Frontiers - Views to Edgelands by Royal Photographic Society

Frontiers Views on Edgelands A collaborative project between Regional Hubs of the Royal Photographic Society

Foreword There exists an extraordinary richness in the environment of post-industrial Britain; it is a landscape in a state of perpetual flux. Our everyday gaze may focus on the urban areas in which many of us live, defined by town and city boundaries, or it may focus on the ‘natural’ countryside that is often more man-made than we might like to accept and into which the urban advances relentlessly. Wherever we look, the character and identity of our surroundings is most readily defined by the landscape and the buildings, within which people and wildlife pursue a precarious and dynamic, frequently conspiratorial, co-existence. Between the urban and the ‘natural’ there is a wilderness where one environment merges almost seamlessly into another. These hinterlands possess a character and identity that is neither urban nor ‘natural’. They have such a diffuse and ill-defined ‘edge’ that they are easily overlooked; these are the ‘edgelands’ that are hidden in plain sight. We see them but rarely, if ever, do we acknowledge them; and we almost never celebrate them. Increasingly, these edgelands define who we are as the inhabitants of post-industrial Britain; our urban lifestyle has become wholly dependent upon the utilities and services that occupy and emerge from these complex and disregarded environments. Yet, these unique ecosystems have an intrinsic beauty. It is a beauty that has been so elegantly captured in this Royal Photographic Society “Frontiers” project: wire-mesh fencing bounds an expanse of semi-derelict brownfield; vegetation struggles for survival, pushing through the cracks in vast areas of concrete hard-standing; broken sections of graffiti-emblazoned hoarding afford a view of emerging industry or a canal that struggles to compete with a railway; lorries hurtle along ribbons of tarmac that come to an abrupt end as if waiting for the edgeland to creep across a hitherto untouched greenfield. The contributing photographers must be applauded for tackling such a complex subject in a way that allows this intrinsic beauty to shine through. Their photographs are a celebration, not a criticism, of their occupation of what is becoming the new ‘quintessential’ character of modern Britain. Simon Hill HonFRPS President Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain

Preface There is this urge to photograph the sublime and to create an iconic image. Yet we find ourselves surrounded by the everyday ordinary and the often overlooked. What stops us from photographing the mundane? Our perception of aesthetics and beauty, to which the ordinary often does not conform? Or the sheer lack of interest in the subject matter which we deem not worth photographing? These were my musings when I designed “Project Frontiers” for the North Wales Region in early 2020. Reading the books ‘Remaking the landscape - The changing face of Britain’ 1) and ‘Edgelands - Journeys into England’s True Wilderness’ 2) informed the choice of topic for the project: edgelands. These transition zones, this land in-between, might not appeal to a traditional perception of beauty, but they often fulfil vital functions to our society. This defined the first objective of the project: to photograph the overlooked on the fringes of urbanised areas. Edgelands are everywhere, and this ties in with the second objective: to photograph in the vicinity where we live and work, photographically explore our immediate surroundings, and thereby keeping the carbon footprint for this photo project as low as possible. Photography should be more than just a technical medium to record a likeness. Taking and making pictures can be a way of expressing ourselves, to visualise memories, thoughts, concepts and emotions. It is here to tell our own story with our own images. It is personal. The choice of subject matter, the perspective, the rendition, the mood conveyed in the images, all this is a readout of the photographer’s personality. Or as Richard Misrach said: “It occurred to me that all photography is interpretation. Its primary illusion is realism, but ultimately it only uses real elements for expression”. 3) This then defined the third objective: to make this project a unique and personal account of what we see, and how we visualise our response to the edgeland. Working on a photographic project over several months might be new to many photographers and can be a daunting undertaking. Through a mentor scheme in the North Wales Region we sought to achieve yet another objective: to guide and encourage photographers with different photographic backgrounds and skill levels to step out of their comfort zone, work on a photographic project and theme new to many, engage with each other and build a community. An important aspect was to nurture a growth mindset, expanding the personal boundaries, stepping beyond our personal frontiers and grow resilience in overcoming obstacles and setbacks. In North Wales we also wanted to transgress the invisible boundaries between photographic organisations, and so we teamed up with the North Wales Photographic Federation (NWPA). This collaboration not only allowed us to reach a wider audience but also to increase the diversity of photographic voices and visualisations.

To further increase the outreach and to make it a pan-Wales project I approached Rhys Jones, then Regional Organiser of South Wales. In a follow-up round table discussion between Rhys, Stewart Wall - Regional Organiser for East Midlands and Central Region - and myself, Stewart made the brilliant suggestion to evolve the project to an RPS-wide undertaking, inviting all regions and Special Interest Groups to participate. Sadly, Rhys Jones passed away before the project was launched. Against the background of the pandemic and demanding day-jobs of the volunteers involved in the project management, delays in the project roll-out, execution and generation of outputs were hardly avoidable, but we persevered. This project and the resulting photo books are the product of teamwork and would not have been possible without the support of everybody involved: the regional organisers who ran the project in their regions, the mentors and all the photographers who submitted work. This book features, in random order, the work of participants in the London region, East Anglia, Southern region, Thames Valley and North Wales. The work made in the East Midlands and the Central region have been published separately. Special thanks goes to the North Wales Photographic Association (NWPA) and its leading exponents Ian O’Neill as President and Terry Mills as Secretary, who wholeheartedly embraced this collaboration with the RPS, and to the mentors Angharad Bache, Andy Polakowski and Gareth Jenkins who led their groups of photographers, and engaged with, guided and encouraged the participants in North Wales. I would like to express my immense thanks and gratitude to the regional organisers who led the project in their regions, and who actively engaged and worked with the members to guarantee a successful outcome: Judy Hicks and David Hicks of the London Region, Jonathan Vaines for East Anglia, Bhupinder Ghatahora of the Southern Region, Graham Wilson of Thames Valley, and Stewart Wall of East Midlands and the Central region. And of course I would like to thank all participants who engaged and immersed themselves in the project, who went out for walks with their camera, who all persevered in their own personal ways, have seen their project through to the end, and share their experience of, and personal take on edgelands with us. Rolf Kraehenbuehl ARPS Regional Organiser RPS North Wales Region

Introduction Contemplating the interpretation of the term ‘landscape’ we can hardly avoid noticing that we often associate the word and concept of ‘landscape’ with the picturesque, the pastoral or even the sublime. However, if we understand ‘landscape’ in a broader sense, then it can include much more, even the built environment. The built up environment is basically land which has been modified for living and working, creating a particular type of landscape. In some cases beautiful cathedrals, surrounded by cobbled streets, have been built on this land; in other cases it is residential areas and housing estates; and sometimes it is storage facilities, business parks, waste water treatment plants, or scrapyards. These landscapes are often located at the periphery of more densely populated areas, wedged between the urban development and the countryside, the built environment pushing against nature. They are frontier land, an interface, and form transition zones and boundaries alike. They are sometimes also termed “peri-urban” areas, “fringelands”, “rurban” areas or “edgelands”, and display unique characteristics 1,2). Different planning permission rules apply, land prices differ markedly to the price levels in the town and city centres, and the erected buildings are more often than not purely functional and either lack or display their own unique aesthetics. Nevertheless, these frontier- and edgelands, and the way we use them, are often vital for the settlements they are attached to, but they may also be controversial and contested. While they may or may not have historical value, some edgelands surprisingly provide ecological value. In densely populated areas, the perception of what constitutes ‘edgelands’ and boundaries might differ from the one in less urbanised areas. Rivers like the Thames or ringroads act as dividing lines and borders, partitioning the land, and creating their own microcosmos. Edgelands can turn into special habitats in their own right. A yet wider interpretation of frontiers can include time boundaries, the transition from old to new, from past to present to future, even from life to death. These frontier places are a mirror for our society, and so rather than close our eyes to them, we should explore and try to understand them, not least through photography. We almost expect our landscapes to have man-made features and we should encourage ourselves to rethink and photographically approach landscapes we are usually inclined to regard as not worthy to be photographed. To say it with the words of Jesse Alexander: “It is not necessarily the land that makes the landscape, but how the photographer approaches, works with, and presents the finished photograph wherein the artistry lies.” 4) And to quote this author once more: “The possibilities for landscape subject matter are not limited to how far you can travel geographically, but rather by how much of yourself you are willing to invest in your photographs.” 4) The only boundaries to our creativity reside within ourselves and the limits of our imagination. Rolf Kraehenbuehl ARPS February 2022

Andy Norman LRPS Where London ends. Frogmore is a small hamlet near St Albans in Hertfordshire which spans the M25, marking the edge of London towards its North Western corner. It contains disparate areas of scruffy near-countryside, quirky housing, equestrian services, a disused landfill site and abandoned gravel workings. All within earshot of the motorway itself. These photographs show a sample of these to capture something of the atmosphere of the area and the relationship between man and the landscape at the extreme outer edge of the London conurbation.

Daniel Muckle-Jones The Northern Link Road. Ruthin is a historic market town which has many fine medieval buildings. On its northern edge a link road has been built to bypass the town centre, which is unsuitable for today’s large freight lorries. It gives access to an industrial estate and a modern housing development, the Glasdir estate, which contrast vividly with the town’s centre. During the pandemic I have spent many hours walking around this road and its surrounding areas. I have concentrated my investigation of the margin lands of Ruthin on what I see when exploring the areas adjacent to its Northern Link Road. Glasdir Estate Feral cats take over recycling park after closing Containers Preparing for winter Tyres

Craig Howe LRPS Edgebound. The edgelands alongside the A55 Expressway near Conwy are composed of three primary components – manmade structures, nature, and humanity. They are bound within this landscape, whether deliberately or accidentally, inevitably or surprisingly, boldly or subtly, and each in turn dominates the space. These images reveal the juxtaposition and interplay of these edgebound elements, exposing how they influence the complex reality of these industrial, transitional, residential and natural habitats. The edgelands are created and dictated by structural imposition, but the edgebound make their own mark, for employment, for protection, for disposal, whilst nature interminably seeks to reclaim where it once prevailed unchallenged.

Lorraine Wales I have been fascinated by the contrast in surroundings whereby land meets modern urbanisation and how the two go side by side. My photographs show the edgelands that surround the back of Addenbrookes hospital and a new development of housing called Clay Farm on the outskirts of Cambridge. The contrast in the natural surroundings of fields suddenly ends and modern buildings take up the edges and the modern world begins. The land provides us with a sense of space as you can choose to walk along the many paths.

John Staten Playing Out. Like Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, the authors of the book “Edgelands”, I too grew up on the outskirts of a large British city. Their description of a childhood spent exploring these frontier places resonated with me. These were the landscapes that I played in when young, looking for abandoned treasures. Now I am hunting for treasures again, this time with a camera. Wider views can give an impression of these sometimes surreal looking places but I am also looking for intimate scenes. Found objects, shot where they lie. In a child’s imagination these can be almost anything.

Suzanna Mu Park Royal. Park Royal in West London straddles the London Boroughs of Brent and Ealing. The site is the largest business park in London intended to become the UK’s largest regeneration scheme. The Grand Union canal runs through it. The area’s relatively central location and the strong and improving transport links including (at Old Oak Common) HS2 and the Elizabeth Line have led to the area being described “Canary Wharf of West London”. The existing Network Rail and Bakerloo Line links added to the new HS2 and Elizabeth Line links will make this the transport hub of west London encouraging major regeneration.

Petra Laidlaw LRPS Woodberry Down. Woodberry Down, in north London, is dominated by two reservoirs dating from the 1830s, when the area was on the edge of London. A century later, it was selected for an ambitious social housing scheme to support East End slum clearance. Highly thought-of originally, by the century’s end it had fallen into disrepair. The Council contracted with a private developer to build new social housing and prestige apartments overlooking the reservoirs, offering water sports and a wildlife wetland as well as fine views towards central London. These photographs seek to bring out the contrasts and tensions inherent in the project.

Stephen Inwood River Thames Link to Maidenhead Regeneration. I chose Maidenhead as the subject for the Edgelands project as it is in the early stages of a regeneration plan following over 40 years of piecemeal town centre development leading it to being identified as a ‘clone town’ dominated by chain stores and office blocks. Restoring, and making more accessible, the disregarded and overgrown system of Thames waterways has acted as the catalyst for key town centre development sites providing new housing, leisure and retail. I wanted to capture the journey of the historic waterways from one of its Thames sources culminating in its interaction with the new developments.

Dave Balcombe ARPS Wymondham is a rapidly expanding market town in South Norfolk on the main A11 South of Norwich. Once surrounded by farmland with a few industries in the town the amount of housing is rapidly growing such that what was once the edge of the town is now encircled by housing redefining the old edgelands. My photography documents some of the boundaries that have changed. Some show an area that was redefined by the A11 bypass built 25 years ago and the subsequent infill, and others that are in the process of change. Kett’s Park Recreational area and Council offices New council office Kett’s Park Old rugby club pitches New rugby club pitches New housing development

Robin Taylor-Hunt Most of us tend to think of rivers and estuaries as natural spaces; but we like to visit these habitats and so many are bordered by towns and villages, and fringed with paths, roads and marinas. My intention is to create a series of photographs of nature overcoming or eroding manmade objects within this natural estuary environment. BP’s fuel-jetty into Southampton Water Abandoned boat Former naval hospital ship “Fortuna” Wreck of an old mine-sweeper Posts of the jetty to the dormitory ship that lay on the edge of the river channel

Mo Greig ARPS Garden of England has become the new Brexit Border with the EU. At the end of the Brexit transition period on 30 December 2020 goods travelling between the UK and the EU are now subject to tariffs, customs formalities and checks on standards such as food safety and animal welfare. To facilitate the processing of these new rules a number of “Inland Border Facilities” have been set up throughout the country away from the coast. Hundreds of hectares of fields, farmland and ancient settlements have been covered in concrete, turning areas of Kent into giant lorry parks. These Brexit “Edgelands” have changed the UK - perhaps forever.

Richard Sambrook LRPS Wisley Airfield. Wisley Airfield is a former wartime airfield just outside London. It was requisitioned in 1942 and closed in 1973 because the runway was too short for modern planes. Now it is 300 acres of abandoned tarmac, overtaken by weeds, next to farmland, on the edge of suburbia. All structures have gone apart from one beacon which helps planes stack over Heathrow. It is deserted, usually empty – but with public access across the crumbling runway and apron. Soon it will disappear completely as the land has been sold for the development of 2000 new houses – against the wishes of local residents.

Vincenzo Albano ARPS Mushrooming Urbanisation. Rapid increase in urban population and economic activities command new working and living spaces. However, space is a limited resource, with height becoming the only alternative for development. Skylines are changing dramatically; tall buildings are mushrooming in large cities and London is not exempt. Often, new developments unfold to the detriment of natural and cultural resources, like rivers, parks and historical buildings. River Wandle from Spit Island River Wandle diving under Southside Shopping centre in Wandsworth Office block in Colliers Wood Urban development from Lambeth Bridge Canary Wharf and Docklands

Steve Jones ARPS Swanscombe Peninsula. Much of the Swanscombe peninsula in the Thames Estuary is now a nature reserve and SSSI but it still shows traces of its former industrial and maritime history. The 21st Century has seen massive residential development on its western flank and planning consent is currently being sought for development of a major theme park. No longer the industrial and commercial riverside edgeland of north Kent, the Swanscombe peninsula is now at the contested edge of the debate over land use in an increasingly crowded southern England. Infrared capture highlights the contrast of nature and the hand of man.

Mike Cowling ARPS From Weapons of War to a Diversity of Industry in a Rural Heartland. The project focusses on the current use of the vast former WWII and Cold-War USAF Base at RAF Bentwaters, in East Suffolk. The former home of warplanes and their weapons is a peaceful but busy industrial area with a diverse range of industries and activities. There are strong connections with the surrounding highly productive farming area, from which the base was carved when national need dictated. There are opportunities too for new industrial developments and a strong contrast with the local towns and villages, where many of the current base workers live. This project portrays this island of Edgeland. USAF Tactical Wing Command HQ Base Fire Station to film production Hardened Cold War protection to agricultural storage Small business near the main runway Cold War security downgraded

Gordana Johnson Spreading of London. In Edgelands, I explore the half-mile area where the North Circular divides Outer London (Muswell Hill) and Greater London (Friern Barnet). The area reveals the urbanisation of the countryside. The cemetery itself is a remnant of the time when it could only be built outside city limits. Despite being at the edge, the area embodies all the needs, behaviours and emotions of its residents: a supermarket; allotments that besides providing food and social interaction show a yearning for nature; while graffiti show the edge of some people’s patience with government and Covid-19.

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Angharad Bache The End of the Line. The seaside town of Aberystwyth is home to twelve thousand residents, nine thousand students, and what feels like one million seagulls. Many hail the small but mighty town as the cultural capital of Wales, but the High Street is suffering as the storms are still raging. The dilapidated buildings are left uncared for by landlords, and no one complains because they are still more in rent than we can afford. We are the town connected with everywhere, but without intervention the town’s future is being left quite bare.

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John Clark LRPS CPAGB AWPF Prestatyn’s historical features. King Offa’s dyke defined the contested Welsh border about 780 AD; Prestatyn celebrates the eponymous path. In 1167 Owain Gwynedd destroyed Henry II’s castle which protected the trade route to Chester. Domesday Book’s White Spring still feeds the pond, stone lined to prevent soil staining the soaking flax by Flemish linen weavers, all slaughtered by Owain Glyndwr in 1407. In 1841 the Telegraph and Coastguard Station was built to advise Liverpool of approaching ships and a cannon warned the Talacre Lifeboat of coastal crises. RAF Prestatyn, a WW2 radar station, became a Cold War early warning system (decommissioned 1958). No sign of Offa’s Dyke for miles Prestatyn Castle built Robert Banastre 1165 - destroyed Owain Gwynedd 1167 Domesday spring, Nant Mill and flax retting pond Voel Nant Telegraph 1841 Former radar station

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Robert Cain Margins. My initial mission statement was to try to show how the edgelands co-existed between the town and the countryside, and what effect they have on each other. However, after several visits it became apparent that, although they co-existed, they had their own distinctive character. The edgelands themselves had their own character and raw industrial beauty, and I was drawn into documenting, what is to me, that beauty.

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Graham Wilson The ultimate edge lies between life and death. Communities, for sanitary reasons, position their cemetary on their periphery and downstream. Their graves, often photographed for their individuality, tell us about the diverse views of that society on a supernatural afterlife. My interest, instead, is in the graves of those who died in the service of a cause. Represented here are two Commonwealth War Graves, dutifully tended, and respectfully visited by future generations. They contrast with those of two Jesuit “Soldiers of God” from a deserted seminary graveyard, strimmed once a year, and no longer visited.

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Andy Polakowski AWPF BPE5* DPAGB EFIAP/g GPU-Cr2 HonNWPA APAGB One Vanishing Point, Many Perspectives. The Alyn Valley to the south east of Mold opens out into pasture land which is dominated visually by the 95 metre high tower of a cement works. The impact of this varies according to the weather, time of day and quality of light, its existence now being taken for granted if not quite forgotten. My interpretation of this subject is to explore the multitude of viewpoints that this provides, some of which come as a surprise, especially from the built environment; this amplifies the irony that the cement works actually provides the material fundamental to urban development: cement. From Pen yr Allt From Penyffordd From Leeswood From Buckley From Mold Bypass

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Gareth Eckley Penmaen Head Quarry. The North Wales seaside of Colwyn Bay leads to Penmaen Head Quarry. Heavily industrialized since the construction of the A55, it finds an equilibrium with its natural surroundings. The concrete shapes or “dolos” placed along the coast to protect the new road from coastal erosion, a shift in focus from developing industry to preserving the surrounding area. The rainbow bridge, so called for its shape not its colour, is a concrete representation of a natural phenomenon and an ironic monument to this delicate balance. An Edgeland, of industry and nature, land and sea, past and future.

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David King In the 1960s, the field opposite our house in Bournemouth was a rubbish tip. When my wife and I moved here 28 years ago, it was just an unkempt and little-used area of land leading to the River Stour which we used as our “back garden” whilst our son was growing up. My intention is to show how a diverse variety of insect life has become established thus showing the successful transition from rubbish tip to nature reserve. Through this project I hope to be able to flag the importance of fringe-lands such as Iford Meadows. Flesh Fly Flower Beetle Ladybird Hornet Hoverfly Iford Meadows, a haven for bees

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Peter Cramp Peri-Urban Peterborough. Peterborough was designated a New Town in 1967 resulting in the creation of new townships linked by efficient parkways. The population has increased from 81,000 to 205,000 today, and is still growing with the lure of affordable housing and employment. The city is dynamically developing, benefitting from excellent road and rail connections, and the availability of land to build is attracting various industries. The edgelands are evolving into hubs of multi-functional usage from residential suburbs to industrial zones to nature reserves. My intent is to illustrate the peri-urban aesthetics and boundaries with the open countryside.

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Marina Barber The Bland Comes Alive. I discovered structures that appeared as the forgotten ones hidden from plain sight. Blending in with nature waiting for their light to shine. A windswept moor where the lone tower stands. The hammock left to the elements with the graves for company. And who is that? He who wears a mask and is hiding from the world. An angel covered in vines but still commands presence. A power house amidst the farmland. And all of these nondescript subjects are given a small stage to be seen and to be interpreted by their unseen audience.

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Mike Longhurst FRPS Morden – Edge of the Known World? For anyone, Londoners especially, who regard the borders of London as being defined by the Tube map, Morden sits at the edge of the known world, on the southern end of a long black diagonal Northern line. But, a name on a map is all it is to most people. Morden, in fact, is not just the hub where the tube lines end and the bus routes begin. It is where Merton College and Merton Borough Council are based and Morden is a very multicultural area with strong Moslem connections. So, my aim is to put Morden visually on the map. Morden Underground and Bus Terminii Merton Civic Centre and Council Offices Baitul Futuh Mosque Merton College of Further Education Café Lavella Turkish Restaurant

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Penny Dewhurst LRPS CPAGB Blot on the Landscape. In 2014 Ofgem commissioned the Visual Impact Provision (VIP) project which looked at the negative impact pylons had in areas of outstanding natural beauty in the UK. 10 over the Dwyryd estuary in Gwynedd were considered one of the most intrusive lines, and as a result are to be replaced by a tunnel under the estuary. These photos record the impact those pylons have on their surroundings and demonstrate support for the decision to demolish them. It also shows hope - knowing lessons have been learned, and more consideration may be given to the placing of them in the future.

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Judy Hicks LRPS Hurst Park Open Space: A Ferry runs to it. The passenger ferry from Hampton takes you across the Thames to Hurst Park Open Space, an area used for recreation since the 1700s. Acquired as a racecourse in the 1890s, the land was sold in the 1960s for residential housing, but a wide strip of green space remains between the development and the River Thames. The Thames Path runs along the edge of this green space which in part has been allowed to re-wild. Vegetation conceals alternative lifestyles, both on the river and on Garrick’s Ait, accessible only by boat. Hampton Ferry Hurst Park Open Space – panoramic view 1960s Housing which replaced the Racecourse Alternative Lifestyles by the Riverbank Garrick’s Ait – accessible only by boat

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Brian Connolly Little Woodcote Estate. The Little Woodcote Estate lies on the bottom edge of London but is owned by Surrey County Council. After WW1, Surrey Council created an early version of ‘Homes for Heroes’ project here, providing unemployed ex-servicemen with smallholdings to farm and help themselves recover from their traumas. The 100+ years since have seen many changes. Methods of communication, transport and the rise of the “throw away” lifestyle have all left their mark on this tranquil area but it is still predominantly used for farming and livestock, offering locals a quiet, green space to enjoy away from life’s everyday pressures. Original Housing Throwing it all away Ready for a Game The Distant City Signs of the Times

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Linda Clare ARPS Roads to (No)where? The edgelands of my nearby town are gradually expanding outwards, with a recently-completed link road creating a new frontier. While this could set limits on urban encroachment, it already seems permeable, with signals of further development beyond the road. By documenting these signals, I aim to highlight how their presence implicitly primes us to accept what can seem inevitable. I focus in particular on ‘roads to nowhere’: the dead-end roundabout and carriageway exits pointing into fields and countryside, harbingers of coming industrialisation – unless we learn to take care of our environment and reduce our obsession with growth before it is too late.

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Jonathan Williams For this project I have taken photographs in my local area of Colchester, within walking distance of my home. During lockdown, I have been exploring more of the local footpaths, which are close to the edge of Colchester. Within 10 minutes of walking, you can be out in the countryside, but there are also areas of industry and leisure not just residential areas nearby. This is an area of changing land use, with the frontiers changing all the time depending on the value of the land. Art? Ancient. Earthworks. Zoo. Midden. Mound. Valley. Post. Erosion. Extraction. Scrubland. Flowers. Gate. Security! Polytunnel.

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Sue Clark LRPS CPAGB AWPF The seaside resort town of Prestatyn lies between the sea and a steep limestone escarpment extending to neighbouring villages of Meliden and Dyserth. Limestone was quarried for 700 years from the 13th century and lead was mined from Roman times until the late 1800s, with products exported by sea from Prestatyn. Mechanisation in the industrial revolution increased production and railways for transport. Today, wind and fossil fuels generate power out at sea. Evidence of the industrial past is disappearing, reclaimed by nature, but commemorated by building restorations, railway line conversion to a walkway and installation of a Roman helmet sculpture.

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Fred Barrington ARPS Silvertown. Silvertown is an area of London sandwiched between the River Thames and the Royal Docks, named after Mr SW Silver who established factories there in 1852. It is now known mainly for a very large Tate and Lyle refinery. In 2012, as part of the Olympics regeneration project, a cable car was installed between Royal Docks and Greenwich, passing over this area, which merely serves to exaggerate the way that this area has been bypassed. This project shows this aspect and contrasts with the modern structures across the river in Greenwich.

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John Foster ARPS Somewhere between yesterday and tomorrow. Since 2012 the QE2 Olympic Park has continued to develop around the former athletes village and the giant shopping mall of Stratford City. Yet around the South and West of the park, a thin ribbon of land remains as yet undeveloped. The scars of old industry are visible along with builders’ depots, power plants, barbed wire and graffiti. Everywhere the backdrop is one of buildings reaching for the sky. This is an eerie, unsettling place. There are very few people and little traffic, only a brooding sense of impermanence, transition and waiting. An area waiting for its fate. An edge between yesterday and tomorrow.

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Hilary Barton LRPS Old Kiln Lakes. The 164-acre Old Kiln Lakes development was built about 10 years ago on the site of a demolished cement works and its surrounding flooded chalk pits on the outskirts of the little Oxfordshire village of Chinnor. 159 houses were built on the old factory site. The shallower excavations have been landscaped into playing fields, some newly planted woodlands, and self-regenerated grassland. The deeper excavations have become lakes in a wildlife reserve. The area is criss-crossed with “desire paths”. The lack of additional facilities leads to tension between the new and original villagers, but nature is recolonising. Desire path from the village Edge of the playing field Nature recolonising No entry for newcomers Flooded chalk pits

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Yvonne Griffiths Gwynedd Archaeological Trust had been asked by Adra to survey the edgelands of Rachub, Snowdonia, prior to the development of social housing. Archaeologists discovered Roman artefacts and Iron Age dwellings. My aim was to capture where old meets new, the historic site against the backdrop of modern housing. However, as I became more familiar with the Archaeologists, I became increasingly interested in observing their work: their physical strength and stamina; powers of concentration and patience in recording minute details; their passion for archaeology, to discover the story of the site. I feel privileged to have had an insight into their unique world, thank you.

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David Hicks The Thames in London – Barrier and Opportunity. The first two bridges were built by the Romans (Londinium) and the Normans (Kingston); despite the 40+ crossings built since 1729 (Putney), the Thames still divides Londoners into “North or South of the River”. In many ways the Thames is a barrier like a motorway creating two communities. However, unlike a motorway, very few people travel along it and we enjoy living and relaxing beside and on the river. These images taken from the south bank around Putney show how we use and enjoy the boundary between the land and the water. Thames Clipper (peak hours riverbus for Putney) Walking on Putney Beach Finished rowing for today Evening by the River Houseboats

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Neil Johansson ARPS Borderlands. For a long time I’ve been fascinated by industrial landscapes and overgrown wastelands, and I felt this was a golden opportunity to go back to something really interesting to me. I have taken various images of Deeside, but mostly through the train window with my mobile phone. I wanted to get a closer look. Inspiration has come from various sources but the main influence is Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker. Capturing atmosphere and mood were the priority, rather than technical precision. I aimed to capture images with a cinematic quality as well as documenting an overlooked area. Wild Territory Lost Coast Tunnel Route Kanal Iron Forest

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Susan Blagden I was intrigued by the project title! I was drawn to this site because much of this space has been derelict for years. Before the castle was built there was a freedom of easy movement between home and sources of food: fish from the rivers Gyffin and Conwy, and fruit from the ancient orchard. Now the towering, imposing walls create a massive frontier, forcing people to ignore the flow of the river, to literally overlook a very wide variety of plants, insects, and birds. It is the photographer who pays attention and shows us what we neglect. Conwy Castle and the wasteland Conwy Castle and the overlook orchard Tiles of neglect Steps to nowhere Back in the flow of life

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Natalie Robinson ARPS Foreshore. The River Thames is the frontier between North and South London now only breached by bridges above or crossings beneath the riverbed. Making photographs on the northern foreshore - in June, July and August 2021- between Queenhithe and Cannon Street railway crossing, I encountered ‘mudlarks’, dogwalkers and people just ‘taking a break’ all of whom who disappeared -along with me- in response to the rising tide. The falling tide reveals the history of this edge land, while the modern artefacts and structures - like barges and building support structures - deny the tides to create unthought of spaces and views. Upstream; below Walbrook Wharf Upstream; below Southwark Bridge Upstream; under Three Barrels Walk Downstream; under Three Barrels Walk Downstream; below Three Cranes Wharf

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Saul Huck LRPS No-Man’s Land. In nature I find peace, beauty and freedom; civilisation is home, fulfilment and security. Between the two exists a mysterious front; an iron-curtain of barbed-wire and brambles, concrete and rock. Civilisation invades nature; diminishing it, threatening it and polluting it. Nature retakes any territory left by man, breaking it, recolonising it and devouring it. The Edgeland can be a zone of tension. Nature is susceptible to destruction by mankind but civilisation is fleeting. Nature will quickly return to no-man’sland and re-assert itself. My images seek to show how civilisation is subject to decay and how nature, when allowed, can overcome. Slate spoil, Dinorwig Punctured Pond, Cwm Eigiau Bailing No Use, Cors Ddyga Broken Spectacle, Dinorwig On Edge, Dinorwig

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Alan Larsen Charlton Riverside. Located between the royal grandeur of Greenwich and the military splendour of Woolwich, the south bank of the River Thames at Charlton is both industrial and semi-derelict. The outward appearance conceals a rich heritage: sections of the riverfront have ‘safeguarded wharf’ status, thereby preserving and sustaining industries that have been carried on here for over a century and depend on the river for their livelihood. Running through this is the Thames Path, a more recent leisure facility – a popular riverside walk and cycle-route. These images document one mile of the path between the Greenwich Yacht Club and the Thames Barrier.

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Susi Luard ARPS Whitstable West Beach Caravan Park. I found this place by chance in May 2021 when I walked down Island Wall in Whitstable towards Faversham. The caravans were intended for holiday rental. The first sign I saw was by the Tea Room which seemed to be the only local entertainment and eating place. Not much seemed to have been going on since before the Covid-19 pandemic first lockdown in 2020. A dilapidated rescue phone number greeted me further down. This caravan site was nestled at the edge of town where you could see terraced houses at the land edges of the West Beach Caravan Park.

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Patricia Cordery New Beginnings. One can think of the redevelopment of this site at the edge of the town of Porthmadog as a ‘New Beginning’. My project looks at the effect this new build has on its surroundings. The positioning and influence it has when arriving into Porthmadog from an easterly direction. ‘Its impact upon the town.’ As a margin land structure it is a ‘welcome’ to the town in several ways, but its influence on the rest of the town has been kept to a minimum.

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Michael Colman Edgelands – Between here and there. Edgelands are an undefined or soon to change area between here and there. The here creeps undetected until it reaches the boundary of there itself spreading from an existing. Urban spread is an opportunity or a curse depending on one’s points of view. The Edgelands in this project are part of the green belt between the town of Radlett and the M25. Development has already occurred into part of the space and surely more will follow as the pressure for homes, jobs and recreation progresses has it has done for centuries. Aggregate Depot Farm Track Field Under Offer Slip Road

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Roger Towell ARPS AFIAP A Motorway Runs Through It. Sunbury has a number of Edgelands: it is where southwest London meets northwest Surrey, the London area code 020 is replaced by area code 01932 and the Great Chertsey Road (A316) becomes the M3. Ironically, clustered beside the M3 (in Surrey) is a distinctly urban shopping centre and warehousing whilst alongside the section of the A316 (in London) are open spaces, fields with trees, with a relatively more rural feel. My photographs endeavour to show these contrasts. Towards London Warehousing in Surrey Bus to London M3 begins in Surrey Elevated Edge

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Photographers Albano, Vincenzo Bache, Angharad Balcombe, Dave Barber, Marina Barrington, Fred Barton, Hilary Blagden, Susan Cain, Robert Clare, Linda Clark, John Clark, Sue Colman, Michael Connolly, Brian Cordery, Patricia Cowling, Mike Cramp, Peter Dewhurst, Penny Eckley, Gareth Foster, John Greig, Mo Griffiths, Yvonne Hicks, David Hicks, Judy Howe, Craig Huck, Saul Inwood, Stephen

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Johansson, Neil Johnson, Gordana Jones, Steve King, David Laidlaw, Petra Larsen, Alan Longhurst, Mike Luard, Susi Mu, Suzanna Muckle-Jones, Daniel Norman, Andy Polakowski, Andy Robinson, Natalie Sambrook, Richard Staten, John Taylor-Hunt, Robin Towell, Roger Wales, Lorraine Williams, Jonathan Wilson, Graham

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Bibliography 1.Jennifer Jenkins (Ed.): Remaking the landscape - The changing face of Britain. Profile Books Ltd., London (2002). 2. Farley, Paul; Roberts Michael Symmons: Edgelands - Journeys into England’s True Wilderness. Jonathan Cape, London (2011). 3. Misrach, Richard: Richard Misrach on Landscape and Meaning. Aperture Foundation, New York, 2020. 4. Alexander, J.A.P: Perspectives on Place: Theory and Practice in Landscape Photography. Fairchild Books, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. (2015).

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First published 2022 Printed by Mixam © 2022 The Photographers and the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission of the copyright holders. Front Cover: Image by Jonathan Williams Page 3 Fake dunes by Rolf Kraehenbuehl Page 4 And now this shit by Simon Hill Page 8 Idyllic deception by Rolf Kraehenbuehl Page 288 Reading space by Rolf Kraehenbuehl Page 291 Being watched by Rolf Kraehenbuehl Back Cover: Image by Yvonne Griffiths