Cadiz

 [ Photo Gallery # 93 ]

Cadiz – Spain

Cádiz is a city and port in south-western Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.  In my Photo Gallery today I include just a selection of the photographs which I took whilst wandering around the city on a visit there in 2006.

There are narrow streets, beautiful tree-lined plazas, a magnificent seafront promenade adorned with wonderful fountains, paved with colourful majolica tiles, and surrounded by a variety of trees and flowers.  Alameda Apodaca is a beautiful spot in the city of Cadiz, ideal for a stroll and to cool down on hot summer days.  It is a broad avenue with cobbled streets, and a variety of cobblestones and majolica tiles forming geometrical designs.

 

View of the city from the sea with Cadiz Cathedral dominating the skyline

Monument of the Spanish Constitution (approved in 1812)

Blossoming Jacaranda tree

Arbol del Mora, giant Moreton Bay Fig Trees (Ficus macrophylla) planted around 1900

Fountain and tiled majolica paving in the Alameda Apodaca

In Park Genoves

In the amazing Park Genoves, a botanical wonderland filled with over 100 species of trees and shrubs

 On one of Cadiz beaches, below the statue bust of Paco Alba, composer and creator of the  Carnival comparsa of Cádiz.

A Cadiz Roofscape

Cadiz street entertainment

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North Yorkshire Moors National Park

[ Photo Gallery # 92 ]

It is the area where I spent my youth and which will for ever be close to my (now southern) heart.  I have shown my photographs, taken over the many times I have revisited, in previous blogs.  The ones below were taken on a motoring tour of this delightful high moorland area in 2005.

The North York Moors is a national park in North Yorkshire, England, containing one of the largest expanses of  heather moorland in the United Kingdom. It covers an area of 554 sq miles (1,430 km²).  The area became a national park in 1952.

Ralph Cross on Westerdale Moor

The Lion Inn on remote Blakey Ridge is a 16th Century establishment located at the highest point of the North York Moors National Park.  It stands at an elevation of 1,325 feet and offers breathtaking views over the valleys of Rosedale and Farndale.

The Lion Inn, Blakey Ridge

Long before ‘Heartbeat’ and TV fame, the tumbling waterfall of Mallyan Spout helped put Goathland on the map as a tourist village in the nineteenth century. 

The waters of West Beck into which Mallyan Spout tumbles.

Grosmont Station is home to the operating and engineering world of the NYM Railway. Here you will find the engine sheds where the steam and diesel locomotives are maintained and restored.

Yes, steam trains – in all their glory!

This bracing moorland village has attracted visitors since the 19th century, but numbers soared following its appearance (as ‘Aidensfield’) in the television series ‘Heartbeat’ and its role in the ‘Harry Potter’ films.

Trains passing at Goathland (‘Aidensfield’) Station

A view from the NYM Railway, of the pyramid shape of the Fylingdales Royal Air Force station on Snod Hill in the North York Moors. It is a radar base and is also part of the National  Ballistic Missile Early Warning System.

The Rydale Open-air Folk museum can be found in the beautiful village of Hutton-le-Hole, in the heart of the North York Moors National Park.  The museum offers a unique glimpse of the past, with collections housed in 20 historic buildings depicting rural local life from Iron Age to 1950s.

Some of the cottages at the Rydale Folk Open-air museum

Maldon & the Thames Sailing Barge

[ Photo Gallery # 91 ]

Thames Sailing Barges

Maldon is a town on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England.   Cruises can now be undertaken from here on the traditional Thames Sailing Barges.  During the 17th and 18th centuries Thames Sailing Barges played an important role in ferrying cargo to and from ships to the London wharves. The very first barges were different from those we see today and lacked the distinctive sails which were introduced over time. Such craft  came in a variety of sizes that could carry from 100 tonnes, (river barges) to 300 tonnes (large coasters) to suit a range of needs.

The flat-bottomed barges with a shallow draught were perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary, with its shallow waters and narrow tributary rivers. The larger barges were seaworthy vessels, and were the largest sailing vessel that could be handled by just two men.

The cargoes carried by these boats varied enormously – bricks, cement, rubbish, hay, coal, sand, grain and gunpowder. Timber, bricks and hay were stacked on the deck, while cement and grain was carried loose in the hold. They could sail low in the water, even with their gunwales beneath the surface.

They sailed the Medway and Thames in a ponderous way for two-hundred years; then in the 1860s a series of barge races were started, and the barges’ design improved as vessels were built with better lines in order to win. The Thames barge races are the world’s second oldest sailing competition, second to the America’s Cup.  At the time of World War 2 these Thames Sailing Barges played a vital part in the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk, their shallow-bottoms proving excellent for this purpose.

 

 

The Thames Sailing Barge Trust, which owns such boats, operates some of their boats from Maldon and offers the opportunity to sail to various locations around the Thames Estuary,  and also to take part in competition with other barges in the various barge matches arranged throughout the sailing season.

The photographs below, except the first and the last, were taken by me on a visit to Maldon in 2005.

[  My notes above are based on information from a variety of sources ]

Map of the Thames estuary and the Essex coastline

Thames Sailing Barge in full sail

 

RYE, East Sussex, England

[ Photo Gallery # 90 ]

RYE is an English town near the coast in East Sussex.  It was one of the original Cinque Ports and parts of the original walls and town gates, once built to guard against invasions from the French, still remain.  Over the centuries, however, the sea has receded leaving Rye Harbour and the coast of the English Channel about 2 miles (3.2 km) downriver from the town.  In the town centre, cobbled lanes like Mermaid Street still exist lined with medieval, half-timbered houses. The redbrick Lamb House was once owned by writer Henry James. Nearby, the tower of the Norman St. Mary’s Church overlooks the town. 

Low tide on the River Rother at Rye

Ancient Rye Mill, reconstructed in 1932 after a fire destroyed much of the superstructure

Fascinating weather-worn textures in part of the ancient town walls

Looking uphill along the cobbled Mermaid Street to Lamb House at the top right

View across the roofs of the town from the roof of St. Mary’s Church tower

Another view across the roofs of the town from the roof of St. Mary’s Church tower

View towards the River Rother from the roof of St. Mary’s Church tower

A Burne-Jones stained-glass window in St.Mary’s Church

A lovely corner window in the town

House front near St.Mary’s Church

One of the ancient town entry gates

The green plaque is inscribed ‘Radclyffe Hall (1880 – 1943), Novelist, lived here.’

Grand Western Canal – Devon

[ Photo Gallery # 89 ]

The Grand Western Canal provides wonderful level walks and bike rides along its nature-adorned tow paths.  It extends for eleven and a quarter miles from the basin in Tiverton, East Devon, through quaint and charming villages to Lowdwells, near the Somerset border.

Perhaps the greatest attraction on the Canal is the much-loved horse-drawn barge based at the start of the canal in Tiverton.  It is a beautiful wide beam, 75-seater horse-drawn barge and the same boat has been taking passengers for trips along the canal since 1974.  The Devon section of the GW Canal is now a designated country park.

My photographs below were taken on a beautiful summer afternoon when I undertook a trip on the ‘Tivertonian’.

I have covered some of this information before on one of my blogs, which can be viewed by clicking on: ‘The Canal Horse’

The video below was made by The BBC, ‘One of the Last Horse Drawn Barges in the UK’ was filmed on the Grand Western Canal in Devon UK.

 

 

The FOLLY

THE  FOLLY

 

It might well be a fancy flight
a seemly sight
to pierce the night

The ruin stands by planned design 
stately in its verdant dell
beside the lake
a tableau there 
no history to tell

Reflections guaranteed to please 
float beside its stones
imaging false contrast
in the water’s mirror
a mirage of a potent past

To build a ruin seems absurd
why would you do it
the thought occurred

Perhaps to glory in the past
show time has passed
and nought can last

But as I wander within its wall
dark and damp
and weather worn
stained in moss
and ivy clad
I feel that here
real history lies
a tale so sad
a mystery

I do recall how
in its recent age
it yet was young
was burnished bright
both stone and tiles
a comely sight

To see an abbey in its prime
no sort of crime
merely a jest with time

Fanciful, a fantasy, 
undoubtedly a fallacy
yet
reflection of a legacy
portrayal of a history

 

London

[ Photo Gallery # 88 }

A few of my photographic memories of a stroll through central London and the City on a beautiful warm summer’s day in 2005. 

 

Looking upriver from Waterloo Bridge towards Big Ben, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament

Looking down-river from Waterloo Bridge towards St.Paul’s Cathedral and the City

View  of St.Paul’s Cathedral across the River Thames from the top of the Tate Modern Gallery

The dome of St.Paul’s Cathedral looking north across the Millennium Footbridge

The dome of St.Paul’s Cathedral looking north across the Millennium Footbridge – 2

View to the east from the Millennium Footbridge towards Tower Bridge

B

Street entertainer on the South Embankment of the Thames – Waterloo Bridge in the background

Office block in the City

London Guildhall – exterior

London Guildhall – interior – the excavated remains of the Roman Amphitheatre discovered beneath the foundations of the Guildhall.

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The Coast of North West Cornwall

[ Photo Gallery # 87 }

To the east and the west of the Camel Estuary (see my blog of a week ago ) lie numerous inlets of the sea . Delightful coves and small villages  clinging to the Cornish cliffs.  Below is a gallery of my photographs of a number of these.

Rough sea on a misty morning at Polzeath

After the shower near Port Quin

Sign on entering the National Trust village of Port Quin

View of the inlet at Port Quin

The village of Port Isaac – used as the setting for the TV series ‘Doc Martin’.

Looking out to sea from the harbourside of Port Isaac

The beach at Trevone Bay near Padstow

The Lighthouse at Trevose Head, a headland on the Atlantic coast of north Cornwall

The Neal Rock with the Trevose Head lighthouse in the background

Close up view of The Neal Rock at Trevose Head

The cliffs and rocks at Bedruthan Steps

The granite rocks that are dotted across the beach are, according to legend, stepping stones for the Giant Bedruthan.

Bath – The Kennet & Avon Canal

[ Photo Gallery # 85 }

Following my series of photographs of Bath on my last week’s photo-blog, I today feature a number of photographs centring on Bath’s position on the beautiful River Avon and its associated canal – the Kennet and Avon.  

Town Bridge at Bradford-on-Avon, approximately seven miles from the city of Bath

The Bridge Tearooms, Bradford-on-Avon

The City of Bath

[ Photo Gallery # 84 }

Bath is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England.  It is renowned in particular for its Roman spa baths, built c. 60 AD, when it went under the Latin name of Aquae Sulis (‘The Waters of Sulis’).   In 2011, the city had a population of almost 89 thousand.

Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, 97 miles (156 km) west of London.  The town is set in the rolling countryside of south-west England, and is known for its natural hot springs and 18th-century Georgian architecture.  It has strong connections with the 18th Century author, Jane Austen, who lived here during the Regency period from 1801 to 1806 and who set two of her novels, ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘Persuasion’, in Bath.

Honey-coloured Bath stone has been used extensively in the town’s architecture, including at Bath Abbey, noted for its fan-vaulting, tower and large stained-glass windows. The museum at the site of the original Roman-era Baths includes The Great Bath, statues and a temple.

In 1704, Richard (‘Beau’) Nash, the celebrated leader of fashion, became ‘Master of Ceremonies’ at the then rising spa town of  Bath.  He lived in the town for much of the first part of the 18th Century and played a leading role in making Bath the most fashionable resort in 18th-century England.

I hope my gallery of photographs, taken in Bath on a visit to the city about 12 years ago, will give a taste of the pleasures and architectural delights of this city, one of the most visited in the United Kingdom.

The River Avon and Pulteney Bridge at Bath. Designed by Robert Adam in a Palladian style, it is exceptional in having shops built across its full span on both sides. 

The Avon Weir, beside Pulteney Bridge

Close-up of the Avon Weir

A more distant view of Pulteney Bridge and the Avon Weir

Statue of Mozart in the Parade Gardens, Grand Parade, BATH

View of the East window of Bath Abbey from the Parade Gardens

Fan vaulting on the nave of Bath Abbey

Close-up of the nave ceiling at Bath Abbey

 

 

Memorial to Sir Richard Hussey Bickerton (1759-1832) in Bath Abbey.  He was a British naval officer, at times, second in command to Lord Nelson

The Great Bath – the entire structure above the level of the pillar bases is a later construction. There are four main features to the complex: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the museum

The Spring rises within the courtyard of the Temple of Sulis Minerva and water from it feeds the Roman Baths

Sally Lunn’s is much more than a world famous tea and eating house in the centre of Bath.  This historic building is one of the oldest houses in the city.  It owes its fame to the creation of the first Bath bun, an authentic regional speciality known throughout the world, and first introduced by the legendary young Huguenot baker, Sally Lunn, in Georgian Bath.