Weathering steel, Cor-Ten and the IBCC

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It's interesting how company trade marks can come to be generic descriptions, for example, Hoover for vacuum cleaner, Tannoy for loud speaker and Biro for ball-point pen. A current example in the making of this phenomenon is Cor-Ten to describe weathering steel. For quite a while now sculptures and other exterior structures have been made of this kind of steel that weathers to produce a rusted and rustic looking exterior that then serves as a protection. In the UK the sculpture called "Angel of the North" was one of the first widely-known examples making use of weathering steel.

On our recent visit to the International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) in Lincoln we admired not only the commemorative walls erected in this material, but also the "spire" that identifies the location from afar. The height of this hollow, spike-like structure is 31.09 metres (102 feet), the length of the wingspan of the Avro Lancaster bomber that was the mainstay of Bomber Command during WW2. Its width at the base is 16 feet, the width of the Lancaster's wing. This too is made of weathering steel and will be the focal point of the Centre for decades to come.

The whole site is currently under construction. During our guided tour I took today's photograph from inside the spire looking upwards.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Memorial Spire, International Bomber Command Centre, Lincoln
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:1000
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

International Bomber Command Centre, Lincoln

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We recently accompanied a couple of friends to the International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) in Lincoln. This is a memorial to the men and women of Bomber Command who, during WW2, served in the RAF, often flying from airfields in Lincolnshire. The IBCC is currently under construction so we had to wear high-visibility vests and undertake a guided tour of the site and the completed sections of the memorial.

To date that includes a tall "spire" made of Cor-Ten steel and a series of commemorative walls surrounding the spire and made of the same material, These list the names of the 26,296 men of sixty nations who lost their lives serving in Bomber Command. It also includes a Lincolnshire Garden that has trees arranged to represent the relative location of the Bomber Command airfields of the county. The whole site is at the top of a hill that overlooks the city of Lincoln and which has a fine view of the medieval cathedral.

My photograph shows part of one of the steel memorial walls. People - perhaps relatives of those commemorated - had pushed British Legion poppies into some of the names. Over the next few years the project will be completed, but at present active fund raising is taking place. This includes a minimum of four guided tours of the site each month. We were pleased to experience one of these and to be able to make a donation.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Memorial Wall, International Bomber Command Centre, Lincoln
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.5
Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Museum names and obfuscation

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You'd think that one of the primary aims in giving a building a name would be to supply part of a unique address, to identify it to people passing and searching for it, and to indicate its purpose. The latter is not always required but in certain instances it is. There's little point in giving a town hall any other name other than the words town hall preceded by the placename: to do anything else would cause confusion and waste people's time. Similarly with art galleries. Yet in their naming the sound principle just described in relation to town halls is often ignored. What would you expect to see at the Wallace Collection in London? A collection of what? It happens to be fine and decorative arts, but you wouldn't know that from its name.

A public building in Lincoln has a similarly confusing name. It styles itself simply, "The Collection". Perhaps those naming it were influenced by the London example I just mentioned. Yet in Lincoln The Collection is a museum. There seems to be something of an acknowledgement that people won't necessarily guess what the building is about because some of its printed literature describes it as The Collection Museum. But, of course, a museum is a collection, so this awkward construction has built in redundancy: it is somewhat tautological. It seems to me that it is a confusion that should have been seen and then avoided. What is wrong with the name, Lincoln Museum?

We're back, it seems, to yesterday's theme of daft names. And like that post we are discussing a building that is better than the average for the city of Lincoln, despite its unfortunate name. I like the way that stone (is it artificial?) has been used in strongly horizontal lines with randomly disposed holes. I enjoy too the way one enters into a relatively dark foyer then passes into a beautifully lit "Orientation Hall" before entering the main exhibition spaces. The materials of wall, roof and floor have been well chosen and well put together. The exterior is also attractive, its avowedly modern lines fitting in well with the older buildings on its hillside site.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 18mm (27mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Daft brand names

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Wagamama, the British chain of Japanese restaurants cum noodle bars, must be in the top ten daftest brand names in the country alongside the likes of Fat Face, Everything Everywhere (EE) and C'eed. I suppose whoever thought it up considered it memorable, funny, distinctive etc. For me it's the kind of name that puts me off setting foot in the place -  in the same way that the restaurant chain called EAT., a company that insists on a full stop at the end of its single-word name, always sounds to me like a barked order that I feel duty-bound to ignore.

We were in Lincoln recently. It's not far from where we live, a historic city with a fine cathedral. Yet, we go there only once a year. I'm not keen  on the place. It seems to me to have the relationship with Lincolnshire that London has with the UK - it draws far more than its fair share of investment and sucks the life out of its hinterland. Add to that the truly awful redevelopment of the area around the Brayford Pool with its execrable university buildings, toy-town hotels and throw-away flats piled on the water's edge, the fact that the cathedral charges for entry, and the paucity of good, modern architecture, and you'll perhaps understand my feeling that one visit a year is quite sufficient.

But, the Wagamama restaurant built out over the water of the Pool is better than most of the buildings in that locality. The emphasis on horizontals and shallow pitches in its design is refreshing, as is the elegant use of materials. I'm not a great fan of hardwood slats as a wall finish; they soon discolour and stain in our wet climate. However, here they work well with the steel cladding and glass. I particularly like the dash of bold colour that accompanies the blacks, greys and browns. The red painted steel panel, with its large and small holes that covers the air-conditioning units is a nice contrast against the muted colours and I made it the subject of one of the semi-abstract, detail photographs that I took of the building.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 66mm (99mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: 0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Photographing water reflections

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"It looks like it's swimming in paint", said my wife, when she saw this photograph on the screen of my computer. And so it does. Yet, when I took this shot of the cygnet (not far off adulthood) on the canalised stretch of the River Witham in the centre of Lincoln, my eye saw little of these striking colours and patterns. The wildly distorted lines of the river-bank buildings and the blue sky were lost in the flickering sheen of the water's surface. However, the photographic experience that I've gathered down the years told me that the camera would present the water in a way that made a bold, colourful, semi-abstract backdrop for the swimming bird.

In the past I've photographed reflected branches, clouds, tree trunks and even steel fences. The way that the shutter freezes movement that the eye doesn't see, or echoes the tangible intangibly, is something that I like, and I make a point of looking for good water reflections whenever I'm out and about with the camera.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 66mm (99mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: 0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The Odeon's classical origins

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Cycling along the promenade at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, a few years ago, I passed a building called the Hippodrome. I assumed it was a theatre of the early 1900s, but I was wrong. It was built in 1903, but as the permanent home of a circus. Today it is used in a way much more akin to a traditional theatre featuring shows, etc as well as a circus. The theatre was reasonably well-named because the original hippodromes were ancient Greek stadia for horse and chariot racing, a building type adopted by the Romans who extended their use (as circuses) to animal spectaculars, historic re-enactments etc. The British and American hippodrome theatres of the early 1900s also featured animal spectaculars but eventually became theatres for variety artistes, and after their day passed, the buildings often served as cinemas.

Cinemas themselves sometimes adopted classical names too. In London and Dublin there are Adelphi cinemas: Adelphi is Greek for "brothers". However, the most commonly found classically-inspired cinema name is undoubtedly the Odeon. The original buildings of this name were found in Athens, Sparta and other ancient Greek city states. Their purpose was to accommodate musical competitions, poetry readings and the like. In the late eighteenth century the name was resurrected for a famous Parisian theatre where, in 1784, the play, "The Marriage of Figaro" was premiered. When cinema came along Odeon was frequently the name of choice in Europe and the United States. Today it is so closely associated with the movies that its origins in antiquity are all but forgotten.

Today's semi-abstract photograph shows a detail of the foyer ceiling of Lincoln's modern Odeon cinema, a building of the twenty first century. With its swooping curves and blue neon tube detailing the ceiling seeks to combine with shiny stainless steel detailing and glossy escalators to inject glamour into the cinema-going experience.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 30mm (45mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/50 sec
ISO:500
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Britain's oldest houses?

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It's not easy to determine which are the oldest houses in Britain. We can reasonably discount the caves that were inhabited by prehistoric man because a house surely implies a man-made, rather than natural, structure. But then the question arises of just how much of the house needs to exist before it can be considered a house? The post marks found in soil that show where, for example, Iron Age timber and turf houses were built are clearly insufficient. But what about the low, circular, stone walls, on Holyhead Mountain, Anglesey, the remains of possibly Neolithic, but probably Iron Age, dwellings? Or the stone footings of Roman houses in the military settlements along Hadrian's Wall such as Housesteads and Vindolanda? Perhaps they qualify as such.

However, in my mind, it is the very few remaining Norman houses of the twelfth century that are the oldest houses in the country because, despite restorations and additions there is sufficient original work remaining outside and in for us to easily imagine what they looked like when they were first built. The small cathedral city of Lincoln is fortunate in having two of the best examples of Norman town houses, and the not too distant village of Boothby Pagnell has the best small Norman manor house. The so-called Jew's House (leftmost building above) at the start of Steep Hill in Lincoln has a facade with ground floor and first floor walls that date from the late 1100s. The arch over the doorway and the two arched upper windows (one with its dividing column long gone) exhibit carving of that period. The two string courses and the chimney breast are also contemporary. All the ground floor windows are, of course, much later in date, as is the rectangular one on the first floor. Inside are three original twelfth century doorways. Though the pantiled roof looks old the Norman roof would probably have been straw or reed thatch, split stone tiles or wooden shingles. The building adjoining is called Jew's Court. The lowest courses of its facade appear to be similar to its neighbour but everything above dates from the seventeenth century and later.

Britain abounds in houses of the eighteenth, seventeenth and sixteenth centuries. Fifteenth century houses are not unusual, but buildings earlier than that tend to be churches, castles etc and houses of earlier centuries are much rarer. Consequently it's a privilege to be able to view a house such as the one shown above, and remarkable that it still finds a use in the twenty first century, over eight hundred years after it was built.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Waiting for the frugivores

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The waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) doesn't seem to have made its appearance in Lincolnshire as I write this piece, but it can't be long before they do. Interestingly the first locations where these winter visitors are spotted are usually urban or suburban, often the superstore car-parks of Tesco, Sainsburys or Morrisons. The reason for this is the prevalence of large numbers of small, berried trees in these locations; trees such as the rowan. Waxwings are frugivorous, that is to say fruit eaters, and so they make straight for where fruit is available in large quantities.

Frugivorous is a word I came across for the first time only recently and it means "fruit eater". Autumn is a time when fruit in the form of berries or wind-fall apples is plentiful, and frugivores are quick to take advantage of the bounty. Today I saw a horse gorging itself on rose-hips, carefully avoiding the thorny stems to pluck off the ripe, red berries one at a time. That's something I've never seen before. I've seen horses eat apples from a branch or from the ground, but never rose-hips. Who would have thought they had a fancy for them?

The tree in today's photograph has lost almost all its leaves but still has a full complement of berries. I came across it outside the museum in Lincoln. As I took my shot, captivated by the way the silhouette of branches and the bright berries contrasted with the flecked brickwork behind, I wondered how much longer they would hang there before blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings or, perhaps, waxwings, descended on the branches and stripped the tree bare.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 36.3mm (98mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Photography by numbers

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One of the tips I remember reading decades ago when I started out in photography was this: if you go to a place you've never been before and want to be sure of getting photographs of the "best" sights, go to a shop that sells postcards of the locality, buy some, and let them be your guide as to what to shoot and where to shoot it from. For someone who simply "collects" photographs and places it was good advice. But, if you were interested in making images that were the product of your own eye and mind, photographs where the subject is only part of the point of the shot, then it was very limiting advice, the result of which was not too different from painting by numbers.

Having said that, the shots that are sold as postcards are often taken from obvious and good vantage points, and frequently exhibit fine compositions. They should too, because they are usually the product of someone who makes his or her living from photography. Moreover, you can find yourself taking a shot that you subsequently see on a postcard simply because it presents itself so conspicuously. Such is the case with this photograph of Lincoln Cathedral seen from Castle Hill. The funnel of Georgian, Victorian and medieval buildings that lead to the fourteenth century Exchequer Gate (the arch of which one passes through to enter the cathedral precinct), together with the tall towers of the Norman and thirteenth century west end of the cathedral, make a satisfying composition. I've seen it reproduced in water colour by Peter de Wint, in oils and acrylic by contemporary artists, and in many photographs of the city.

Had I wanted a shot like the much reproduced images that one sees of this location I'd have waited until later in the day and year, when the sun was better illuminating the scene, when there was some blue sky, and there were more people in the foreground. As it was, I came upon it on a fairly dull, cold day in early March when the only person on view was a man giving out leaflets extolling the virtues of the meals at the local pub: he didn't seem to be getting many takers when we passed by.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 28mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

High Bridge, Lincoln

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High Bridge, Lincoln is the only remaining medieval bridge in England that carries shops and houses. London Bridge, of nursery rhyme fame, was the most notable of a number of these interesting structures, but, with the exception of the example shown above, they have all "fallen down". Quite a few bridges with buildings on them do remain in Britain. Pulteney Bridge (1773) in Bath is the most famous example of a later date, but many smaller structures can be seen that were built in the medieval period.


High Bridge is on the High Street in Lincoln, and crosses the River Witham. The stone arched structure below the buildings and road is thought to date from the C12, C13 and C16, and have been subject to the most recent restoration in 1902. The row of shops was restored at that time too. It has a ground floor partly constructed of stone and brick, with timber-framed, jettied, first and second floors. The framing is of the "close-studded" variety, and the facade facing the road has shallow oriel-like windows. Much of the original woodwork survives, and the ground buildings are still occupied today with shops and a cafe.

I took the main photograph as I passed by on a shopping expedition with one of my sons. It was taken against the light which had the effect of accentuating the "black and white work" and showing off the details of the facade. My recent reading has included Jason Mordan's "Timber-Frame Buildings of Nottinghamshire" which discusses the reasons for the development of this style of building. This is something I have touched on elsewhere, but the author makes one observation that hadn't occurred to me. Early timber-framed buildings usually have long curved "crucks", a pair of which reach from the ground to the level of the roof ridge, and form part of both the wall and the roof: the longest structural piece of wood needed for a jettied timber-framed building is the height of a floor. Moreover, each of the wall frames can be assembled before they are put into place if so desired.

You can see something of the advantages and disadvantages of the later, more developed timber-framing in this building (High Bridge may be from around 1540). By the second half of the seventeenth century the style was mainly used for farm buildings, and by the eighteenth century brick had completely supplanted timber in the areas where there was no building stone.

photographs and text (c) T. Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 105mm
F No: f6.
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The Engine Shed, Lincoln

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When the Royal Institute of British Architects announced that The Engine Shed, a concert hall and cafe built on the site of a former railway engine shed in Lincoln, was one of its RIBA EM Award Winners of 2007, it must have been on the basis of a professional appraisal of the structure compared with other buildings erected that year. The assessors undoubtedly looked at the interior and exterior, judged its fitness for purpose, considered how the old and new have been combined, and reflected on its contribution to its location. I can't comment on the quality of their decision as far as the building as a whole goes - it may be a model of utility and a sensitive conversion internally - but I've never been inside so I don't know. However, as far as the exterior goes, and the contribution it makes to its location, all I can say is, "What were they thinking of!"

Before I summarise my concerns let's start with what I like. The black and red are a good combination, a slab of bright colour against a dark glossy background. It could work, but not, in my judgement, when the red comes in such an ungainly shape against the relatively elegant glass curtain wall: it looks too much like a vandalised post-box. Furthermore, as a balcony it appears to be on the wrong elevation, because it looks over a narrow waterway to a very busy, noisy road. Then there's the way it sits alongside the other buildings adjacent to the Brayford Pool. The best you could say is that it is one of an eclectic collection because, by and large, each building ignores those around it. I recently posted a shot of the neighbour of The Engine Shed, and I defy anyone to say that they look comfortable bed-fellows.

My apprehensions about the treatment of Lincoln's Brayford Pool have deepened with each visit. I recently came across this article that also expresses concerns about what is being lost through the nature and scale of the waterside developments. Perhaps the economic downturn will ameliorate the further damage that will be inflicted, but I fear that it's probably too late to make this interesting space what it could have been.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Photo 1 (Photo 2)
Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm/35mm equiv.) (11mm (22mm/35mm equiv.))
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/400 (1/640)
ISO: 100 (100)
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV (-1.3EV)
Image Stabilisation: On

Catching your eye

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A couple of evenings ago, during the course of a talk I was giving about photography, I made the observation that the human figure placed in a photograph will usually catch the viewer's eye before anything else. This is something that seems to be part of our natural makeup, and probably has its origins in the hundreds of thousands of years of our development when there was no rule of law. If you lived in a world where other people could be a mortal danger to you the ability to spot humans was one that you developed and honed as a matter of self-preservation.

Today, in our complex world there are, in countries where peace prevails, few direct dangers from other humans, but there are many other hazards. These range from fast moving cars to electrified rails and bottles of lethal liquids. Consequently societies have had to invent systems that warn people of these dangers, and which draw their attention to them. The other day, during my walk around the Brayford Pool in Lincoln, I noticed one such device. It was a multicoloured vertical chequered strip fixed to a wall just above the level of the water in the river. At the bottom it was white, the central section was day-glow yellow, and at the top it was day-glow red. I assume it was a variation on the depth gauges that are frequently seen by the edge of freshwater, but which more usually measure depth in metres, and presumably the colours showed the level of danger associated with the rise in the water level.

I say I saw it, but that's not strictly true. It was inaccessible to me, and what I saw was its reflection in the water just past the underside of a bridge. The very bright colours, moving from side to side with the waves, caught my eye, and their stark juxtaposition with predominantly earth colours suggested  a photograph. So, adjusting my position, and zooming in on a section, I composed this image.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On 

Unforeseen blemishes

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As we walked around Lincoln's Brayford Pool the other day we were discussing the unforeseen blemishes that frequently appear on new architecture.
The fashion of the last twenty years or so for patches of horizontal hardwood cladding on flats and offices has resulted in dark water stains on the timber. These are unsightly, entirely predictable, and often contrast strongly with the bleaching of the wood that also occurs after the original treatment has faded. Some of the buildings exhibited stains on the concrete where rain had flowed over a metal fixing, leaving a deposit below it. Then there was the building that had panels of stained and varnished wood that alternated with glass. The horizontal bands of the dark wood had light coloured, rather hazy looking patches all over them. At a distance we couldn't make out what they were. It was only when we got closer that we realised they were spiders' webs spun by the creatures that found the narrow grooves perfect for their homes and for erecting their places of entrapment. Then there was the Hayes Wharf Tower, one of the better buildings in this location. On a sunny day the louvres that punctuate the exterior throw sharp shadows on the surface. However, at the time we passed by the sky was bright but cloudy, and in those circumstances the shadows are soft edged and it looks like there are dirty stains behind the slats (see above).

It is clearly difficult for architects to predict some of these unintended consequences that appear on their buildings, but one does wonder whether such things are considered at all during their training. Moreover, with CAD (computer aided design) it isn't beyond the wit of man to model such things. Having said that, sometimes it is the unforeseen that is the one element elevating a building above the mundane, as with the stress effects on the glazing of this building at Canary Wharf, London (assuming the architect didn't intend it!)

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 40mm (80mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Architectural whimsy?

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A while ago I gave my views on the development that surrounds the ancient Brayford Pool in Lincoln. This is a wide area of the River Witham that has for centuries been the site of an inland port. In recent years its commercial shipping uses have given way to pleasure craft, and the warehouses have been replaced by hotels and the recently established University of Lincoln, a former college of higher education. The area leaves a lot to be desired architecturally. It is a mish mash of building types and styles, all seemingly thrown down at random, some new, some bad conversions of older buildings, others toy-town parodies of the former warehouses. Many are cheaply built and already, after less than twenty years, look shabby. Others are surrounded by acres of paving, concrete, tarmac, gravel, weeds and car parking. The main waterside footpath on the south side of the pool is badly worn, impassable when wet, and leads people through an underpass and over a bridge that carries a busy road. The opportunity to do something at Brayford Pool that complements and integrates with the older part of the city has been missed.

When I visited Lincoln today I came upon a building that is new to me. True to the form exhibited elsewhere in the vicinity it leaves a lot to be desired. Where to begin? Well let's start with its name - Enterprise@Lincoln. This attempt to sound new, snappy and relevant only succeeds in sounding cliched. The building has been given a name that will inevitably be changed when the world finally decides the "@" is passe. The website of this section of the University of Lincoln oozes opaque and tortured prose, and all too typically describes it as "the University's central department for employer engagement...", whatever that means. As for the building itself, I can't imagine how the architect who designed it would describe it. "Whimsical?" "Referential?" "Playing with form?" I've heard such words and phrases used to describe this type of construction. Clearly the building's external form is capricious: those colourful "legs" don't need to be crossed and probably aren't needed at all. Nor do the wrap-around metal oriel and the other window band need to be those particular shapes - or there in that form at all. It clearly is a building that wants to be noticed, and it succeeds in that regard. I'm sure there are many who would call it a "fun building". However, this passer-by didn't smile but simply sighed, and reflected on another missed opportunity to build a structure of quality and note in an area that badly needs one.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Dowsby church

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A few evenings ago, as I was driving to a speaking engagement, my route took me past Dowsby church. At around 7pm in the middle of June the sun is low but still bright, and the absence of clouds on this particular day meant that it was modelling the landscape very nicely. Consequently, I pulled over, got out of the car, and took a couple of photographs of the medieval building from the roadside looking across the corner of a field of wheat.

Dowsby is in many respects a very typical English village church setting - quiet, leafy, verdant. Whilst many churches are in the centre of their settlements frequently they are at the edge, as in this case. Dowsby itself is no more than a handful of houses strung out around the junctions where a couple of side roads meet a main road. However, nearby is the old Dowsby Hall, and though it is later than the church, its wealth and influence will have exerted a pull on the church for several centuries. The churchyard at Dowsby is relatively small, as befits a building serving a small village and some farms. However, it does support a few trees as most English churchyards manage to do. The path through the churchyard is across the grass: presumably the congregation is so small that the wear of their passing feet has never necessitated the laying of something more permanent. Having said that, as the recent gravestones in this image from Google Street View show, the graveyard continues to accept the deceased.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Watercarriers for Mesopotamia

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The story of how the word "tank" to describe the armoured fighting vehicle came to be used is an interesting one.

During the First World War the British Admiralty Landships Committee was charged with developing a fighting vehicle that could cross the mud and trenches of the modern battlefield. The members turned to a number of designers and companies to help them in their task. One firm that was approached was the agricultural machinery manufacturers, William Foster & Co of Lincoln. Foster's began life as a mill owner in 1846, but soon expanded into milling machinery and threshing machines. It opened its Wellington iron foundry in 1856 and went on to make traction engines and steam tractors. In the First World War it made large Daimler-Foster tractors and trailers for hauling howitzers, so it was natural that the Commitee saw it as the possible developer of a new fighting vehicle.

William Tritton (the chairman of Foster's) and Walter Gordon Wilson worked together in 1915 to develop the first "landship", named "Little Willie" after its co-designer. When the Lincoln factory came to produce the first batch of the new armoured vehicles there was a great need for secrecy so that the impact of their deployment could maximized. Consequently, the workforce were told that they were engaged in making "Watercarriers for Mesopotamia" (modern day Iraq)! This mouthful was soon shortened by those working on the machines, so the story goes, to "tanks", and the name stuck. Fosters went on to make hundreds of tanks for the British Army, with examples also going to the allies, including the United States and Canada. In recognition of the pioneering work in designing and making the first examples of this important military weapon the company incorporated it into the design of their nameplate that adorned the vehicles they manufactured.

I came across the example in today's photograph at a Lincolnshire gathering of traction engines. Unless one knows the story of William Foster & Co of Lincoln, the inclusion of a military tank on an agricultural vehicle maker's nameplate looks decidedly incongruous. But once you do know the reason it seems entirely natural!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 64mm (128mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 400
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Sculpture as perch

click photo to enlarge
Whenever I visit Whitby in North Yorkshire I trudge up the steps of West Cliff, to the statue of Captain Cook at the summit, and gaze across the harbour at St Mary's Church and the Abbey. Then I turn and look at the figure of Cook himself and remember that there has NEVER, EVER been an occasion that I done this without there being a herring gull sitting on his head undermining the dignity of his pose, his fine clothes and his serious countenance, making him look absolutely ridiculous, not to say risible!

On my forays into Boston, Lincolnshire, I frequently stop and look up from the Market Place at the tower of St Botolph's church. On these occasions my gaze passes the statue of Herbert Ingram, a Swineshead man, founder of the Illustrated London News and Member of Parliament for Boston. I invariably find that he too is topped by either a black-headed gull or a pigeon that is intent on turning his hair white. In the recent past I've photographed three sculptures with birds on them, two in Southport (the other here) and one in Rotherhithe, London. I used to fondly imagine that gulls perched on statues of people to get their own back for the hard time we give them. However, finding birds standing on bird statues rather scotches that theory.

Today's photograph shows both black-headed gulls and feral pigeons making use of the handy perches provided by the outstretched bodies of Stephen Broadbent's 2002 sculpture in Lincoln, entitled "Empowerment". Despite the fact that the two figures of the piece reach out to one another across the River Witham I'm guessing that neither the sculptor nor those who commissioned it thought too much about its usefulness to the local avian population. I think this sculpture is better than many, but it's not one that especially grabs me. I do, however, dislike its title: it sounds like its been dreamed up by a council committee that lives for the latest jargon. However, the birds of this part of Lincoln love the sculpture. On one occasion I counted almost thirty crammed onto its "perching points". I'm not particularly keen on the supports for the two figures in this sculpture, but I quite like the two almost touching figures, so I made them (along with their feathered friends) the subject of my photograph.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 40mm (80mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Reflecting on the Brayford Pool

click photo to enlarge
About a year ago I visited Lincoln for the first time in twenty years or so. That's a long time in the life of a small city, and I noticed quite a few changes on my return. Whilst I was there I took a photograph that was subsequently selected for a London exhibition. It shows a bicycle, semi-submerged on a walkway at the Brayford Pool which was experiencing particularly high water. The last time I'd been in that location it was fairly derelict, with disused quays and crumbling buildings in evidence. But since the 1980s there has been "regeneration". A marina for pleasure craft has been created and university buildings, hotels, cafes and the like have sprung up. On my visit a year ago I didn't have time to stop, look and think about what has happened at Brayford. Yesterday I did. My conclusion is that whoever sanctioned the structures and planning of the the development that has taken place, the marina excepted - it's fine, should be ashamed of themselves.

The Brayford Pool today is surrounded by a group of buildings for which the term banal would be high praise. I made two leisurely circuits of the area and struggled to find anything of architectural merit. Quite the worst building is the Holiday Inn, a "warehouse" look-alike clearly imagining that it both recalls the Rank Hovis mill that it replaced, and is appropriate to the waterside setting. In fact, it's toy-town architecture at its worst. Running it a close second is the large university building directly across the water, a grim, uninspiring amalgam of materials and forms with a desert of drab paving set before it. Of marginal interest is a (1960s?) reinforced concrete framed building with a "hyperbolic parabaloid" roof, but a new rectilinear glazed wall that has been inserted seems to exist independently of the original skeleton, only acknowledging it by being centred on its twin column support. Perhaps the best building is the curved Hayes Wharf with its irregularly placed groups of slats, positioned near the flyover: it's a good structure for that site, and offers style and interest. Overall however, as a piece of urban planning, the renovation of Brayford Pool is an opportunity missed. Even the small details are poor: the pedestrian route around the main pool is gravel and mud on the south side, is badly waymarked, weaves through and around buildings in a confusing way, and, unforgivably, involves going up to the busy, noisy flyover to complete the main circuit. And quite why, in the twenty first century, in an area designed to attract people, we are still being asked to scurry, rat-like, through an underpass (see today's photograph) beggars belief!

photograph & text (c) T.Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 11mm (22mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/100
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -2.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Gallery-going

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Anyone interested in art loves to visit an art gallery. The big London galleries, like Tate Britain, with its Turners, or the National with exceptional pieces from every age, can supply a week's worth of viewing pleasure. But therein lies the problem. A visit to a big gallery can cause visual indigestion! In many respects the smaller, regional galleries, provide a more manageable viewing experience - a limited number of paintings, with a bit of specialism, often around less well-known artists.

Over the years I've visited many galleries in "the provinces". Those that stick in my mind are the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight, with its Pre-Raphaelite collection, the Leeds City Gallery where I enjoyed the Atkinson Grimshaws, the Walker Gallery in Liverpool with some exceptional paintings from the first half of the C20, and the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, with the marine paintings of John Ward. The other day I visited the Usher Art Gallery in Lincoln. It has collections of paintings by two Lincoln born artists, William Hilton (1786-1839) who has a number of views of the city, and William Logsdail (1859-1944) who is represented by some views of Venice. With the exception of an animal picture by George Stubbs, the best known paintings are by the the Staffordshire-born Peter de Wint (1784-1849). An artist much admired by Ruskin, de Wint visited Lincoln often because is wife came from the city. He painted a number of scenes that include the cathedral. Though none of the three artists are considered among the front rank of British painters, the collection shows that all were capable of high quality.

It may be because of the time I'd spent time looking at the works of these artists, that when I came to process this image of the cathedral seen from the south, I ended up with a photograph that has some of the qualities of a painting! Perhaps it's the darkness of the image that suggests this, or maybe it's the composition, or perhaps the colour and texture of the sky. Whatever the reason, the image was more heavily processed than most of my work, and it turned out like this. I'm not unhappy with the outcome!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 96mm (192mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On