Author: jamesclay

Posted on

Dunster Castle uncovered #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. 

I have made quite a few visits to Dunster Castle over the years, but this was the first time I had undertaken a guided tour. Though as a member I don’t pay an entrance fee or the car parking charge, I did need to pay the £3 tour cost.

Dunster Castle

An ancient castle and comfortable country home with dramatic vistas and subtropical gardens

Current saving £32.80
One adult £18.00
Parking – £6.50
Tour cost – £3.00
Total saving £21.50
Cumulative saving £145.50
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £54.30

Though not too far from Weston-super-Mare, the route along the A39 from Bridgwater is quite twisty and slow. It takes about 80 minutes to do the 40 mile journey.

The previous day had been quite warm and sunny, so I was a little disappointed by the chill in the air. Having parked the car, I walked to the reception to get my membership card scanned. I was a little early for the tour, but didn’t think I would have time to walk around and enjoy the house. So I went for a coffee in the cafe. 

Having arrived at the entrance of the house I headed in for the uncovered tour.

We didn’t see many different spaces in the house, though all of the tour was interesting. It was interesting for example to hear that the main bedrooms weren’t available to view as the Trust need to protect the ceiling of the dining room which is below these rooms. As a result these rooms are used as offices and meeting rooms. Another challenge in showing off some rooms is access, and another of the main bedrooms was up a narrow staircase, and it would have been difficult to manage access for visitors up and down the staircase. Same issue with the upstairs servants quarters, which are accessed by a narrow spiral staircase. The servants quarters are in the main used for storage of artefacts now.

Following the upstairs rooms, we were led down the stairs to the basement. We then headed through a corridor to the gatehouse, and saw the rooms which had been used by the manager of the Estate when the land around was farmed.

Overall it was an interesting tour and I am glad I made the effort to get to Dunster to see it, I had missed out on the behind closed doors tour at Stourhead.

After the end of the tour I then went around the house following the “normal” route. It was much the same as I remembered from previous visits. One of the rooms I quite like is the modern kitchen that was installed in 1962. There are some great rooms in the house and I enjoyed exploring the house.

Walked around the grounds and then headed into Dunster Village. Did think about going around the house again but decided to leave that for another day. Also thought about walking to the Watermill but wasn’t sure what would be on the lunch menu in the café. So I headed back to my car and went to Minehead to grab some lunch, but that’s a story for another day.

Posted on

Then and Now Take Two – Minehead Engine Shed

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. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

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.

On a recent visit to Minehead I popped into the station at Minehead to replicate the same shot, this time with an iPhone 13.

This time, there was a carriage in the way…. The trains weren’t running and the station was being used to store the rolling stock.

Posted on

Croome #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. 

Though when I was last a member of the National Trust I had visited a few properties in the Midlands, I hadn’t been to Croome.

Croome

Expect the unexpected. Incredible innovation, devastating loss, remarkable survival and magnificent restoration all in one place.

Current saving £15.80
One adult £17.00
Parking – Free
Total saving £17.00
Cumulative saving £124.00
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £32.80

As well as the house, there is some lovely parkland, and a small RAF museum.

Unlike some National Trust properties there is no furniture inside the house, but this means that you can explore the entirety of the property, including the basement and the first floor. I liked how I was able to walk freely around the house. Not to say I missed the furnished rooms, but it was an interesting change.

This year I have planned to visit fifty places.

Posted on

Lacock #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. 

I had never been to Lacock before. I think I always thought it was too far away for a visit, but the reality was that though it’s fifty miles away, due to its location it was only, according to Google Maps an hour away. So I thought I would go and visit, especially as it was now open for the summer season.

I nearly didn’t go there, as I travelled up the M5 I hit traffic around Gordano, so I came off the M5, and as I drove towards Bristol, I did think about just going to Tyntesfield again. However I had only visited a couple of weeks back, so I made the decision I would go to Dyrham Park which is close to Bath, which I had visited back in May 2023. As I drove towards Dyrham Park I saw that Waze was telling me, it wasn’t that much further to get to my first choice of Lacock. So took the decision to stick with plan A and go to Lacock.

There is a National Trust car park, which is free to members, otherwise is £5 for the day. It’s then a short walk to Lacock and Lacock Abbey.

Lacock

Country house with monastic roots, once home to William Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of the photographic negative

Current saving £9.20
One adult £20.00
Parking £5.00
Total saving £25.00
Cumulative saving £107.00
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £15.80

I walked through the grounds to the house. You then walk around the house before entering the building and into the cloisters.

The first part of the house you see are the older parts of the Abbey, which when it was an Abbey would have been used by the nuns.

This part of the building was used to film certain scenes in the Harry Potter films, including the corridors and two of the rooms. There are a couple of houses in Lacock itself that were also used by the filmmakers.

After exploring the cloisters, you enter the rest of the house, exploring the kitchens, before heading up the stairs to the main rooms.

It was a beautiful house and also I loved how light it was. There was protective screens on the windows (like many National Trust properties) but these still let in a lot of natural light.

There was a real mix of rooms, I was surprised by the small size of the main bedrooms and then the vastness of the entrance hall.

After exploring the house, I took a short walk around the grounds before heading into the village of Lacock.

This year I have planned to visit fifty places.

Posted on

Bristol Harbourside #50places2025

I have been visiting the Bristol Harbourside for years now, well actually decades. It was a lovely sunny day and I thought I would take a walk around the harbouside in Bristol. I parked close to Whapping Wharf and took a nice leisurely walk around the harbour.

I passed the SS Great Britain and the Undersell Yard. I crossed the Merchants Road Bridge before heading back towards the centre. I did consider grabbing some lunch from Ritorno Lounge, but in the end walked away from the Harbourside and up Wine Street to grab a coffee from Caffe Nero. I then finished my walk, crossing the Prince Street Bridge, walking past the MShed and then heading back to Whapping Wharf and my car.

Posted on

Tredegar House #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. 

I visited Tredegar House back in August 2016. Our visit was cut short because of some bees. 

I hadn’t been back since.

Tredegar House

Tredegar House is one of the architectural wonders of Wales and one of the most significant late 17th-century houses in the whole of the British Isles. Situated within 90 acres of beautiful gardens and parkland, this delightful red brick house provides an ideal setting for a fantastic day out. For more than 500 years the house was home to one of the greatest Welsh families, the Morgans, later Lords Tredegar. The Morgan family owned more than 40,000 acres in Monmouthshire, Breconshire and Glamorgan at the end of the 18th century. Their lives impacted on the population of south-east Wales socially, economically and politically and influenced the heritage of the area.

Current saving £28.20
One adult £13.00
Parking £6.00
Total saving £19.00
Cumulative saving £82.00
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £9.20

It wasn’t quite open when I arrived, so I went to the tearoom and had a coffee and a cheese scone. It was a tasty scone, and I enjoyed my coffee. They had an interesting lunch menu as well, more varied than some other National Trust properties I have visited.

After finishing my coffee, I walked over to reception, got my membership card scanned and walked over to the house. It wasn’t open when I arrived, so I waited outside for a short while.

Had a good look around the house and chatted to some of the volunteers. There are lots of rooms, as well as the ground floor, you can see some of the bedrooms on the first floor before walking down to the kitchen in the basement. There are lots of rooms down there. The Servants Hall was open, and this is where the servants would eat, however it was also where they would have dances and servant balls. It was though originally the main hall of the Tudor part of the house.

After leaving the house I walked around the lake and park. This was a lovely walk, but it was a bit muddy.

Decided I would head back to the house and go around again. It was nice to walk around and I saw things I had missed on my first walk around the house.

Tredegar House doesn’t have a NT shop, though there are some craft shops. I did think about buying a cold drink, but decided I would head home and have one there.

Posted on

Then and Now – Tredegar House Orangery and Stables

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 was visiting Tredegar House, a National Trust property close to Newport. While I was there I took a range of photographs. Checking the date of my previous visit, I wasn’t too surprised to see some similar photographs.

I took this photograph in August 2016 of the Tredegar House Orangery and Stables with an iPhone 6s Plus.

This photograph was taken in March 2025 with a Canon EOS R100.

Posted on

Migrating Toads

I don’t know why, but this sign made me smile.

The local council have put out warning signs to drivers to avoid a country road (more of a lane) during the hours of darkness due to some migrating toads.

First time I have seen this kind of sign. Wondering if some toads complained or took legal action?