NDPS members met at St Benets Abbey near Ludham for a 06:45 start in what would most likely be our last shoot for 2021.
It was foggy as it had been for the previous couple of days. This is usually a welcome weather condition as it can aid separation of subjects in the landscape. The downside is for scenes with sky, it does mean a bland white sky. Woodlands is where you want to be with fog.
Any hopes of sunrise light soon evaporated though as absolutely no sunlight appeared at all. But never mind, we have to work with what we’re given…
We walked along the path from the car park, past the Abbey and began looking around for compositions.
I started on one of the paths for a straightforward shot at the Abbey.
I then walked down to the river bank and took a shot with the bench in the foreground.
I then looked across the river Bure and quite liked the foggy scene of the river bank with some swans just visible. I think this may be my favourite shot. I had to stretch my editing skills by moving the image into Photoshop to remove the unsightly speed sign as I couldn’t do it acceptably in Lightroom.
I then walked up and past the Abbey to the cross further up field and took some shots there. I noticed a lot of cobwebs on the ground and plants. On reflection, there could’ve been some good close up maybe even macro shots on offer so I look forward to seeing what other club members post.
I tracked down two of my fellow club members who were walking around nearby taking shots looking back at the Abbey. For me, these were more promising shots as the colours in the foreground were surprisingly stunning with some water too. Chatting about the potential of the scenes in front of us, we felt some frost would’ve been great, for photography opportunities if not for ourselves.
We wondered if black and white shots would work better than colour? This is usually the route photographers go when there is a sky with no detail. Any time I do try a black and white, my wife certainly always prefers the colour version. What do you think?
We called it a day after these shots and while many of us had reached that point where we’d got plenty of shots, the coffee and tea flasks were calling us, not just for the caffeine but also to warm up. To be fair, it was reasonably mild this morning at around 5C. The overall impression of the location was that it has a lot more interesting compositions from the fields looking back at the Abbey and definitely worth another visit another time, maybe for sunset.
Onwards and upwards…
Some interesting information about St Benets is below (courtesy of the website by Norfolk Archaeological Trust).
The abbey of St Benet was the only Norfolk Monastery founded in the Anglo-Saxon period which continued use throughout the Middle Ages, but was abandoned after its closure in the 1530s due to its inaccessible location.
Most of the medieval buildings have been demolished except for the gatehouse which has a later windmill built onto it, the surviving ruins of the church and the precinct walls can be seen.
St Benets was Norfolk’s leading monastery and is referenced in the Domesday Book compiled in 1086.
All English monasteries except St Benets were closed and seized by the Crown via two acts of suppression by Henry VIII between 1536-39. Bishop Nyx of Norwich secured an Act of Parliament allowing him to seize endowments of the bishopric. His successor William Rugge was consecrated as bishop in 1536 but continued as abbot and financed the bishopric from the St Benets estate. St Benets was hugely in debt and the site was abandoned in 1545, with demolition completed in 1579.
The bishop of Norwich technically remains the Abbot of St Benets, even though there have been no monks here for over 450 years. He leads an open air service every year on the first Sunday in August.
In the early 1720s, the upper storey was removed to allow a brick tower windmill to be built into the remains, making the most of the firm foundations in the marshy terrain. It would have been built to process colza or rape seed which at that time was used for lighting and fabrication. St Benets is Norfolk’s second oldest mill and from 1720 onwards, any reference to the site are as a drainage mill.
St Benets became one of Britain’s first scheduled ancient monuments in 1915. Bought by the Norfolk Archaeological Trust in 2002-04 with only the ruins of the church still owned by the diocese leased to the Trust for 199 years. Conservation work has been done, mostly work to control the erosion of the river bank by the wash from passing boats.