Heritage Photography Autumn 2012

JOURNAL of the ARCHAEOLOGY & HERITAGE GROUP

Canterbury Cathedral, the Choir and Sanctuary a print from the Group's 2012 Exhibition See pages 6-7 Dr Richard Ingle FRPS

R. Keith Evans FRPS

The Signal Sox: a vanishing icon of our industrial heritage See Unsung Treasures of the Railway Age, pages 4-5

AUTUMN 2012

Archaeology & Heritage Group Chairman R. Keith Evans FRPS 7 Grassy Lane Sevenoaks KentTN131PN Tel 01732 743943

Secretary Rodney Thring LRPS 27 College Ride Camberley Surrey GU15 4JP

Treasurer Jim Tonks ARPS Earlton 174 Chairborough Road High Wycombe Bucks HP12 3HW Committee Eric Houlder LRPS (Archaeology Editor) Martin Fletcher Ken Keen FRPS Gwil Owen ARPS Dr Mike Sasse (Webmaster)

PERSPECTIVE As winter approaches, I'm sure we all find it rewarding to review the year's photographic activities, our successes and 'near-misses', and p~r~~ps to_ anticipate using the winter months to produce some future exhib1t1onpnnts.

In my own case , I look back over the Group's 2012 events and recall some memorable picture-making opportunities, such as our day at the newly restored Stowe Landscape Gardens near Buckingham, or at Knole House in Kent; and also a memorable afternoon handling and discussing some of the treasured prints in the photographic archives of the Royal Institute of British Architects just a few of the 1.5 million images held there. Few of us can claim to have_ held in our hands original salt prints by William Henry Fox Talbot and Maxme du Camp (Abu Simbel , 1850), or 20 x 16 inch contact prints documenting construction of the Louvre in 1857 by the French photographer Edouard Baldus. Then from Samuel Bourne's 1860 pictures of the Taj Mahal to Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's 1930 series on Bexhill's de la Warr Pavilion; Edwin Smith's 1950s Scottish album to Bernhard and Hilla Becher's meticulous recording of German industrial buildings - from all these masters we could learn the skills of first-class architectural photography.

Though we do not generally review photographic books in Heritage Photograph y, I must make an exception for two recent publications of especial interest to the Group. First , I received a copy of Stained Glass, by our Group member Roger Rosewell - a well illustrated card-back book tracing the history of stained glass from its Anglo-Sa xon origins to the present day. As well as its 100 or so photographs, all taken by the author, the book also contains a county-by-county gazetteer listing almost 600 examples of important stainedglass windows in England 's churches and cathedrals. ¡ Then in October I was privileged to attend , on the Group's behalf , the exhibition and book launch of Magnum photographer Peter Marlow's The English Cathedral, a work of scholarship and photographic skill from which I'm sure many of us could learn as well as enjoy. Between June 2009 and January 2012, Marlow recorded an interior view of 42 English and Welsh cathedrals, almost all looking east down the nave soon after dawn.

His 4 x 5inch Sinar Fl monorail camera, Marlow explained , was mounted atop a 9ft high tripod ; the lens was a 115mmft5.8 Sinaron, with exposures of 1-5 minutes at/22-32, using Fuji 160 Pro negative film. Marlow's favourite cathedrals? 'Lichfield', he says, 'Winchester and Ripon ' .

For readers interested in seeking out these two books, their ISBN numbers are 978-0-74781-147 -3 (Rosewell) and 978-1-8589-4590-3 (Marlow).

R. Keith Evans, Chairman.

Published by the Archaeology & Heritage Group of The Royal Photographic Society, October 2012 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 fonn without prior written permission of the Publisher.

ISSN No. 0-904495-00-0

Venueof our 2012 Print Exhibitionthe 16"'-centurySt George's church in Esher, with its private pew chamber added by Vanbrugh in IUS. A report on the exhibition appears on pages 6-7.

A Cornish parish church in Alabama The Church of St Michael and All Angels seems out of place in both location and time. You might expect to see its 90ft stone tower when approaching Marazion or Mousehole, but not when driving west on Eighteenth St in Anniston, Alabama.

By Dr David Cummings ARPS

Roof timbering is an eye-catching feature , to a design seldom seen in American churches.

After the American Civil War, there was a need for an iron foundry in northeast Alabama.

Members of the Tyler and Noble families from southern England founded the city on a site located near the raw materials and labour that could make the enterprise profitable.

So many workers and foremen came from England that it took not one, but two new Episcopal congregations to serve the new parishioners. They felt the need to found churches in the Anglican tradition, unlike the local Baptist and Methodist churches.

John Ward Noble, one of Anniston's founders, broke ground on the new church on 11 June 1888. The Tyler family remained as the patron family of Grace Episcopal, and the Noble family and their friends moved to the outskirts of town to the site of St Michael's. Famed architect William Halsey Wood, a finalist in the contest to design the cathedral of St John the Divine in New York, was engaged to design a local parish church that would remind the Noble fa~nily of the churches of Cornwall.

HERITAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

Never before or since has local Alabama stone been used to build Norman arches, or local timber used to replicate the ship's beam ceiling of an English church. Master mason Simon Jewell was brought from England to work the Alabama sandstone. The huge altar of Carrara marble is from Italy and the reredos of brick faced with alabaster was brought from England, as were the floor tiles in the nave and cloister. The pews are of native oak.

Stained glass tells the Bible story The stained glass windows are some of the finest in the state. As is common in Europe, they follow a plan that tells stories from the life of Christ, a type of presentation rare in the American South. There is also a Tiffany Madonna and Child and a more-than-adequate rose window on the south wall. The original 1889 organ has been rebuilt many times by different "makers, and is one of the better organs in the area, incorporating over 3000 pipes. The church hosts a popular Sunday afternoon concert

series, in a setting quite exotic to local residents.

The complex of buildings is joined by cloisters, and varies in many ways from the usual southern neighbourhood church.

Many alterations have been made both inside and out, but always faithful to the intentions of John Noble. The fabric and mood of the church are still unique in the area.

St Michael and All Angels today is home to an active metropolitan congregation that is proud of the heritage of the church and its place in Anniston's history. Community arts organisations and a local medical clinic for the poor have been hosted there; it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is a State Historical Site.

If you 're ever traveling in the Southern United States, and want to have a somewhat-authentic taste of home, find your way to Anniston and see St Michael's. Then tum around and see the aging neighbourhood of Southern bungalow homes, and recall how it all came to be.

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Around the world , museums and both 'preserved' and operating railways exhibit a wealth of buildings , structures , rolling stock and artefacts that are as important to the history of rail transport as the locomotive itself. Our industrial heritage would be the poorer without them.

The railway infrastructure Tunnels, viaducts and bridges, for example, are of both architectural and engineering interest, ryiany of them displaying the canal-engineering technology that preceded them. Artistry in brick , stone and iron, Britain's great rail bridges still in daily use on our main lines include the Forth Bridge , Brunels's pioneering Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash , the Tay Bridge near Dundee and the Royal Border at Berwick-on-Tweed.

The unique French example pictured here, Gustave Eiffel's Garabit lattice arch bridge over the Truyere river, completed in 1885, displays the delicate ironwork made famous worldwide four years later by his iconic Tower in Paris.

Evidence that our 19th-century civil engineers took pride in their achievements can be seen, too, in some of their notable 'fortified' or decorated tunnel portals, like those at Audley End, Shugborough on the West Coast main line and Clayton tunnel in Sussex.

In similar vein, notable passenger stations and railway hotels remind us of the days when travel by train was universal and passengers were courted by numerous, often competing, railway companies. One such grandiose hotel, the Great Central at Marylebone, was featured in our Spring 2012 issue; the newly re-opened St Pancras and the renovated Charing Cross (built by the son of the designer of

Gustai•e Eiffel 's lattice arch bridge of 1885, the Gar a

Unsung treasure Railway conservation is a worldw i on the steam locomotive. But ma remain to be discovered and rec takes a look

Somersault signals (above) once ruled throughout the Great Northern Railway.

Even minor derailments could call upon the services of the steam breakdown crane.

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permissive tokens to early semaphore signals , can be found in transport museums; and a good number of the latter, once universal, signals are still in use on preserved or even Network Rail lines.

Rolling stock ...

The non-steam locomotive is well represented both in railway museums (such as at York, and in the London Transport collection at Covent Garden), and on numerous enthusiastoperated preserved railways. Diesel, petrol-powered and early electric locomotives can all be found in working order , and in the Ulster Folk Museum, Belfast, given a horse the Fintona Tram could take to the rails once again.

Similarly , Museum collections abound in examples of early rail vehicles - tramway trucks predating the true 'railways', narrow- and standard-gauge passenger coaches, and a wide variety of rail-mounted vehicles such as postal sorting offices and mobile cranes and guns .

of the railway age e activity focusing, for most people, other facets of rail transport history cled, and here R. Keith Evans FRPS some of them. ¡

... and ephemera A look, finally, at some of the numerous smaller or more ephemeral items of 'railwayana'. For some enthusiasts and historians , timetables and tickets are a fascinating sideline Thomas Edmundson's original ticket -issuing machine is still to be seen in the Science Museum in London - while posters promoting seaside resorts or scenic attractions en route fetch high prices at auction. So too do locomotive nameplates and even such once-unconsidered trifles as lamps, fire-buckets and cap badges.

Certainly , today 's interest in seeking out and recording our railway heritage shows no sign of abating.

the House of Commons, E.M .Barry) are two others in London alone. Stations large and small , still in use, typify the elegant structures of Brunel , Robert Stephenson , David Mocatta - a student of Sir John Soane - and William Tite.

Equally important to railway development were their signalling systems . Relatively few signal boxes remain, largely replaced by centralised control offices . But curiosities dating from the hand-signalling era , through

Posters and locomotive nameplates attract high prices at auction.

Double-deck coaches are no recent innovation - this one dates from 1924 and was still in use in the mul-1960s.

HERITAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

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The Group's 2012 With its theme 'Church Architecture and Heritage', this year's Print Exhibition concentrated on church architecture, archaeology and artefacts from Saxon times to the 20 th century. A selection of the prints displayed is shown here.

Held by invitation at St George 's Arts Centre in Esher, Surrey, the exhibition was one of the many events taking place as part of the 2012 Festival of British Archaeology fortnight in July.

The venue itself was particularly appropriate: St George's church - now home to the Arts Centre - dates from 1540, is Grade 1 Listed, and is still a consecrated building in the care of The Churches Conservation Trust. Built in a mix of sandstone, flint and brick , with a timber bell-cote, the Tudor structure has been added to but little restored; its clock dates from the end of the 16th century, and 18th-century additions include a fine reredos and three-decker pulpit.

A notable feature is the classical 1725 chamber pew designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, accessible only from outside the church. Princess Victoria attended services here when visiting her uncle at nearby Claremont , and later as Queen, with Prince Albert.

Saxon carving 'Virgin with (unborn) Child' in the porch of St Mary's Priory church at Deerhurst, Glos.

R. K. Evans FRPS

Alabaster statue of Sir Thomas and Lo.dy Fettiplace at St Thomas's church, East Shelford, Berks.

Rodney Thring LRPS

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The late 12'"-centuryTemp/,echurch, London.

Ken Keen FRPS

Print Exhibition The High Altar, Lincoln cathedral.

Jim Tonks ARPS

As the sub-title of the exhibition implied, the 52 prints on display - from fifteen Group members - spanned more than a thousand years of English and Welsh churches and cathedrals and their artefacts.

Earliest was the Saxon carving pictured on the opposite page . Several examples of Norman churches appeared , and London churches by Hawksmoor and Sir Christopher Wren; then the Victorian era of carvings and rich decoration , followed by some painted interiors and stained glass from the 1930s and '40s .

Visitors' comments were positive. It was encouraging that a high percentage of viewers were not primarily photographers, but church recorders and historians - to them , perhaps , the photographic skills of our Group members showed that our work provides not only a documentary record, but a sense of the history and atmosphere of our churches large and small.

St Albans cathedral,Herts.

The Norman church of St Mary at Jffley,Oxfordshire.

Noel Cahill LRPS

HERITAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

Dr Richard Ingle FRPS

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550 years of history at Knole House The great house of Knole, in Kent, was largely built for Thomas Bourchier when he was Archbishop of Canterbury, between 1456 and 1486 .

Today one of the major properties of The National Trust, it was here that the A & H Group enjoyed a photographic visit in August 2012.

For four centuries Knole has been - and still is - home to successive generations of the Sackville family, but briefly, between 1538 and 1566, it was a royal palace of Henry vm, Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth, and bears evidence of the royal connection to this day.

During our Group visit in August, we had the opportmtlty to see and photograph not only public and state rooms, but also some of the many rooms not normally open to visitors.

Here are stored many of the successive families' trivial possessions such as pictures, tools and sports equipment some not so trivial in fact, since a marquetry Boulle cabinet that stood decaying for many years in an attic was rediscovered in the 1980s and sold at auction for over ÂŁ1mi11ion. A derelict bedroom, too, was later to reveal a valuable but previously mis-attributed painting by Caracci.

For the visitor to Knole, it is Bourchier's Great Hall which makes the first impression and gives a foretaste of the grandeur of the state rooms on the first floor. Leading to them is the Great Staircase, dating from the time of the 1st Earl of Dorset, Queen Elizabeth's cousin and the first of the house's Sackvilles. Novel in its day, much of the lavish decoration of the staircase, its plasterwork and balusters, is in trompe l'oeil painted wood.

The Ballroom, or Great Dining Room, is the principal lavish room of state. It leads in tum to the Reynolds Room, where are hung many of the painter's works; thence to the Cartoon Gallery, with its copies of Raphael's large cartoons (designs for tapestries) originally at Copt Hall in Essex.

Photographing some of Knole's supposed 365 rooms was a rare privilege, and the 15 RPS members who took part were rewarded with fine pictures and treasured memories.

The Great Staircase, above, with its grisaillepai11tedpanelling, dates from 1608.

The Cartoon Gallery takes its name from the six copies of Raphael's tapestry cartoons showing scenes from the lives of St Peter and St Paul, seen on the left. Portraits on the end wall include King Henry V/11 and Sir Thomas More.

Photographs Š R. K. Evans.

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Printed by Lakeside Printing Ltd, Tonbridge, Kent