Romantic Ruins

Malmesbury BB95_10457

MARKET SQUARE, Malmesbury, Wiltshire. A rooftop view looking over Market Square, showing the market cross (c.1500) and the abbey ruins. The abbey was the setting for man's first flight attempt in the form of a monk named Elmer who threw himself from the abbey tower and subsequently broke both his legs in c. 1000. Photographed in 1864 by W Hanks.

© Historic England

Coventry Cathedral UXC01_01_01_0007_07

Ruined Cathedral Church of St Michael, Bailey Lane, Coventry, Coventry, Coventry. A view of the spire of the ruined St Michael's Cathedral Church, seen from inside the ruins, looking west with the top of the Holy Trinity Church spire in the background. The church was one of the largest medieval parish churches and was made a cathedral in 1918. the damage was caused by an air raid in November 1940. Photographed by Ursula Clark after 1955.

© Historic England Archive

Pull's Ferry, Norwich SED01_01_01

Pull'€™s Ferry, Norwich, Norfolk, 1854. William Russell Sedgfield (1826-€“1902), albumen print. William Russell Sedgfield included this image, produced using the waxed paper process, among his entries at the 1855 Photographic Institution exhibition in London. The 15th-century water gate adjacent to Pull'€™s Ferry protected the channel that had been dug to carry building materials from the River Wensum to the site of Norwich Cathedral. Even at the age of 16, Sedgfield was keen to use Fox Talbot'€™s new calotype process, and, after training as an engraver, he turned to photography in the early 1850s, adopting the waxed paper, wet collodion and dry collodion processes. He became €˜one of the most critically acclaimed photographers of his generation€™ and his photographs illustrated a number of books published during his lifetime, including Ruined Abbeys and Castles of Great Britain by William and Mary Howitt, which also featured work by Francis Bedford and Roger Fenton.

© Historic England