Salcombe and the Minton Tiles Mystery. Picture (s) of the Week, 23 August 2015.

Salcombe on the southernmost tip of Devon is a very pretty little town, but for the visitor who's already looked at the harbour, the lifeboat and the two or three small galleries there's not very much to do if you aren't really into messing about in boats! The crab sandwiches sold by local cafes are very good but not exciting enough as they don't last long.

Unexpected things do crop up though, if you look around. 


The view down Cliff Road towards Fore Street, the road

 is either narrow, or very narrow. One way traffic is in

force but anything bigger than a transit van would be in
trouble. Is this a clue to the unexpected Minton tiles?

Look up and you can see a procession of elegant corbel

supports to the overhanging roof. Described to me as a

'dental course', this row stops where it hits the doorway.

The only conclusion which can be drawn is that there

was once a one storey high front porch or lobby on

the house which has been removed, or was accidentally

demolished by a large vehicle.

Architectural detective work is fun!

Look down and just outside a front door

you can see these pretty encaustic tiles,

probably Minton, projecting out into the 

road, with the tarmac and yellow lines

beside them. This seems odd. Why would

the street be decorated with tiles usually

used indoors? The Salcombe climate may be mild, but pedestrians and vehicles

would quite probably damage them.

 

 





Landscape with mosque and pyramid - but where is it? Picture of the Week for 6 November 2013

No this isn't in Egypt - not even in Africa. It's another mystery photograph - this time I know where it is, but do you?!

I took the photo in 1997.

I will post the answer in a week or two. For other mystery photographs, click the label below.

Update - the photograph shows the brand new Ibrahim al Ibrahim mosque at Europa Point, Gibraltar. Inaugurated in 1997, it is the most southern mosque in Europe. I was lucky to visit only a few days after this. 
 
The small pyramid marks the Rock of Gibraltar as one of the mythical 'Pillars of Hercules' - the one on the African side of the ocean being Jebel Musa in Morocco, 14 km across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Mystery Stone Building - Pictures of the week for 14 June 2013

I have come across these old prints of a stone building and know nothing apart from that it might be  somewhere in Scotland. Can anybody enlighten me? My ignorance isn't due a flaw in my memory, I freely acknowledge that they are not my photographs. I just want to know something about this fascinating structure.

Ruined Pier; Picture of the Week 16.10.12

A ruined pier, a sandy beach, but where?

The first mystery photograph for a while. One more clue, for what it's worth; I shot it in September 2001.


* Update  7 November 2012

The old pier was on the coast at Atlantic City, New Jersey. When I shot this picture, the landward end of the pier still had a pavilion on it. I haven't been able to find any pictures of this online, which means if any remained after 2001, it probably was probably washed away in the hurricane of 2012.

Aircraft over Aden, Picture of the Week for 25 May 2012

Beverleys over Khormaksar, 1960's - or are they Argosys?

I spent roughly two years of my childhood in Aden at the start of the 1960's. My father, Major John S. Gilbert was a doctor with the RAMC and he worked with the Arab soldiers of the APL, later the FRA.  I found this picture amongst his photographs after his death on 24 December 1999. He was a keen amateur photographer but I don't think he took this photo. For one thing he usually didn't have access to a plane!

The jagged hills in the background are the extinct volcano which juts out into the sea forming the harbour, Aden was once the third busiest port in the world. The volcano itself houses the town of Crater, the highest point is the peak of Jabal Shamsan, 553 metres above sea level. The buildings in the foregeound are part of the Khormaksar airbase. In the distance are Maala and Steamer Point (Tawahi).

The large island in the bay was called Slave Island and the causeway road across the water was built by an American oil company to link their oil refinery on the mainland with the Aden peninsula and port. Only motor vehicles were allowed to use the causeway in those days. The camel carts were forced to use the hot coast road to reach the inland areas. Between the causeway and the beach are the salt pans. The salt was harvested and dried on the beach. The pans, once dried out, were refilled via sluice gates in the causeway, they attracted huge flocks of flamingoes, pelicans and gulls.

Can anybody shed any light on the origin of the photograph?

* Update - These are Argosy aircraft of No.105 Squadron, RAF Transport Command. Not Beverleys as I first guessed. They were the first Argosies based outside the UK and flew out of Khormaksar Airbase. They were used for desert exercises and parachute drops.

Still no information on the origin of the photograph.

Image with Mussels, Picture of the Week, 11 May



three types of image: reflection, imprint, photograph

The Question of the Tipsy Sprite

The picture of the week on 17 November was a puzzle - a bronze sprite who I said probably millions of people have seen since I photographed her back on the8th of May 2003. But where is she to be found, that dizzy, bespectacled sprite?

I promised an answer and that answer may be obvious to followers of this blog who remember the original photograph at the header. She is at the Eden Project, Cornwall and lives in the Mediterranean biome along with a dozen other amazing sculptures, all part of a group in Dionysian frenzy in the vinyard!

Here is one of her companions, a wolf-masked musician with a drum and trumpet. The central figure of the group is a huge, rampant bull.

Since I took these photographs, the grapevines in the vinyard have grown a lot, this amazing group are not all as visible as they once were, but they are still there. They were commissioned by the Eden Project and are the work of local sculptor Tim Shaw, a man with vision, his group of figures show how marvellous it can be to blend art and science.

Tipsy Sprite - Picture of the Week for 17 November 2011

This picture is in remembrance of summer! A mystery photograph, where can this amazing sprite be seen? One clue, she is not actually a sprite, but a drunk!

I took the photo in 2003, but she is still in the same place and probably millions of people have seen her since then.

Triffid - Picture of the Week for 28 October 2011

The triffid emerges from beneath the patio....

Well how do you know it isn't a triffid? The thing has shifted huge paving slabs and demolished part of a retaining wall made of brick and concrete blocks. The phrase 'heavy plant' comes to mind.

Pick-axe, crow bar and brushwood killer have been used to fight it but it still comes back. It was dug up and replanted in the hedge. Now it thrives there too.

Guess the real identity of this culprit - sorry, there are no prizes! Answer may be revealed next week, after the DNA analysis...

* Update - the triffid is actually the knotted roots of a large, hardy fuschia plant - the original plant which we moved to the hedge has now died, killed by the combined efforts of neighbouring beech, hawthorn and leylandii and the terrible winter of 2012-13. However this beastie, although the roots in the photo went to the tip for shredding and composting, is still trying to come up through the gravel which the paving is laid on!

Timber Framed - Picture of the week for 21 October 2011

                     
Timber framed building ain't what it was in them days...  but when was that exactly?

The photograph was taken in the early 1970's in the docklands area of London near what is now known as Canary Wharf. The buildings around it were being cleared prior to regeneration for the whole area.

This building might have been historically a brewery, but everything has changed around there, even the roads. Does anybody know what it is today? Or even where it is?

Mystery - Picture of the Week for 6 October 2011

A friend of mine made a commitment to post on her blog every day for a year. She succeeded!

I make no such rash commitment, but my career as a photographer has lasted almost 40 years thus far, so I do have a few pictures. Therefore I intend to post at least one photo each week for a year.

Here is my first Picture of the Week - A mystery photograph, shot in Calderdale on 23 Sept 2011.

Do you want to know what it is?

Do you actually need to know what it is? Isn't the beauty and mystery of an abstract image sufficient? If not, turn your sceen on its side.

Big Bird goes to Wakefield

Nothing is as it seems... at the opening of the new Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield. The bird is a kite, the building behind the bird is a photograph of the building behind the photograph...