Royal William Yard, a photo from Devon, England

Photographer's Note

The impressive Royal William Victualling Yard, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, was designed by Sir John Rennie (1794-1874) for use by the Admiralty as a victualling depot for the Royal Navy.

It extends to about 16 acres, of which 6 were recovered from the sea by levelling the remainder of the site.

On June 3rd 1824, in the reign of King George IV, the Royal Assent was given to an Act of Parliament authorising the purchase of land at Cremill Point for and the supply of water to the new Yard.

Work started in 1826 and in the following year the Duke of Clarence laid the coping stone of the sea wall. This was laid 11 feet under water by means of a cast-iron diving bell only 6ft x 4ft.

In the course of its construction it is estimated that 300,000 tons of rock were displaced. The works were executed by the contractor Hugh McIntosh under the superintendence of Sir John Rennie and Mr Philip Richards (who was paid �400 per year and given a house) and cost about �2 million.

The Yard was completed in 1835, by when the Duke of Clarence had succeeded to the Throne as King William IV and as a result of an Admiralty Order dated 3 December 1833 it was named the Royal William Victualling Yard after King William IV, the last Lord High Admiral.

siudzi, tyro, SnapRJW, timecapturer, patdeph, jcpix has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

siudzi (34141) 2011-07-15 12:54

Hi Les,
What a beautiful visual effect has been built up by this dynamical pink sky! Excellent work with a perfect quality. Looove it:)
Cheers, Malgorzata

tyro (30513) 2011-07-15 14:15

Hello Les,

What a fascinating note and what a beautiful photograph with which to illustrate it! From the point of view of the note, it never ceases to amaze me how engineers and workers in bygone days really slaved hard with picks and shovels doing all this sort of work by hand and with sheer blood and sweat. Not quite like what we see today!

Your photograph is superb, this magnificent building beautifully placed in the frame and with a glorious sky above it. The wide angle lens has given a nicely exaggerated perspective and the foreground boats add depth to the image. Beautiful colours, perfect exposure and lovely clarity and sharpness add to the appeal.

Excellent!

Kind Regards,

John.

zeytin (146) 2011-07-15 14:36

A nice composition with little boats and the pink sky.
Best regards,

prasun984 (5590) 2011-07-15 23:18

Nice architectural shot at the time of dusk...nice composition at the bank of the lake...
lovely atmosphere...

good exposure controlled with nice light management...also nice colour contrast & sharpness...with nice chosen POV...

wonderful shot...

Prasun

SnapRJW (31631) 2011-07-15 23:55

Hello Leslie - The light capture is really lovely and I like the way the FG boats and buoys pick up and reflect it giving good contrast against the dark water. An impressive naval building and an equally impressive sky. Enjoy your weekend. Rosemary

dkmurphys (79209) 2011-07-16 1:42

Hi Leslie,
Wonderful atmosphere in front of that impressive building. Good mood scene, lovely sky.
Enjoy a fine day.

gmg (4202) 2011-07-16 2:44

Hi Leslie!

Impressive building and nice photos, with good use of filters. I like how the red buoys stands out of the water
TFS

gmg

timecapturer (49288) 2011-07-16 4:02

Hi Leslie
a very moody yet effective shot of this imposing place. A great POV and excellent clarity under a fascinating sky. Well done!

Have a great weekend - Brian

patdeph (35750) 2011-07-18 9:14

hello Leslie
a very nice view on this interesting monument,but what is making the difference is this wonderful pink sky.Superb!
Regards
Pascale