Okehampton Castle

Okehampton Castle is cared for by English Heritage. It was built shortly after the 1066 Norman Invasion, between 1068 and 1086 by Baldwin Fitzgilbert. Interestingly he was originally from Le Sap, a small town in Normandy where I once very nearly brought a small house! I digress – this is my “black and white post”, as I also shot some colour here in my Hasselblad but this post is comprised of images made with my little Olympus XA2.

Once though the ticket office, there is a small climb up into the castle proper. The left hand side of the gate still stands. I took my XA2 along on the rip for two reasons. The first, I hate to go anywhere with just one camera. Let’s face it, many of the “classic” film cameras I use, are nearly as old as me – and I don’t work properly all the time these days either! A spare is always a good idea! Second – I suspected I may visit a couple of towns (Cities) during my stay, and didn’t feel like carting about a full blown medium format kit all day.

It’s amazing to me that so much stands after all these years. Above are the remains of the “Great Hall”, while below is the chapel. I’ve switched over to using D23 as a developer, I’m sure it produces a finer grain than Ilfosol 3, it certainly holds highlights like detail the sky better. I’m very pleased with the results I’ve gotten so far.

The Olympus XA2 performed perfectly of course. I used it without the flash attached. There was never going to be any use for it here. I loaded it up with a roll of my out-of-date FP4+ bulk loaded movie film, and clicked away. I nearly always managed to remember to set the three way focus setting!

Moving up though the ruins, I eventually reached the foot of the keep, perched up on it’s hill. I wonder in all the wind and weather how that tall slender part, with no extra support defies gravity!

The view down from the side of the mound is impressive. I’m sure I’m getting a bit of a “glow” from that developer. It maybe my imagination, certainly it’s changed the results that I usually get from FP4. I think this shows even more in the image below, from the main entrance to the keep, looking over all the ruins below.

On the way down I made a few more shots, and finished off the roll. In due course I’ll scan the 120 colour and make another post!

Chatter: Olympus XA2, loaded with out-of-date Ilford FP4 and developed in D23, 20oc, 10 mins.