Northamptonshire Architecture - June 2024

There's a rich variety of architecture in Northamptonshire and this was our theme for June. The result was a wide selection of images submitted by our members that did justice to this county's built environment.

When thinking about architecture it's easy to only consider large public buildings and the grand stately piles built by the landed and ennobled over the centuries. They are the most eye-catching and were built to impress and imply solidity and permanence. This overlooks many gems of buildings and structures, some that may not immediately seem worthy of a second glance, but when seen from a certain angle, in a particular light or with a feature highlighted show they are equally worthy.

Our members explored this wide range of subjects and submitted images encompassing both extremes of the range and many in between. It was rewarding to have buildings that were not so well known shared with a larger audience. This month we also invited members to submit prints and were pleased to see the largest-ever number of entries in this format.

Northamptonshire is rich with examples of stately homes and these were well-represented, especially the quirky Canon's Ashby house. We saw less elitist structures in the form of a garage, a row of shops, almshouses, a potting shed and the justly listed Northampton Lighthouse. In the utilitarian category we had a couple of bridges, although Harringworth viaduct is some bridge, and some concrete blocks. The members' favourite image was a semi-abstract study of a modern building on the University of Northampton's Riverside Campus - Folded by Alastair Bell. This black and white image did justice to the building's structure. We'll be visiting UoN's Riverside Campus for one of July's Photo Shoots.

Our Image of the Month round contains photos taken since the last meeting and were of a variety of subjects - a train, a bicycle and a car; flowers and a tree. Animals featured too in the form of a deer and two squirrels, one grey the other - Red Squirrel by Colin Waite - picked up the cute votes (as well as being technically excellent) and was the members' second-favourite. The photo with the most votes was the intricately detailed Ushaw by David Kallmeier - beautifully exposed and showing the filigree-like interior of this building. This was the first time an image submitted as a print to one of our Show and Tell meetings had been voted the favourite.

Which photo would you have voted for? Let us know by emailing info@whphoto.club.

Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.