The Cloud at the White Horse, Stony Stratford

I went to see The Cloud (formerly Cloud 9 but now trendier) and it was good! In spite of challenging lighting conditions, I managed to get some good shots

Here's Dave on guitar

Steve on keys

Ant on bass

Glen on drums

Guest singer Kelly

Guest guitarist Andy Fenton.


















And here's a link to more photos

A Springtime Walk

Milton Keynes has some excellent planting including drifts of thousands of daffodils which delight us for a few weeks in early spring.

Here's a drift near the Willen Tree Cathedral

Here's an "artistic" shot. It went wrong, but there's something about it...

Sunlight playing on the floor of the aisle of the tree cathedral

 A roadside drift

Odd one out

Moose Drool moored near Campbell Park

A Birthday Celebration

It was Stephen Wass's 60th. He invited ten of us to a private dinner at Ettington Park near Stratford on Avon. Ettington Park is a magnificent neo-gothic pile in extensive grounds with the river Stour running through.

The entrance hall with wellies

The house through the (possible) Saxon window in the ruined church. The church was abandoned when the gentry exercised their right to enclose - and kicked out the locals and cleared the village.

Dinner for 10 in the chapel

Stephen can't leave his archaeology behind. There's a dilapidated summer house in the grounds and he and Verna saw parallels with the one at Farnborough Hall and asked me to take some pictures.

A ruined tunnel system in the grounds. Possibly an ice house or maybe a grotto.

Here's the birthday boy

And here he is with Verna


















There are more images here should you be interested

A Snowy Trip to Farnborough Hall

A trip to Farnborough Hall with archaeologist Stephen Wass to record some details of the so-called dairy. The dairy is now used as an animal shelter. Its original purpose is unknown, but it can be seen from the house, the cascade and the terraced walk so it is thought that it is possibly a feature to do with the parkland. There is much more research to be done to establish its context in the park.

The cascade was looking magnificent in the snow

The purpose of the visit was to record some of the features of the dairy. The floor under the shelter has brick pavings and a stone channel to carry water (and other liquids) away. The brick has collapsed near to the wall, possibly into a culvert or opening below.

Stephen wanted a photographic record of the carpenter's marks on the roof timbers. It looks as though this timber has been reused a few times.

Inside the main section of the dairy in the milking parlour, the carpenter's marks take a different form. This time they're chisel marks of differing lengths to show which beams and king posts are matched

Here's an internal door with some interesting iron work.

Finally we had a look at the collapsed cricket pavilion elsewhere on the the estate. According to the head gardener, this was standing 10 years ago so it shows how quickly buildings can deteriorate when not properly maintained. This will be the subject of  a detailed survey during the coming weeks.




Loads more images can be seen in the gallery here

Stephen's website is here

Here's the National Trust's Farnborough Hall site

And there's some historical stuff here

Autumn Colours at Stowe

The house at Stowe, home in the 18th century to the Temple family and its head Viscount Cobham, is now an exclusive public school. The grounds, which were laid out by Charles Bridgeman, William Kent and Lancelot "Capability" Brown, are in the hands of the National Trust. There are miles of walks with temples, statues and stunning vistas.

Karin waiting patiently by the steps of the Queen's Temple. It was where Lady Cobham would entertain her lady friends and is now used by the school as a music room.

The memorial to Captain Cook in its watery surroundings.      

The Temple of Venus

The Temple of British Worthies - still a good place for a group portrait.

View from the Grotto, recently reopened after extensive restoration

You can see more images in the  gallery here

And here's the  National Trust site for Stowe
And here's a  Wikipedia article about the park and gardens

Farnborough Hall visit no. 2

Another visit to Farnborough Hall, this time to photograph a team from the Coventry and Warwickshire National Trust Volunteers who helped the Hall staff to clear small trees and vegetation from the amphitheatre

See my blog entry for 10 September for more information about Farnborough Hall and the work archaeologist Stephen Wass is carrying out.

Here they are working

And here they are having a tea break. Actually they worked very hard and were well deserving of their breaks.

We found some interesting items beneath the vegetation and these were recorded photographically. Later on archaeologist Stephen Wass will do a full job on recording them. This was some metalwork which is possibly a container with handles. It's very corroded and is in an area where there is evidence of possible burning. There was much speculation about what it might be, and there's a lot of pressure on Stephen to come up with a plausible explanation.

Here's a mountain of debris they collected from the site. There's a tractor in there somewhere trying to push it to the edge of the site for disposal. Actually, it'll probably be left to decay naturally; an excellent way of encouraging wildlife to live in it and eat it for a couple of years.

After a hard day's work, here's the central area of the amphitheatre and we're starting to see how it would have looked in the 18th century.










Loads more images can be seen in the gallery here

Stephen's website is here

Here's the National Trust's Farnborough Hall site

And there's some historical stuff here

That's it for now. Chris.

A trip to the Lake District

We had a short break in the Lake District, staying at a friend's house in Cockermouth. The town was devastated by floods in 2009, with water up to 2 metres deep in Main Street and it has recovered remarkably well. The sign sums up the spirit of the place.

The clouds were low so we took a trip down to Crummock to get some atmospheric lake-side shots.

Day 2: low cloud again so went to Wastwater, the deepest lake in the Lake District. Off to the top right of this shot is Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England. We were hoping to see some autumn colours and were not disappointed.

Day 3 - a trip to Rannerdale with hopes of getting up to Whiteless Pike but low cloud scuppered us again. Went round Rannerdale Knots instead.

Day 4 - Watendlath Tarn and shore. Watendlath is a tiny hamlet reached by a narrow winding road. It's owned by the National Trust and there's a farm with a flock of Herdwick sheep. We set out on a circular walk to Dock Tarn, returning via Stonethwaite.

From Watendlath to Dock Tarn

Dock Tarn and then on to Stonethwaite

Nearly back at Watendlath












There are more pictures in this gallery