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The back of Witley, with dreary skies that at times sprinkled with rain.

After some work, on our next day we first headed to St. Leonard in the Parish of Ribbesford. Then we headed to one of my favorite places to visit — Witley Court and Gardens in the Midlands. From photos I’ve taken in the past, I made “Witley Decay 1” and “Witley Decay 2.” Here’s a link for Witley Decay 1. Another was the basis of a journal quilt that published in The Creative Quilting book. I also have a lot of other designs based on photos I’ve taken there. Even so, another visit and another batch of Witley photos. Some hundred years ago, Witley Court was one of England’s great mansions. Today the incredible gardens and property — a “spectacular ruin” — are maintained by English Heritage.

Provided is a free audio guide.

The backyard magnificent gardents, prior to the fountains being turned on.

From the gardens looking at the back of the house.

The fountains are on.

My favorite thing about the place are the ruins.  I have so many photos that I’ve taken of it from each time I visited.  Close-ups of textures, archways, views from the archways, and so on.  Here are a few.  Hopefully some will inspire some new artwork.

The next up was Harvington Hall.  Harvington Hall is also located in the Midlands and is “is a moated medieval and Elizabethan manor-house.”  Most interesting are the “priest holes” used to hide priests during the time when it was treason for a Catholic priest to be in England.  No priest hidden at Harvington Hall was ever discovered, and the hiding places are considered to be among the finest surviving in England.  I remembered this place for some beautiful lighting. 

I’m partial to some of the still life photos, and I hope to use them as the basis for some digital paintings.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Photos - UK, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.