PHOTOGRAPHS
Derelict: Caldey Island
Caldey Island is a small island off Tenby coast, which you can reach by boat. 'Benedictine monks set up an annexe on Caldey to the monastery they had already founded at St Dogmaels. They remained on the island until the Priory was compelled to close when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries of England and Wales in 1536. The building they occupied is still standing, and is now known as The Old Priory.'
I found what was left of The Old Priory and the few buildings surrounding it very interesting, especially the way that nature had started to take over these buildings with plants growing up the side. I also had a feeling of sadness about what had been left behind and little reminders of the history of the island such as rusty farming tools and a concrete base which looks like some sort of lookout used during one of the wars.
Llywernog Mine
Llywernog Mine was once a silver-lead ore mine, discovered in 1742. 60 miners worked here, including children, extracting silver-lead earning very little and working in awful conditions. The mine closed down in 1910 once profits decreased and was abandoned until it became a tourist attraction in the 1970s.
I had an eerie feeling as I walked through the mine, following the footsteps of miners who'd spent all day, every day down here. The only plants that grew down there had only grown directly underneath artificial lights installed for visitors. Only the few things left behind signified that this place had once been occupied by people, such as a ladder completely covered in rust and rusty bolts that had been left in the rock. The one thing that really hit me was knowing that there must have been at least a couple of miners' bodies down below that had never been recovered, because it wasn't worth the risk to find any miners who were missing down there.
Bathroom Renovation
Over the summer break, while at home, our bathroom went through a huge renovation. Our house was built during the Victorian era, I have always been fascinated by how many families have called this house their home and what it may have looked like.
During the renovation the walls had to be completely stripped of wallpaper and plaster, so we were able to see the different wallpapers that the bathroom had once been decorated with. This made me think about the memories that other people had made in this house in the past, and that one day the years and years that my family have spent in this house may only be shown simply by a layer of wallpaper.
Miscellaneous Photos
Here are some photographs of things that I have spotted in my everyday life that have interested me. These photographs vary from plants growing up walls to tree roots damaging a pavement. A theme that runs throughout these photographs is the relationship between nature and man-made objects such as moss growing on a pile of mattresses.
'We have made our mark on the world, but we have really done nothing that the trees and creeping plants, ice and erosion, cannot remove in a fairly short time.' - John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez
Abandoned Buildings along Montgomery Canal
Figures show that nearly one quarter of people in Wales are living in poverty, Mid Wales being an area that suffers greatly. Many of these buildings are owned by farmers who just don't have the funds to support the upkeep of such buildings. The agricultural sector in Wales have been struggling for a while due to people buying cheaper imported goods and shopping at supermarkets rather than locally, meaning that farmers have to cut their prices and Brexit is only going to make things harder for such communities.