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Extract from "More Rough Travel Notes with an Architectural Eye - 2012":
Sitting in gracious grounds, Leeds Castle goes right back to 1119 as a Norman stronghold, then listed in the Doomsday Book as a manor. In 1278 it came under King Edward the 1st, for whom it was a favourite lodging. For the next three hundred years it remained a royal residence before again becoming a private home. However, much of what we see today actually dates from the 19th C. In the early 20th C it was turned into a retreat for the influential and famous; then, sold in 1926 to pay death duties, it was acquired by a wealthy American heiress and became her lifelong project. It’s attractively built on islands in a moat-intended lake formed by the river Len.
We stroll through extensive parklands, beautifully tended and alive with exotic display birds. Then the unveiling as we come in sight of the castle. It looks as though the Normans anticipated picture-perfect postcards. Swans and geese, then a barbican spanning three islands, with the castle appearing to float on the water — its reverse reflected below. The 19th and 20th C revised structure was completed in Tudor style.
P :-)
Tags: PS peteshep copyright photo south of London - 2012 England architecture Kent Leeds Castle moat
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Extract from "More Rough Travel Notes with an Architectural Eye - 2012":
We find ourselves in the green garden space of the Greyfriars. They were the first Franciscan friary in England, and built over the river in 1267. The only remainder is a delightful two-storey-but-small building fusing cold-grey flintstone with warming brickwork, literally arched over the water. A most-attractive setting, with simple and direct interior — a one-room museum below, a winding wooden stair, and a side-lit and simple chapel above.
P :-)
Tags: PS peteshep copyright photo south of London - 2012 England architecture Kent Canterbury Greyfriars 1267 Franciscan
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General approach view including Bell Harry Tower.
Extract from "More Rough Travel Notes with an Architectural Eye - 2012":
Canterbury Cathedral was architecturally avant-guarde for England in its time. Centuries later it’s still a most impressive structure, long, high, and aspiring outside and in. Its three towers reach up and up, emphasized by the Gothic verticality. And next is a detail photo I took a dozen years ago showing evolution in style from Norman/Romanesque to since-called Gothic in a unison of integrity:
[ peteshep/634729042/in/set-721576005... ]
But what’s this? Today the whole of the north-east portion of the Cathedral is under scaffolding and shrouding, with patches of newly-fitted restoration stonework. Make the most of my old photo — it’ll be fifty years before that corner weathers to its unity again.
P :-)
Tags: PS peteshep copyright photo south of London - 2012 England architecture Kent Canterbury cathedral precinct Bell Harry Tower
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Extract from "More Rough Travel Notes with an Architectural Eye - 2012":
And true carpets of bluebells under copses of trees — bright bluebell blue of course.
P :-)
Tags: PS peteshep copyright photo south of London - 2012 England architecture Kent Canterbury Pilgrims' Way bluebells wood hyacinth
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Extract from "More Rough Travel Notes with an Architectural Eye - 2012":
our path leaves Canterbury behind as we stride through delightful rolling landscape. Contrasting vast patches of intense chrome-yellow rapeseed paddocks explode against fields of spring-fresh green; trees are pointed with lettuce-bright buds, others still muted in winter silhouette skeletons, capillaries against the sky.
P :-)
Tags: PS peteshep copyright photo south of London - 2012 England architecture Kent Canterbury Pilgrims' Way rapeseed landscape capilliary
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