If you read my nonsense on any kind of regular basis, you’ll know that this is the East Banqueting House of Chipping Campden Manor – always good for a blip, but rarely seen from this angle. R and I went into Campden this afternoon for a stroll and a cup of coffee, and as we walked past the church I was delighted to discover that the Landmark Trust, who care for the Banqueting Houses and let them out for holidays, were having an Open Day. It’s three years since I last had the chance to get onto the site, but R had never been, so it was especially interesting for him to walk around and look inside the buildings.
I wrote screeds quite a lot about the Manor and about the Landmark Trust after my last visit, so I’ll save us all from repetition by referring back to that blip, if you’d like more information.
The extra is a view across the Almonry towards St James’ Church, taken through the bedroom window of the West Banqueting House. I was disappointed recently to read that the thing we all think we know about glass being a liquid is not in fact true, and I haven’t yet fully accepted this realignment in the order of things, because I don’t understand, if it’s solid, why old glass always appears to be trying to flow earthwards. Whatever, this is a proper old leaded light window (and therefore I would imagine highly inefficient and draughty), and the view through it is charmingly wonky. My camera thought I’d taken leave of my senses when I pointed it at this scene, and flatly refused to autofocus, so I had to do the job myself, at which point my eyes started to cross, and my brain also went on strike – which is my excuse for the framing of the shot being charmingly wonky too.
