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TIMEframe photographs the ancient Needwood Forest |
| Jackson’s Bank, a mature, mixed broad-leaved and coniferous woodland spreading over 80 acres in the heart of the ancient Needwood Forest, is a wonderful photographer’s playground. This woodland, open to the public courtesy of the Duchy of Lancaster, was the subject for the final LANDshapes' TIMEframe Photography Workshop.
In late October eleven people, who described themselves mostly as beginners or amateurs, but keen and enthusiastic joined professional photographer Chris Beech. The weather stayed dry (almost) as we ventured out to Jackson’s Bank, conveniently a short walk from our base at Needwood Jubilee Hall.
Four groups took their one word brief of ‘pattern’, ‘contrasts’, ‘colour’ or ‘texture’ as a prompt to look for certain elements within the woodland. Within a small area, and not having even strayed far from the woodland edge, there was an abundance of opportunities to find these qualities.
By altering shutter speeds and apertures and therefore changing the main focus in the picture the group created a wealth of images. Those that experimented with different angles and viewpoints created appealing images because they were unfamiliar ways of seeing familiar subjects, such as leaves, branches and water. The workshop gave people the opportunity to see their images in an unfamiliar way too, enlarged and projected to 5ft in size – try it!
‘Colour’ was a lucky word to work with in an autumn woodland, with fantastic browns and greens contrasting with brightly coloured berries and rusty fallen leaves.
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About Jackson’s Bank |
Jackson’s Bank woodland is one of the original boundaries of the original Needwood Forest and indeed some of Britain’s most ancient woodland survives in the Duchy of Lancaster's Needwood Survey in Staffordshire.
Covering some 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres), the Needwood Survey was formed out of the Needwood Forest, part of the Honor of Tutbury, which was granted to Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster, in 1266.
Needwood Forest used to be expansive, but by the nineteenth century it had been reduced to 3,237 hectares. Much deforestation took place between 1805 and 1811, and the area became subject to the new practice of enclosure of common lands. The layout of most of the roads date from this time.
The cleared land was used for agriculture. The farms in the western part of the estate were mainly created out of enclosures allocated to the Duchy of Lancaster. Other farms originated in the former deer parks. Venison from them was supplied to royal palaces as late as Queen Victoria's reign. Nowadays there are 20 farms, on which dairy farming is the principal enterprise.
There are still 490 hectares of woodland in the Duchy area, mostly oak and ash. Areas of the estate now form part of the National Forest designation. On the edge of the estate the Duchy owns a thriving, private, former wartime airfield. |
| Information from www.duchyoflancaster.com |
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