Horncastle

The Punch House

This is one of the icons of the town. Not only is the building unique to the town and surrounding towns, with it's curved aspect, it is also one of the longest standing feature buildings of it's era. It was a public house many years ago, and still has the original swinging sign outside. Over the lifetime of this building, it has been many establishments, including a nightclub, but is now the home of a fashion shop, a pizzeria, and several flats above. There are so many features I admire about this building, with the unique architecture of the stone & brickwork, particularly over the shaped windows. The curve of the building is always eye-catching, as well as the oldy-worldy street light in the centre. On the left side, Saint Mary's Church can be seen, and the right hand side is the Community centre.

Olympus OMD E-M5 mkiii ~ f2.9 ~ 1/500 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 14mm

Horncastle Post Office

In the 30 or so years I have lived in and around Horncastle, I have seen several changes to the town, even this iconic building. It has always been the post office, but the post boxes used to be integral to the building itself, now, as you can see, there are dedicated post boxes stood outside. This, as with most post offices, is one of the main hubs in the town, which can get quite busy. The telephone boxes outside have always been there, and remain the old fashioned RED ones. The cobbled street in front of the post office used to be a highway, until a few years ago, when it was blocked off with flower boxes and made pedestrianised. The trees in front of the building usually obscure the building, but during winter months, it's possible to capture most of it through the bare branches. The sun reflecting off the white masonary paint allowed for a faster shutter speed, but still allowed an ISO setting of 200.

Olympus OMD E-M5 mkiii ~ f5.6 ~ 1/800 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 16mm

Public Toilets

No matter where you look, public toilets are nearly always a bland shade of Off-White or Grey. It was with this in mind that East Lindsey District Council and Horncastle Town Council decided to spend unique funding on the regeneration of the toilet block in the town. A Graffiti artist group called ImageSkool was commissioned to brighten up the block. Amongst the images are some parts significant to Horncastle, and some linked to the County. Things such as The Lancaster Bomber, The Red Arrows, a Roman Soldier and the Roman Wall, The County Flag. There is even a dog with a bandage on its paw to represent the Vet On The Corner (a vet located just opposite). The rolling views of the Lincolnshire Wolds are prominent, as well as images of fields of crops and horses. All of the art work was completed in about 3 days, very good considering how much detail has been depicted.

Coloured Cottages

Located between the High Street & Wharf Road, there is a small alleyway which is the location for these colourful cottages. They have always reminded me of the Scottish seaside town of Tobermory, which is the base for the childrens TV show Balamory. They are quite hidden from the main part of the town, but easily found during a walk around the town, in particular, next to the River Waring near the library. I have always loved seeing the brick patterns on walls, as opposed to rendering, so the coloured brickwork gives another level of satisfaction for me. You will notice from the camera settings, the wide angle of 29mm allows a lot of area to be captured, while the f3.7 allows plenty of light to be input, which, in turn, allows the shutter speed to increase to 1/800th.

Olympus E-M5 Mkiii ~ f3.7 ~ 1/800 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 29mm

Costa Coffee

There is so much history behind this building. Even though it is currently Costa Coffee, this has only recently been converted from the legendary store it used to be. Many people have said for many years that Horncastle needs a big coffee house, so when this became available, Costa put it's franchise in there. However, for as many years as I can remember, it has been a family business called Achurches. This was one of the old style hardware stores which supplied many of the nuts, bolts, screws & other hardware that most people require in their day-to-day repairs & DIY arsenal. You could buy loose item, boxes or packs of hardware, even many kitchen and Bathroom items such as cooking utensils & pans, bathroom scales & linen, as well as everything inbetween. If you were looking for a specific item, or just something unusual as a gift, you were more likely to find it here. Many town folk & visitors alike would peruse the shop, and spend many hours looking at the vast array of displays & items here. It really was an Aladdin's Cave of goods. Although a little dearer than smaller shops & online prices, the sheer variation of goods was well worth the price tag. It was certaily a sad day for the town when Achurches closed down due to retirement.
However, it is still fairly popular, and has a regular clientelle of customers. I cannot profess to be a lover of this particular brand of coffee, but i have frequented it a few times.

Olympus E-M5 Mkiii ~ f4.5 ~ 1/400 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 16mm

Town Clock

This is probably one of the most viewed features in the town, partly because visitors want to know the time, and partly to see if it's correct. Having spent much of my time in the town centre, I look at this clock nearly every day, although I always look at my watch either before or after I see the time on the clock. It has a bit of a reputation of being wrong, in fact, for many years, it wasn't working at all. It spent a long period of time with scaffolding around it, having had the internal workings removed for major repairs. At the time of taking this image, the clock was working and displaying the correct time, however, I cannot guarantee it is correct as you read this now. If you look at the picture carefully, you can see a thin spindle going from the side of the clock, into the building, this is used to adjust the hands for daylight saving options, and incase it looses or gains in accuracy over periods of time. Considering it was first installed in 1889, it seems to be lasting quite well.

Olympus E-M5 Mkiii ~ f3.8 ~ 1/640 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 34mm

Perkins Newsagents

Perkins has been a major part of the town for as long as I can remember. Paper boy deliveries run from this location to the entire town, and some of the surrounding villages too. Their supply of newspapers, magazines and books is still the mainstay of the shop, as well as a great range of greetings cards. Over the length of many, many years, I have purchased a wide array of items from here because they have always been so reliable. However, the original owner retired several years ago and the new owner has retained the Perkins name, which is becoming of the Community Spirit of the town. Located within the Market Place makes it handy for all town people and visitors alike. The building itself is one of the original structures of the town, with it's upper sash windows and the older style roof tiles (instead of modern slates). As can be seen by the settings below, this only required an apature of f4, with an ISO of 200, which is due to the sunny day that this picture was taken on, and the bright colour of the building.

Olympus E-M5 Mkiii ~ f4 ~ 1/500 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 12mm

Old Town Architecture

As I have mentioned on several occassions over the course of my pictures, I am keen to see old and intricate architecture within the construction of buildings. This one on Bridge Street is one of my favourites, having so many features, it kept me admiring it for a long time before I decided on the near-perfect angle to capture the various features. The feature brickwork of the window reveals and building corners, the Gothic style arches of the windows (including the shaped glass withing the window frame. The intricate stonework above the lower windows (which were probably created as panels before they were fitted. Even the features between each floor & below the roof level. As well as all the features of the building, the Old-Style street lamp sets the period off even more. There are so many buildings similar to this in Horncastle, maybe slightly different in their unique features, but interesting all the same. The settings for this image are all fairly standard, with nothing particularly unusual to trick the eye. Although the sun wasn't directly on the face of the building, the day was bright enough to capture the details without having to raise the ISO.

Olympus E-M5 Mkiii ~ f3.3 ~ 1/800 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 20mm

Stanhope Memorial

The memorial right in the middle of the Market Place is named after one of the main benifctors to Horncastle & it's people - Edward Stanhope. Although he wasn't born in the town, his generosity was renowned throughout Horncastle residents, and a statue in his memory was erected to remind the people how important he was. This constant reminder, together with a road named after him, Stanhope Road are always there to show town people what he had given them in the past, namely The Market Place, The Wong & The Pig Market which were then owned & run by the townfolk of Horncastle. The Stanhope memorial was thoroughly cleaned about 10 years ago. A power washer was used to remove any damaging grime from the stonework, and the brasswork was cleaned too. The brass features tarnish very quickly, as can be seen by the green sections in the image. However, the brass finials, lightening conductors and the plaque give a pleasing contrast to the stonework.
There are no unusual settings for this image. A standard f3.5 and ISO 200 were enough to capture the memorial, the background, and the blue sky.

Olympus E-M5 Mkiii ~ f3.5 ~ 1/400 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 18mm

The Red Lion

The Red Lion public house in the town has centuries of history, not least of which is that it used to be a Coaching Inn back in the era when Horncastle's Horse Fair was in it's hay day. There were several Coaching Inns at the time, namely The Bull Hotel & The Amiral Rodney Hotel, where it is said that Oliver Cromwell frequented. In the not-so-distant past, The Red Lion was renown as (dare I say) a bit Rough & Ready, although their reputation for good food has always been prominent. In recent years, it has improved beyond all expectation and is loved by all who visit. The Jewel In The Crown is that it has a Theatre to the rear of the pub. There are always exceptional performances here from the many Players Groups, including Young Players from various schools in the town. All the actors are amateur, but all give 110% to produce outstanding performances. If you're in the local area, look up what the current play is & book your tickets (well in advance if you can - it gets booked up really quickly). As you can see, the current title was Dick Wittington, showing that Pantomimes are always an ongoing performance.

Olympus E-M5 Markiii ~ f3.5 ~ 1/640 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 16mm

Fruit & Veg Cottage

This adorable little cottage has been a Fruit & Veg shop for as many years as I have lived in this area. It belonged to a lady called Heather, and everyone in the area knew it as Heather's or Heathers Fruit & Veg. When Heather retired, local people were upset because Heather wasn't there any more, and it meant that they would have to buy their fresh produce from the supermarkets (which weren't of the same standard that they were used to. A while later, the shop opened again and continued to sell fruit & veg, which made everyone happy again & ensured the new owners had a ready made customer base. This unique cottage is located near the cross roads on Bull Ring, just opposite The Ship public house. For such a small shop, the amount and variety of produce is amazing, ensuring it's reputation lives on for many more years. As I recall, this picture was taken on a Sunday, which explains the lack of display outside the shop. There is an area of pavement to the left of this image where stands of fresh fruit and veg are located. There is also usually a great display in the window.

Olympus E-M5 Mkiii ~ f3.7 ~ 1/200 sec ~ ISO 200 ~ 31mm