For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.
Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made.
Lytes Cary Manor
Lytes Cary Manor is an intimate medieval manor house with a beautiful Arts and Crafts-style garden where you can imagine living. Originally the family home of Henry Lyte, where he translated the unique Niewe Herball book on herbal remedies, Lytes Cary was then lovingly restored in the 20th century by Sir Walter Jenner. The garden rooms contain a magical collection of topiary and herbaceous borders, while tranquil walks on the estate take you along the River Cary.
Over the years I have visited and travelled on the West Somerset Railway many times. When we stayed at Butlins we would often walk down to Minehead Station and look at the stream trains. Looking back I realised the last time I had actually travelled on the railway itself was back in 2013. So last week we went to Bishops Lydeard and caught the train to Minehead.
This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester.
I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart.
I took this photograph at Minehead Station on the West Somerset Railway on the 4th September 2004 using a Sony Cybershot digital camera.
It is one of my all time favourite photographs of a steam engine. I even printed it out once at A2 size.
Visiting the West Somerset Railway nearly twenty years later in September 2023 I decided I would try and take the same shot again. However looking through my photographs on Twitter (no GPS EXIF data on these older photographs) I found I had taken a very similar photograph on May 27th 2013 using a Canon EOS 400D.
Here is the photograph from September 2023 that I took with an iPhone 13.
Not too surprising that I have these similar photographs as this part of the station you will often see a steam engine.
This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.
York is a place I have visited and lived in over the last forty five years. I first went to York on a school trip in 1979 and we did lots of different things. We went to the Railway Museum, the Castle Museum, went up Clifford’s Tower. We visited Mother Shipton’s Cave and Fountain’s Abbey. I made a return visit to York in the summer of 1987 when we had some Yugoslavian Scouts over.
In October 1987 I studied Economics at York University for three years.
I made a return visit to York in July 1993, I stayed on campus and did various things including a return visit to Fountains Abbey.
It was quite a few years later before I visited again, and this time it was a fleeting visit to the university in March 2006 for a meeting. I had flown up to Leeds and hired a car to drive to York and then drove back, all in the one day.
I also was there for a mobile learning workshop in April 2009, and stayed at the hotel by the Railway Station. We did a family holiday to York in March 2013.
It was on the March 2006 trip that I drove into Heslington Village next to the university and took this photograph of Heslington Main Street with a Sony DSC P200 digital camera.
On a return visit to York in September 2023 I took the opportunity to retake the photograph, this time with an iPhone 13.
Apart from some greenery not much has changed. However in the 2006 photograph in the background are two bank branches next to the Post Office. In 2023 the Post Office is still there, but both bank branches have closed and are now empty.
I also took this view in March 2006 from pretty much the same vanatge point.
So I took it again in September 2023.
Again not much has changed, well apart from the greenery on the house.
We did a family holiday to York in March 2013 and I took this photograph of Clifford’s Tower with an EOS 400D SLR Camera.
This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester.
I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart.
Clifford’s Tower was the keep of York Castle. I first went to York on a school trip in 1979 and we went up the tower. I didn’t have a camera back then. I made a return visit to York in the summer of 1987 and visited the Tower then as well.
In October 1987 I studied at York University for three years and saw Clifford’s Tower on a regular basis as I went in and out of town. I made a return visit to York in July 1993. It was quite a few years later before I visited again, and this time it was a fleeting visit to the university in March 2006. I also was there for a workshop in April 2009. We did a family holiday to York in March 2013 and I took this photograph of Clifford’s Tower with an Apple iPhone 4.
Ten years later in September 2023 I was back in York and it was pouring with rain and I quickly took a photograph of Clifford’s Tower with an iPhone 13.
It wasn’t too surprising that it was a similar view to the photo from 2013 with the iPhone 4 (and with the Canon EOS400D).
This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.
After going through some old photographs I found some of the Bristol Harbourside, so decided to go back to where I had taken these then photographs and take some new now photographs.
I took this photograph at the same time as I took the one of the industrial museum. It was taken either in 1995 or 1996. It was taken with my Canon SLR using film.
I wasn’t exactly sure which vantage point I had taken the original image.
Now we can see Peros Bridge which opened in 1999. The old Bristol and West building is now a hotel with new cladding.
The sheds are now bars and restaurants, back in 1995 we had the Watershed.
When I heard about the Bristol Unicornfest I thought I would try and photograph all the unicorns. In the end I only managed to find and photograph twenty four of the sixty unicorn sculptures.
This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.
After going through some old photographs I found some of the Bristol Harbourside, so decided to go back to where I had taken these then photographs and take some new now photographs.
I took this photograph of the Industrial Museum on the Bristol Harbourside either in 1995 or 1996. It was taken with my Canon SLR using film.
I wasn’t exactly sure which vantage point I had taken the original image. The broken guardrail had been fixed.
Of course the Industrial Museum as was, was closed and replaced with the MShed
The railway tracks have also gone.
Find it interesting that the Balmoral is in both photographs in roughly the same place.
