Then and Now – Jedburgh Abbey at Legoland

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.

Jedburgh Abbey, a ruined Augustinian abbey which was founded in the 12th century, is situated in the town of Jedburgh, in the Scottish Borders 10 miles north of the border with England at Carter Bar.

At Legoland Windsor there is a Lego model of Jedburgh Abbey, which I have photographed a lot over the last twenty years (or so).

I took this photograph in August 2006. At this point the park was ten years old.

Here is the same model two years later in August 2008.

By August 2014 the ruin had become overgrown with real plants growing across the ruins.

A year later in July 2015 it didn’t look too different.

When we visited in August 2017 there had been some gardening done and various small trees and plants had been removed.

For the most part I did not realise I was taking a similar photograph of the same model. However now this has come to my attention that I have been taking similar photographs I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place. So in October 2022 on my most recent visit to Legoland I sought out Jedburgh Abbey and took a photograph.

The trees behind the model had grown somewhat, but other trees around the model had been removed.

The one with the new Lego Friends set

Well the tease was one thing, now we have the full details of the new Lego Friends set, The Apartments.

Today, the LEGO Group announces the new LEGO F.R.I.E.N.D.S Apartments Set – which allows fans of the iconic Warner Bros. TV series the chance to recreate their favourite scenes. The 2,048-piece set, features both Monica and Rachel’s, and Chandler and Joey’s New York apartments, plus the adjoining hallway.

Following the hugely popular LEGO Ideas Central Perk set, which was released in 2019, the LEGO Friends Apartments set is complete with iconic features and props, such as the classic moment when Monica put the Thanksgiving turkey on her head, the one where Joey and Chandler only had a canoe as furniture and when Phoebe’s dollhouse went up in flames.

So it will be £134.99 when it is released later this month.