Having done a river walk, I moved to walking the walls of Exeter, or as much as I could. There are a few info boards here and there that tell the history and point the visitor in the right direction. For the purposes of a photo blog however, the plaque above perhaps says enough! Below this section of wall is impressive – I assume it’s this hight as it’s right by the river waterfront.
History is funny thing! Here I was walking the roman walls, some of it un-touched but still good 1800 years later. Meanwhile Holy Trinity Church, built in 1819-20, was added to the grade 2 list in 1953. By 1977 had fallen out of use, and became The White Ensign Club, a social club and bar for ex-forces. Inside are many memento’s from HMS Exeter. However, Covid, cost of living crisis, and costs mean that this too is falling out of use and may close soon. Just to the right of the image above is another plaque –
Continuing on the path becomes known as “Southernhay” (hey as in “enclosed area” in this case I assume the city by the wall).
Eventually Southernhay crosses Cathedral Close where there is a suitable break to walk through to the Cathedral.
As it turned out, I never completed the circular walk of the walls. So made my way into the city centre down this close. I’ve visited the Cathedral before, you can read that post here. Even in the middle of the modern shopping centre there is another chunk of the wall.
Walking out of the city in the opposite direction I passed the entrance to Northernhay and it’s impressive gardens – again I did a post about this and you can read that here.
All these images were made on the same roll of Ilford HP5. I developed it in home made D23. I like the combination. HP5 is more contrasty than FP4, faster films usually are, but the D23 holds the highlights better. Ansel Adams used what he called a “Divided D23” in other words split the developer into two baths to push this highlight retention even further. I didn’t do that, but I’m still pleased with the results. I also like that it helps keep the grain at bay!
S.H.O.U.T. 