Amelia's photos with the keyword: HWW

Erigeron karvinskianus and Helianthemum species growing on a wall at Chirk Castle.

These relatively small birds usually forage for food by turning small stones over on the beach. I have never seen them before, perched like this. There was a couple of folks standing nearby who told me that someone had been feeding them on this rocky wall, for what reason I don't know. There's plenty of suitable food for them on a beach at low tide.

HWW everyone

What I love about this mural is the fact that it has been done by removing the surface rendering. It's such a pity that it has been paint-balled though.

Chester city walls consist of a defensive structure built to protect the city. The fortress was initially defended by an earth rampart surmounted by a wooden palisade and surrounded by a ditch. From about 90 AD Chester was occupied by Legio XX Valeria Victrix, who started a programme of rebuilding, including the improvement of the walls. Starting in about 100 AD the earth walls were reconstructed using sandstone. Following the Norman conquest the army of William the Conqueror arrived in Chester in 1069–70, and the king ordered that a castle should be built. This was constructed outside the site of the Roman fortress, to the southwest in an elevated position overlooking the River Dee. This necessitated the extension of the walls to the west and south to incorporate the castle, leading to the circuit of the walls currently present. The walls are now a major tourist attraction, and form an almost complete circuit of the former medieval city, with a total walkway length of 2.95 kilometres (1.8 mi). Upkeep and repair of the walls continues to be a problem. It's a pity that one gets the view of a large car park here. Through the arch there is a set of steps to get the city walls over a major road. For more information see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_city_walls#References

A "Wall Dial" on the gable end of Shrewsbury's Old Market Hall. Interestingly this Vertical Wall mounted dial plate only shows the hours 9 to 5, and is only useful when it gets some sun in the summer months. The Market Hall was built in 1596 by the Corporation of Shrewsbury and is one of Shrewsbury's finest buildings. It reflects the town's prosperity towards the end of the 16th Century and especially its emergence as a major regional centre for trading.

Lychgates or corpse gates are relatively unseen in a Scottish church. It's thought that Cromwell's influence at the time of building may have caused this to be erected here. This a really good example of a mortsafe in a corpse gate in Ayr On each side of the corpse gate you can see a large black ironwork structure. This is a mortsafe, which was extremely common in Scotland. Early 19th century Scotland was plagued with body snatchers. Medical science was moving on at such a pace that universities could no longer keep up with the need for bodies to dissect. Scottish law required that corpses used for medical research should only come from those who had died in prison, suicide victims, or from foundlings and orphans. The shortage of corpses led to an increase in body snatching by what were known as "resurrection men". Measures to ensure graves were left undisturbed, such as the use of mortsafes exacerbated the shortage. This gave rise to the terrible trade of body snatching whereby newly buried bodies would be dug up and sold to the universities. In this very graveyard, relatives of the newly deceased would take it in turns to watch the graves. This could be done for weeks after the burial until the body was too badly decayed to be of use. If you couldn't afford that, you could use a mortsafe like the one hanging on the wall shown in the photo. This heavy cast iron frame was clamped around the coffin before burial, thus preventing the body snatchers from opening the coffin. As the weeks passed and the body became decayed, the coffin was dug up and the mortsafe removed ready to be used again. The Ayr mortsafe, pictured dates from 1816. How gruesome is all this?

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Sitting in the shadow of the dam at the southern end of Llyn Clywedog Reservoir, Bryntail’s buildings illuminate a time when this tranquil spot was a bustling site of industry. During the 19th century this was a noisy, smoky place as lead was extracted and processed, before being transported to nearby Llanidloes and shipped down the River Severn. Bryntail closed in 1884 as the local mining boom came to an end. The remains that still stand include crushing houses, ore bins, roasting ovens, smithy and the mine manager's office. The mine produced lead ore and barytes. The barytes mill includes massive Yorkshire stone slab tanks. I assume that this photo is part of a tank made of Yorkshire stone. Visible workings are largely of nineteenth century date and include three main shafts and a deep adit, well-preserved remains of an earthwork incline, tramway track beds, a leat which once carried water drawn from the Clywedog further upstream, substantial remains of buildings including structures which housed pumping and winding machinery. Other surviving features include the mine office, smithy and store building, a circular explosives magazine, together with wheelpits for winding and crushing machinery, ore bins, roasting ovens and precipitation tanks, jigger placements, a washing and picking floor area, buddles, slime pits. A wheelpit close to the river is 60 feet (18.23 metres) deep.

Sculpted by Angela Hunter these five penguins, located on the wall of the Steeple Church, have become a firm favourite with the Dundee public and are Dundee’s answer to Glasgow’s Duke of Wellington statue. I hardly think that this is a fair comparison. ;-) The penguins are regularly dressed to join in city occasions from graduation to charity fundraising events and from Christmas celebrations to Royal visits. Dundee has actually been associated with penguins for a long time – hence the group of them getting some exercise in the city centre. www.facebook.com/DundeePenguins You’ll perhaps know a bit about the RRS Discovery, the beautiful ship now located at Dundee’s waterfront. Its first ever mission was to the British National Antarctica – which just happens to be, the home of the penguin.