Tag: Wales

  • #197 – Gwrych Castle Part 3 – No Entry

    Taken from a similar vantage point to one of the photos in the first post of this series, I zoomed in a bit to emphasise the shadows. In doing so, the photo has less depth as it is primarily just the flat wall, but I like the way the shadows fell and the different textures…

  • #198 – Gwrych Castle Part 4 – Ivy

    Final one from Grywch Castle, taken from the castellated wall that takes the driveway through the stables to the owners entrance hall, which is some distance from the visitors entrance on the lower level of the property. Large swathes of the walls were once covered in ivy, much has been cleared away but it’s growing…

  • #196 – Gwrych Castle Part 2 – Weeds

    It never ceases to amaze me how quickly nature takes over when man abandons his structures. Like walking through a woodland path the undergrowth makes seeing the stairs increasingly difficult. Meanwhile, inside (I use the term loosely, there’s been no roof for several years), this little plant had managed to take root on the reinforced…

  • #195 – Gwrych Castle Part 1

    Gwrych Castle(pronounced “Grick”, apparently), is notable for being the only castle in the UK to have no vowels in it. Or did I make that up? Not sure. Anyway, if you’ve ever driven along the A55 past Abergele, you’ll probably have seen this place on the wooded hillside to the west of the town. I…

  • #159 – Bargoed Colliery 1977 Part 3

    Final selection of scans from Bargoed, this time it’s of the workers. From what I can make out, the photos are by Kjell-Ake Andersson and Mikael Wistrom.  

  • #158 – Bargoed Colliery 1977 Part 2

     More from Bargoed. I’ve always thought that colliery headstocks / headgears are massively symbolic, more than any other industrial structure. Their great height meant they loomed over their communities as a constant reminder to everyone of their working lives. This selection of photos is about men and machines. The industrial revolution resulted in a huge…

  • #157 – Bargoed Colliery 1977 Part 1

    For a change (as I’ve not even picked up my camera for a month!), I thought I’d post a few scans from a fascinating Swedish book that a friend of mine sent me, which is a photo essay on the Welsh mining industry.  Unfortunately, I don’t speak a word of Swedish, but from what I…

  • #155 – The Duke Of Lancaster 3

    OK, final bunch of snaps from the Duke Of Lancaster for the meantime. There is a public footpath that runs along the west side of the dock where the ship is moored. Between the path and the ship is a bramble hedge and a fence with razor wire on top, but I wasn’t interested in getting…

  • #154 – The Duke Of Lancaster 2

    A few more from Mostyn of the Duke Of Lancaster. The ship has been here since 1979, which means that it’s been at Mostyn longer than it was in revenue earning passenger service. Wikipedia states that the original plans were for her to be used as a static leisure centre and market. Marketed as the…

  • #153 – The Duke Of Lancaster 1

    #153 – The Duke Of Lancaster 1

    I’ve never really got excited about mobile phones, only replacing mine when they were worn out or broken. However, now that they’ve become mobile computers that can also make phone calls, they’ve started to interest me a bit more. not so much the technology itself, but what that technology allows me to do. I’d started…

  • #117 – Lethal Processes

    #117 – Lethal Processes

    I don’t know what this building used to do at Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) Wrexham, but I suspect it was something dangerous that involved making or processing something lethal. Either way, it’s remained unused for over 60 years, the only evidence left being the foundations for something, and a large sunken pool of water at one end…

  • #13 – Kodak Ektar 100

    I bought three rolls of this new film a few months back, and I started using my first roll at Parys Copper Mine, and then didn’t pick up my film camera again for 3 months to finish the roll! So, as I was keen to see how good it was, I cast good sense aside…

  • #12 – Super Wide Angle Fun :)

    For several years, I used a Sigma 10-20mm lens on my Nikon D70. As this was a DX (crop format) camera, this gave a focal length of 15-30mm, and for urban exploration and landscape use, it was fantastic. However, I had to sell this when I upgraded to a full frame (FX) camera, as DX…