Punishment stocks – City of York.

Nikon F4 / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 D with Nikon diffusion filter on T-Max 400 (original*)
from my freezer.

The stocks were used as a punishment for crimes of public disorder (drunkenness for example) throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Their use declined in the 18th century, but probably last used in the UK at the market town of Newcastle Emlyn west Wales in 1872.
The criminal being locked in by legs & hands or hands & head: they were then subjected to ridicule by the local population who threw rotting fruit and in some cases stones at them.

* 1987: so this film is over 30 years old.

Late night view – York No2.

Night time view of a York street, mid 1980’s From my negative files, T-Max 400
(old style TMY not TMY2).

Like the previous image, this was handheld using a newly acquired Nikon F401, I uprated the T-Max from 400 to 800 asa and used T-Max developer. If I was making this image now, I would have used a 2 bath developer for more control of the high lights (street lamps).

I mentioned in a previous post, that after my move back to UK I had misplaced my darkroom log book – found !! which was a relief. It has lots of useful and useless information about film and paper development. The useless comment relates to the fact that it has notes about paper and films that are sadly no longer available.

 

 

St William’s College – York.

My files of the late 1970’s: from an Ilford FP4 negative.

St William’s College, a Mediaeval building in York which was originally built to provide accommodation for priests attached to chantry chapels at nearby York Minster.

The college was founded in c.1465 by George Neville and the Earl of Warwick to house twenty-three priests and a provost. While the college was not a monastic establishment, it was affected by the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the college then passed into secular ownership.

The building was bought by the Province of York in 1912 for use by its convocation.

See this link for a full history of the building: York Civic trust St William’s college.