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A view across the River Wear in Durham, North East England, to the majesty of the city's Durham Cathedral.
Autumn is bowing out with the last colour of the season still managing to hang on in there on an otherwise grey day.
Durham city
North east England
Nikon 850
Tamron 35-150(62mm)Di OSD
Nisi landscape Cpl
Nisi 4 stop medium grad
F 11
1 second exposure
Iso 64
Edited in Lightroom with Nik
The Durham Heritage Coast at Easington with Beacon Hill in the background.
The Durham Coast once had a number of coal mines operating along the clifftops, mining coal from seams out under the sea.
At a time when the environment wasn't as respected as it is today, it was convenient to simply dump the mine waste directly on the beaches.
This went on for years and as a consequence, what were once beautiful beaches, were blackened by the pollution.
After the collieries closed, there was a focus on the legacy of the industry. The mining sites were cleared and landscaped, but there was another legacy that needed to be sorted.
Between 1997 and 2002, a £10 million project was carried out bringing together a number of different agencies in a partnership to clear up the blighted coast.
The partnership was given the name 'Turning the Tide' and it did wonders for the Durham coast.
Discovered a new perspective of Durham Cathedral, although I learn that this viewpoint has a bit of a somewhat gruesome history.
The place is called 'Gibbet Knowle' and in the days when public executions took place at Dryburn, this was the hill where dead bodies were left hanging from a gibbet.
Flass Vale is the name of the area, near to Crossgate Moor and it's steeped in history.
It's thought to be the route through which monks from Durham Cathedral travelled to the medieval estate of Beaurepaire, with its priory (now known as Bearpark).
There is also a Bronze Age burial mound, known as the 'Maiden's Bower' although blink, and you might miss it as it is almost entirely concealed by the surrounding woodland.
The earliest recorded mention of the listed historic monument was in 1346 when, at the Battle of Neville's Cross, Prior John Fossor of Durham had a vision telling him to take the corporeal cloth (the cloth used to cover the host during the Mass) of Saint Cuthbert and and raise it at the 'Maiden's Bower'.
Considering the close proximity of Flass Vale to Durham's city centre, I didn't pass a single soul on today's first visit!
A busker on Framwellgate Bridge, Durham. He's playing an Errington electric mandolin, inherited from his father and made by the same guy that made a couple of my guitars.
Durham's majestic Norman cathedral, pictured in the Bank Holiday sunshine.
There was a ten degree difference between Durham and the coast just a few miles away!
The majestic Norman cathedral which dominates the city of Durham, is pictured here, illuminated by some late afternoon Winter sunshine.
The scaffolding around the central tower has been encased ifor the last three years in a white plastic 'bandage', protecting the craftsmen/stonemasons working on a £1.9 million restoration project.
The plastic sheeting has been removed and all being well (weather permitting) the scaffolding will be down by the Spring.
The Pemberton Building, also known as the Pemberton Rooms, was designed by W. D Caroe in the Tudor style and built in 1929. Caroe was an important figure of the Arts & Crafts Movement who established his own practise in 1884 – a firm that still exists today under the name of Caroe & Partners. Caroe was employed by numerous religious institutions, and his posts included being architect to Durham Cathedral. He was also a designer of furniture, metalware, embroidery and sculpture.
In addition to housing lecture rooms, the Pemberton Building is also home to the Durham Union Society. One of the oldest student debating societies in the world, the Union Society was in established in 1842 and soon acquired a reputation for controversy. In 1914, for example, it pushed for women to have the right to vote – 14 years before universal suffrage.
Taken in Durham city, overlooking the riverside & riverwalk area .. A 22 shot panorama taken in portrait mode at 55mm.
The knocker on the Durham Cathedral’s northern door, known as the Sanctuary Knocker, played an important part in the Cathedral’s history. Those who ‘had committed a great offence,’ such as murder in self-defence or breaking out of prison, could rap the knocker, and would be given 37 days of sanctuary within which they could try to reconcile with their enemies or plan their escapeWhen somebody did seek sanctuary in the Cathedral, the Galilee bell would be rung to announce it. The sanctuary seeker would be given a black robe to wear, with St Cuthbert’s Cross sewn on the left shoulder to distinguish them as one who had been granted sanctuary by God and his saint
Durham, 3 December 2022. The first fortress here was around 1072 but little remains from before 1340. Construction of the cathedral started in 1093 and most was completed within forty years, although there have been later additions and alterations. The castle was really a bishop's palace with some fortification, but despite this it was the only northern castle never to fall to the Scots; it is now part of Durham University.
The British Sundial Society records little history relating to this sundial beyond a first mention in 1983, although that could be the year in which it was installed. It does not look to be very stable. The location is in the College, on a south facing buttress of the Great Kitchen.
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St. Cuthbert of Durham, usually known as Durham Cathedral and the home of the Shrine of St. Cuthbert, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in 1093. The cathedral is regarded as one of the finest examples of Norman architecture, and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I've been wanting to do a night shoot in Durham (a city I love) for ages, but only recently acquired a lens particularly suited to hand-held photography in low light, namely a standard zoom not only capable of maintaining an aperture of f/2.8 across its entire focal length range, but also offering image stabilisation (a feature upon which I have previously been undecided, but am now completely sold). Rapidly becoming my personal Holy Grail is a pristine shot of the cathedral from Palace Green (especially floodlit at night). This is my best effort so far, so here it is... complete with omnipresent scaffolding!
Now, it seems to me that Palace Green ought to be the ideal spot from which photographers can capture the cathedral in all its glory. Yet it's a constant source of frustration that I have never yet managed to visit without finding something skanking up the shot! If it's not scaffolding, it's piles of rubble or building materials, tarpaulins, marquees, parked cars, temporary plastic fencing in a fetching shade of dayglo orange... other people... sassin', frassin', rassin'...!!! :-(
This is the nearest to an unblemished composition I have achieved to date, yet I still had to use Lightroom's spot removal tool to get rid of two red wheelie bins, two parked cars, four carelessly discarded traffic cones, and a couple of b****y tourists! Sadly, I could do nothing about the scaffolding, which ruined an otherwise beautiful scene.
On a more serious note (yes, in case you hadn't realised, much of the above was intended to be light-hearted, with more than a touch of self-mockery), of course I appreciate that historic old buildings will require almost constant maintenance, and I'm certainly not advocating a ban on public access purely for my own edification! :-O However, I don't think it's too much to expect of the cathedral's administration to make more of an effort to remove unnecessary eyesores.
Rant alert! Mutter, whinge, twist...