House in the country , in need of some repair ...

[Arun Gaur]

Birma
I think that Tam 17-50 is doing very well with your A700.
The pictures remind me of many colonial buildings in India.
Arun Gaur
http://tripolia-indianlandscapeimages.com

[Mande Daguerre]

Hi Birma

Great shots. What an amazing looking place....for a ruin!

It looks huge.

MD

[Birma]

Thanks Arun and Mande

I hope that the A700, the Tam 17-50 and I will be returning to Witley Court soon.

[Birma]

Back at Witley Court this morning and they were running the fountain.

Its starts of quite calmly, I guess while they build up the pressure. This is one of the smaller statues to the side of the main fountain.


Here is the main part of the fountain, with the fountain starting - those spectators, soon moved back


A very impressive water feature for the back garden!


All with A700 and Beercan.

[Greg Beetham]

Wow how big is that fountain? it's a wonder they had pumps for fountains back in the time it was built, you really need electricity for pumps, but then maybe it's not from before the electrical age perhaps.
It certainly is a grand place, shame it got damaged by fire, I hope they are able too restore it all back to original.
I like those sort of shots from the 'old country' Birma, it's kind of nostalgic for me for some reason, even though I was borne here.
Greg

[Birma]

Hi Greg - there is some interesting information on the fountain by the people who restored it here http://www.fordwaterpumps.co.uk/WITLEY.htm. It is gravity fed from a small resevoir, but this had to be filled by a pump, originally steam powered . Apparently the current display (around 93 feet) is more modest than the original (130 feet?). The logistics of moving a 20 ton statue (the largest piece of the fountain) must have been interesting .

[Birma]

Hi Greg - there is some interesting information on the fountain by the people who restored it here http://www.fordwaterpumps.co.uk/WITLEY.htm. It was originally gravity fed from a small resevoir, but this had to be filled by a pump, originally steam powered . All electric now. Apparently the current display (around 93 feet) is more modest than the original (130 feet?). The logistics of moving a 20 ton statue (the largest piece of the fountain) must have been interesting .

[Greg Beetham]

Now I've got it, the original fountain ran for 2 hours from the small resevoir 130 ft up out the back on a hill, and then the steam engine/pump had to refill it from the lake...neat, they didn't need electricity after all.
Greg

[aster]

Hmm, so there's something gravitational and mechanical going on there. I always am interested in such self-sustaining systems built for fountains, clocks or any other motion-inducing mechanisms.

Good one here, Birma. Though I'd like to read more on thiis fountain if I can find something on the Internet.

The whole process must be spectacular to stop and take it all in. : )

Yildiz

[Birma]

Hi Yildiz - I think the link I gave above is the most detailed description of this fountain that I could find (so far ). http://www.fordwaterpumps.co.uk/WITLEY.htm

It is interesting how people have come up with ways to move things around using water power etc. Another good example are the water balanced cliff tramways as shown in Paul's recent thread http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/vie ... =17&t=4374. The carriage at the bottom is pulled up the slope by the weight of the carriage at the top. The carriages have water tanks on board and these are filled from a handy stream or similar at the top, and thenemptied at the bottom - hence the one coming down is always heavier than the one coming up. A very effecient means of getting up and down the cliff .

[aster]

Thank you very much for the links and the detailed info on the water-balanced carriages, Birma.

These systems are always fascinating in their simple-minded thinking yet very efficient and self-sufficient daily running.

Yildiz

Hi Yildiz - I think the link I gave above is the most detailed description of this fountain that I could find (so far ). http://www.fordwaterpumps.co.uk/WITLEY.htm

It is interesting how people have come up with ways to move things around using water power etc. Another good example are the water balanced cliff tramways as shown in Paul's recent thread http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/vie ... =17&t=4374. The carriage at the bottom is pulled up the slope by the weight of the carriage at the top. The carriages have water tanks on board and these are filled from a handy stream or similar at the top, and thenemptied at the bottom - hence the one coming down is always heavier than the one coming up. A very effecient means of getting up and down the cliff .

[Dusty]

The amount of money needed to maintain such estates in the long run never seems to be included in building plans. I get a weekly e-mail listing of old houses for sale across the US, and I could even afford to buy some of these palaces. The problem is that putting them into or keeping them in a good state of repair would bankrupt most people. (or at least me!)

I suppose that if you built one today with "sustainable technologies" it wouldn't be near as bad, but I wouldn't want to burden my grandchildren with it.

Just today, coming to work, I heard that the Busch Family (as in beer) is offering Grant's Farm to the Feds as a National Park. This was originally the home of Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War General and later President.

When the Busch Family owned the beer company, all expenses were paid for by the company, as they opened up all but the private residence to the public for 'public relations' purposes. Now that they sold out to InBev, all of the cost of running it, and all of the associated taxes, are coming out of their pocket, and they don't like it. Poor billionaires! (I don't mind that they have more money than most, just don;t try to foist off your expenses on everyone else!)

Dusty

[Birma]

Hi Dusty - I think this is the reason that most of the big stately homes in the UK are now either owned by 'charities' (e.g. National Trust, English Heritage) and run as tourist attractions, or if still privately owned they have to be partly open to the paying public to maintain the up keep. I wonder where the modern uber rich live?

[jbtaylor]

I heard that the national trust and charity route was designed to reduce the tax burden on the property. Something about estate taxation over many generations.
As far as the where the uber rich live, take some shots of their houses when you find out.

[Birma]

I hope you will not mind some further images from Witley Court - it is a very handy place for us to visit at the moment and so when ever we have a spare few hours and we can't think what to do, then this place is becoming a bit of a default .

The weather was quite different to that on previous visits - sunny! Even more surprising as this was August "Bank Holiday" Monday in England which traditionally gets disappointing weather.

I was using a polarizer as it was so sunny to try and minimise any glare and also to add to the lovely summer colours. It was quite tricky trying to correct the distortion in this shot - WA lens and not being able to shot on the level, gave some pretty wildly leaning buildings in the background.


Less distortion to correct here as I was able to shot with the camera (more) level.


A different angle showing one of the other statues in the fountain in the foreground.


All with A700 and Tamron 17-50/2.8.