Destroying the past

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The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.
Simone Weil (1909-1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic and political activist
Despite having great sympathy with Simone Weil's statement I don't find it difficult to think of a worse crime than destroying the past. However, to remove evidence of mankind's past is, undoubtedly, a particularly destructive thing to do. Our sense of the present is greatly informed by our knowledge of the past, and to lose one is to impair the other. The past - in printed or image form, in memories and in buildings and artefacts -  is all that we have to remember those who came before us. To rub them out is to extinguish people, and that is always wrong, whether they are living or dead.

If we confine ourselves to buildings we find that Isis are not the first group to wilfully and deliberately destroy ancient structures for their own ends. The Taliban did it in Afghanistan and in 1942 the Luftwaffe did it in their so-called Baedecker Raids on Britain, a response they said, to the switch to area bombing by the RAF. However, it is not always warring factions that are most responsible for the destruction of the past. All too frequently it is simple neglect or misplaced planning and "progress". In the 1960s and 1970s many ancient buildings that today would have been preserved, adapted and turned to new uses, were swept away in the name of progress. It took the destruction of the Euston Arch to galvanise people against the vandalism that was taking place and begin to bring to an end the loss that was taking place.

Tattershall Castle (above) was one of the buildings in the forefront of early building preservation legislation. In 1910, in a ruinous state, it was bought by Lord Curzon and sensitively restored. It had been destined to be dismantled and parts sold abroad. His experience with this building prompted Lord Curzon to press for some laws to protect old buildings resulting in the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act of 1913. As a direct consequence of his actions we can still experience something of this ancient building - as the mother and daughter are doing in today's photograph.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Old graffiti

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On March 12th 1848 I. Burton and H. King of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire were standing on a staircase of Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire, presumably with a hammer and chisel or some other implements, carving their names in the stone handrail built into the wall. We know this because the heavily incised graffiti is still there for all to read. It is, I suppose, an immortality of sorts. They had probably been inspired by L. C. Howy (?) who had done the same thing in 1779, and perhaps by others from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

At the time this brick and stone castle was in a ruinous state, open to the weather and to any passing tourist, antiquarian or vandal. Many of the latter left their mark and most of them can be read today. One of the characteristics of graffiti today is that if it isn't quickly removed it soon attracts more. That was also true in the past.

We saw this particular piece of graffiti on a visit to the castle. However, it wasn't the first old graffiti that we'd seen that day. Before we arrived at Tattershall we had stopped off at Haltham and noted the names and dates left on the stone surround of the church's south door by vandals of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There was much less, to be sure, but it was there nonetheless. Even in the supposedly God-fearing seventeenth century there were people who thought little of leaving their name or initials on the fabric of a church, clearly unworried by the thought of any retribution that might follow their desecration.

photographs and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:3200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Attracted to the insignificant

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It's happened to me more times than I care to remember. I'm out photographing something large and eye-catching when my attention is drawn to something small and relatively insignificant, something that I hadn't noticed until I got into position for the sought after shot. And that relatively insignificant subject produces a photograph that I like much more than the one I originally had my eye on.

My previous post, of Tattershall Castle, is a fairly routine piece of photographic reportage. The light is OK, the composition works, the content is reasonably interesting, and the shot is different from many of this subject because it's taken in winter when the building is out of use, rather than in summer. But it's not the sort of photograph that I'll look back at, ponder or seek to repeat and improve upon. However, when I was standing on the outer wall of the moat I noticed below me the skeletal remains of plants that had grown up through the water. Initially I thought they were umbellifers of one kind or another, but I now think they must be something else. What attracted me was their pale, winter-blasted stalks and seed heads against the deep, shadowy blue of the water. Then I noticed that the plants were throwing reflections on the surface that were dark doppelgangers. Looking through the viewfinder I liked the sharp, scratchy lines against the dark background and I ended up taken rather more shots of this unimportant subject than of the historic and significant pile only a hundred yards away. Which, I suppose, takes us back once more to the Aaron Rose quotation I mentioned last month.

Reviewing the photograph on my computer I was reminded of a photograph I posted in April 2012, one that was languishing in the vaults, that I plucked out and used. It shows willow branches and twigs over water. Its a shot that sits quite nicely alongside today's, and would look even better with a third to make a short series or triptych. I must look out for something suitable.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 37.1mm (100mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO:400
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Lincolnshire castles

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Lincolnshire, though a large county, has relatively few castles, and even fewer if we only include those that today look like the castles of our imagining. Lincoln Castle is the most complete with extensive Norman walls, a keep, part of a tower, a thirteenth century tower and the exterior of a gateway of fourteenth century date. At Old Bolingbroke, once a large castle, only the mound, ditches and some low walling remains. Grimsthorpe Castle is a country house but one built around earlier remains of which only King John's Tower still stands. The often overlooked Somerton Castle near Boothby Graffoe has vaulted rooms in round angle towers. There are quite a few Norman motte and baileys, but most, such as those at Castle Bytham and Sleaford, remain only as grassy mounds, though Stamford does rather better with some walling still standing. Elsewhere a few towers and fortified houses can still be found, such as those at South Kyme, and Boston (the Hussey Tower and the Rochford Tower).

That short list sums up the major fortified remains of Lincolnshire. So, you may be thinking, why hasn't Tattershall Castle (above) been included. Well, as I noted in my earlier post about this brick-built castle, it was never built as a mainly defensive structure in the way that most other castles were. It has the form of a castle - a tall, embattled keep with machicolations, a moated bailey with a defensible bridging point, etc - but it was made of brick at a time (1434-1450) when canons were capable of reducing it to rubble in quite short order. It could not have lasted long as a stronghold against even a moderately large, well-equipped attacking force. The raison d'etre for Tattershall seems to have been impressing the locals and building up the standing of its owner, Ralph Cromwell, Lord High Treasurer of England under Henry VI.

The castle is in the care the National Trust and closed for the winter until March. So, on the day when we went to see the nearby church I was restricted in the locations from which I could photograph the adjoining castle tower. This shot was taken from the outer wall of the moat.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec
ISO:125
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire

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Tattershall Castle was built by Ralph Cromwell in 1434-5 and was completed around 1450. Ralph held the title of Lord Comwell, was a Privy Councillor, and from 1433 to 1443 was Lord High Treasurer of England under Henry VI. His castle replaced an earlier structure dating from 1231 that was built by Sir Robert de Tateshall. The bases of two of this building's towers can still be seen.

Tattershall Castle was originally a much more extensive structure than we see today. As well as the remaining imposing keep and tall guardhouse it had an outer moat, outer bailey, inner moat, inner bailey, stables, gatehouse and kitchens. The area of the baileys and the moat ditches remain today, but little can be seen of the other buildings. There are not many brick castles in England - stone was much preferred - and people have speculated whether, towards the close of the castle building period, in an age of canon, the keep was designed for defence or simply to impress. Whatever the reason, and given Cromwell's unpopularity it was probably both, 700,000 bricks were used on the structure, with dressed stone reserved for window and door surrounds and certain other constructional and decorative details. Despite the expense and care taken in building the castle it didn't have a very long life, falling into disrepair soon after Cromwell's death. That we can see it today is largely due to Lord Curzon who responded to public dismay at the state of the castle by buying it in 1911 and restoring it. On Curzon's death Tattershall passed into the ownership of the National Trust who continue to maintain it today.

I took my photograph on a clear January morning. The castle was closed to the public, but this view was available by looking over a hedge on the track that leads to the adjacent Holy Trinity church, a building also funded by Ralph Cromwell.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 32mm
F No: 7.1 Shutter Speed: 1/100
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On 

The Tower Hamlets Trayned Bandes

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I received an email the other day. It was a good humoured complaint. The writer was concerned to point out that the two photographs I posted of members of The Tower Hamlets Trayned Bandes re-enactment group (here and here) didn't reflect the pleasure that comes from taking part in such activities. My correspondent was complimentary about my images in all other respects, but wondered if I'd taken any shots that showed the members of the English Civil War organisation with smiles on their faces.

I'm pleased to say that not only did the Bandes' members generally go about their business smiling, I actually caught them in the act, and today I'm happy to post the proof. However, why some of them were smiling as they trooped back to their encampment after a skirmish I don't know, because they'd just been shot to death! I suppose the ability to rise from the dead after the battle is over and go and have a a bit of food and drink in the bosom of your family and friends is one of the pleasures of this kind of activity.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 102mm (204mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Bringing the past closer

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A couple of weeks ago I pulled over by the side of the road near Horncastle in Lincolnshire, and read an information board that is sited there. It explained that on the nearby fields on 11th October 1643, during the English Civil War, the Battle of Winceby was fought.The Parliamentary forces were led by the Earl of Manchester, Edward Montagu, with Oliver Cromwell as his second in command. Sir William Widdrington commanded the Royalists, with Sir John Henderson and William Saville. Each side had a force of about 3,000 mounted men. Through a combination of Cromwell's better tactics and confusion over orders among the Royalists the battle resulted in a decisive victory for the Parliamentarians. Widdrington's force lost in the region of 300 men killed and around 800 taken prisoner, whilst Cromwell suffered about 20 killed. The battle was a significant action in the sequence of events that resulted in Lincolnshire being wrested from the Royalists.

As we looked at the battlefield and its sign I commented that 1643 wasn't too long ago. That isn't a remark that I could have made in my teenage years or even in my twenties or thirties. However, it has been my experience that advancing years and an increasing knowledge of history has given me a more informed overview of the years between then and now, and this "joining of the dots" has brought those relatively remote times closer. As I watched the re-enactment of Civil War skirmishes performed by The Tower Hamlets Trayned Bands at Tattershall Castle, and during my walk around their faithfully re-constructed encampment, I wondered if the years contracted in a similar way for these "actors". Does inhabiting the seventeenth century for many weekends of the year bring that time closer? I imagine it does. Today's photograph shows one of the women who were particpating in the re-enactment. With other women and a group of children she was explaining about the domestic duties and implements of the Civil War period.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The English Civil War

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The English Civil War (or English Revolution) and the ensuing Commonwealth and Protectorate of the seventeenth century have always seemed to me to be neglected periods of English history. Schools often treat them in a fleeting manner, skimming over the essentials, but rarely dwelling on their deeper significance. Higher education gives every impression of finding other periods more attractive. I get the feeling too that there are fewer books about this era than about other, often less interesting times. Moreover, it's my impression that the average English person actually knows more about the American Civil War and its outcome than about our home-grown conflict and its consequences, probably due to the wide coverage of the former in Hollywood films.

Which, of course, begs the question of why this should be. Is it because England's revolution appears as an aberration in our (almost) seamless sequence of monarch succeeding monarch? Does violent revolt and regicide appeal less to British sensibilities than to those of the French or all the other nations that replaced a monarchy with a republic? Are we so besotted with a class structure that has a royal family at its apex that we can't countenance greater egality? Or are we a conservative nation for whom change must be gradual, if it comes at all? There may be other reasons, but none that immediately spring to the mind of this confirmed republican.

A recent visit to Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire co-incided with a display by an English Civil War re-enactment group. When we decided to go the castle, a brick building dating from the 1440s, we hadn't known that the The Tower Hamlets Trayned Bandes, a re-creation of a Civil War Parliamentarian militia would be there, skirmishing and laying seige to the fortification. So, as well as photographs of the architecture (and my family) I also managed a few of the members of the re-enactment group as they went about their business.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 64mm (128mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Arches and stairs

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The outline of most arches was constructed using a straight edge and a pair of compasses. It's quite easy to see how a round-headed arch might be drawn using these tools, but pointed arches were drawn in this way too.

The simplest pointed arch - the "pointed" or "two-centred arch" was drawn using two arcs that met at the apex of the arch, with the compass point located outside, to the left and right, of the vertical lines that form the jambs. This is easier to show using an explanatory drawing than it is to describe in words.

I mention this because when I came to look at my photograph of an arched doorway through which a spiral staircase can be seen, I couldn't decide what kind of arch it was. The photograph was taken in Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, a tall, brick structure built in 1434, a time when castle building was on the wane. The arch is of the Tudor/four-centred variety. Some authorities class these arch shapes as one and the same, though others maintain that the Tudor arch is more depressed than its the four-centred sibling. Either way, I was definitely depressed after I'd consulted my books and the internet and come to no definite conclusion!

The photograph was taken using natural light, and the effects that might suggest the use of flash come from artificial light sources that are designed to make the tourist's passage safer, and natural light penetrating through small windows.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 11mm (22mm/44mm equiv.)
F No: f3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/13 seconds
ISO: 400
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On