Heritage Photography May 2020

HERITAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

HERITAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

Journal of the Archaeology and Heritage Group

May 2020

Editor David Bryson heritage.editor@rps.org

Advisory Editor

Eric Houlder LRPS

Advertising enquiries

David Bryson heritage.editor@rps.org

Archaeology & Heritage Group Committee Members

Gwil Owen ARPS

Chair heritagechair@rps.org

Mike Glyde

Secretary heritagesec@rps.org

George Backshall, LRPS

Treasurer heritagetreasurer@rps.org

David Bryson

Heritage Photography editor heritage.editor@rps.org

R. Keith Evans FRPS

Roger Lewis ARPS

Shaun Parkes

Colin Murrell

Published by the Archaeology and Heritage Group of the Royal Photographic Society, May 2020.

Copyright in all text and photographs is held by the credited authors, or as otherwise stated. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in any form without prior written permission of the Publisher.

Print ISSN 0958-0565

Online ISSN 2632-3346

Front cover photograph

St Helen’s Church, Isle of Lundy Amanda Miller LRPS

Back cover photograph

Norwich Cathedral, Amanda Miller LRPS

Printed by digitalprinting.co.uk

Milton Keynes, MK9 2FR United Kingdom.

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

3 Perspective

DAVID BRYSON

“Seeing is believing“ in Heritage Photography.

4 Gwil’s rant . . .

GWIL OWEN ARPS

I have in mind a little story from the history of archaeology which may entertain you.

NEWS

5 Committee Members Committee reshuffle as we welcome several new members and say goodbye to an old stalwart.

FEATURES

6-11 The Domes of Istanbul

JOHN EATON ARPS

When the opportunity to visit Istanbul came about one of my priorities was to explore the magnificent mosques in that city, especially those built by Sinan and his followers.

12-18 Past beliefs

GWIL OWEN ARPS

In the here and now, in a world dominated by a few major religions, it is difficult to get a handle on how earlier belief systems operated and developed within their respective societies.

19-24 Churches on my travels

AMANDA MILLER LRPS

Sharing my photographs, feelings and thoughts about some of the holy places I have visited.

Perspective

“Seeing is believing” in Heritage Photography

DAVID BRYSON

The quote from astronomer Pierre Janssen

“Seeing is believing” though talking about the role of photography in science also applies to the work and art that goes into places of worship carefully designed to awe and inspire believers. The challenge of ‘Alternative views of places of worship’ has certainly been met.

The lure of churches, cathedrals, mosques, temples and other places of worship have always held sway with many members. However, the breadth of archaeology and heritage allows us to go beyond the usual to take a deeper look and so develop a greater appreciation of the many works of architects, designers and those who fund these projects over the many years they take to build.

John Eaton who developed his love of architecture from his family shows his passion for the history and beauty of the Domes of Istanbul as he explores the genius of the architect Sinan and his apprentices.

Gwil Owen takes us to two very different places of worship and veneration from the city built for the Aten by the Pharoah Ahkenaten through to the very ancient but also modern world of Australian aboriginal rock art and their stories.

Amanda Miller takes us on a personal journal through many places of worship both traditional and the more eclectic, allowing us to share her experiences of the weather, ambience and aesthetics of our heritage.

Future editions of Heritage Photography

September 2020 “Scientific and technical”

An opportunity for many of our group who are working in industry whether aerial kite photography, infrared or specialist techniques to let us have an insight into their work.

January 2021 “Heritage in miniature” well anything below a building in size for all those small interesting objects that show up in Archaeology and Heritage. A follow up from George Backshall’s desire to see an inherited Glass and other small objects as part of our heritage in print. This is also an ideal opportunity for lots of single images from lots of contributors, so please send what you think may be suitable with a caption or caption and story.

May 2021 Keith has suggested very broadly “Engineering” those feats that span the ages or new works, the heritage of the future.

The aim is to have as many features and photographs ready in advance of the publication dates. Many contributors will have noticed that I am working through their submissions and whilst everything can’t be published straightaway they are being published over time.

If you have an idea for photographs or articles and photographs for the journal please contact me. heritage.editor@rps.org

DAVID BRYSON

Borobudur Temple. This famous Buddhist temple located in central Java dates from the 8th and 9th centuries. The walls and balustrades are decorated with fine low reliefs, covering a total surface area of 2,500 m2 . The monument was restored with UNESCO’s help in the 1970s.

Gwil’s rant . . . . .

Chair of the Archaeology and Heritage Group. GWIL OWEN ARPS

.

Neanderthal Museum, Mettmann, Germany

https://www.neanderthal.de/en/

In our present social circumstances I think it would be inappropriate for me to pontificate on some “important” aspect of our photography. Instead I have in mind a little story from the history of archaeology which may entertain you.

Once upon a time in a small town in Germanyactually it was Dusseldorf in the 17th century - there was a school master and preacher called Joachim Neander; an educated and deeply religious man. His grandfather had changed the family name, Neumann (new man), into the Greek derived form, Neander, as was fashionable at the time. Joachim was an itinerant outdoor preacher of some fame. His main stomping ground was the small valley of the Dussel seven kilometres or so from his home, and over time the area became synonymous with his name.

Fast forward to the 19th century. Quarrying in the valley exposed the bones of prehistoric humans. When their age and significance were recognised, and a formal name was needed, the choice was obvious. With a neat mixture of Latin, Greek and German (“thal” means valley) “Homo Neanderthalensis” was coined.

How ironic that our very old, distant ancestorwhose DNA remains a tiny part of our own genome - should be called a “New Man”.

To group matters.

There is only a faint possibility that we may be able to hold our exhibition as planned. In any case it seems sensible to go ahead with collecting and mounting the prints. At the worst we will be able to go ahead as soon as social circumstances permit. Let me remind you all that the deadline for entries is 1st August. You have had details of size of mounts, and other general requirements. I shall be the general depository to whom you may send your prints. Do email me if you have any questions. Some committee members are happy to be drop off points for their area, if you would prefer to hand over your entry in person. There will be shortly a group email giving details of addresses etc. that are not suitably put into the public domain.

Try to have fun.

Gwil.

Just email me: heritagechair@rps.org

Committee Members

Welcome to the new and many thanks to those who have been on the committee for some time.

In the absence of an AGM we have added to the committee Mike Glyde, Roger Lewis, Shaun Parkes and Colin Murrell. We are in the process of saying goodbye to Rodney Thring. He has been a group stalwart for many years and most recently has taken on the task of distributing the Heritage Photography Journal. We shall miss him, but he does deserve a rest.

As a committee we are just organising respective duties and exploring (hopefully) new ideas that fresh faces will bring.

Shaun Parkes

Aged 57, married with one adult daughter, doting granddad of two beautiful granddaughters. General photographer, love architecture, heritage, aviation, wildlife, landscape photography. Retired in 2018 as a Squadron Leader in the RAF Air Cadets (ATC) after 34 years’ service. England Rugby and Chelsea FC fan. Former Chartered Manager and Chartered Fellow of the CMI. Disabled through arthritis but currently working from home sending emergency shipments of DHSC PPE around the UK through the night!

Roger Lewis ARPS

I live in Wales the land of waterfalls, castles , impressive landscapes and more opportunities for Heritage photography than you could ever wish for. I am a retired headteacher and my main interest is in ecclesiastical photography although I also photograph the plethora of industrial sites in Wales as well as its nature and landscapes. I have been married for 48 years and have three children and four grandchildren.

My other interest is fly fishing and I have represented Wales at international level. I started with traditional methods using 35 mm, medium

format and large format cameras but now have taken the digital route. I obtained my ARPS with a print submission of the indigenous people of China and Tibet.

Mike Glyde

Hello I’m Mike, your new group secretary. I am a professional heritage consultant and have been working in this field for 25 years.

I combine this with my lifelong passion for photography, whether landscape, natural history, portraiture, macro or aviation. I see in my work wonderful record photos of heritage, but I try and take more emotive photos that focus on composition and light to portray a story. I also have carried out a lot of aerial photography of archaeology, and recently trained as a licensed drone pilot. I live in rural Worcestershire with my family.

Colin Murrell

My interests in photography are landscape and old buildings such as churches. When I was in my twenties I took both colour and black and white and did my own print developing.

My heroes are Ansel Adams and James Wedge. Having had a long break I’m now getting back into photography and digital imaging.

Current committee members

Gwil Owen, Chair of the Group heritagechair@rps.org

George Backshall who has moved from Secretary to Treasurer heritagetreasurer@rps.org.

David Bryson, Heritage Photography Editor and Web Editor heritage.editor@rps.org

R. Keith Evans FRPS DPAGB

The Domes of Istanbul

When the opportunity to visit Istanbul came about one of my priorities was to explore the magnificent mosques in that city, especially those built by Sinan and his followers.

JOHN EATON ARPS

My interest in historical architecture was inherited from my father, brother and son all architects and attending a school adjacent to Chester Cathedral.

Many years later, on retirement, this came to the fore in a major photographic project to document the interiors of all the English medieval cathedrals made even more challenging by the fact that I now live in California!

When the opportunity to visit Istanbul came about one of my priorities was to explore the magnificent mosques in that city, especially those built by Sinan and his followers. One of the primary focal points for me was the vast open space of the interior enclosed  by the immense dome and, in particular, its construction and decoration i.e. look up!

The following images from several of the mosques illustrate some of the differences in construction and decoration of domes that fulfill a common purpose and function.

The architect, Sinan

Most of the mosques in Istanbul are the work of Sinan, or one of his apprentices. Sinan was born around 1488-90 to a Christian family (Armenian or Greek) in a small Turkish village in Anatolia. In his teens he joined the Janissaries and spent the next three decades serving in multiple military campaigns across the Ottoman empire. He had received some training in carpentry and building and during the campaigns developed a reputation as an innovative and skilled engineer and, as a result, was promoted regularly.

In 1539 he was promoted to Royal Chief Architect, a position he held until his death in 1588. Sinan was the chief architect and civil engineer for Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II, and Murad III. Although responsible for around 400 buildings and many outstanding engineering feats, notably the aqueducts and water-supply to Istanbul, it is for his magnificent mosques that Sinan is primarily remembered.

Atike Valide on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus

Eyup Sultan

His training as an army engineer led him to approach architecture from an empirical rather than a theoretical point of view. Starting with the Byzantine church as a model, Sinan adapted the designs of his mosques to meet the needs of Muslim worship, which requires a large open space for common prayer. As a result, the huge central dome became the focal point around which the design of the rest of the structure was developed. Sinan pioneered the use of smaller domes, half domes, and buttresses to lead the eye up the mosque’s exterior to the central dome at its apex, and he used tall, slender minarets at the corners to frame and support the entire structure.

Sinan’s last apprentice, Mehmed Agha, became Chief Architect in 1606 and, until his death in 1617, worked primarily on his great masterpiece, the Sultanahmet mosque also known as the Blue mosque for its use of Iznik tiles. In Sultanahmet, Mehmed Agha combined the symmetry and scale of Hagia Sophia with the innovations of Sinan in the use of domes and semi-domes to create and support a beautiful, light and airy space.

Atike Valide

Located on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus, this mosque formed part of a large complex that also included a madrasa, a college, a school for Quran recitation, an elementary school, a dervish convent and a hospital complex. It was built for Nurbanu Sultan, wife of Selim II, by Sinan and completed in 1586. The main space is covered by

a central dome of 42 ft in diameter, supported on six arches arranged in a hexagon with two freestanding columns. The space is expanded by five semi-domes, one of which contains the mihrab, and the arch on the north side is filled with a flat wall which contains the entrance portal.

Eyup Sultan

The Eyup Sultan Mosque is Turkey’s oldest and most sacred mosque and was the traditional site for the coronation ceremony of the Ottoman Sultans, where the new sultan was girded with the sword of Osman. A mosque complex was originally constructed on the site in 1458 only five years after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. However, by the end of the 18th century the mosque was in a ruinous state, perhaps as a result of earthquake damage, and in 1798 sultan Selim III ordered the whole structure other than the minarets to be pulled down and rebuilt. This work was completed in 1800.

Sehzade

Sinan’s first truly important architectural commission was the Sehzade Mosque, commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in memory of his favorite son, completed in 1548. Like many of his mosque constructions, the Sehzade Mosque has a square base upon which rests a large central dome flanked by four half domes and numerous smaller, subsidiary domes.

Sulimanye constructed in between 1550 and 1557

Sehzade, the superstructure is supported by four massive, but still elegant, free-standing octagonal fluted piers and four piers incorporated in each lateral wall. In the corners, above roof level, four turrets serve as stabilizing anchors.

Sokollu-Ismihan

Sultanahmet

The coherent concept for the Sehzade Mosque was markedly different from the additive plans of traditional Ottoman architecture and confirmed Sinan as an important, innovative architect.

Sokollu-Ismihan

This mosque complex is named after its patrons, the grand vizier Sokullu Mehmed Pasa and his wife, Ismihan Sultan, daughter of Selim II, and was completed by Sinan around 1571-72. The complex included a mosque, madrasa, convent, and a reservoir with street fountains. The interior is famous for its use of Iznik tiles in a wide variety of blue, red and green floral designs. Locals regard this mosque as one of Istanbul’s hidden treasures, a beautiful building, close to Sultanahmet, but without the crowds of tourists!

Suleymaniye

Suleymaniye is one of the largest mosques ever built in the Ottoman Empire and is considered by many scholars to be Sinan’s finest work. By 1550, Suleiman the Magnificent was at the height of his powers. Having built a mosque for his son (Sehzade), he felt it was time to construct his own imperial mosque, an enduring monument larger than all the others. It was set on an immense man-made terrace at the top of a hill, surrounded by quiet parkland, dominating the skyline by the Golden Horn.

Sinan wanted to achieve the largest volume under a single central dome and at Süleymaniye he

created a massive central dome, with a diameter of over 100 ft, that is pierced by 32 openings, thus giving the dome the effect of lightness while also copiously illuminating the mosque’s interior. Besides the place of worship, it contains a vast social complex comprising four madrasas, a large hospital and medical school, a kitchen-refectory, and baths, shops, and stables. Sinan, now heading a formidable department with a great number of assistants, finished this formidable task in seven years and, through this monumental achievement, he gained wide international recognition.

Sultanahmet

The Sultanahmet Mosque, known as the Blue Mosque (because of its abundant use of blue Iznik tiles), is the central element of the complex built by Sultan Ahmed I from 1603-1617. The mosque is composed of a large prayer hall unified under a single dome preceded by a courtyard to the northwest: it has five main domes, six minarets, and eight secondary domes. The design is the culmination of two centuries of Ottoman mosque development. It incorporates many Byzantine elements of the neighboring Hagia Sophia with traditional Islamic architecture and is considered to be the last great mosque of the classical period The architect, Mehmed Agha, synthesized the ideas of his master Sinan, aiming for overwhelming size, majesty and splendor.

JOHN EATON ARPS

Past Beliefs

In the here and now, in a world dominated by a few major religions, it is difficult to get a handle on how earlier belief systems operated and developed within their respective societies.

GWIL OWEN ARPS

We often forget that our western Christian church has behaved in different ways over the centuries: as a small sect - initially, as a major political body - Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV at Canossa for example, and with the rise of protestantism as a collection of groups with social agendas. Its history, most history indeed, is written by the elite and the powerful.

The general population is mostly silent. Here are two examples from the past of how belief systems might be interpreted in different ways.

1 - Egypt’s new kingdom; the reign of Akhenaten: c.1350 BC.

Akhenaten - aka the heretic pharaoh - changed the state worship system from a broad range of gods to that of one god - The sun god, the “Aten”. To further emphasise this he founded a new capital

in middle Egypt, roughly half way between Cairo and Luxor. This city and its associated farmland occupied an area some 17 by10 kilometres between the eastern and western desert escarpments. His new city was on the eastern bank of the river. Along with two major temples, an administrative centre and housing for citizens, there were outlying settlements for the labour forces. The city was still a work in progress when Akhenaten died some three and a half decades later.

These bald facts do not tell us how his beliefs operated in practice. Was his monotheism as expressed in the textual evidence rigidly enforced? - there have been excavated shrines to other gods within the new development. He continued the pharaohonic practice of interceding with the god to ensure that disasters did not happen - was this politically expedient?

Small Aten temple. Temples in the city were aligned to the rising sun

Stela. Boundary stelae were erected around the city, emphasising that it was built to the Aten’s specifications.

Family. The Aten embraces and protects the royal family, as Akhenaten distributes gifts. Note the little hands on the sun’s rays.

Many of the images in the city’s tombs portray the royal family being protected by the Aten, at leisure in palaces, or riding in chariots in processions - was

this perhaps a cult of the personality? And what of the common man? Apart from some evidence of other cults operating, his voice is silent.

Chariot procession. Royal processions were major events.

Rainbow serpent in Northern Austrtalia. The rainbow serpent is the foundation story, creating and protecting life.

Nourlaangie rock. This panel at Nourlangie was repainted in the 1960s, refreshing the traditional stories. The little figure top left is Lightning Man, a mischief maker.

Lightning man cliffs. The view of Nourlangie Rock. In the distant cliffs is Lightning Man’s local home.

2 - Australian aboriginal culture.

Understanding the archeological evidence for prehistoric aboriginal cultural practices is more difficult. The timescale involved is huge. Settlements have been dated to c. 60,000 BC. Within this timescale there is evidence for more than one population movement as sea levels have varied over the millennia.

One major problem is that aboriginal culture still exists, and modern biases influence how the past is understood. For example each group storyteller may be expected to tell the same tale but in his or her own way. This is complicated by the commonly accepted principle that accurate transmission of facts, verbally, person to person, only extends to three generations.

So what does Australian rock art say? General categories include creation stories, ancestor stories, natural history and modern history. Latterly aboriginal art has been integrated with art in general as the modern world sees it. There is within the rock art an ancient view of the world, a modern view of the world and a modern view of the ancient world.

Here, then, are two societies whose basic beliefs are apparent, whereas their practical operation, and what it all meant to individuals at any one time, is open to debate.

GWIL OWEN ARPS

Art panel. This panel includes from left to right, the natural, the modern and the mythical world.

Warrior with spear and dilly bag

FEATURES Churches on my travels

Sharing my photographs, feelings and thoughts about some of the holy places I have visited. AMANDA MILLER

LRPS

Hof Church, Iceland

This is the beautiful turf bound church Hofkirkja in Oraefi, Iceland. Built in 1884 it is one of the last to survive of its type. In all there are 6 churches throughout Iceland that are managed as historical monuments.

Tomb of Elizabeth I, Westminster Abbey

The magnificent structure that is the tomb of Elizabeth I and let us not forget Mary I. Located up a couple of twisting stone steps to the north of the Lady Chapel, stands the aisle in question.

There is only one little oak door for both entrance and exit. During the day light pours through small Tudor bayed windows. The aisle is home to several other tombs and monuments including the infant children of James I. The grand tomb is large for the space that is barely possible to pass by.

The lighting was terrible and yet somehow I like the effect, even though it meant tolerating a high iso. As the aisle is so small, patience was the name of the game.

Harewood, Yorkshire

September was feeling a lot more like November, and the rain had been relentless all day. Great trees cover the path that leads up to the church, hidden from view of the great house. As the light waned early and the gravel crunched beneath my boots, I was very conscious that I was alone. The house had now closed for the day and the few trippers who had come out in the weather had now gone.

Heavy little droplets from the trees kissed my forehead, and with a final gust of wind I stood before the entrance. On first sight (and I mean very first sight), it appears to be a large but plain structure. It is the monuments here that are the glory. There can be no doubt it is one of the finest collections outside of a cathedral.

They are breathtakingly beautiful. The exquisite detail of the fine white alabaster belies their age. Here we have Edward Redman (d.1510) and his wife Elizabeth Huddlestone (d.1529) residing in the damp grandeur of the North aisle, about them the wind whistled through the cracks in the windows and

Hofkirkja Church in Oraefi, Iceland.

pulled at the doors with the force of a desperate spirit wishing to enter. And then all too soon, my mission complete, and one rather loud bang of the door in the North aisle, it was time for me to leave before I was locked in.

Salisbury Reflections

“Breathe”, I reminded myself as I finished angling the tripod legs between the spouts of perpetually flowing water, and angled my lens so that the rim of the glass kissed the water without making a ripple.

And now wait, offering up silent prayer that no one knocked a leg of the tripod and sent my beloved camera into the depths of the font. Guided tours came and went. Visitors ambled at leisure up and down the nave looking but not seeing. People watching whilst you wait is a wonderful past time. Then finally, after a couple of hours, the way was clear, the water was smooth, and the shot was taken.

Norwich

It was a very stormy June afternoon in Norwich, and the cathedral felt like night had descended early. As a result the darker recesses of the cathedral now had a distinct other worldly feel about them, where candlelight and the little natural light available ricocheted off the ancient gnarled stone vaults and columns creating lurking shadows and pools of warm light.

Ely Cathedral, Candlemas

It was a bitterly cold February night sat on a cold stone floor, but it was a beautiful sight to see this

majestic space illuminated by candlelight and the sound of the choir filling the capacious nave

The Hermitage

The day had started the night before in an epic drive from Dorset to Northumberland to watch dawn rise over Sycamore Gap (dawn was not that obliging). It did, however, turn out to be a fabulous day.

And so this particular June afternoon I found myself taking a pleasant stroll along the waters edge to the point where the boatman could be found. Amongst the long summer grasses was the little landing stage where a little wooden row boat sometimes waits to take people across the little stretch of babbling water.

At first the little path that leads from the landing steps seems wholly unremarkable. Tranquil enough, but simple in its enchantment. And then as you step through the final trees you are suddenly in an open glade inhabited by ancient stones and ancient trees alike.

The most verdant green decorates the rocky walls and uneven steps that lead up into the Hermitage. Except it is not a Hermits retreat but a private chapel associated to or belonging to Warkworth castle. It is a holy place hewn from the rock, with simple decorated chambers. It is a tiny, magical place and once you have explored all that you can it is time to once again be borne back across the river away from this magic, timeless place and back into the sunlight of the 21st century

The Hermitage, a holy place hewn from the rock, with simple decorated chambers.

Salisbury Reflections

Harewood, Yorkshire.

Ely Cathedral, Candlemas.

Tomb of Queen Elizabeth 1.

Lundy Church

The journey from Bideford to Lundy is a mere 12 miles across the Bristol Channel. The weather was foul and the sea a tumult of crashing power. Waves crossed in all directions as our little vessel lunged and rolled onwards. Our little party had opted to stay on top deck, where, even though we were wrapped in blankets, the wind and rained whipped at us. Down below everyone was ill and the stench was horrifying.

Those 12 miles felt like a lifetimes’ journey. But eventually we approached a rock of an island shrouded in mist. It was the start of a week that felt like we had stepped into an Agatha Christie novel.

We had rented the mansion house, which now loomed menacingly at us through the gloom and drizzle. I have to say the house was amazing, 1920’s through and through, with no electricity after midnight. Behind our house (we never wanted to leave our little idyll) was a step path that lead to the village (for village read pub) and beyond that inquisitive sheep, Celtic crosses and lighthouses. And eventually you come to St Helens church. St Helens was built in 1896 in the Gothic revival style, but there had been burial grounds here dating back to the 5th century and a church occupied the site from 1244, see Front cover. It’s an unexciting little church architecturally, but wow what a location. This by the by was June and possibly the clearest

Well’s Steps

day we had. But we loved every minute of our photographer’s retreat aided by copious amounts of hot chocolate, gin and a three day game of monopoly set up in the dining room.

Holkham, Norfolk

I had spent my morning in the splendiferous grandeur of marbled halls and gilded finery. And now here I was, seeking the Lady of the house. I had driven to the back of the estate, to find a little church upon a little hill hidden down a gravel path in a wooded glade. The sky had turned a leaden grey and it was drizzling that sort of fine insistent drizzle that clings to your hair and cloths in tiny little droplets. On entering, I was immediately plunged into darkness and having to grapple my way to the inner door.

But what treasures lay the other side of that door. Ancient stones and ancient wood came together to form the body of the church. And then on the left of the nave was a tiny medieval chapel. The worn effigies of long forgotten knights lay low on the stone floor, where the green fauna of neglect was slowly creeping from the corners.

I stepped through the narrow doorway, and there in bright white marble was the Countess in question. I gazed upon her for a moment before working the scene and creating the images desired before the light was lost.

Holkham, Norfolk

It was only as I stepped back to view her again I realised at her feet lay a very new wreath made of wheat and white duck feathers. It would seem someone on the estate still remembered. The Countess’ remains were finally removed and put with the rest of the family, but here remains her effigy, in the church she helped save.

Wells Steps

Sometimes a beloved classic needs a slightly new twist on it. I love the Sea of Stairs at Wells Cathedral, especially where the steps are so very worn by the light step of active feet through centuries gone by. So this particular day, a cool February afternoon, few people were in the cathedral and even fewer in this little corner. So, as is my way, I set myself up on the floor in the entrance to the chapter house.

I had a vision of a low angle view incorporating the heavy oak door and the textured wave of the steps.It was a very therapeutic half hour as I sat on the floor of those stairs trying different framing an inch one way or the other. In the end this was my favourite. I like to think it has the feel of someone (maybe the cathedral cat) glimpsing the stairs from the half light of the doorway; neither hidden nor revealed.

Blanche Mortimer

St Bartholomews in Much Marcle, has many treasures and great monuments, but it is the tomb

of Blanche Mortimer, daughter of Roger, overthrower of King Edward II, that draws the most attention.

The light was strange the evening I drew up and parked the car. A storm was approaching and there was no sunlight to be found. This was the last stop of my day before heading home, and I had the terrible gnawing in the pit of my stomach that the church would be locked. I can happily report that it was not.

In the darkness of the nave lies a wooden monument, half-forgotten in the gloom. In a side chapel more marvels of the monumental variety await exploration. And then there is Blanche and what is possibly the saddest thing I have ever seen. There she lies in peaceful slumber, her hands placed gently on her stomach, the fabric of her dress falls and gathers in gentle elegance over the side of her recumbent ledge. She is serene, and so detailed. For all the world she looks to simply be asleep - she is indeed a sleeping beauty.

And about this gentle lady, is a very modern security system. Someone has already stolen her little dog’s head, and now we know she really does lie in peaceful slumber within her tomb under several layers of lead, the decisions has been taken to protect her with cameras and motion sensors. It is better than locking the church, but still sad that we have reached this stage where the memory of the dead needs this type of protection.

Blanche Mortimer, Much Marcle, Herefordshire. She is serene, and so detailed. For all the world she looks to be simply asleep.

Chapels on the north, Westminster

Bathed in blue light intermingled with light emanating from the behind the Confessors’ chapel, fingers of light crawl into the darkness and illuminate the tantalising details strewn across the chantries and chapels of the North Ambulatory Aisle looking west to the Islip Chantry at the furthest point then the Chapel of St John the Baptists, its little entry step warn in the middle by centuries of feet. And the tombs of Abbott George Fascet dating to 1500 and the effigy of Thomas Ruthall, Bishop of Durham and Secretary to Henry VII.

Tomb of the unknown soldier

This was the last shot of the evening at Westminster Abbey. However, the evening lighting in the nave is not especially inspiring nor flattering.

So, having decided I wanted the vastness of the nave to juxtapose the smallest of the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier, I had very quickly concluded that this was going to be a black and white piece, with a splash of colour. Thus, creating a sombre mood with the shining beacon of hope in the red poppies of the tomb.

AMANDA MILLER LRPS

Chantries and chapels of the North Ambulatory Aisle, Westminster.

Tomb of the unkown soldier, Westminster Abbey