Author: jamesclay

Posted on

Brean Down

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.

Brean Down

A natural pier with dramatic cliffs and Victorian fort.

Current saving £32.35

Parking £6.00

Total saving £6.00

Cumulative saving £172.15

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving £38.35

I have been to Brean Down many times over the years, the last visit was back in 2020. Previous visit to that was literally the day before lockdown.

After parking you can either take the path, or climb the steps, we climbed the steps. Continue reading “Brean Down”

Posted on

The Vyne

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.

The Vyne

A former Tudor powerhouse turned 17th century family home, set in gardens, woodlands, and wetlands.

Current saving  £19.35

One adult £13.00

Parking free

Total saving £13.00

Cumulative saving £166.15

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving £32.35

The entrance fees go up on the 1st March.

The house was an interesting mix of medieval cellars, Tudor palace, and a 17th century family home. Continue reading “The Vyne”

Posted on

Walking down the Welsh Back

On a recent lunchtime walk in Bristol I walked down the Welsh Back.

I started off at Redcliffe Bridge looking down the Welsh Back.

Welsh Back

The Welsh Back is a wharf and street alongside the floating harbour in the centre of the city. It tooks it name due the frequent visits by ships from Wales.

Welsh Back

The Welsh Back has been an important quay since the 13th century, when it was located on the tidal course of the River Avon.

Walking up the Welsh Back you find yourself at Bristol Bridge.

Bristol Bridge

Posted on

Wightwick Manor

Wightwick Manor

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.

We went to this house on the way home after visiting a museum in the West Midlands. We arrived around 2:30pm and the last entrance to the house was at 3:00pm. So we walked up the drive to the house. It was an impressive house.

Wightwick Manor

Victorian half-timbered Manor House which was home of the Mander family, with a world-class art collection and Morris and Co. interiors.

Current saving  £5.20

One adult £9.10

One Child £5.05

Parking free

Total saving £14.15

Cumulative saving £153.15

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving £19.35

As there was a partial house closure, the entrance fees were lower than normal.

The mock Tudor panelling gave the house an older look. Continue reading “Wightwick Manor”

Posted on

Then and Now – The Campus

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. I always think I should give them 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. 

The Campus is a local community centre, that as well as a primary school, a specialist school, a library, a cafe, it also is used by local  groups.

I took this photograph on September 22nd 2022.

It was taken with an iPhone 13.

I wasn’t too surprised to find that I had taken a similar photograph four years earlier on October 16th 2018.

This photo was taken with the iPhone 6s Plus.

Posted on

Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Seven

Back in the 1990s when I was teaching at a college in Bristol, I use to undertake regular field trips to the Bristol Harbourside as part of a unit on urban regeneration. There was at the time to much happening down there after years of inaction that it was an ideal place to demonstrate the impact of investment and change of use. Bristol had been an important port for hundreds of years, this all came to a halt in the 1970s and regeneration plans were developed. Not much happened for twenty years, but in the last twenty years we have seen major regeneration of the area, massive building of offices, business, residential and entertainment, as well as visitor attractions such as at-Bristol (where incidentally I worked for a while when it opened).

During one of those field trips, I took my SLR camera with me, and digging around a box in the garage I found some more prints, which I have since scanned in. This is a new post on these images, you can find part one, part two, part three, part four,  part five and part six.

This is the car park next the Lloyds TSB building.

It has now been landscaped and is called Waterfront Square and is pedestrianised.

As I find and scan in more photos I will initially add them to this post.

Posted on

Then and Now, but not alone – Cabot Circus

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.

In November I posted one in this series about Cabot Circus at Christmas time having taken a photograph in December 2019 and then intentionally took a similar photograph in November 2022. What I hadn’t remembered was that I had taken identical or similar photographs before. Going through my collection and some old Flickr albums I found two more photographs which I blogged about earlier.

What I did note, looking for the date of construction that, this view was popular with other photographers and the construction company as well.

This was the artist impression of the shopping centre, and as you can see that this is the same view as the photographs I took.

Here is the view of the construction of the centre.

Final preparations being undertaken prior to opening.

This is the opening day of the Cabot Circus centre.

So what about my photographs.

This photograph was taken not long after Cabot Circus had opened. The shopping centre had opened on 25th September 2008, this photograph was taken on the 21st October 2008.

Going through my collection I also had taken this similar photo on the 4th July 2016.

Three years later on December 8th 2019. I was on my way to do a pick up from the Vue Cinema, so I took a photograph of the festive Cabot Circus. Not realising I had taken similar photos before.

This photograph was taken on the 26th November 2022. I remembered I had taken a photograph in the same location, so took this one.

So I had unintentionally taken three photographs of roughly the same place over an eleven year period.

Posted on

Baddesley Clinton Hall

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.

I actually went to Baddesley Clinton Hall, for two reasons, in the main to get a drink from the cafe as I was heading down the M5, and the other was to see what it was like, for a potential future visit. Though I had to take a little detour down the M42 and the M40 to get there.

Baddesley Clinton Hall

Moated manor house with late medieval, Tudor and 20th-century histories. Home to the Ferrers family for 500 years.

Current saving -£7.80

One adult £13.00

Parking free

Total saving £13.00

Cumulative saving £139.00

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving £5.20

So after this visit the membership has paid for itself and we still have eleven months left. Obviously without a membership I probably would have either not visited Baddesley Clinton Hall, or I would have spent much longer than I did to get my money’s worth from the visit. However for this visit, which was more of a journey break, for this kind of quick trip, a National Trust membership is really useful and makes sense. Continue reading “Baddesley Clinton Hall”

Posted on

Then and Now Take Two – Manchester (again)

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. 

The first instance of this that came to my attention was in May 2019 when I went to Manchester.  I had recently been using Amazon Photos as an online backup service for my photographs. One of the nice features is that in the app it shows you photos from the same date in previous years So I was amused to find that two years ago to the day, not only had I being in Manchester, but I had also taken some photographs including this one the same council building I had taken.

So, back in Manchester in January 2023 and arrived in St Peters’ Square by tram I took the same photograph I had taken before.

This photo was taken in May 2022.

This photo was taken March 2022.

Here is the photograph from May 2019. I was staying in a hotel close to MediaCity, so caught the Metrolinktram into the centre of the city. I arrived in St Peter’s Square and decided to take a few photographs, including this one of a council building.

This was the photograph I had taken in May 2017.