, particularly one such as this where the setting, surrounded by trees, lawns and gardens, is central to the way its owners conceived the building. On the day I was there the sky was flawless blue, so this composition that minimised the overarching blandness, and offered a glimpse of the main facade across lawns from behind trees and shrubs, seemed a good approach. The dappled shadows of trees behind me gave foreground interest on a clear, cold, winter day.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 21mm (42mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Pan

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Statuary has a long tradition in English gardening, but it reached its high-point in the eighteenth century. The Renaissance had begun to impinge on this island's artistic sensibilities from the sixteenth century, and took a stronger hold in the seventeenth. But it wasn't until the Georgian period that it ruled supreme. Then Classical architecture, art and mythology were the reference points for everyone who wanted to create a country house with landscaped grounds.

Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire has 98 acres of gardens and grounds that feature sculpture at every turn. The landscaping was designed in the twentieth century on eighteenth century principles (though the house dates from the twelfth century with additions from many later centuries). The skilfully placed statues include a lead group by Cheere, a marble Apollo of 1765, mid-eighteenth century busts of Roman emperors, urns by Scheemakers and Delvaux, and much more. They also include the statue of Pan shown above. This Greek god of shepherds, flocks, mountains, hunting and rustic music is generally known for two things - his sexuality and his pipes. At Anglesey this piece is one of a pair that face each other across a narrow path through a yew hedge. The yew has been deliberately and skilfully grown around the statues making them look like they are emerging from the foliage. They seemed to me to be less well-used than they might be in this tight location, so I took this shot of one of the pair to show him off to better effect against his green background.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 13mm (26mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/25
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On