Norman architecture, Melbourne, Derbyshire

click photo to enlarge
Too many writers and architectural historians damn Norman (Romanesque) architecture with faint praise. Because they look at it alongside the principal phases of Gothic architecture, styles that are later in date, more architecturally inventive and refined, and the sources that Victorian Gothicists usually used as their source of inspiration, they find Norman architecture wanting. I've never shared that view, being able to recognise in the style qualities that I find admirable and interesting.
Where detractors see crudity I see primitive vigour, where they see overpowering mass I see grounded strength, "savage" ornament and sculpture is, to my eyes, sturdy, dramatic, even dynamic. Norman architecture should not be judged by the absence of Gothic qualities but for its own elementary and evolving features that give it a grandeur of a different kind from that seen in Gothic architecture.

Today's photograph shows a view along the nave of Melbourne church in Derbyshire. It dates from the 1100s is much larger and grander than most Norman parish churches, but illustrates the sturdy nature of the style very well. The large, cylindrical columns, shallowly carved scallop capitals, rounded arches with heavy moulding and zig-zag , and the simple tub font on four squat columns, can all be seen elsewhere in parish churches, but not too frequently all in the same church. The rounded arches, of course, only allow a narrow nave and aisles, narrow windows, and a relatively short distance between the supporting columns: pointed Gothic arches enabled wider spans in churches.  Consequently Norman parish churches churches tend to be darker than their Gothic counterparts. Here the church is well-lit because the day was very bright. The barn-like roof, incidentally, dates from the 1500s.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Font and Nave, Melbourne church, Derbyshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 9mm (18mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/50 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Repton's Saxon crypt

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The main building material of the Anglo-Saxons was wood, mud and turf. Consequently few of their buildings have survived. However, important buildings, particularly those associated with the church, were built in stone. These often copied, in a debased, rather crude way, the Byzantine influenced buildings of Southern Europe, sometimes with details that echoed in stone the decorative forms that they incorporated in their timber structures. Whole Anglo-Saxon churches are rare in Britain but churches with parts that date from this period are relatively easy to find. Often its a tower that survives, or perhaps a doorway or window, sometimes it is part of a lower wall. Sculpture and crosses are not uncommon.

We recently visited the church of St Wystan at Repton in Derbyshire. Here the chancel, part of a transept and some walling around the crossing survive from the Anglo-Saxon period. However, the most remarkable and interesting survival is the crypt. Repton is today a small settlement but in the eighth and ninth centuries it had a double monastery and was sufficiently important to be the burial place of three Mercian kings.There is some argument over the age of the crypt but it may well date from that period i.e.the 700s or 800s AD.

The four columns and pilasters that support the domical vaulting show crude bases and capitals with spiral and other decoration copied from classical and Byzantine precedents. The builders may have seen continental European examples or travelled in the Mediterranean region. On the other hand they may have based their work on drawings they had seen. Interestingly, for centuries the crypt was unknown. It was rediscovered in 1779 when a workman who was digging a hole for a grave in the chancel floor broke through into the space below! Today it is open to the public and to descend the stairs into the columned space makes for an evocative experience.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/15 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Dust sheets

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I came upon these dust sheets in one of the unrestored rooms at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. The wallpaper was stained from what seemed like an ingress of water and the fireplace looked as though an overmantel of some sort had been removed. The furniture that the room held was only suggested by the shapes of the sheets: chairs were obvious, tables and cupboards less so, and what, I wondered, was the tall, thin piece under its sheet? Times past and time suspended were suggested by the anonymous shapes. One could imagine that as the room was painted, papered and readied for visitors the sheets would come off and, with a flick of a duster and a rub of polish, all would be as it once was.

I took my photograph because the jumble of shapes intrigued me. I also liked the contrast between the well-lit pieces by the window with the darker corners of the room, and the limited range of colours that worked well together.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:3200
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Derelict brewhouse

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Obsessive tidiness can be as much an eyesore as can casual mess. I was pondering this a few days ago when I came across some hedges that had been "cut" perfectly level and made narrower by a farmer who had spent some considerable time tidying the perimeter of his land. I say "cut" because in fact the poor hedge had been battered and smashed by a rotary cutter fixed to a tractor's power take-off, and consequently the end of each branch had been frayed to the point where it looked like a paintbrush. To make matters worse the roadside grass had been cut - perhaps using the same tool - so short that it was left looking like yellow, parched stubble, a bright and sorry contrast to the deep green of the flourishing verges nearby.

There is sometimes a pleasure to be had in untidiness, be it a wanton hedgerow, a stony river bed full of flood debris, or a derelict building that has been untouched for years. I was inside one of the latter recently, a former brewhouse at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire, which is a stately home in the care of the National Trust. What distinguishes this property from many owned by the Trust is that they received it when it was in a state of decay and dereliction and many of the rooms and buildings have not yet been restored. It is advertised, quite rightly, as an "un-stately home", and the contrast between the restored and the derelict is interesting to see. Today's photograph shows the vats, barrels, and implements of the brewhouse. I've wanted to produce a sepia toned photograph for a while and this subject seemed just right for that purpose.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.0
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: 0
Image Stabilisation: On

Scarecrows and Victorian values

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Scarecrows are a common sight in Lincolnshire, particularly on the Fens where vegetables are grown. Predation by wood pigeons is quite significant, and farmers have turned to methods old and new to keep the birds off the crops. Researchers tell us that the most common method, propane-powered bird scaring "gunshots" - a single report shortly followed by two more - is actually the most effective. However, a wide variety of other devices are used.

Hawk kites flying from a cord at the top of a tall pole are frequently seen and seem to be ineffective. Cut up plastic bags fixed to the top of softwood stakes to make flags that fill a field and crackle in the wind are also popular and equally useless. Spinning, shiny propellers or balls with faces appear to be less common that a few years ago, perhaps an indication that they don't work either. The most annoying bird scarer, and mercifully only infrequently seen, is a day-glo scarecrow that periodically inflates and stands up to the accompaniment of flashing lights and a siren. As far as I can see that device is about as ineffective as the traditional scarecrow of the type seen in today's photograph.

Given our government's fixation with market economics and its desire to push youth and the unemployed into a job, any job, no matter how low paid or worthwhile the work is, it can only be a matter of time before we see the return of the Victorian method of bird scaring. So look out for boys walking the fields, throwing stones at the crows and pigeons, in exchange for their daily pittance.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 90mm (180mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec
ISO:500
Exposure Compensation: 0
Image Stabilisation: On

Time-worn stone steps

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There are few things that indicate the passage of time better than worn steps. To gaze upon stone (or even wooden) steps that have been eroded into concavity by the repeated passage of hundreds, or more likely thousands of feet, is to experience a tangible understanding of years becoming decades and decades becoming centuries.

On my first visit to Wells Cathedral many years ago I made a point of having a look at the chapter house's stone stairway. I knew this from an architectural photograph by the English photographer, Frederick Henry Evans (1853-1943). The undulations in these stairs made by myriad feet add to the beauty of the shot and give it a quality that it would otherwise lack. The "sea of steps" makes you think of the people who have walked up and down them.

I've photographed steps regularly during my life though never with the success achieved by Evans in his shot. On one occasion, however, I took a shot of steel steps, but with added son's added feet and deliberate blur, and result became one of my favourite images. On our recent visit to Bolsover Castle I tried this subject again but this time without blur and  with time-worn steps. The result doesn't please me as much as my earlier shot with feet but I think it's not entirely without interest.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 32mm (48mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/30 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Sandstone semi-abstract

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Today's post manages to encapsulate two of my recent themes. It is an "incidental" shot taken at Bolsover Castle. Not one of the obvious architectural photographs that such a place inspires, but a detail, a "photographer's shot" if you will. It is also semi-abstract which I recently described as one of the genres I often return to when I'm trying to get back into the "groove" with my photography.

The stone is part of the moulding (architrave) of a doorway made in the seventeenth century. The figuring in the stone reminds me of the burr and strong grain that characterises some woods. However, when I first saw it the first word to come to mind was "landscape". The curves, shading and lines remind me of Japanese watercolour landscapes of the sort that Hokusai and Hiroshige produced. All it requires is a few trees, a wooden bridge, a river winding its way between the hills, and a few people going about their work and it's there. It's the sort of piece of stone that you can get lost in, in much the same way that as children we often dive into the landscapes, faces and more in wallpaper and curtain fabrics. I've noticed such landscapes in trees, with silver birch being the best at suggesting them.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm (150mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:640
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On 

Doorways and light

click photo to enlarge
On a return journey from the Yorkshire Dales we called in at Bolsover Castle, a structure of medieval foundation with much that stands dating to the seventeenth century. English castles are often quite imposing and this one is no exception. Its location, along the brow of a hill, is very impressive and both the exterior and interior of the main structure offer the photographer many interesting subjects.

However, when I review photographs that I take at such locations I often find that the "standard" shots - views, towers, battlements, doorways, interior decoration etc. leave me, photographically speaking, somewhat cold. I think that what happens is, my interest in architecture too often gets in the way of my photographer's eye. Fortunately it doesn't completely blind me and I always manage to get a few shots that are composed solely for their more photographic qualities. Invariably these are the ones I like best.

Today's photograph was taken for two main reasons: the muted colours and the way the light was falling. It shows some of the seventeenth century interior design, but in a dark setting and shadows with the doorway providing the highlight. I particularly liked the way the angles of both the room and the light related to the portrait format frame of the viewfinder.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 26mm (39mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec
ISO:3600
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On