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A few days off work. I was originally planning to go back to the Somerset Levels, but a) the Somerset Levels are currently underwater, and b) my car was making a weird noise. So I took the train to Brighton instead. Brighton was busy. Of course it was busy, it is a city, you fool. And it is surprisingly hard to get a proper pot of tea there. There are coffee shops galore, and shops offering bubble tea & matcha & chai... but I failed to find any old-fashioned tea rooms. Luckily I came across the café upstairs in Waterstones, had a pot of tea surrounded by books, and was saved.
Back home now. Brighton was grand. Grand & crumbling. I think I enjoyed it, despite the lack of tea, and the getting lost (a lot).
( Regency grandeur )
Along the drove roads
Dec. 27th, 2025 03:04 pm
West of Wimborne, the Stour Valley is crisscrossed with old drove roads, some of them gravel tracks, and some of them green lanes (or lanes of mud, depending on the time of year). They are not spectacular from a photographic point of view: flat tracks running between high hedges. But they are a quiet place to walk in winter, sheltered from bitter north-easterly winds.
( Read more... )
Kingston Maurward House. Built 1717-1720, originally of red brick, but fashionably encased in white ashlar in 1794.
( And, in the grounds of Kingston Maurward, a very small palace )
Bossington
Oct. 24th, 2025 06:44 pm
The village of Bossington with its traditional tall chimneys. (I'm guessing something about the local weather conditions meant that the chimneys had to be tall to draw properly, rather than it just being a contest to see whose was the biggest?)
( A quick visit )
On my mission to drink tea in many places on Exmoor, I visited Selworthy, an implausibly pretty village in the hills above the Vale of Porlock.( Read more... )
Knitted/crocheted Punch & Judy show on top of a postbox. Postboxes in this country tend to get yarnbombed. They are a stationary target.
( A few random photos of Exmouth town... )
Bradford on Avon
Mar. 3rd, 2025 06:42 pm
Town Bridge, Bradford on Avon.
The bridge at present has nine arches, of which the southern two are ribbed pointed gothic and date from the 13th or 14th centuries. On the upstream cutwater between these two arches is a small early 18th century building with a stone dome, which was the town’s two-cell lockup. At the top is a weather vane in the shape of a fish, which is known as the Bradford Gudgeon, although it does not really resemble a real gudgeon. An occupant of the cells was said to be “below the fish and above the water”, referring to the weather vane. John Aubrey, writing in 1660-1670, noted that it was then a chapel...
www.bradfordonavonmuseum.co.uk/town-bridge
( A wander round Bradford on Avon in the sunshine... )
The lantern of the 14th century octagon tower of Ely Cathedral.
The octagon was rebuilt by sacrist Alan of Walsingham between 1322 and 1328 after the collapse of the original nave crossing on 22 February 1322. Ely's octagon is considered "one of the wonders of the medieval world". Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner believes the octagon "is a delight from beginning to end for anyone who feels for space as strongly as for construction" and is the "greatest individual achievement of architectural genius at Ely Cathedral"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ely,_Cambridgeshire
( Visit to the Isle of Eels )
(no subject)
May. 14th, 2024 06:34 pm
For fans of wonky buildings: the Bridge Tea Rooms, Bradford on Avon. Dating from 1502, and once a blacksmith's cottage.
Another weekend, another walk through a village by the River Frome. Frampton, this time. ( A one-sided affair )
