Landscape/British Travel – Page 12

Ludlow Castle

29 April, 202015 June, 2015

This month’s Outdoor Photography magazine (July 2015) has one of my photos as one of the Viewpoint selections. It was taken last year, one summer’s evening, as I was wandering …

Ragleth Hill

24 April, 20164 May, 2015

The June 2015 issue has one of my photos for it’s Viewpoint section. It’s an image of the Long Mynd, taken from ragleth Hill in the evening sunlight (proof that …

Sign of the Times

24 April, 201617 April, 2015

Sign of the Times was published in Australia’s Great Walks magazine (Feb/Mar 2015)

Britain’s countryside offers some fantastic walking experiences, but in the past a wander through the great British outdoors could sometimes be spoilt by a hostile pub landlord, or an antagonistic landowner. Being told to, “Get your muddy boots out of my pub,” or finding the path purposefully blocked by rubbish and barbed wire can ruin what was, until that point, an enjoyable day out. And if you’ve travelled half way round the world an experience like this could spoil your entire break. Thankfully, things are changing. A scheme launched into 2007 to make walkers feel more welcome has picked up its pace and is now marching across the country. With some careful planning, your next walking trip in Britain could be the most enjoyable yet, and it could also take you to some of the quieter, yet just as outstandingly, scenic areas you may not have considered visiting.

It’s April – Time for the Black and White Trail!

24 April, 201623 March, 2015

As flowers blossom along the route, take a drive through black-and0white clad villages in a tour of architectural history, with Simon Whaley.

The heart of an oak tree is almost as hard as iron, making it the ideal house-building material. Herefordshire’s 40-mile Black and White Trail is the perfect opportunity to see a forest of these traditional timber-framed buildings, and with daffodils, flowering magnolias and the first sight of the county’s blossoming orchards, this Black and White Trail is anything but monochrome.

Timber-framed buildings are constructed in a way that if you could pick them up and turn them upside down they would remain intact. At the tour’s start in Leominster, the intricately-carved timber Grade II listed Grange Court may not have been picked up like this, but it was moved from its town centre location and, in 1859, rebuilt beside the Priory Church.

The Original Salvager

24 April, 201621 March, 2015

In 1925, Clough Williams-Ellis spent less than £5,000 buying a parcel of land, which he described as, “a neglected wilderness.” Today, on its 90th anniversary, we call it Portmeirion.

Pages of Influence

24 April, 201630 January, 2015

Ninety years ago Clough Williams-Ellis acquired the site that became Portmeirion. Simon Whaley discovers how Country Life came to influence the way it looks today.

If it wasn’t for COUNTRY LIFE magazine Portmeirion would look a little different today. Ninety years ago, Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis invested less than £5,000 acquiring the land where he would build Portmeirion, but in 1925 it was known as Aber Iâ. He wanted a more romantic name and decided that he could draw upon it’s coastal location, which had the air of a port about it, and use the Welsh name of the county in which is was located (Merioneth): hence Portmeirion. His architectural concept of creating a coastal village had begun, a concept that would take 51 years to evolve. Although he made plans for his village, which appeared in The Architects Journal in 1926, it’s construction was an evolutionary process, for his plans did not include the finds he would make amongst COUNTRY LIFE’s pages in the years ahead.

Atomic Ice

26 March, 202020 January, 2015

Slow Journey County: Cumbria

Slow Journey Destination: Claife Heights

Slow Journey Distance Travelled: 0 Steps.

My immediate thought was of radioactivity. It was a series of unmistakable clicks. But where from? Standing on Claife Heights, overlooking Beatrix Potter’s favourite tarn (Moss Eccles), I was puzzled by this noise. The air was still, the tarn’s waters reflective, and a cold wintry sun sat low on the horizon, as if still trying to warm itself up, let alone anything else.