Day 18 - alfred watkins photos

Day 18

looking through you

HEREFORD

Ok, how things works: when I went to Abergawane last Saturday, the lady of the bus company told me she could even sell the ticket to me, not even if I stop in other city to take another bus. No service to Abergawane.

I took a bus to Cardiff and from there I took the train and the trip costs me £ 5 the bus and £ 18.70 the train, £ 23.70 the whole. For my budget is a bit too much, but it’s ok.

Today in the morning I just went to the bus station to take the same bus to Cardiff to take the same train to Abergawane (but actually I was going further on, to Hereford), and for my surprise there were a bus straight to Abergawane for £ 8. Of course I jumped up and went happy amongst a crew of older people.

Now, is it me or there’s something wrong with the attendants?

Getting to Hereford was easy too, just some more £ 4.40 and the bus drop me at the city center.

I tried to use my “Tourist Information Bureau” skills but this time I had no such a luck. The only available room I could get was £ 40, which is the double of the average i’ve been spending, and almost my budget for the day.

Well I just can’t be bothered. I have two more days before going to London, and get some more money, and I have enough for until. So just relaxed and went to what I came for.

THE HEREFORD MUSEUM AND GALLERY

That’s right, the Museum and Gallery that the guys from the Alfred Watkins Project told me. They should have a lot of information and a collection on Watkins photographs. So I had to go there. The museum is quite simple but it has a vivid atmosphere. It is not allowed to take photos of the collection, which is simple and basically ranges from Natural Science to Pop music, not forgetting Medieval hats and the world famous Bee Meter, one of the first apparatus to fix time exposure for photos (invention of Alfred Watkins). A bit too much? Not until you get there. The museum is a bit of everything. But there I could not find what I was looking for. The woman told me to look for the reference library, in other area of the building and there I could not only find a huge collection of around 1500 prints of his photographs as I could (for a modest fee) photograph them. Fair enough, I spend the whole day immerse in Watkins beautiful universe, and could learn a bit more about him.

Through his photos we follow Watkins for at least 45 years of traveling and registering the folk life of Herefordshire. He could witness the traditional ways of production, the old country traditions that were about to disappear. He had a true interest in architecture, botanic, biology, social organizations, archeology, traditions from ancient civilizations, engineering instruments, and sometimes simple things as clouds. So, yes, he had such a wide range of interests, beside his own professional ones. Yes, because Alfred Watkins was an inventor (he invented amongst other things the already mentioned Bee Meter, the Pin Hole camera and instruments for measurements), and commercial manager of his father’s brewery and mill, and had his own business (and bees). He looks very much someone interested in its time, with unending curiosity.

instrument designed and produced by him

Watkins researchs on ancient Britain and documentation for Hereford Museum

this was in an envelop tagged "Clouds"

some old bees house in England. this is according to Watkins the last time he saw one of this kind.

The Ley lines idea came to him when he was 65 years old, after he had seem a lot of the countryside and know very well the histories of the folk which lived there, so far from being disconnected from any real basis, the Ley lines would bring back something that’s been hidden but still visible through the right angle.

some Ley lines registred by Alfred Watkins

There were his maps, photos and illustrations for the “Old Straight Track”, which is from particular interest to me.

some maps and anotations for "The Old Straight Track"

I had time to look around 600 photographs, and will try to see the rest tomorrow. It was hard to select the photos to post, because all of them look so beautiful.

It will be my last day before going to London, so I will need to get ready for this too.

But I am happy, I had this little treasure in my hands for a while.