Tower of the Winds
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekWforWindows #photography #EastCoastKin #photographersofbluesky #Shugborough
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#Shugborough
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Hall windows
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekWforWindows #photography
#Shugborough #Staffordshire #photographersofbluesky
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The Chinese House in the grounds of Shugborough House Staffordshire. This was designed to celebrate George Anson’s visit to China and triumphal return to Britain. It was based on original sketches taken from garden architecture Anson and his crew saw in Guangzhou (formerly Canton) in 1742.
Chinese House 1747
#Scape #Shugborough #Landscape #EastCoastKin #PhotographersofBlueSky #Photography
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Definitely Autumn
#ThickTrunkTuesday #Trees #Photography #EastCoastKin
#Autumn #photographersofbluesky #Shugborough
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Accumulation of shiny sweet chestnuts in a Portmeirion bowl.
The sheer bounty of sweet chestnuts at #Shugborough this year
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Large, roughly triangular-shaped moth: only forewings visible - shades of grey patterning, with a distinctive paler blotch on each wing. Settled on some netting.
Unexpected sighting by our door at #Shugborough on 13 Sept. A Clifden Nonpareil, described in ‘ Moths of West Midlands’ as: ‘Formerly a rare migrant but recently irruptive into West Midlands (2020) and probably becoming resident’. It’s huge: the white band is 1 inch wide.
@bc-westmids.bsky.social
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A rather splendid pile of red/pale green apples. Plump and ready to eat.
Apples from a wild tree by the A 513 #Shugborough Years ago, someone tossed an apple core out of the window of their car. We’re harvesting the benefits. They’re pretty tasty. This is a phenomenon in the UK: apple trees by major arterial roads.
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Fascinating. Only singles on the buddleia this year - one a couple of days ago. It was only a few years ago that they could be seen in huge numbers on the thistles and nettles lining the bank of the Trent at #Shugborough, Staffs. I had hoped for a revival this year.
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Grand frontage with vegetation covering the ground floor level of the building. Clock face and tower in centre.
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Thick-trunked tree in parkland
Isolated oak tree. Shugborough Hall behind
First (and shortest) leg complete by early afternoon, so I've got a few hours in hand to explore the #Shugborough Estate
Reckon it's been 30 years since I was last here!
#Staffordshire #CannockChase @nationaltrust.org.uk
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Small silvery-greyish butterfly with eye-spot on underwing next to its wing-tails. Settled on green foliage.
Small purplish-coloured butterfly, basking in sunshine on oak leaves with wings open.
The hot weather has brought the Purple Hairstreaks down from the oak treetops. Finally managed to snap one at rest in our garden y'day (left). Meanwhile, nearby on a #Shugborough parkland oak, a less often seen (by me at least) basking pose with wings-open. @bc-westmids.bsky.social #butterflies.
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A view of Shugborough Hall Staffs, home of the late Patrick Lichfield.
House Scape
#Scape #EastCoastKin #Shugborough #view #Landscape
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Small butterfly settled in sunshine in grassy pasture: upper wings distinctively copper/orange coloured with dark spots and edging. Copper edging, with dark spots, to lower wings.
A Small Copper at #Shugborough - I don’t think I saw one here last year. (Only had my ‘phone to hand.)
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Given the dramatic decline (in many places, disappearance) of the House Sparrow in the UK during my adult life, it’s heartening to encounter a noisy colony of these gregarious birds, as here, by the Trent & Mersey canal, near #Shugborough (sound on).
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Bluebells in sun-dappled mixed woodland scene.
Bluebell wood, #Shugborough @nationaltrust.org.uk in the sunshine today.
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We were just discussing this particular decline earlier, though around #Shugborough Staffs there are still a number of singing males. For all sorts of reasons, I stopped feeding some years ago.
Several other species have disappeared here in recent years - e.g Green Woodpecker, Little Owl.
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Visitor numbers: quite so, as evidenced last Sunday at #Shugborough. I can’t recall seeing so many people in early March.
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Heard a tree-creeper's delightful cascade of a song at #Shugborough and now think it must be spring. A bit niche, I know; more conventionally, I heard a Chiffchaff yesterday, which struck me as rather early for hereabouts.
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Swan on the River Sow at Shugborough near Stafford
Visited #Shugborough Hall near #Stafford. #Swans on the river #Sow was certainly good to get the legs stretching
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@nationaltrust.bsky.social
A quick search using AI software suggests the inscription on the shepherds monument could translate, in Latin, to “of the sheep”
Not impossible !
#shugborough #shepherdsmonument #enigmacodebreaker #utw
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A Great White Egret (white, heron-like bird, with very long neck and yellow bill) standing on the edge of still water, with dead vegetation behind.
Close-up of Great White Egret with quite large fish, cross-ways, in its yellow bill. The fish - probably a roach or rudd - has just been caught.
A Great White Egret at #Shugborough - fishing (with success!) in the ornamental lake/moat at the rear of the Mansion House. We’ve come to expect to see these winter visitors in this corner of Staffs; this year with a couple of Little Egret as well.
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Centre of picture: bate veteran oak tree in foggy landscape, low watery sun to left, blurred image of Hadrian’s arch to right.
Strange atmospheric conditions at 2.30 this afternoon at #Shugborough: mist rolling across the park from the Trent and Sow. Oak no. 1242, with Hadrian’s arch and sun low in the sky.
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A robin, red-breasted bird, perched amid frosty branches.
View of canal, frozen, with barges, the nearest one painted red, white and black. Frosty landscape, grey sky - late afternoon.
A robin, UK’s national bird, by the frozen Trent and Mersey canal at #Shugborough this afternoon.
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Parkland carpeted in white hoar frost; oak 1242 in right middle-ground. Late morning sunshine, with clear, pale blue sky; blurred, misty horizon.
Another view of the parkland, with trees, covered in hoar frost. A loose herd of rare-bred Sherbrook cattle grazing in the middle-ground.
View across the frosted parkland,from Stafford plantation, to Hadrian’s arch (centre). Clusters of trees behind; in distance, horizon lost in mist.
Heavy hoar frost over night at #Shugborough. We get this misty, feathery-frosted landscape a few times each winter, but it rarely lasts all day as it did today.
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At #Shugborough - Tower of the Winds.
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View across the park from Hadrian’s Arch: the usual view, with oak 1242 to the right and the farm and mill pond in the distance. Long shadows cast by bright, mid-winter sunshine. Clear, blue sky.
Photo: foreground, a group of Sherbrook cattle - rare breed, long-horn - one standing, two lying/sitting. Behind, various parkland trees, with a large, veteran oak in centre. Bright, mid-winter sunshine; clear, blue sky.
A glorious, if chilly day at #Shugborough, the parkland now occupied by the lovely Sherbrook cattle.
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View across parkland with veteran oak in middle ground, right; farm and mill pond in distance, with further parkland beyond. Grey sky.
A large chestnut tree on its side, having fallen several years ago. Mixed woodland behind; muddy leaf litter around tree. Some of the roots of the tree are still ‘live’. Expect new shoots to appear in the spring.
View of open heathland, predominantly heather; a parch of bilberry in the foreground. Birth trees in the distance.
Bracing walk completed. Grey & chilly in the biting wind.
1. the usual parkland view at #Shugborough, with oak no. 1242.
2. the toppled chestnut that tenaciously clings on to life.
3. bilberry patches on the Satnall Hills heathland: should be home to Green Hairstreak butterflies in the spring.
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Photograph of the Tower of the Winds - a 1760s English rendering of the original in Athens. Viewed on a grey, misty day. Pale yellowish lime wash, recently renewed. Octagonal in plan with two stories: we see (left) one of two Corinthian porches, with pediment; on right, a round stair turret. Standing on grassy area, with (just visible) access also possible by basement entrance.
1780s engraving of The Tower (or Temple) of the Winds from Walpole’s New British Traveller. From a similar viewpoint as the photograph, but some notable changes have occurred (assuming accurate depiction): here, the Tower is reached by bridges across a lake; it has only upper story windows (currently upper and lower); and it has an elaborate weather vane. The frieze below the roof, depicted here, as on the original in Athens, has also gone.
From Buildings of England: Staffordshire (revd edn, 2024), p. 495 Immediately N is the ToWER OF THE WINDS, another of Stuart's replicas (Antiquities, vol. I). It was built c. 1764-5. The appearance is familiar from later versions elsewhere: octagonal and two-storeyed, with two Corinthian porches (the acanthus- and palm-leaf capitals distinctively lacking volutes) with pediments. Unlike the Greek original, the porches are on opposite sides, the 'bustle' contains a staircase, and there are windows below the blank frieze which - according to one early view - initially bore some equivalent of the reliefs of the Winds. The upper or banqueting room has Stuart's fine coffered ceiling, starting just above the windows, but the lower rooms were adapted as a dairy by Wyatt c. I805: alabaster lining to the ground floor, Slate in the cellar. Near here was the VILLAGE of Shugborough, which was gradually removed from the I75os to the early c19 cent.
The Tower of the Winds at #Shugborough, Staffs, built c 1764-5; based on the original in Athens, made famous by Stuart & Revett’s travels & publications. Cf. engraving in Walpole’s New British Traveller of 1784: here the Tower, with its weather vane, stands in a lake. #GardenHistory #OnePlaceStudies
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