CREEPY COTSWOLDS

Just thought I'd stick some stuff up to scare the living daylights out of you - seeing as it's Halloween.
The top picture with the spooky tree was taken in Hempsted.
The dinosaur on the rampage was snapped in the late 90's while fleeing from Gloucester Museum.
The last one featuring the gory artwork also goes back to the late 90's and was one of the delights on offer at a Gloucester fairground!

BIRDS OF PRAY

If you click onto the large version of this picture you'll be able to see that all those individual bumps running along the top of the church roof, are birds.
This roosting spot was snapped in the late 90's in Gloucester.

MISTY BRIDGE

This atmospheric shot almost resembles an Oriental scene with the small arched footbridge, but it was taken in the mid 90's at an area of the river Severn on the outskirts of Gloucester.

BOND END BUILDING

This unusual structure is in Bond End, but it isn't really apparent what it is at first glance.
So if you still can't figure it out, I can tell you that it is in fact a stable, albeit a rather posh one!

WALDEN COURT

This is the entrance area to a large farmstead in Pauntley called Walden Court.
First your eyes are drawn to the big Tudor mansion at the back, but then you notice the sheep on top of the sign!

CARTWHEEL COTTAGE

I'm glad I took a picture of this farm house in Rudford back in 1997 now because this view is no longer with us.
The cartwheel and telegraph pole have disappeared, even the house itself can't be seen anymore because this area in shot is completely obscured with trees running along the front of it. There are also a few extra buildings right beside it as well because it has since been modernised and turned into a place called The Dark Barn which is used for various functions like a conference centre, gymnasium and things like that.
So I managed to capture it shortly before the changes took place.

GATE POST

This postal box caught my eye for 2 reasons.
First, was the old style stagecoach decoration on it.
Second, was that it looked like a miniature version of the big black shed behind it in driveway!
The location was the Upleadon area.

INTER CAFE

In contrast to the old fashioned cafe building I put up yesterday, I suppose this one here could be deemed modern.
I don't think the Inter Cafe had been on the go very long when I took this snap back in the early 2000's, but even it being a contemporary concept didn't save it from closure, the place now having since shut shop.

CLOSED CAFE

This is 2 views of the same building which I'm guessing was a cafe judging by the empty drinks crates at the side, but because it had the "Closed" sign up on the main door and all the curtains were shut, it is just a guess.
It was in an isolated spot off the main road around Minsterworth way and the picture was taken in 1996.
No idea if it's still on the go but I liked its wavy roof!

IN BLACK & WHITE

For some reason, the way that the light has hit the foreground area, it makes the haystack look like it is in a TV studio or film set, in front of a fake background, and so now I half expect to see the Two Ronnies leap up from behind the stack to do their country yokels sketch!
I can assure you though, the photo was not taken in some studio but out in the real countryside near Maisemore.

EBONY AND IVORY

"Ebony...

...and Ivory...

...live together in perfect harmony..."

Remix courtesy of The Wurzels!
Anyway, joking aside, these black & white hay bags were all located around the Sandhurst area.

GLOUCESTER POTTER #3

The 3rd Gloucester potter connection is the Cathedral, the location where they filmed some scenes for the Harry Potter movies.
These photos above were all taken around the end of the 90's, so a couple of years before the Harry Potter films.
The top 2 are interior details showing the archaic aura that made it such a perfect Potter backdrop on screen.
The last picture is from the Cathedral's inner courtyard area and shows a couple of hideous gargoyles that were considered too scary to use in the movies!

GLOUCESTER POTTER #2

The top image is a photo I took of the Beatrix Potter shop & museum in Gloucester, sometime around the mid 90's.
The picture under it featuring a Beatrix Potter display is not from the shop but was a window display for the Gloucester Tourist Info place and was taken a few years later around 2000ish.
Ironically, after all that, I've not actually been inside the Beatrix Potter shop itself!

GLOUCESTER POTTER #1

This shot goes back to the early/mid 90's and was taken somewhere in Gloucester, the exact location I can't recall now, but it was at the back of a shop/workshop type of place with these flowerpots for sale.

BEATRICE VON TRESCKOW

Barcelona in the Cotswolds?
Well this shop in Cheltenham certainly looked as if Gaudi had designed it, with its colourful mosaic tiling, its curvy lines and its oddments of ornaments.
When I took this photo, it belonged to fashion designer, Beatrice von Tresckow, who also has a shop in London, but since the snap, she has moved into new premises elsewhere in Cheltenham.

SINISTER TREE

This tree seemed to have taken on the form of a demonic mutant antelope which gave the impression it was scaring passers-by as if it was saying stay away from our village!
If any of you are feeling brave, however, and want to go see it for yourself, then the name of the village is Prescott.

IVY EXPLOSION

The way the ivy has taken over this tree in Gloucester has lead to it resembling a rather frightening looking mushroom-cloud!

BRICK BUSHES

I think I've let it be known by now that I am rather fond of buildings that end up with plant life growing on them and so needless to say this detail at Gloucester docks caught my eye - a cluster of bushy clumps latching on, making a derelict building their home.

IVY GARAGE

This was a bit of a quirky twist on old buildings covered in ivy - a modern garage completely smothered, and one that the owner has deliberately turned into a feature it seems.
The shot was taken in Cambridge.

CAUDLE GREENERY

This house in Caudle Green had a very thick mass of leaves covering the building, so much so that if it wasn't for the small window, it might have been mistaking for a large clipped hedge!

IVY IN ELTON

This house here located in the Elton area, was covered from top to bottom in ivy and its roof was framed in moss.

THROUGH THE GAP

I spotted this house in the distance through an opening in nearby trees - with those living there getting the woods all to themselves it seemed!
The photo was taken near Pope's Hill.

HEMPSTED FOLIAGE

I liked the variety of leaves on display at this spot which was looking through a gap in the woods to a sunlit pathway.
Hempsted is where the photo was taken.

CRANHAM CHURCH

2 views of the church in Cranham in 1996, from 2 different spots.
The top one is the main entrance area which as you can see is neat & tidy with its fancy gateway and clipped yew trees.
The other view is from the side of the building which has a more basic old gate and freestyle wild plants!

UNDERNEATH THE ARCHES

No idea what these old stone arches once belonged to but they were just there on their own at the side of a hilly road with no other obvious building nearby.
I can't recall the exact spot now, but the town you can see in the distance is Gloucester, so the arches would have been south from there, I guess somewhere between Upton St Leonards and Edge.

BASIC BUT CUTE

This small and simple building connected to someones garage brought a smile to my face.
It looked as if it had been designed by a four year old!
This wasn't the main home of the owners I'm pleased to say but was probably once part of farm building on the premises.
Unfortunately, I didn't take note of the location of this one, and so 20 years after taking the picture, it'll just have to be a mystery.

FORTHAMPTON FARMSTEAD

This farmstead in Forthampton is quite a size, with rather a lot of different styled red brick buildings making up the network.
Although I haven't yet been able to find out what the glass watchtower feature is for!

PAUSE FOR A BREAK

The field is half cut as the cart awaits the farmer returning, who is also half-cut...along at the nearest boozer!
The location of this non-activity was near Deerhurst.

FIELD OF WORK

This shot was taken in a field around the Wainlode Hill area.
Not sure if Massey Ferguson is considered the Rolls Royce of farming machinery or if it's more in the Lada territory, but the main thing is, it got the job done!

THE CONTAINER GRAVEYARD

There I was, enjoying all the nice surrounding countryside in Sud Meadow one day back in the 90's, when suddenly I bumped into this collection of old metal containers sitting in the middle of nowhere.
I've no idea who they belonged to or how they got there as there wasn't anything obvious nearby, but there were skips, water tanks, pipes, boilers and so on, just scattered all around rusting away.
It's as if they just fell out of the sky!

DERELICT FACTORY

I took this picture of a derelict factory building somewhere in Gloucester in the late 90's, but I can't remember the exact location of it now. It looks like I was quite high up but I don't recall climbing any stairs so perhaps it was situated beside a flyover or suchlike.
Anyway, 2 aspects I like about it are the large columns of plantlife that have grown on the walls, and the Ipcress File styled lightshades!