Candelston Castle.

 Visit Date March 2022.  

Today's visit was to Candelston Castle. The first this to say about this old structure is like many "Castles" in Wales it is not actually a castle but a fortified manor house.

The castle was built in around 1320 by the Canteilupe family, Robert de Canteilupe III or possibly his successor John de Cantilupe, who may have been the Abbot of Margam in 1315

Candleston's original long and narrow rectangular structure lay across the western end of a low narrow promontory, suggesting a defensive position. This type of place is often referred to as a "Promontory Fort"

In the 16th / 17th centuries, the castle moved ownership into the Herbert family who added the west wing to the structure.

In the image above you can see where the upper floor was situated and this would have been the main hall.

Between 1806 and 1808, Sir John Nicholl resided at the manor while his manor was built.

Candleston Castle was sold by Richard Franklen to Nicholl in 1830, when it was said to have included a drawing room, dining room, breakfast rooms, four bedrooms and a coach house

In the early 19th century modifications included the construction of a stable, the castle was Crenelated for ornamental purposes and a defensive tower was built. The stepped base of a Cavalry Cross of  an unreported date, with the fallen cross itself lying alongside, was found near the windmill uncovered by sand in 1823.

The Ruins of the windmill can still be seen close by although almost overgrown. What can be seen here now is the round base of the windmill.

Below are images of the ruins of the Windmill

The castle is just about a quarter of a mile (1.21 km) northwest of Ogmore Castle and is on the opposite side of the river Ogmore

My Final image today shows both structures, well overgrown now with the top of Candelston Castle in the lower left and the top of Ogmore Castle in the upper right.

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Visit Information:-
Google Reference
51.482938237069156, -3.6268995640008748

Windmill Reference:-

51.483278569393356, -3.6329086357555718

Google Search reference: Candelston Castle
What Three Words reference:-

///averts.eyelashes.varieties

Windmill What Three Words Reference:- 

///uptake.disbanded.lions


Additional information
Visiting the castle is easy as it is alongside a car park (51.48240479235045, -3.6264289697351897)

The Windmill site can also be visited from the same car park but there is quite a climb to get to it from the car park.


This can get very busy during holidays and the roads are quite narrow so take care.

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A Celebration 100 Years of the British Society of Master Glass Painters

Visit Date: March 2022.

For a hundred years the British Society of Master Glass Painters has been devoted to the art and craft of stained glass, inspiring the future by illuminating our rich stained glass heritage. Swansea has a rich history when it comes to glass art and many of the members would have studied in the city.

All the images below were taken at an exhibition in the Maritime Museum in Swansea celebrating the anniversary

Pierrot by Gwendoline Payne - Painted, acid-etched, and leaded, hand blown Lamberts glass.

Painted, acid-etched, and leaded, hand blown Lamberts glass. 'This Pierrot is a portrait of Jamie Raskin, the American lawyer who led the impeachment trial against Trump. His is a face, which despite the onerous nature and seriousness of his task, forced me to smile.'

Description taken from British society of master Glass Painters website.

The Alchemist by Natasha Redina.

Stained glass painting. ‘The theme is transmutation and the interwoven historical roots of glasswork and alchemy. The images were inspired by three pieces, the woodcut of glass workshops by Jost Amman (Frankfurt 1586), The Flammarion wood engraving and the oil painting of 'An old man holding a pilgrim bottle' in the National Gallery London (circa 1650's) both by unknown artists.'

Description taken from Facebook page "The British Society of Master Glass Painters"

Metoo by Muna Zuberi

This is my piece for the British Society of Master Glass Painters Centenary Exhibition. It is a response to the Me Too movement and questions attitudes to the female form. The figure is painted on English Antique Glass offcuts and surrounded by glass applique consisting of both antique glass and commercial textured clear glass.

Description taken from munazuberi.co.uk

Peter’s vision Acts 10:11 by Benjamin Pascal Finn AMGP

Mainly Wissmach glass, glass paint and silver stain. 'Peter’s vision on the roof of a house near Joppa of ‘unclean’ animals descending accompanied by a voice saying ‘what God hath made clean call not thou unclean’.'

Description taken from British society of master Glass Painters website.

Crystal Ball by Janine Greenberg

Degussa painting Enamels on two layers of float glass, silver foil. ’Inspired by M.C. Escher. Gazing from the crystal ball, a longing for connection with friends and loved ones, engulfed by the tranquil woodlands of the surrounding area, my daily walk through the woods gave me relief and hope from the confining and difficult year of lockdown.’

Description taken from British society of master Glass Painters website.

La Danse' by Sarah Knighton

Painted and stained etched flash glass. Framed within a mechanism which allows the two layers to rotate in opposite directions. 'The turning circles create a kaleidoscope effect of movement and colour. Theme is the Memento Mori tradition of remembering death as inspiration to live.'

Description taken from British society of master Glass Painters website.

Summer Breeze by Nicola Kantorowicz FMGP

Painted and leaded antique stained glass. 'An abstract interpretation of decorative elements found in the natural landscape.'

Description taken from British society of master Glass Painters website.

Kindness by Jill Fordham

Coloured glass vitreous glass paints, copper foil. 'Having been an active environmental campaigner over the last couple of years and having experienced the suffering of the pandemic, I feel that kindness and reaching out to each other and our planet is essential at this time. It feeds us, makes us grow and keeps the world turning round.'

Description taken from British society of master Glass Painters website.

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Nash Point Lighthouse

 Visit Date: September 2019

Nash Point Lighthouse is to be found on the South Wales Coast. It's an iconic and historic building that has now been given Grade 2 listed status.

The lighthouse was built between 1831 -1832. And was first turned on On September 1st 1832.

This lighthouse was constructed after the loss of "The Frolic" a shipwrecked here in 1831 with the loss of 78 lives.

 

There are two towers. The tall lighthouse and a smaller tower. Both initially gave out light..

The lower tower was decommissioned in the 1920s and the main tower ceased to be manned in August 1998

The lighthouse is made of local "Blue Lias" Stone and was quarried from the cliffs that it stands on.

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Visit Information:-


Google Reference
51.40094650459908, -3.552126744084211


What Three Words reference : ///bloodshot.clotting.handicaps


Additional information


Visiting this site is very easy and there is a car park with a small shop/café where you will need to pay a small charge (51.403908670782236, -3.5590157508222844).


The B4265 which spans between Cardiff and Bridgend would be the main link. From this road head for the village of Macross and then onto Nash Point.

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Ogmore Castle

 Date of Visit: 05/2019 

Wales has many castles most of which are in ruin.

In 2019 I visited the ruin of Ogmore castle.

The building of Ogmore Castle was started in the early 12th century and looks to have been started around 1106, however, this would seem to pre-date the Norman conquest of the area. It is noted that the Manor and Castle were given to William de Londres, one of the legendary Twelve Knights of Glamorgan, by Robert Fitzhamon, the Norman conqueror of Glamorgan in 1116.

In the 13th century, the castle was extended with another level added to the main building.

Ogmore castle is situated near the coastal village of Ogmore-by-Sea. The river that runs close to the castle is the Eweny River which flows through Eweny Village and near its priory on it's way to the sea.

The larger Ogmore river which gives its name to the area is also close to the site running slightly north-west of the castle before joining with the "Eweny" before reaching the sea.

#4

 
 
 

The river is tidal and perhaps the most famous feature of this castle site is the stepping stones that cross the river at the castle allowing access to the small picturesque area of Merthyr Mawr which has it's own Candleston Castle (a future post no doubt).

The "stepping stones" however disappear all too quickly as the tide comes in.

A carved stone discovered at the castle in 1929 is part of an early 11th Century shaft of a cross-slab, with inscriptions on both faces.

Supposedly, the inscription reads: EST / QUOD.DED[IT] / ARTHMAIL /AGRUM DO / ET GLIGUIS. / ET NERTAT ET FILIE : SU[A]

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Visit Information:-
Google Reference
51.48063551125546, -3.6114926695121103

Google Search reference: Ogmore Castle
What Three Words reference : ///salsa.others.oval


Additional information
Visiting is easy and there is a small parking area.


This can get very busy during holidays.

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Caerphilly Medieval Characters.

 Date of Visit: July 2020

During the summer Caerphilly Castle holds medieval events .

There were medieval crafts exhibitions and enactments.

Back in 2020 I visited one of these events and here is a small example of some of the characters seen on the day.

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Visit Information:-
Google Reference
Caerphilly Castle - 51.5762589849726, -3.220206076581159
Google Search reference: Parc Slip Memorial
What Three Words reference : ///smiled.wages.staple
Additional information
Castle open most of the year.

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Father and son miners

Visit Date: February 2019

This wooden sculpture depicts a father and son, coal miners, in South Wales.

We had lots of coal mines in our area and although this sculpture is on the site of an old mine where there was a disaster. I think that this sculpture is of a more general nature.

When I visited this place the weather was very calm and the few minutes I stood looking at this sculpture I found it very moving.

Having worked on the image I feel that the scene depicts a father looking on at his son who, just a child but in those times considered of working age is being sent to work in the mine for the first time.

The father reflecting on the lost childhood of his offspring and the inevitability of another carefree youth exchanged for a life of hard toil, sweat and tears of a working life spent underground.

The son, scared and unknowing of what's ahead reflects, that in his father he sees a proud man, tired and weakened due to a life of hard physical labour in a hot, dirty and dangerous place, providing what he can for his family and thinking that someday, he will be doing the same thing to his son in what must seem a never-ending cycle of existence.

Although a very moving piece of art depicting working life in the early part of the last century I would like to say that when I became of working age I saw many of my school friends at 16 years old taking jobs with the "National Coal Board" to be coal miners. A few years later and when of an age to frequent "pubs and workingmen's clubs" in our valley, these school friends and their older collier workmates whom I had the privilege to know, were not dour or sad people but where always full of life, fun-loving and had an optimistic outlook on life, they were proud to be continuing in a profession that, although under much-improved conditions was still a hard, dirty dangerous job where disaster could have been just around the corner.

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Visit Information:-
Google Reference
51.53953367300987, -3.6182176008836633
Google Search reference: Parc Slip Memorial
What Three Words reference : ///trick.matter.violin
Additional information
An esy place to visit this but you will need to walk for 20 minutes or so from the car park located here 51.54556799523835, -3.6144095436986596

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St Lythans Dolmen

 

Built at around 4000bc the St. Lythans Dolmen is a large lonely structure near the Capital of Wales, Cardiff.

Originally covered by an earthen mound around 90ft/27m in length, only traces of this now remain.

Despite its Neolithic origins, the site’s name may derive from the Arthurian legend of Culhwch and Olwen, which appears in two 14th-century texts.

St. Lythans Dolmen is only 1.6km from another more extensive Tinkinswood burial chamber

The capstone, which slopes downwards, measures four metres (13 ft) long, three metres (10 ft) wide, and 0.7 metres (2 ft) thick.

Interestingly, this site is likely to be a lot older than the more expansive and more well known Stonehenge.

There are many of this type of structures, often also referred to as Cromlechs all over Europe.

These structures often have "local legends" attributed to them and the one I like the most is that each Midsummer's Eve, the capstone spins around three times and all the stones go to the nearby river to bathe, Now if I could only capture that with my camera!

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Visit Information:-
Google Reference
51.442569197823424, -3.294977200482513

Google Search reference: MSt Lythans Dolmen
What Three Words reference : ///sparrows.paddle.cupboards


Additional information
Visiting is easy but there is no parking here and therefore you will have to park on the side of the road. The road is not too busy so for a short visit you should be fine.


The Dolmen is in a field and is signposted but please take care in the field.

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Porthcawl Lighthouse

Visit Date : August 2020

Since the widespread use of digital cameras and smartphones, Porthcawl Lighthouse has become famous at certain times of the year.

The lighthouse is situated on the breakwater to Porthcawl and as such when there are high winds and especially when combined with high tides the scene at this lighthouse with the breaking water over the lighthouse is now a staple on TV and newspapers. The scene is easily accessible from the main promenade and a quick internet search for this lighthouse will lead to many such images.

But this is not how I see, or remember Porthcawl lighthouse. Living less than 20 miles from this seaside town I remember the lighthouse bathed in the summer sun on warm balmy seaside trips.

Lately, we have had some good morning forecasts and this day was one.

With the breeze light and the chance of some good sky, I set off before sunrise to try and capture the lighthouse in a different light (Pun intended).

I was happy with the resulting images I took.

The 30-foot lighthouse was built in 1860 and the lamp was washed away in a great storm in 1902.

Originally the lighthouse was coal powered and then converted to run on Gas.

In 1974 the lamp was converted to run on "North Sea Gas" a natural gas. When the engineer arrived to convert the lamp he was told that there wasn't a switch to turn off the lamp but that it was left burning 24 hours a day. He also recalled that the lighthouse gas supply had previously been paid for by a coin meter that constantly had to be fed with "pennies" every day, that was until the meter was converted to take shillings! This meant that the harbourmaster would often have to brave the elements and rough conditions to "feed the meter" to ensure mariners safety.

This was not in use at the time of the conversion but was still in the lighthouse.

Eventually, the lighthouse was upgraded to electric in 1997 and after a £70,000 renovation in 2013, was fitted with its new £12,000 automatic, low energy, LED lamp, which can be seen 10 nautical miles away, the same distance the old gas lamp shone.

The lighthouse was the last coal and gas-powered lighthouse in the UK, and is now protected as it is a grade two listed building.

OK so now for the "iconic view"

Since converting to digital some time ago I have not taken the popular "storm Picture" of the lighthouse although many years ago, perhaps over 25 years ago I had a second hand Canon EOS 650 film camera. It was the first camera I had that was not "point and shoot". My results were varied, to say the least with most of my efforts being in the "hopeful" range.

I shot lots and lots of film then, and I have lots of the images still boxed up and stored around the house but the following image of the Porthcawl Lighthouse was one of the better shots and perhaps is the reason I have not tried to repeat it

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Visit Information:-

Google Reference
551.47310273328761, -3.6997247977996683

Google Search reference: Porthcawl Lighthouse

What Three Words reference : ///ramps.crisis.unhelpful

Additional information

As Porthcawl is a seaside town visiting this site is easy with lots of car parking and amenities.

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