150 Years Ago at a Dovecote Near Here

This marvellous old photograph shows the dovecote which often appears in photographs here.  This is one of the earliest photographs of the place. 

It is fascinating to see the changes.   It is still a beautiful place, but so much more beautiful in this old photograph.     Cows still graze the land but there is utilitarian electric fencing to stop them from roaming, trees are much larger, hedges are much higher and it doesn't quite have the same charm as it had back then.

No gates,  easy access for farm vehicles.

The snow scene was taken from a completely different angle, but you can see the top of the church tower peeping over the trees in the left hand corner, just as it does, very faintly, in the first old photograph.   The trees have grown and there are telegraph poles and electric fencing, it is still a beautiful scene.

The dovecote is all that remains, apart from the Great Hall, now a barn,  of a notable manor house.  The moat has been filled in and it all lies within a working farm.      My favourite dog-walking path cuts right through the yard, so I take a lot of photographs of this old place.

It has a good side, and one which clearly shows the passage of time written upon those old and beautiful hand made bricks.    No doves or pigeons live in here now, it is home to crows.    It is thought to have been one of the gatehouses to the old manor house.

Yesterday I attended a meeting at the village hall.    Miss Read was there, along with our local historian who digs and delves and has provided many of the photographs which will form part of the booklet we are having printed.       He also brought heaps of other fabulous local history snippets and photographs - including that first photograph, of course I had to snaffle a copy!

Mr E Nainby was a professional photographer, these are some of the wedding photographs left in his collection of glass plates, now digitised and shown in an exhibition of his work at the Manor House in our local market town.

The collage shows some middle class weddings, along with some wedding gifts, the one below is a farmworker's wedding from around 1900.

I think my favourite, though, is this one...

One of them loved the dog so much that s/he had to be included.