Captain Matthew Flinders RN

click photo to enlarge

It's not unusual to find a town or a city honouring its sons and daughters with a memorial stone or a statue in a prominent place. It is said that London has more statues than any other city, and when I visit the capital I always come across a new one that I've never seen before.Given the size of London it's not surprising that there are so many. You would think it more unusual to come across such a thing in a rural village or town in an agricultural county such as Lincolnshire. And yet quite a few small settlements have statues to prominent people, often explorers. One such is Donington in the district of Holland.

The market place of this village has a slightly smaller than life size metal statue of Captain Matthew Flinders RN (1774-1814), the explorer who discovered and mapped parts of Australia. Alongside him is his cat, Trim. The house where he was born and raised (his father was the local doctor) was demolished in 1908. However, in the later twentieth century the village decided to commemorate its most famous son, and village signs were erected noting that Donington was his birthplace. The chancel of the church had long held memorial tablets to Flinders and his family, but in 1979 a memorial window was installed in a north east window of the north aisle. The design is by John Hayward, and it depicts Flinders in naval uniform. It also shows his friend (and fellow explorer) George Bass from Aswarby, his patron, Sir Joseph Banks, coats of arms, a map of part of the Australian coast, his sloop, "Investigator", various navigational instruments, and a picture of the house in which he was born. There is also a panel noting that the window was paid for by funds from Australia and the UK. Flinders' writings suggest that he had no doubt about the significance of himself and his discoveries, and he would no doubt have been pleased to see public acknowledgement of this in his home town as well as in several places in Australia.

I used the LX3, hand-held, for this shot. Fairly heavy negative EV was required to keep the colour of the lightest sections, and post processing was necessary to correct verticals as well as bring back the colour of the areas that became too dark in the original image. The duller colours of the lower third are the result of the background of bushes and trees outside in the churchyard - a common problem when photographing stained glass.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 7.4mm (35mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

To the ends of the earth

click photo to enlarge

Lincolnshire is the second largest English county (by area), encompassing that swathe of Eastern England between the Humber estuary and The Wash. The county has relatively little industry, no large cities, and only a short section of motorway. For many it is England's sparsely populated, sleepy backwater, and those who give it any thought at all think of it as flat and fecund. Both of these words have elements of truth: the Fens and the coastal areas are flat, but the Wolds and the hills of the Stone Belt are certainly not. And, whilst some of the most productive arable land in the country is to be found here, so too are marshes and pastures.

Consequently many are surprised to find that Lincolnshire produced more than its fair share of explorers who left the green fields and ancient churches of their home county to travel to the ends of the earth. Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), a Spilsby man, explored the Arctic and mapped two thirds of the northern coastline of North America. Matthew Flinders (1774-1814), who discovered and mapped much of Australia's coast was born in Donington. George Bass (1771-1803), who sailed with Flinders, mapped some of south Australia, and predicted the strait that separates that continent from Tasmania. Flinders named it the Bass Strait after his friend and companion who was christened in the church shown above.

This building of twelfth century foundation, is dedicated to St Denis, and is in the small, picturesque, "estate village" of Aswarby. George Bass was born on a nearby farm, and became a naval surgeon before undertaking his explorations. The church has a memorial and information about Bass, and an Australian flag hangs near the west end of the nave in memory of the village's famous son. I took this shot, one of several I have of this particularly lovely church and setting, on a late March morning when the light said spring, but the wind said winter's not quite gone!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm (34mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: Off