Hadrian's Wall in Edwin Smith's footsteps.

Toby Webster

Toby Webster

Well-Known Member
Registered
When I can I enjoy walking in the footsteps of earlier generations of landscape photographers; like art students sitting in front of the great masters, pad and pencil in hand, there is always something to learn. Edwin Smith made this stunning photograph at Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall in the late 1950s, I made my somewhat paler imitation last week. The light, when it came (I had to wait) didn't prove to be quite as luminous, nor the sky as dramatic, but it was fun to do. Smith composed his photographs with meticulous care. It is also reassuring to see a landscape that has remained entirely unchanged across nearly 70 years.

20260318_095507_1080.jpg


20260320_2_0006_1080.jpg

Pentax 645n/HP5/510-Pyro.


20260318_095507_1080.jpg20260320_2_0006_1080.jpg
 
Last edited:
I know it quite well. It is a terrific view from the car park at Steel Rigg which I too have pictured used my F4 when I had it but it must be 15 years since I have been there.. In the winter it can be tricky to get to, because of the approach road and ice on the steep rise with a bend. With the wind from the north west it gets bitterly cold, It is the only place I have ever seen with horizontal icicles formed on the fencing wire! You did well to get an uninterrupted view without queues of walkers
 
John King said:
I know it quite well. It is a terrific view from the car park at Steel Rigg which I too have pictured used my F4 when I had it but it must be 15 years since I have been there.. In the winter it can be tricky to get to, because of the approach road and ice on the steep rise with a bend. With the wind from the north west it gets bitterly cold, It is the only place I have ever seen with horizontal icicles formed on the fencing wire! You did well to get an uninterrupted view without queues of walkers
Click to expand...
There are a couple photos from Don McCullin of Hadrian's Wall in the snow, and I identified them both as having been taken standing on the wall just beside the Steel Rigg car park. They face in the opposite directions, he appears to have taken one looking along the top of the wall, turned through 180 degrees, and taken the other. Though I suspect they were consecutive shots, they have printed quite distinctly. I actually saw one of them in the flesh at his current show at Hauser & Wirth in Bruton earlier this week, captivating as ever.

Really very few walkers up there the week before last. In fact I left my new wool hat on a rock when I sat down to change a film, walked up the next morning and there it was waiting for me. I only saw one other person, and she was walking along quite briskly whilst staring into her telephone.
 
Last edited:
The two pictures show that not a lot has changed between the two views in the intervening years, a few more trees in the distance that's all. I prefer the rendering of the sky in yours better.

Life up here goes on a a much slower pace thank goodness. In a place as tranquil as that what in heavens name is the fascination of staring into a tiny telephone screen? It is like an infectious disease with no vaccine to cure it..

The trees in the middle distance appear to have more foliage on than I would expect at this time of year.
 
Last edited:
John King said:
The two pictures show that not a lot has changed between the two views in the intervening years, a few more trees in the distance that's all. I prefer the rendering of the sky in yours better.

Life up here goes on a a much slower pace thank goodness. In a place as tranquil as that what in heavens name is the fascination of staring into a tiny telephone screen? It is like an infectious disease with no vaccine to cure it..

The trees in the middle distance appear to have more foliage on than I would expect at this time of year.
Click to expand...
Thank you, John. What a beautiful part of the world, my first visit to 'inland' Northumberland. We stayed at a Landmark Trust cottage, Causeway House, which is immediately south of the poor old Sycamore Gap, and 200 yards from the extraordinary collection of Roman artefacts at Vindolanda. It is a lovely house, beautifully restored by the trust in the late 1980s, and a fantastic base from which to walk that central section of the wall.

The young woman with the phone was a good distance behind me on the walk up to Housesteads Fort from the car park. She was covering the ground at some pace, and eventually overhauled me at the fort - I had to keep stopping to pant for breath. I swear she didn't once take her eyes off of her phone.

The copses on the wall have a lot of Scots pines in them, and I suspect the more distant trees are spruce plantations, or something similarly evergreen.

https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/properties/causeway-house/

Thanks to all for the comments.
 
Last edited:
On a very clear day such as after a bitter frost, and low humidity, the distant horizon is visible as a straight line and that is the North Sea. With a pair of powerful binoculars and looking just to the right of the large clump of trees in the centre you you should be able to just pick out a TV/radio/telephone mast which is built on the summit of a hill around 850 feet high called Pontop Pike which is only a couple of miles from where live.
I have just re-checked and Pontop is actually 1012 feet high.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top