Gethin Thomas
- Apr 3, 2022

Salcombe Part 3

I am now sitting here in April 2022 finishing a Blog post I started in November 2021. I won't give my excuses as they aren't particularly interesting, but I will state I have not been idle, salvaging and restoring more than 300 Blog posts from the sunken wreck that was Photoblog. I suppose that does actually sound like an excuse. I only hope that now they are back on the Wild World Web that someone actually reads them at some point and looks at the pictures or my last three months was a total waste of time.

It wasn't easy as both formats of back up I used, as Photoblog was steaming at full speed ahead into the iceberg, were imperfect. The posts I managed to save had to be restored piecemeal, text copy and pasted first, followed by manually uploading and inserting all the original photos from scratch, I estimate around 6000 of them. It truly was a Labour of Love.

As a consequence (this is the longest non-excuse excuse ever) I only got as far as Salcombe Part One and Salcombe Part Two.

Unbelievably, since then, Omicron came and went, hysteria came and went, and Covid, pretty much went too, having come two years previously. Guy Fawkes Night, a foot operation, Christmas, New Year, another foot operation, Winter, Mother's Day, Snowdrops, Frost, Face masks and immobility from foot operations, all came and went. The day I wandered aimlessly around Salcombe, taking these photos seems like light years ago.

Excuses, excuses, excuses..........

Part three starts at Holy Trinity Church, high up the hill that is Salcombe.

You can see from the date on the tower that it is not the usual 13th century church I feature from this area. This church was founded six years into Queen Victoria's reign, what they call brand new around here. For a babe in arms it is doing well though, as it is already Grade 2 listed by English Heritage.

It has some lovely stained glass, both Victorian and modern. This vibrant glass designed by Andrew Johnson, commemorates one Arthur Lapthorn 1908 - 1988 who lived for eighty years, seventy two of which involved him being a chorister in this church. Yes, that means he started singing in this building at the age of eight.

The RNLI plays a major part in the town both today and historically. There has been a lifeboat station here since 1869. In the church is this splendid model of one of the latest iterations of Salcombe Lifeboat, the Baltic Exchange. It has been superseded by the Baltic Exchange II and then III.

The flag of the United States of America hangs here since its presentation in 1990 to commemorate the American service men who were based in Salcombe before and during the invasion of Normandy and who sailed from this estuary to fight in Europe 1944-45 but did not live to return home.

Down below in Batson Creek where the car park becomes a boat store over the winter a loose sail is caught in the wind.

At the church you are looking down on chimney pots.

As you make your way back down into town you are at the roof line.

Now level with the upstairs windows.

Now the last leg of the descent, a flight of steps next to the Fortescue Arms.

.....and we are back at sea level, just about.

Tucked away in Union Street in Salcombe is the Fortescue Inn. The large pub sign seen here, which can be seen down Fore Street, carries the Fortescue coat of arms. The family has a history going back to when they arrived in England in 1066 with William the Conqueror

and legend has it that one Sir Richard le Fort saved William’s life by shielding him from his enemies and thus the family motto “Forte Scutum Salus Ducum”, a strong shield saves the kingdom. (fortescu.net)

Guess what? It's time for lunch. Just watch out for those seagulls, as they are looking for lunch too.

This is a rendition of a very rare portrait of Queen Elizabeth with her eyes closed. An intriguing and very clever image by artist Chris Levine.

It was a happy ‘accident’ that resulted in Chris Levine’s meditative portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. He had set out on a commission to commemorate the Isle of Jersey’s 800th year of allegiance to the crown in a holographic portrait, a process that involved an extraordinary technological array: a high-resolution digital camera which moved along a rail taking 200 images over eight seconds, a 3-D data scanner and a medium format camera which he could use, if necessary, to capture information he could texture-map onto the 3-D data sets. The queen was required to sit still for 8 seconds at a time, and between the passes she closed her eyes to rest. Levine was struck by the beauty of her meditative state and snapped the shutter. (saatchigallery.com)

I have to say I am no royalist but this portrait is inspired. It really takes an exceptional artist to spot that moment in time and make something so different and iconic. There are probably more official portraits of Queen Elizabeth than any other human being who ever lived and yet here, an artist is able to find something fresh and new.

'There was a lot of light on Her Majesty so I asked her to rest and close her eyes in between shots and the camera in the middle of the track caught that moment.

'I found it years later on my hard drive. Within 30 seconds I applied a filter and it leapt out at me. It really resonated around the world.' (Dailymail.co.uk)