College of Art & Design, Stourbridge, Worcestershire

 

Here's the little article to slip in that I mentioned recently. Except that there's more to it than I expected!

The only photos I have are mostly of some stained glass windows and staircase, along with views from the windows. But just to set the scene I've used images from Google Street View to show off the exterior of this incredible Grade II building along with some of the Listed Building information.

Also, please note that Stourbridge is now classified as being in the West Midlands. However, it was in the county of Worcestershire when I was a student here in the mid 1960s and again in the early 70s, when I took my photos.

The photo at the top of the page shows the front with an entrance for the library, which was housed on part of the ground floor. Students could also access the top floor studios from this entrance too. The side entrance to the right on Hagley Road, above, is also to the library. Built in the Netherlandish Renaissance style in 1903-4 and again in 1908-9, the clock tower was added later in the 1930s. The window to the left of the tower contains lovely Art Nouveau style stained glass, which can be seen on the ground floor windows and library door, plus the interior staircase.

However, the students mostly used the left side entrance on Church Street, seen below, which led to the offices and student's common room as well as stairs to the studios and lecture theatre on the first and second floors. I don't know why I didn't take photos of the lovely exterior but I only really saw the other side when coming in and going home on the bus.

Designed by Frederick Woodward, the fabric of the building is in red brick with terracotta dressings to the archways and window surrounds. The Baroque style hoods above the porches also became popular in the Georgian and Regency era, then again used in late Victorian Gothic and into the early 20th century.

And here is the fabulous staircase.

Some of my photos were taken with B&W film and some in colour, which show up the lovely stained glass windows.

 

The staircase has a delightful cast iron balustrade, which can be seen above and below. I don't have the name of the designer, but it may have been the architect himself as part of his brief.

 

 

The Art Nouveau style stained glass contains the loveliest of sinuous botanical shapes in attractive pale colours. One of the windows is signed S. Evans, Stained Glass Works, West Smethick, so presumably they were all produced by the same company.

 

Interestingly, Stourbridge and its environs were well known for glassmaking. The college itself had a glassmaking department and, as well as a separate studio in the nearby College of Further Education for those taking a diploma in the subject, it was also used as part of the itinerary of the foundation course at this college.

 

I also have this photo, below, of the interior. Nothing exciting, lol, but just one of the corridors, with doors to the studios.

And two taken from one of the windows overlooking church street, of the Old Crispin Inn. One of the oldest buildings in Stourbridge, it was built in the 18th century. An odd little anecdote; it was here that I first encountered someone eating a cheese and onion roll for lunch. I'd never heard of it before and it soon became a firm favourite.

The inn now has a name change and is called The Jolly Crispin. Love this roof with the decorative ridge tiles and fab gable windows.

And that's about it. Unfortunately, I wasn't very well for about three weeks, so now I'm having to catch up with domestic stuff - doh! - but hopefully I might manage another article or two before the end of this month. Not sure which ones but I'll probably grit my teeth and finally finish Marine Parade.

Cheers. :) 

Derelict Clapboard House & Warehouse, Hertford, North Carolina, USA

 

We have a guest photographer for this one! Please be aware that these still come under the copyright laws and are credited to D.G. Wright. If the surname sounds familiar that's because he's my son who lives in North Carolina with his lovely local born wife. :)

Anyway, he found this derelict house and nearby warehouse and took quite a few photos. I was very impressed with them and the fact that he'd included odd little details seen in and around the properties, and was really pleased that he gave me permission to add these to the blog. Any slight blurring is my own fault because I always reduce photos a lot smaller, which saves space and makes them much easier to manage.

A fabulous weather boarded house with porch and veranda, a top floor containing windows with shutters, some brick masonry and beautifully overgrown with various trees and plants. It's an absolute delight and somewhere I would love to live...after it's been renovated, of course. :)

There is a slight difference in meaning, architecturally, between British and American porches. The porch in both languages refers to an archway and/or covering above a doorway, whereas in America it has also come to refer - probably through usage - to the veranda reached by steps, and which stretches along the front of a house. In some cases it also continues around the sides and even wraps around the house to include the rear.

In this case the veranda seems to wrap around at least three sides. These first photos above are of the side along this street and below shows what I assume to be the side around the right corner, which is also boarded up and has a similar door near to the end.

One of the doors seen below...

...and part of the brickwork foundations, below.

The photos below are of the warehouse, showing a brick wall with boarded up areas and another door. I've had to edit this to include the warehouse, as I didn't realise there were two buildings on my first posting.

 

Another brick wall seen below with rendering that has started to fall off.

A funky sprinkler connection, which is interesting. This is something we don't have in Britain as our summers aren't as hot as parts of the US. We just let the lawns and grassy areas die down during the usual two or three weeks of summer, growing back once it's cooler and we have rain. If we do have a lengthy hot summer then watering bans come into effect to conserve the reservoirs.

I've also noticed that lawns are more prevalent in the US, whereas a lot of British gardens are mostly plants and trees with much smaller areas of lawn. There are also horrible large areas of gravel in some gardens, for which I blame erstwhile garden programmes on TV for their popularity and because they are thought to be less work - until the weeds grow through! ;)

Something built in cement and brick was situated along the side path, below.

And now for the best bit - this frontage of the house with the most gorgeous door, glazed in the top two thirds with square panes, a narrow strip of side windows and a transom window above. There are also shutters on the windows each side of the door. It looks somewhat different to the other side, with its lovely pale blue and white colours with the brick veranda columns painted over. The upper floor can't be seen here on this side.

 

Isn't it lovely! I would really love to live in a house like this. Such a shame it's in bad condition but hopefully someone will take it on and restore it to its former beauty.

And finally, my son has a YouTube channel with videos about numismatics and his coin collection, and it can be accessed here for anyone who's interested. It's a good one too but still fairly new so needs a bit of support. He also has his first Sci-fi book published and is on Amazon here. :) 

And that's about it. A rather nice surprise as I hadn't got this on my list. I was post editing photos from my dowloads ready to go into folders and it wasn't until I was organising these that it struck me how interesting these buildings are. I was really excited to write the article and finished it quite quickly.

Next up, I've got a few on the go but it will probably either be Stourbridge College of Art & Design or Marine Parade in Lyme Regis. I've been putting off the latter because it's getting really rather long. So I might slip the college one in first. Most, if not all of my old website articles have been rewritten and posted on the blog but there are still plenty of other things to do, including some newer stuff and more visits planned.

Hope you enjoyed this one. Cheers. :)

 

 

Odds & Ends: Part Four

 

For anyone who's new here, these Odds & Ends are odd photos that haven't merited a full article, either because I only have one or very few photos and/or lack of information.

This one was part of a project I started in an attempt to document old cider orchards in East Devon. I didn't get very far but these apple trees are in the rear grounds of a local pub in Seaton called The King's Arms.

I then had the idea of using these - as well as other orchards I have photos for - to write a general article about orchards. I still might do that, although one of the others is also a stand alone one due to the lovely houses surrounding it. I also might make this a separate article along with the King's Arms pub it belongs to. I need more photos!

Anyway, here are a few of these trees in springtime with their pretty apple blossom. Something to look forward to this time of the year as well as having a coffee sitting out there, which I haven't done for some years now.

The next one is a lovely Victorian Gothic style building in Axminster with the name Register Office above the door. For those who aren't familiar with them, a register or registry office is where births, marriages and deaths were officially registered. Now called Registration Offices they are often also venues for civil ceremonies, such as weddings.

No longer used for registration, this is a Grade II Listed building and was built circa 1850-60. It's a rather narrow building snuck inbetween a shop on the left and what looks to be a former factory on the right.

I took these in 2004 and saw it again in 2011, when it was a restaurant. I didn't have time to take more photos then and regret that now, but if I can get to Axminster again I'll definitely take more photos and also investigate the adjoining buildings for a proper write-up.

Still in Axminster, another intriguing little building is this one belonging to Axminster Railway Station. Further up the line from the station is this crossing point called Axminster Gates, where there was a signal box - which is no longer there - and this little building called a crossing box, where two crossing keepers worked the gates to allow road traffic through. No longer needed, as signals and gates are now remote controlled.

Another one to take more photos of and see if it still has a function with the railway or if it's something different now.

And now queue some fairground music for the next set...

Taken a very long time ago (1975/6), when I still lived in Worcestershire, I went to the Carnival Fair with some friends and also took the opportunity to try out some nightime photos. The slides are old and haven't stood the test of time very well but I was quite pleased with them at the time. A funny story below.

I belonged to a camera club at the time and put the best two into the monthly competition, and was given a scathing review! I wasn't all that surprised, being the only female member, very much ignored and obviously unwanted. It didn't help that I'd joined along with a male friend who also happened to be my landlord, so we had the same address but with different surnames, lol. After all, this was the 70s!

And again, these will come up in a future post, having scanned them with a slide and negative scanner I bought some years ago. They are mostly from my birth place in Worcestershire with a few at the beginning of my life here at Devon. Some are quite striking & colourful, so it would be nice to give them an airing.

Meanwhile, back in Devon...

This is a tiny path to a row of cottages behind some shops in Seaton. The first one, below, has the nameplate September Cottage on the wall, which I neglected to photograph, and which I'll be rectifying soon. I'll be doing some research as well as taking more photos and hopefully write about it at some point. :)

I've just realised that all of these could be tasters for possible future articles! And the same goes for the last one.

I took these two of a road seen from my balcony, which I call the Higgledy Piggledy Road because it just looks so quirkily interesting as it meanders up the hill. I recently started looking at these houses more closely as I walk past and they are a fabulous little enclave of Arts & Craft houses. So I'm definitely going to make a photo visit. Another project! ;) 

And I think that's about it for now. I still have two or three more, but the photos aren't all that good - or all that interesting, lol - so I'll leave it there for now until I've collected some more odds and ends.

That was a departure from the articles I said I'd do at the end of my previous post, so I've still got those to finish off. Plus the odd short one about Stourbridge Art College to slip in, which might actually be next. 

Cheers, everyone. :)