The chapel on the tor

Video 2 of Torbay Council's renovation of Chapel Woods and the 13th century Chapel project. Other videos at barrie-james.co.uk.
An example of the many brilliant topographical views made conveniently accessible by UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) technology: Barrie James's movie commissioned by Torbay Council of the progress of woodland management work at the hitherto-obscured site of the 13th century St Michael's Chapel, at the summit of a crag of limestone above Torre Station, Torbay.

Bruges-la-Morte photos

I just took the liberty of colour-adjusting the thirty-five beautiful photos by Ch.-G. Petit et Cie (Charles G. Petit & Co.) that illustrate Georges Rodenbach's 1892 novel in French, Bruges-la-Morte: roman (The Dead [City of] Bruges: a novel) - see Bruges-la-Morte (January 2009).

River light

Pardon the rather hackneyed scenery shots ... but the last couple of days have seen the bright, crisp, and calm high-pressure weather that brings out the Exe at Topsham at its most photogenic.

Christmas 2014

Best wishes of the season to all JSBlog readers.

- Ray

Soap film photographs #1

Further to the previous post - Professor Boys' Rainbow Cup and other marvels - this evening I made a trial attempt at photographing soap films. This was just using the usual Canon Ixus pocket camera, handheld, looking at a detergent film in the handle of a corkscrew. The setup is dark background, and strong reflected light at an angle.

Isle of Wight photo tours - Victorian-style

With the sheer ease of photography nowadays, it's easy to forget the complications that the hobby presented in the late 1800s. I just found a nice batch of Photographic News articles in which amateur photographers of the time describe their Isle of Wight visits. The details are sometimes geeky, but often interesting in their descriptions of the technical problems and general impressions of the Wight by Victorian photographers.

Devon rocks - Erme estuary

Yesterday - thanks to a friend who gave us a lift - we walked a short section of the South West Coast Path above the Erme estuary, South Hams, a location with multiple designations: South Devon Heritage Coast, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Langstone Cliff - civilised lunch and a missing elephant

I recently went to a Ladies' Probus lunch at the Langstone Cliff Hotel, above Dawlish Warren (it was the President's Lunch, to which spouses are invited). It's a very pleasant location, with a view across to the High Land of Orcombe and Sandy Bay. It also has a verandah perfect for 3D photography, and some interesting coastal history nearby.

St Margaret's Church: 3D

Following the experiments in 3D photos in woodland vistas - see Undercliff - there and back again: 3D - I took a few stereopairs in St Margaret's Church, Topsham.

Topsham along the river Exe: UAV movie

Neil Ewins just sent me a link to his stunning UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) movie, Topsham along the river Exe: a flypast of Topsham's river frontage from the Quay upriver to the Sailing Club and back, taking in what must be a unique overhead view of the hulks on the opposite bank.

Lyme antiquariana

I forgot to mention in the Chimney Rock post that I was almost at the location, Ware Cliff at the western end of Lyme Regis, of the 1685 landing for the Duke of Monmouth's failed attempt to become King of England. A quick search for sources converged on a 19th century Lyme antiquary, George Roberts - I should have looked out for him at Lyme Regis Museum (of which more later in the article).

Undercliff - there and back again: 3D

I mentioned before that the landscape of the Lyme Regis Undercliff is surprisingly difficult to photograph; images don't convey the depth of the wooded vistas of what I've seen described as the nearest thing England has to a jungle. However, a while back I came round to the view that 3D is an effective medium for handling this, and I took a set of stereopairs during a return visit yesterday.

Topsham from the air

The Summer 2014 issue of EX magazine has a very nice feature on some photography commissioned by the local estate agents Wilkinson Grant, using a drone camera to take aerial videos and 'tilt-shift' stills of Topsham, Lympstone and Woodbury.

DWWW: part 3

Further to largely forgotten DWWWs (Dead White Women Writers) - late-Victorian writers whose portraits appeared in The Picture Magazine, Vol 3, 1894.

DWWW: part 2

Further to largely forgotten DWWWs (Dead White Women Writers) - late-Victorian writers whose portraits appeared in The Picture Magazine, Vol 3, 1894.

DWWW: part 1

JSBlog has had a bit of a DWM (Dead White Males) bias lately, so here's a compendium of DWWWs (Dead White Women Writers) from The Picture Magazine, Vol 3, 1894. Published by George Newnes from January 1893 to June 1896, The Picture Magazine was quite an innovative format for its time, in being simply an eclectic mix of captioned images.

Angry birds

It was a quiet afternoon on Topsham Underway: until the resident geese and a swan took exception to each other.

Mystery Devon images #2

Lynmouth, c.1900-1920

 Philip Willis, a correspondent, just sent another batch of images to the Devon History Society: early 1900s lantern slides for identification. The focus so far has been North Devon, but I did spot several taken on the Thames, and one was Niagara Falls!

So check out Mystery Devon images #2. A couple of images in the earlier set, Mystery Devon images, remain to be identified.

The above identified image struck me as particularly interesting, as an iconic location. It's at Lynmouth, looking down the East Lyn river. The building at far left, with the spiked gable, is the West Lyn Hotel; the one just its right, with the round-topped windows, is the Lyn Valley Hotel. Both are long gone; this was one of the central foci of destruction in the 1952 Lynmouth Flood. The confluence of the East Lyn and West Lyn rivers is more or less at the viewpoint of the image, Lyndale Bridge (see the similar Francis Frith image). Pre-1952, the West Lyn had been diverted through a culvert between the two hotels; part of the floodwaters took this route (see English Heritage image AA53/10717), while the bulk followed its older bed (see National Trust image), catching this part of the village in what has been called "a triangle of destruction".

Overnight, over 100 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged along with 28 of the 31 bridges, and 38 cars were washed out to sea. In total, 34 people died, with a further 420 made homeless. The seawall and lighthouse survived the main flood, but were seriously undermined. The lighthouse collapsed into the river the next day.
- Lynmouth Flood / Wikipedia

It rather puts damage to Topsham's Goat Walk in perspective.

- Ray

Mystery Devon images

This is purely a feeder for a post at the Devon History Society website, but I thought it would be of interest to local readers. Philip Willis sent the DHS some interesting images from a set of glass lantern slides c.1900-1920, asking if anyone could identify the locations. Many in his set are labelled Ilfracombe, and some - such as that below - I was able to identify straight away. Many others aren't as straightforward; thatched cottages, for instance, are ubiquitous around Devon. So if you fancy topographic puzzles, seee Mystery Devon images (you'd best hurry, as 13 out of the 15 have already been identified - but they're interesting pictures anyway).

Capstone Hill, Ilfracombe - image courtesy of Philip Willis

Ilfracombe, I have to admit, looks far more jolly a century ago, with its bandstands and promenade restaurant. It was then a boom resort, served both by railway (the Ilfracombe Branch Line) and ferries along the Bristol Channel.
View Larger Map
- Ray

Morning on the estuary

The weather lately has been variable: a lot of overcast days and rain, but with stunningly vivid mornings and evenings. I took these this morning at 9, before the sun had come round sufficiently to dazzle any attempts to photograph directly down the estuary toward Exmouth.

Looking down the Exe estuary from Topsham Quay

More images below: click to enlarge.