COW AND CATHEDRAL

This cow looked as if it had settled down in this position specifically to have its photo taken with Gloucester cathedral in the background.
So I obliged!

ATMOSPHERIC BOAT POND

Although this picture was taken in the height of summer in 1998, this particular day was rather moody and so there was not much action going on in the boat pond.
Gloucester was the location.

BRIGHTS HILL CHURCH

This church, half hidden in the surrounding trees, was located at the base of Brights Hill.

OLD STONE HOUSE

It was the old stonework of this country home that caught my eye at first - it looked as if it had been converted into a domestic residence from having possibly been a church or suchlike, in a previous life.
Then I noticed there was a croquet court on the lawn, which made it appear rather posh!
The location was in the Gretton area.

MANSION MOTOR

I'd sometimes see country mansions with Porsche's and Mercedes outside the front of the home but this is the only time I've encountered a big house with a tractor proudly out on display!
I took this snap somewhere around the Ganders Green area in the mid 90's.

YEW TREE INN

This smart little drinking den is The Yew Tree Inn, and if you fancy having a drink there it is located in the May Hill area.

RED LION - NEWENT

At least this Red Lion is red anyway, unlike the previous two!
And this old brick pub on the corner was photographed in Newent around 1997.

RED LION - WESTBURY

This is the Red Lion in Westbury-on-Severn, which is 3 miles away from yesterday's pub.

RED LION - HUNTLEY

I already have 2 Red Lion pubs up on Cotswolds Cascade, one in Arlingham and one at Wainlode, but I have another 3 to add to the list which were all taken in the mid/late 90's - starting with this example above, The Red Lion in Huntley.

HIDDEN POST BOX

This post box was tucked away in a small lay-by/resting spot off a main road. It wasn't particularly close to any nearby homes but was located somewhere around the Birdlip area.

COTTAGE COLLECTION POINT

This postbox in Sandhurst was embedded into the side of a cottage rather than a post office building.

OLD POST OFFICE

You can just make out the post box in this shot which is on the wall near where my bike is resting, and as a matter of fact, the building featured in the photo is actually the old post office in the village of Coberley.

POST BOX & MIRROR

I took this picture more for the mirror than the post box.
It's not for the postman to catch up with his shaving of course but is one of those convex mirrors for traffic purposes.
The reason I snapped it was because the mirror's position was on the shaded side of the road and in its reflection you could see the Tudor building across from it was lit up by the sunshine.
Appropriately, these wall features were located in Wallsworth!

PENFOLD PILLAR BOX

This old style hexagonal pillar box was snapped at Gloucester docks around the late 90's.
This particular design is called a Penfold and they say Cheltenham has the largest collection of these in use outside of London.
Must get Danger Mouse to investigate!

PETITE POST BOX

This dinky little post box was beside a dinky little cottage in Elmore.

IVY POST BOX

Got some images of post boxes going up over the next few days, starting with this one here which was attached to an ivy covered pillar. Not sure what lay under the ivy - a tree stump or chunk of stone or whatever, but the location was near Haresfield.

MARSH IRIS

Not a field of daffodils but a gathering of marsh iris located at Lower Parting.

BIRCH AND BLOOMS

More birch trees on parade, this time located in the Port Ham area sharing a field with daffodils.

BIRCH DISPLAY

This was a piece of ground near an office block in Gloucester that had been landscaped with birch trees.
Needless to say, their white trunks were rather eye-catching.

CRYPTIC COUPLE

These sculpted figures above a doorway of a house must mean something to those who live there, but I've no idea what the red coated twins with birds on top refer to.
The frame has a date that appears to be 1858, so obviously the artwork relates to that era - a bit before my time!
The house itself was somewhere around the Arlingham area and the picture was snapped 1997ish.

SWISHY!

Unlike yesterday's example of house plaster which did kind of leap out rather obtrusively, the plaster on this cottage here was applied a bit more subtly. It has a nice swishy look that fits in nicely with the rest of the exterior.
The location of the old cottage was around the Twigworth area.

CHUNKY!

It's quite apt that this house covered in chunky plaster was situated in Gloucester, as I reckon it looks as if it is made from large wedges of Double Gloucester cheese!
Perhaps Wallace & Gromit have moved in!!

BASKETS, BINDERS & BOOZE

The reason I took the top picture was because I reckoned the ornate patterns on the window kind of mimicked the 2 hanging baskets outside - but now it's what is across the road that is of more interest.
That window photo was taken in the early 90's at Gloucester Museum, and the main building you can see opposite was a shop called Jennings, a stationer/office & art supplier. It then closed down, and sometime around the late 90's/early 2000's the premises was transformed into the Hogshead pub.
The photo above was snapped around the time Hogshead had newly opened.
Although there is still a pub there today, it is now called Voltage.

KING'S COLOURS

This is another pub in Gloucester that is no longer on the go - King's.
The top 2 pictures were taken in the mid 90's when it had a red exterior, and the lower shot was taken around 2000 when it changed to a blue and white colour scheme.
Although a pub premises is still there today, it has since gone through a couple of name changes as well as further colour changes, with it's present incarnation being The Abbey, painted black.
While I'm in this neck of the woods, you'll notice in the photos that The Oliver Twist Cafe across the road from the pub also went through a couple of colour changes during this period - going from green to lilac. I'm pretty sure the cafe is still there but now painted grey.

RED THAI - BLUE THAI

This is how the Siam Thai restaurant looked when it was on the go in Gloucester - the same premises but 2 different coloured exteriors.
The red one was taken in the late 1990's, and the blue version was snapped in the early 2000's.
I have to refer to it in the past tense because it has since closed down.
So I suppose it could now be considered a black Thai job!!

BEFORE & AFTER BANNERS

This is The Warehouse in Gloucester.
The picture at the top was taken in the mid 90's and shows the premises before they had banners up on the outside.
The photo under it was taken around 2000, with the banners, signage and so on, now on display.

TIME-LAPSE FIELD

I have some before & after type photos of various places in Gloucester that I will putting up over the next few days, but before I head into town, here's an example of such a thing taken at a field in Sandhurst.
Both are from the same spot but at different times of the year - the top one taken in spring and the lower one taken in late summer.
This was the late 90's era.

BLOCKED PATHWAY

Well it's not always a nice pleasant stroll when out & about in the countryside. I've mentioned the times when I've been squelching around in marshes, flooded fields and what have you. This scene above, however, was something a bit different, the pathway was blocked by a group of trees that had been blown down in a storm. It was near Walham and I had been along this route a couple of times previously, so the blocked path couldn't have been there very long when I took the photo back in the mid 90's.
After a bit of ducking and diving, I did manage to continue along it as planned!

WACKY WALHAM

Not a pond, but a flooded field near Walham.
That's a rail bridge at the back, but in the water in the foreground, there seems to be a wheel made of stone.
I reckon it has fallen off the Bouldermobile from Wacky Races!

MARSHY FIELD

This field in Port Ham flooded regularly, and as a consequence it was always marshy underfoot even when there was no sign of water.
This picture here though, taken in 1996, still has some flood water present, which meant having to tread carefully during the photo session!

GRAZING & GRUNGE

Don't think you're likely to see an image such as the one above crop up on a postcard from the Cotswolds, but this picture of a rather messy grazing area complete with industrial backdrop was taken on the outskirts of Gloucester.