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.

Visiting Chepstow Castle in 2009

In 2009 we visited Chepstow Castle which is just over the original Severn Crossing. It was a beautiful sunny day and we really enjoyed walking around and exploring the castle.

Chepstow Castle

Chepstow Castle is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain.

Chepstow Castle

Construction began in 1067, just after the Norman conquest by the Norman Lord William FitzOsbern.

Chepstow Castle

In the 12th century the castle was used in the conquest of Gwent, the first independent Welsh kingdom to be conquered by the Normans.

Chepstow Castle

By the 16th century its military importance was diminished.

Chepstow Castle

The castle saw action again during the English Civil War, when it was in the front line between Royalist Monmouthshire and Parliamentarian Gloucestershire. It was held by the Royalists and besieged in both 1645 and in 1648, eventually falling to the Parliamentarian forces on 25 May 1648.

Chepstow Castle

Although re-garrisoned during and after the English Civil War, by the 1700s it had fallen into decay.

Chepstow Castle

It has been used for filming TV and films including the Day of the Doctor when David Tennant’s tenth Doctor was “wooing” Queen Elizabeth I.

Chepstow Castle