This is a pivotal post in the lifetime of this blog as I met three people with different agendas during the course of this weekend that influenced my direction and journey in the short and medium term. About 75 % of the material I have in my photo library still to show at this moment in time can be traced back to this point. Having said all that, you can guess that the text in my opinion is more important than the images here !
I passed the sign for The Yorkshire Sculpture Park on the M1 motorway a few times and often wondered what it was all about. The organisers of The James Bond Ball, that I briefly mentioned in the previous post, arranged an outing to this location the following day. It was an opportunity to talk to people that we had met the night before and provided the opportunity to discuss what we thought about art and its relevance here. Personally I saw it as a historic park with additional features to attract other visitors from outside the area. There were elements to the art that I didn't understand and it was difficult looking at a landscape scene in a vast park with something that maybe shouldn't have been there. However there were a few images that I thought were worthy of being displayed.
The estate is steeped in history stretching back to the time when it was mentioned by William The Conqueror in The Domesday Book of 1086 when the De Bretton family owned it. Despite the Bretton name being kept as a title, the ownership saw a few changes down the centuries generally through intermarriage of the nobility, Knights to the king with created titles of Baronet (Henry VIII, Charles I and Charles II ). The Dronsfield family name taking it during the 13th century, the Wentworth family name in 1407 until 1792.
The present house, Bretton Hall, was built by William Wentworth (4th Baronet of Bretton) 1675 - 1720 and replaced the wooden structure of 1508. Diana the daughter of the last Wentworth who had earlier married a Northumberland MP, Colonel Thomas Beaumont inherited the house in 1792.
She made substantial additions and modifications to the house that included a portico, Stable block, one of the largest conservatories at the time and follies around the estate ... the birth of the Sculpture Park ... :-) haha.
The Park and garden work was looked after by head gardener Robert Marnock who went on to greater things with the Botanical gardens in Sheffield and eventually London.
Three generations later and Bretton Hall became under used as a residence in favour of a race meeting and shooting venue with the owner spending more time in more important places working with Royalty. It gained some use during World War II when the War Office wanted it before the house and large parts of the estate were was sold to the local council in 1948.
Bretton Hall College was born the following year as a teacher training college for art, music and drama. The inception of the Yorkshire Sculpture park in 1977 came about largely due to the progressive syllabus that the college taught. The Principal Lecturer in Art, Peter Murray, became the Founding Director of YSP due to a sculpture exhibition that he organised in the college grounds during 1976. The idea to make it permanent came about with a financial grant from Yorkshire Arts.
The YSP went from strength to strength purchasing large areas of the original estate and opening a variety of galleries across the site.
Lastly, The 21st re-alignment of colleges and polytechnics saw Bretton Hall merge with Leeds University and its subsequent disuse once again as the building was sold back to the council. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park organisation are keen to have the building occupied and they are probably keen for obvious reasons to see the property turned into a ... Luxury hotel
Whatever your thoughts about Sculpture parks are, I felt much more comfortable dealing with old & new friends on this trip than I did the previous night at the Ball even though it gave me less time to take decent images. Hope this post doesn't leave you speechless ...
After a talk with one of my friends ("The Scarborough sandcastle manager !") who I sometimes go walking with, we decided to attend a James Bond Ball function in Wakefield,Yorkshire with some other friends we knew and others we did not. Not being one to miss an opportunity for a walk, he hatched a plan to squeeze one in on the way there even though it was a little longer than I would have liked given the circumstances. Due to my ignorance, I had to look all of these locations up on the map to see where they were !
On the wall of Sundial House (former Post Office) by John Briggs.
It was a early start, a sunny day and an ideal opportunity to explore something new despite my mind being mostly on the unease of the event later in the day.
After parking the car and a refreshment purchase, we explored very quickly the town giving me just enough time to take a photograph of each subject !
On a side note, these are the images that I struggled with for months whilst trying to watermark them. The sundial and sheep images were cropped and somehow the watermark was too large and even though I created the watermark in photoshop with thanks to Adrian, I rectified the publication with a different arrangement. Needless to say that I was sick and tired of looking at these and had to wait awhile before returning to them now.
George Formby once attended The Old School Room which later became an Art Gallery after it closed in 1977 and subsequently a conversion into a private house.
On a side note, this school building was the first ever image I straightened out the converging verticals in Photoshop. It's a complicated beast that caused me a series of many problems that unbelievably led me to get a larger hard drive. One day I might do a course on it but I only use it for this rectification for the moment.
Red Fed
Middleham is famous for two things ... A Castle and a breeding ground for training Race horses.
It seems expected of me that someone more interested in Art and Geography should give some history to The Castle at this point ! ... I'll try to keep it short and interesting !!
Alan Rufus, a nephew of William the Conquerer decided to fortify the land he was given by his uncle at Middleham soon after the Norman Conquest. The wooden castle monitored the traffic from Skipton to Richmond where he also built a castle.
About 100 years and two generations later in the family, Robert Fitzrandolph built a nearby updated stone version which at the time the Keep was the largest in England with 3 floors and very thick walls. The castle was extended in the 13th century with an additional external wall later creating accommodation for soldiers, horses (now theres a thing !) and supplies.
The best days of the castle were during the 15th century when its status was such that it became home to more important royalty and was the childhood home and preferred residence of Richard III. However after his defeat at The Battle of Bosworth, The Tudor dynasty, began by Henry VII, placed less importance on the castle and its good times were over. The Stuart dynasty didn't want it, so James I gave it to a knight, Sir Henry Linley, who had to renovate it in order for him and his immediate family to live there.
It was partially destroyed during the English Civil War following its use as a prison and subsequently sold to the Wood family who kept it for 200 years. The "Masham Dynasty" bought it for a short period before falling into official hands in 1906 for care and subsequent preservation.
Ooo time for a walk I think !!! .... in an anti clockwise direction from the north west corner. I expanded it to extra large so you could see the detail better and secondly so you could see why I keep the images the size that they are !! (without changing the whole blog page). Thirdly, there's something wrong with my laptop command key, so unfortunately no more maps apart from the ones I saved into drafts.
Typical scenery on leaving Middleham
A drink stop on the journey watching fellow walkers struggling to cross the river before we followed in their footsteps.
East Witton is a delightful and peaceful place that once had a market for 400 years but died out. There didn't seem to be any sign of commercialism at all as we passed through, maybe the local shop was around the corner away from our route.
Most of the village has been updated and rebuilt ... about 200 years ago !
The church of St John the Evangelist was built at the time and out of the same pot of money. The estate containing the church was later bought by the "Masham dynasty" that I mentioned earlier.
The next section of the walk had a little more gradient to it as we continued through a mix of farmland and country lanes to Jervaulx Abbey ...
I didn't intend putting the above image in the post but felt I had to as I would be hiding things from the reader by overcropping your view !
Jervaulx Abbey was a 12th century Monastery that suffered a worse fate in the Dissolution of the Monasteries than Middleham Castle suffered in the English Civil War.
The current owners take the view that it is a place of peace and enchantment with 180 different kinds of flowers being allowed to grow naturally in any space they choose.
The remaining surrounding walls and walkways proved both a photogenic delight and challenge as it was a thoroughfare from the entrance gate.
It was an ideal place to stop and have a late lunch and a much needed drink !!
Time was marching on as we still had about half the walk to complete and a 75 minute drive to our destination in Wakefield.
Race horse out for a canter !!
The walk back although pleasant was generally a flat riverside walk ...
... meeting animals along the path of ever decreasing speed ... !!
After lunch at the Peoples Palace, the weather and subject material turned interesting but austere and grim. Although it would be a little unfair to suggest that there were parallels with my current life, there were similarities with difficulties that related to the editing of the images and the publication of the post.
For example I kept tinkering with the first image as the light wasn't great in a variety of ways. As in life, time to move on to the next image !!
The first time I visited Glasgow back in 1983 I had two spare hours free in the afternoon and remember an exhausting walk to the Cathedral and back after spending an hour in a large bookshop unique to Glasgow. I didn't do the location justice and felt a little cheated that it didn't look on first glance pleasing to the eye like other Cathedrals that I was more familiar with. At the time I didn't realise the significance of the location away from the city centre as this was where Glasgow was born ... and not George square or ... Glasgow Central station :-)
Having walked south eastwards to The Peoples Palace in the previous post, I had no specific route in mind to walk northwards to The Cathedral area. The scenery commenced with a journey through a local housing estate.
I was somewhat intrusive and surprised to come across this little gem with it's rear circular staircase. I traced it later from Google maps to find ... that there's not much said about it.There are two images on Flickr of number 4 -7 Chalmers gate (formerly 394 Gallowgate) on the A89 road. The house was built in 1771, became a listed building in 1981 due to the rarity of external brick walls in the 18th century. The building was renovated into flats during 1983. Amazingly it was once used as an establishment for the motor trade ... 394 Gallowgate.
"Let Glasgow Flourish ..." !!
Continuing further northwards to my next destination, I was well off the tourism track and took in the sites of East Glasgow housing estates and industrial depravation. TV Taggart country indeed !!
Unsurprisingly at the original centre of Glasgow, The Lords Provost house built in 1471 is the oldest. I decided to make the image more authentic by removing the signs, traffic lights, bollards and lamp posts :-)
Built by a former bishop, the building was used to run the affairs of Glasgow on behalf of the Bishops by a Provost (an early Lord Mayor, a role that still exists today although in more salubrious surroundings :-) ! ). No doubt the Bishops at the time who seemed to have control of the City and the associated power and money that went with it, felt that there was some need for social action. An adjacent St Nicholas hospital was built that was unfortunately demolished in the early 20th century when building preservation was not high on the agenda. It may be sad to think that this building nearly went the same way but was saved due to the noble efforts of the occupants.
The building is currently used as a museum furnished with 17th century furniture and needless to say Mary Queen of Scots seems to leave her trail of scent everywhere I go !!
To the rear of the building is the redeveloped 1990's "Cloister like" St Nicholas garden with its low hedgerows and covered walkway on two sides.
Happy in preservation !
Various sizeable strange stone Tontine faces that were lost or hidden across Glasgow were eventually brought to this location during the redevelopment and placed on the walls of the covered walkway.
Just across the road to left is one of the Glasgow hospitals, possibly replacing the demolished St Nicholas just a stones throw away. To the right is the lane leading to the Cathedral and in the centre is the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art. The Museum opened in 1993 and is the ultimate in finding out about comparative religion. Time was pressing on and I visited briefly two of the floors but didn't feel comfortable with some of the extreme material and left for the Cathedral behind with the excuse that I had two more sites to see.
The Glasgow coat of Arms on a lamppost in Cathedral square that remembers St Mungo.
"Here is the bird that never flew, here is the tree that never grew,
here is the bell that never rang, here is the fish that never swam".
(interestingly, I decided to research this and it seems to show that there are many different versions with the order of the lines alternating)
Saint Mungo once entitled a sermon "Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the Word and the praising of His Name" and it was later tagged on to the end of the poem.
Interpretations on the rhyme in a positive way as it was thought to represent various things that St Mungo did in his lifetime such as bringing a robin back to life, restarting a fire with branches of a tree, bringing a bell to the City from Rome and finding a fish in the river with a ring in its mouth to clear the name of Queen Languoreth of infidelity. Various bells have replaced the original and Glasgow's accompanying motto has been shortened to the more secular "Let Glasgow Flourish". ( Hmm, I wasn't quite sure if it was, the bits I saw on the second half of my walk !)
St Mungo was born in Culross (A place I'd love to return to ... "in digital" ) by The River Forth in Fife. He was brought up by Saint Serf in the 6th century and was inspired to become a missionary near The River Clyde. He essentially founded Glasgow and is now known as their patron saint.
He built a church on the current site of Glasgow Cathedral and was eventually buried on the same site ... downstairs !!
The current 12th century building is significant because it was the only medieval cathedral in Scotland to make it through the Reformation. Due to a legacy of land and money, the King of Scotland and the town councillors came to an agreement to look after the Cathedral.
The building was once a Roman Catholic cathedral but was converted into a protestant cathedral at the time of the Scottish Reformation
To the choir
"... with the preaching of The word"
It seems another one of my obsessions to photograph Eagle Lecturns in Cathedrals ... Chester, Bangor, Sheffield ...... haha
On leaving the Cathedral it was time for my last and most grim location of the day, The Necropolis.
Crossing over the valley on "The Bridge of Sighs", the Victorian deceased and the modern tourist are met by this structure that welcomes them. The inscription above the closed door reads...
"The adjoining bridge was erected by The Merchants house of Glasgow to afford a proper entrance to their new cemetery combining convenient access to the grounds with suitable decoration yo the venerable cathedral &surrounding scenery to unite the tombs of many generations who have gone before with the resting places destined for generations yet unborn whee the ashes of all shall repose until the resurrection of the just when that which is born a natural body shall be raised a spiritual body when this corruptible must put on incorruption when this mortal must put on immortality when death is swallowed up in victory. A.D. MDCCCXXXIII "Blessed is the man who trusteth in God and whose hope the Lord is"
In 1831 a competition was held to transform Fir Park into a cemetery with a few prizes ranging from £10 - £50. The winner was announced and a landscape gardener was given the task to bring the plans to reality.
Keeping the grass green !! ... if nothing else
The Necropolis opened in 1833 and was a place that became fashionable for the Victorian rich and famous to be laid to rest with a colossal 3500 monuments on site and 50,000 people buried here.
Tomb or Time machine
At this point in the day I just wanted to be transported out of this place (maybe the weather didn't help) and back to the railway station...
Unfortunately when I arrived on my own steam, it seemed that my real time machine wasn't going anywhere as there turned out to be a 90min delay due to fallen overhead power cables further south than I was going.
It might have been better using a nearby TV Doctor Who style Police box for time travel ... bringing me back from the 6th and 12th century if nothing else !! .....
