Churches and castles
This Norman font has really quite scary figures on each cardinal point.
Stafford Castle was sleighted after the Civil War. It was then rebuilt in the eighteenth century as a residence in a Gothic style with two large towers. Caretakers lived in the castle until 1957 when the structure became unstable. In 1961 a boy died in the castle (which was abandoned and in an unsafe state) and then the upper towers were demolished by the council. The castle was excavated in the 1970s and opened as a monument in 1981. You can see the outer and inner baileys and the central keep as the would have been used in the Norman period but without the extensive timber outworks. The view is tremendous (the Wrekin and Welsh hills being clearly visable).
All images on Ilford XP2 chromagenic monochrome using a 50mm lens with poorish flare.