Author: jamesclay

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Tyntesfield #50places2025

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

Having just visited Barrington Court, I hadn’t planned to visit another National Trust property the next day. I was going to go to Portishead, as when I was at home it was rather sunny. However by the time I was ready to leave the sun had gone in. So I made the decision to head to Tyntesfield.

As Tyntesfield is one of the closest National Trust properties to me (and is open nearly all year round) I have been a fair few times to this lovely house and gardens.

Tyntesfield

An ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, just a stone’s throw from Bristol

Current saving -£80.20

One adult £18.00

Parking £5.00

Total saving £23.00

Cumulative saving £34.00

Membership cost £91.20

Net cumulative saving -£57.20

Tyntesfield is a Gothic Revival mansion located in Wraxall, North Somerset, England. It was built in the late 19th century for the Gibbs family, who were wealthy merchants and industrialists. The mansion is set in extensive grounds and gardens, and features a range of architectural styles, including Gothic Revival, Jacobean, and Victorian. The National Trust, a UK conservation charity, now owns and operates Tyntesfield, which is open to the public. Visitors can explore the mansion, gardens, and grounds, and learn about the history of the Gibbs family and the property. Tyntesfield is a popular tourist destination, and is known for its stunning architecture and rich history.

Having parked in the car park (free for National Trust members) I walked through the National Trust entrance and headed to the house though the grounds. This time I went through back way to the house.

I had a great time walking around the house.

It was nice that one of the rooms was open that I had never been in before. It was a 1950s room, full of stuff, but was open as there were some issues with the fire doors.

I like it when we see un-restored spaces in National Trust properties, it adds something to the experience.

There is a lot of stuff at Tyntesfield. One of the challenges is where to put it all. The agreement they had when the National Trust took over the house, was that nothing could be brought into the house, and nothing could be taken away. The Gibbs family were real hoarders, even retaining broken items which had been replaced.

After visiting the house I walked down to the Kitchen Garden. The Orangery has been lovingly restored, and the greenhouses are used to grow plants, and vegetables for the cafe.

I did consider going for a coffee, but in the end I headed home.

This year I have planned to visit fifty places.

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Barrington Court #50places2025

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

I drove off to Barrington Court, a National Trust property in Somerset. Checking my photographs I realised I had been there twice before, in March 2017 and November 2017. I didn’t write up those visits to the blog.

Barrington Court

An atmospheric fragment of old Somerset; the estate is the vision of Colonel Lyle and his architect James Edwin Forbes. Whilst Court House remains closed for repair, the ground floor of Strode House is open, and there are glorious garden rooms, avenues, and orchards to explore. Installations in the farm buildings tell the stories of key characters and the development of the estate.

Current saving -£91.20

One adult £11.00

Parking free

Total saving £11.00

Cumulative saving £11.00

Membership cost £91.20

Net cumulative saving -£80.20

Obviously I will need to visit some more places to make the membership cost effective and turn that cumulative saving positive.

I think when we went there in 2017 the cafe was in Strode House, but now is near the entrance. In 2017 we did go inside Barrington Court, however this time the house was closed for conservation work. I think that was the reason I didn’t go and see it in 2023 when I last had a National Trust membership.

This year I have planned to visit fifty places.

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Then and Now – Elmdale, Chepstow

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.

Elmdale is on the Gloucestershire side of the River Wye in Chepstow.  I visited Chepstow Castle a few times ten or so years ago. It happened to appear in a memories album on Apple Photos and checking other photographs of two different visits to Chepstow I realised I had unintentionally taken the same photograph.

I took this photograph from the ramparts of Chepstow Castle over the River Wye in August 2009 using a Canon EOS 400D DSLR.

This photograph was taken four years later in August 2013 using the same Canon EOS 400D DSLR.

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Then and Now Take Two Again – Wells High Street

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.

I took this photograph in Wells in August 2002.

It was taken with a Sony Cybershot. On a recent return visit to Wells in January 2025 I decided I would attempt to take this photograph again using my iPhone 13.

Not quite the same angle (and I did need to crop the image).

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Then and Now Take Two Once More – Bristol Airport

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 o ar perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

Over the years I have taken this view at Bristol Airport quite a few times, both unintentionally and now intentionally.

I was flying to Dublin in October 2024, so I took my usual photograph.

Not quite the same view as there was scaffolding in the way and it was raining.

I was flying to Glasgow in November 2023, so I took my usual photograph.

I was flying to Amsterdam in October 2023 so I took a photograph from the window next to the balcony at the departures lounge. The balcony itself was closed, it was rather foggy.

Bristol Airport

When travelling from Bristol Airport in August 2023 I took this photograph from the balcony at the departures lounge.

View of an airport

When I was at Bristol Airport on the 14th November 2022, I intentionally took a photograph from the same vantage point.

I had taken a similar picture in February 2017.

I took this view of Bristol Airport from the departures lounge on an early morning in August 2016.

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Then and Now Take Two Again – Wells Market Place

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.

I took this photograph in Wells in August 2002.

It was taken with a Sony Cybershot. On a recent return visit to Wells in January 2025 I decided I would attempt to take this photograph again using my iPhone 13.

Not quite the same angle (and I did need to crop the image). In addition where as before there were cars parked, on the day I went there was a market (and a lot more people).

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Stuff: Top Ten Blog Posts 2024

Having posted that I was unable to post a top ten from 2024 looking at the dashboard I realised I could see the stats for the blog posts from 2024.

In 2024 I published 410 posts, though 366 of those were for the photo of the day. So that meant 40 real posts. In 2023 I published 99 posts. Now in 2022 I published 429 posts on the blog, though I really only published 40 “original posts” then, with 365 photo a day posts and 24 advent posts. In 2021 I published just 46 posts to the blog. I did 423 posts in 2020, in 2019 it was 68, in 2018 I did 89 posts.

The tenth most popular post was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Two.

The post at number nine was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part One.

The eighth  popular blog post, was a nostalgic post about Remembering the Bristol Temple Way Flyover.

Seventh post was a post reminiscing about The Longleat Miniature Railway.

The Longleat Miniature Railway

Sixth most popular post about Changes at the railway station in Weston-super-Mare.

The fifth most popular blog post asked the question “the cafe on tv at weston super mare is it real” which was a post about people Google searching that phrase and ending up on my blog. Now those same Google searches send people to this page rather than the original post on Cyril’s Cafe.

The post at four was Remembering The Eagle has Landed which was a post reminiscing about the film from the 1970s starring Michael Caine.

The post at three was from January 2024 and was from my series of Then and Now post, Then and Now – Cheddar Yeo Sword.

The second most popular post on the blog was a reflection on Young Sheldon about The significance of the cow…

The top post for 2024 was the same as the top post for 2023, it  was “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.” Which was Michael J Fox joining Coldplay on stage in New Jersey in 2016, playing Johnny B Goode from Back to the Future.

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Ashton Gate #50places2025

Went to Ashton Gate and watched Bristol City lose 1-2 to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup third round.

It was a good match and I enjoyed watching it, despite Bristol losing.

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Glastonbury Tor #50places2025

For Christmas 2022 I got a National Trust membership. It had been a few years since I was last a member, went to quite a few new places and returning  to places I had been to before.

I have been thinking about joining again for 2025. However, there are quite a few National Trust places you can visit, which don’t need membership, such as Glastonbury Tor.

Though I have visited Glastonbury quite a few times over the years I have been living down in Somerset, I had never climbed the Tor until October 2017.  With some lovely sunny weather, and some frost, I decided I would head off to climb the Tor again.

Glastonbury Tor is a distinct prominent hill amongst the Somerset Levels and can be seen from a quite a distance.

It is topped by the roofless St Michael’s Tower. There was originally a  wooden church, however that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1275. A stone replacement, the Church of St Michael built on the site in the 14th century and over the centuries has been restored and partially rebuilt several times. Now just the roofless tower remains

The hill and the tower are now managed by the National Trust. Mythically the Tor was thought to be the Isle of Avalon, a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend. When the surrounding land was swamp, the Tor was essentially an island.

It was back in 1190, that Avalon became associated with Glastonbury, when monks at Glastonbury Abbey claimed to have discovered the bones of Arthur and Guinevere.

There is plenty of cheap parking in the town itself and there are a range of esoteric shops that also deserve exploring (after you have climbed the Tor). As you might expect there are a fair number of teashops too.

This year I have planned to visit fifty places. Glastonbury Tor is the first of that fifty.