Red Doors in a Hidden Courtyard, a photo from Cumbria, England

Photographer's Note

Good Morning Everyone,

On a rather cloudy day, in Appleby, we came upon these delightful Alms Houses.

Alms houses are houses founded by charity, offering accommodation for poor people.

These Alms Houses were not visible from the main street
and were accessed through a carved archway between two houses. When entered, we were so surprised to come upon this neat, cobbled courtyard, surrounded by equally neat, red-doored cottages.

The Alms Houses were created by Lady Ann Clifford, who lived at Appleby Castle in 1651. Each of the doors has a stone, carved shield adjacent to it and in one corner is a small chapel where the residents could pray for the health of the benefactor.

One dear lady came out to tell us about the history of the houses. I asked her about the origins of the carved shields. She replied that they were the shields of Lady Ann; but all the shields were not identical and was told that ...'Well, Lady Ann was a very ambitious and very smart lady, she had more than one husband!
You might be able to discern one of these shields from a closer view of the doors here .

I will add a workshop here which shows this delightful old lady and have decided to send her a copy. Though she showed me inside her tiny cottage, I cannot remember the number but have no doubt that if I address it to St. Ann's Alms Houses, she will receive it!

Thank you for your interest and sharing our discovery of these delightful houses, Bev :-)

Tue, papagolf21, Fis2, ikeharel, ChrisJ, snunney, holmertz, jhm, alvaraalto, cornejo, PaulVDV, worldcitizen has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Tue (72034) 2018-03-21 1:31

Hello Beverley,
Great photo of these alms houses around the courtyard, the photo seems to take us back in time a few centuries. It was cloudy here, but luckily the red doors brought colour to the grey day and also the white fountain stands out wonderfully. Excellent composition and sharpness too.
Lars

papagolf21 (145210) 2018-03-21 1:57

Bonjour, ch鑽e Bev,
Voil� une charmante histoire qui fait vivre la photo principale.
J'aime beaucoup l'ensemble de ces maisons servant � abriter les sans abris.
Une 駱oque r騅olue (mais les pauvres restent toujours) !
Merci pour ce partage.
Amiti駸.
Philippe

Fis2 (142837) 2018-03-21 2:11

Witaj Bev!
Nice courtyard, interesting building.
Red doors add flavor to this composition.
Nice fountain, curious walls and roof.
Well done.
Nice day.
Krzysztof

ikeharel (98886) 2018-03-21 2:42

Hello Beverley,
Red doors really stand out contrast to the red/grey stoney edifice. The inner yard gets extra beauty with the white fountain. Taken from good corner to show as much possible of this Alms-House (learnt yet another term in English now).
Wish you a nice day,
Ike

Nicou (188618) 2018-03-21 2:45

Hlelo

Avec l'angle en fond et le contraste avec le rond au milieu et cette fontaine avec les belle fleur quelle image et rnedu sur ce pavage sueprbe compo et vue ces portes rouge cette mousse sur le toit ce rendu sur la pierre merveilleux.
Bravo et amiti�
Nicou

ChrisJ (152546) 2018-03-21 2:57

Hello Beverley,

I like the repetition of the red doors, the windows and the chimneys. The central fountain provides a good focal point and the miniature garden enhances the landscaping. Tfs!

holmertz (83434) 2018-03-21 3:35

Hello Bev,
What a delight it must have been to unexpectedly find this courtyard surrounded by such beautiful buildings. The photo is perfectly sharp and well exposed, and I think the red doors would not have made the same strong impact on a bright and sunny day. They really stand out in this dull weather. I always try to sneak into courtyards where I'm not supposed to be, at least in older parts of cities. There are so many treasures hidden from public view. I once found a fantastic garden full of statues just a few blocks from my own house when I was guiding Malgo through my part of Stockholm. She was delighted too. ;-)
Kind regards,
Gert

snunney (130965) 2018-03-21 3:42

Hello Bev,
Excellent point of view on these beautiful stone built alms houses. The parterre in the foreground makes a lovely focal point and serves to create depth and perspective for the composition. Very well exposed with excellent rendering of the colours and textural detail.

Positively spring like here today after a cold start. Yesterday was also dry and sunny but there was a bitterly cold wind that has since died down.

peterpap (2863) 2018-03-21 5:31

Hi Bev, beautiful colors, very eye catching. Well framed, well done. Greetings

jhm (191505) 2018-03-21 6:12

Hello Bev,

Both additional picture are pleasant to look at, also your portrait picture with smiling faces.
What a quiet courtyard with nice flowers and lovely frontage of the ols building with red doors.
Lovely presentation and nice colours too.
Very well done, TFS.

Best regards,
John

alvaraalto (38768) 2018-03-21 6:17

Hello Bev
In my hometown we also still have some 塗ofjes� like this founded in the 17th and 18th century, often by the church. The are on the list of historic preservation and in use for the housing of elderly people. And like in your picture only to enter by a separate archway.
Excellent presentation
Have a nice day, groet Rob
Ps None of them has beautiful re door like on your picture.

dta (95600) 2018-03-21 7:46

Hello Bev ,
Not the best sky , but a beautiful view of these old stoned houses, especially attractive with their red doors . Quite similar with breton architecture ...
Regards

Sergiom (115780) 2018-03-21 11:06

Bonjour Beverly,

On voit beaucoup de ce genre de maisons dans une 駑ission que je regarde avec beaucoup de plaisir : House in the country. C'est vieux, plein de charme et de beaut� et surtout elles ont du caract鑽e ces maisons aux plafonds tr鑚 bas.

Amicalement

Serge

cornejo (61232) 2018-03-21 13:13

Hello Bev, very good view of this interesting and beautiful courtyard with red doors, very well composed and captured in this good and beautiful picture. An interesting image, with good sharpness, light, color and quality. Very good and beautiful work perfectly done, my congratulations my friend. Thanks for sharing this interesting work.

Good night and happy rest of the week.
All the best from the south of Spain.
Angel.

Silvio1953 (191407) 2018-03-22 7:45

Ciao cara Bev, great view of lovely curtyard with a lot of red doors, wonderful colors, splendid light and excellent clarity, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio

Cricri (176) 2018-03-22 8:22

Hi Beverley
Bel angle de prise de habitation aux portes des plus attrayantes, le sol de pierres, la petite fontaine , belle composition, sympat le WS
Belle journ馥
cricri

PaulVDV (49028) 2018-03-22 12:03

Hello Beverley,
I'm pleasantly surprised that this cobblestone courtyard has such a small but very beautiful plant and flower garden. I guess the word 'garden' is exagerated but it looks so beautiful and that while it was still winter.
The different red doors together with the big reddish stones of the facades provide a very charming view.
Excellent sharpness and composition.
Best regards, Paul

mkamionka (53892) 2018-03-23 7:25

Hi Bev,
Interesting place. The red doors add such a lovely repeated motif here.
It reminds me a bit of a situation which made Middlesbrough infamous in the whole world few years ago... When a major group of refugees arrived in the UK, they were distributed from London to different areas... the biggest group per head of population came to Middlesbrough and council prepared for them refreshed houses in the city centre. The door were painted red. The refugees started to complain though that their door were red painted on purpose to allow targeting them by hateful nationalists. It was completely irrational since British are one of the most welcoming people I know but it has been well "advertised" by Al Jazeera as an example of refugees hatred and intolerance. And so the doors were painted again...
Read more about it HERE...

Have a great weekend,
M

carlo62 (81031) 2018-03-25 14:02

Ciao Bev
non c'� che dire, queste porte rosse colpiscono l'attenzione anche di un miope come me.
La luce non era delle migliori, ma la foto � molto colorata ugualmente.
Saluti
Carlo

worldcitizen (12762) 2018-04-04 16:39

Hello Bev,
How nice that you were able to enter the courtyard and look around. Several historic homes with lovely courtyards here in NYC are behind locked gates. I like all the old stones. The red doors really pop because of the cloudy sky, but I think they look very nice. There would have been a completely different feeling to this sunny if it were sunny.