Fatherhood² | Henry's Blog

Archive for the ‘Scilly Little Changes’ Category

This shot recreation isn’t ideal – it was taken from a completely different spot for a start – but it quite nicely illustrates the change that 2008′s quay improvement works have had on the St Martins Higher Town quay – both wider and longer by a significant amount.

There’s not too many years between these two shots (only eight) and not too much change visible either. It’s the view from half way up the hill on Gugh, looking down to Black Point, over Porth Conger on St Agnes. The new quay is visible in both, with the improvements that have been made in 2008 quite obvious in the latter shot.

Here’s a nice view of the coastguard houses up at the top of Garrison Lane, as seen from the gun emplacement that has lovely views over Hugh Town. I’m glad to see these little houses haven’t changed much at all, apart from the car!

I find this "little" change quite saddening – the crumbling of the little old quay on St Agnes, in front of the Turks Head. I’m not sure what caused this significant decay – I looked back at some shots from 2006 and can see it there too, so at least it wasn’t caused by all the recent work to improve the new quay. But it definitely looks significant enough that it can’t just have been weather damage, can it? At least it’s not been destroyed as thoroughly as the old quay in Old Town, on St Marys – which has all but disappeared!

This is a view that you would hope hasn’t changed that much in 20 years – considering both of these castles have stood (or in King Charles Castle’s case, laid in ruin) for hundreds of years so far. It’s a nice view though, showing the older castle on the top of the hill, along with the (relatively) new castle at the bottom which was constructed from the latter’s stones.

Here’s another twenty-years-apart view, this time of the old ruined house on Tresco, near the Island Hotel. Other than getting a lot more overgrown and covered in plants, nothing much seems to have changed with this lovely old building. It’s very interesting to see how much bigger the big palm-like tree in the background has got though!

I tried my best to recreate (twenty years on) this shot from 1988 of the garrison trees, post-1987′s hurricane / storms. However, the whole area where this was taken seems to have become quite overgrown, as well as there now being a fence in the way of getting a closer look. But I think I managed it – you can be the judge.

This lovely shot from 1988 shows the Bryher Stores in full summer bloom – including my dad and brother, twenty years younger than they are now. In recreating this shot I was compromised by a couple of things – firstly, there seems to be a shed in the way of where i was standing back then, so the angle was wrong. Second, my brother wasn’t with us on this holiday so my sister takes his place. And finally, the shop wasn’t actually open on the Sunday when we last visited Bryher!

Another shot from 1987 on the quay, this time showing John Hicks and the local policeman Pat Martin watching over some holidaymakers, presumably boarding the Swordfish. The more uptodate shot sadly doesn’t include John, as he’s now living in Bristol (and is much missed around the islands).

I found this nice shot in the pile of photos from my first visit to Scilly in 1987, and then received a very similar view from John Leach, from way back in 1967. So, I decided to try to recreate it this month while we were on St Marys. The backdrop of the buildings doesn’t seem to have changed much, between ’87 and now, although you can see a few "improvements" such as the extension of the beachcomber flats (if they’re still called that). The difference between ’67 and now is more obvious though…