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Built between 1908 and 1912, Fonthill Castle was the home of archaeologist, anthropologist, ceramicist, scholar, and antiquarian Henry Chapman Mercer (1856–1930). Mercer built Fonthill Castle as his home and as a place to display his collection of tiles and prints.
The castle is an early example of reinforced concrete and has forty-four rooms, over two hundred windows, and eighteen fireplaces. The interior of Fonthill Castle features Mercer's famous hand-made ceramic tiles, created during the heyday of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Fonthill Castle is a unique historical site!
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA.
Built between 1908-1912, Fonthill was the home of Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930). Archaeologist, anthropologist, ceramist, scholar and antiquarian, Mercer built Fonthill both as his home and as a showplace for his collection of tiles and prints.
The gateway to the Underworld. Where, on the other side, one can visit with Hades playing badminton against Hel. Where Ereshkigal makes a fine spread of corn muffins. Where the Devil and Osiris gang up on poor old Xibalba, pantsing him and giving him a swirlie in the community toilets.
(This is actually outside Fonthill, leading into a cemetery in Doylestown, PA.)
Destroyed cockpit of one of the B-52s, lost in the Mojave. Hard to climb in here in the dark, even harder to shoot it. Still sitting on a bunch of unseen work from this night in September 2016.
Just signed a new publishing deal with Fonthill, for a small book of work shot in several aircraft graveyards, loosely based on my e-book "Boneyard" and fattened up with a lot of recent and unseen work and fresh writing. Still very early in the process, but it's something I'm starting to really pull together in earnest. Release date will probably be late '19, maybe even 2020.
We were treated to a nice misty sunrise the other morning. What, initially was going to be a scouting mission ended up being a full on session as, despite being bitten by every insect in Somerset and itching harder than an Afghan street dog, I had a pretty enjoyable session. I also nearly managed to lose my camera in the lake in the image along with my 3 legged thing tripod, but fate was on my side this time and I just ended up breaking my Nisi filter instead. This camera of mine has been through the wars but, credit to Nikon, they build a very tough camera!
(Thanks everybody for your visits, comments, awards and faves.....have a nice day.)
From inside the Beckford Arms.....
Thanks to Temari 9 for the texture
This cluster of Beech trees at Fonthill lake has always proven to be a challenge to photograph but the early morning light I had when I arrived was just making it look fantastic. Its an odd place Fonthill. Some days i turn up there and its like compositions for days and you really dont know where to set up the tripod next. Other days you rock up wander around for 40 mins and go home again wondering why you bothered to go there lol.
Fonthill Castle was the home of the archaeologist and tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer. Built between 1908 and 1912, it is an early example of poured-in-place concrete and features 44 rooms, over 200 windows, 18 fireplaces, 10 bathrooms and one powder room.
The castle contains built-in furniture and is embellished with decorative tiles, made by Mercer at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. The castle is filled with an extensive collection of ceramics embedded in the concrete of the house, as well as other artifacts from his world travels, including cuneiform tablets discovered in Mesopotamia dating back to over 2300 BCE. The home also contains around 1,000 prints from Mercer's extensive collection, as well as over six thousand books, almost all of which were annotated by Mercer himself.
The Castle was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was later included in a National Historic Landmark District along with the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works and the Mercer Museum. (Wikipedia)
My first visit (will not be my last) to the amazing Fonthill Castle Museum in Doylestown, PA was on a bitterly cold but very sunny day. The play of light and shadow added interest to the already amazing interior scenes.
An HDR image from 5 images. All were taken at Aperture Priority at f/8 and ISO 200 with shutter speeds of 1/20, 1,40 1/50, 1/160, and 1/320 seconds. Images were merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and tuned up in NIK Color Efex Pro.
Sadly no video this week as I have had a very busy few days and just not had 3 hours spare to sit down and edit the latest one. But fear not I will return next week with one that was filmed on this visit to Fonthill lake in Wiltshire. We literally only stopped here on the off chance we would see some mist and blimey! we had some of the best conditions I have ever seen here.This particular little scene is one of my favourites from across the lake and having the flock of sheep in frame I think added nicely to the interest.
1951 Kaiser Hood Ornament- What more can I say? Watch it, you'll poke out someone's eye!
website: www.stevenkarp.net
Tower, part of the remains of Hadlow Castle, a large Gothick house of late C18 origins. Tower begun 1838 (lantern added in 1840) for Walter Barton May to the designs of George Ledwell Taylor (Thirsk); modelled in part on William Beckford's 1812 tower (collapsed 1825) at Fonthill, Wiltshire, designed by James Wyatt. Rendered brick to imitate stone with the finer architectural detail and decoration built up in the Roman cement render. Gothick.
Plan: The tower was added at the south east corner of the original house (built by May's-father) with the stable courtyard to its north east. The main house was dismantled in 1951: what is left today is the stable courtyard, converted to housing, with the tower in the south east corner linked to the courtyard buildings by a freestanding wall, formerly the west wall of the house. Tower octagonal on plan with a circular stair turrett adjoining at the south west and a doorway on the north face. A lower, rectangular tower adjoins at the west. The original function of the main tower, beyond advertising the wealth and architectural ambition of the family, is obscure. The interior is relatively plain, especially when comapred with the lavish Interior of the house. It does not appear to have been heated originally and the smaller tower, between it and the house, was used as accommodation for men servants prior to 1951 (Thirsk).
Exterior: An extraordinary landmark, especially in the flat Hadlow landscape. 170 feet high, plus the lantern and covered with quite delicate Gothick detail in Roman cement, becoming progressively more elaborate on the upper stages. Slender 3-tier gabled projections to each of the cardinal faces with diagonal buttresses, steep gables and tall crocketted pinnacles. The 3-stage stair turret has a pierced parapet and lancet window. The stages of the tower are marked by string courses of various designs, some enriched with fleurons. The faces of the tower are divided by buttresses which rise above the pierced parapet as tall pinnacles with gabled crocketted pinnacles. Tall, buttressed, pinnacled lantern largely obscured by scaffolding at time of survey (1988). Various tall, Gothick windows, matching on each stage. The lower stage windows are 2-light and transomed with flamboyant tracery and moulded architraves with engaged shafts with capitals; incised crosses above the windows and, above them, a string course with a tier of engaged battlementing. The second stage also has 2-light transomed windows with quatrefoil windows above. Similar, narrower windows to the third stage with pairs of lancets above. The fourth stage has smaller transomed windows, each wall face covered in blind arcading in 2 tiers. The fifth stage also has 2 tiers of decoration, the lower tier trefoil-headed arcading, some blind, some glazed, the upper tier decorated with blind tracery and incorporating corbelled projections. Some of the Roman cement detail has fallen away. The gabled projections each have 2 tiers of tall lancet windows with moulded architraves, the embrasures filled with cusped lattice with traceried windows just below the gables. The north projection has a very tall, chamfered 2-centred doorway. The adjoining 4-storey servants' tower is embattled with a rounded projecting stair turret at the north west and various Gothick windows: lancets, 2-centred with cusped Y tracery and timber flamboyant traceried windows in square-headed embrasures.
Interior: Plain by comparison with the exterior but preserving some original doors with applied Gothick panelling. A remarkable example of ambitious Gothick design and an outstanding landscape feature.
The May family was essentially local and sum of the wealth used on the tower may have derived from hop-growing (Thirsk).
I think this is my last post before Christmas, and I'd like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year. It has been a pleasure coming back to Flickr and reconnecting with old friends and making some new ones along the way. I am re- energized by your stories and photos!
© Bill Brooks 2018
Coccothraustes coccothraustes
I was driving over to see my Mum in Somerset this morning and stopped at a small Wiltshire village, Fonthill Bishop, where some Hawfinches had been reported on Twitter yesterday. Today my luck was in - I saw a flock of 30 or so as soon as I arrived. This shot is very heavily cropped, but any photo was a bonus - I was delighted just to see this elusive species