Challenge: Where is this? IV

[Ian]

Back by popular demand after a far too long break, Where is this? Episode IV.

All you need to do is upload a photo to the gallery (you need to be a forum member - register here if necessary) and post your imaghe BBCode link in this thread if it's your turn.

To earn your turn, just be the first to correctly identify where the most recent picture was taken.

To start things off here is a starter image:



If you have been to this place in the last couple of years you will almost certainly have seen the character in the photo. Here are some clues! The animal species is not important but the place is associated with a wild canine and the French don't regard the place as historically important as the British. I would think visitors to this place would also be interested in our website - hopefully!

More clues if you can't work it out

Ian

[andym]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

Looks like Gromit with boxing gloves on , can't believe it's Wednslydale given the French references.

See what anyone else thinks.

[Ian]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

The long-eared animal character is actually a red-herring, unless you visited the place and are likely to have seen it. Nothing to do with cheese unless you mean 'say cheese'

Ian

[David M]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

I think I've worked it out from Ian's clues so I'll wait to see if anyone gets it. For old timers think of a camera shop in London in the 80's, I don't know if the shop still trades under the same name.

[Ian]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

David, you should put everyone out of their misery!

Ian

[David M]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

LA but not Los Angeles.

[David M]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

The camera shoppe (clue in the spelling) was about halfway up Tottenham Court Road and had used equipment in the side window.

[Kurt]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

I have no idea. I have not frequented London camera shops and can't imagine what a paper mâché aardvark or a wild dog has to do with one! Who else might be able to solve this conundrum?

[David M]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

The camera shop was named after an English photography pioneer who lived in a place with the initials LA. He developed the negative to positive process rather than the direct positive process developed by the French pioneers.

[Kurt]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

Oh, here:



I didn't see the animals.

[Ian]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

Well done Kurt - when did you visit Lacock Abbey last?

Lacock Abbey, of course, was the home of William Henry Fox Talbot who is credited as either THE inventor of modern photography or co-inventor with Frenchman, Louis Daguerre in the 1830s. Fox Talbot claimed to have successfully experimented with his 'calotype' process in around 1835 using a small 'mouse' camera to expose paper treated with photo-sensitive chemicals to create a negative image. This could then be used to create multiple positive images on paper - or prints. Unfortunately, Fox Talbot didn't tell anyone about his discovery and it wasn't until 1839 when Louis Daguerre publicised his success using his own process of exposing sensitised metal plates to produced direct positive images that Fox Talbot revealed his own work. Daguerre's process was limited by not being suitable for multiple copies to be made although the image quality of Daguerrotype plates was astonishingly good compared to early calotype prints.

The image Kurt has reproduced of the abbey's latticed window is widely credited as being the earliest modern photpgraph, taken in August 1835.

Fox Talbot is a descendant of one of Henry VIII's cronies who was an important figure in the Royal Mint. At the time Lacock Abbey was a nunnery and one of the last abbeys to be closed during the Dissolution. Fox Talbot's ancestor bought the Abbey and estate, including the local village but was soon caught up in a fraud at the Mint. He was sent to the Tower but saved his skin by testifying against former colleagues. The abbey and estate were confiscated but rather oddly, Fox Talbot's ancestor managed to re-acquire it...

The papier-mâché animal in my picture is clearly visible near to the entrance to the Lacock Abbey visitor centre. I have no idea why it's there but I would think most visitors to the visitor centre and, therefore, the abbey itself would have glanced at it.

Over to you now Kurt

Ian

PS David's reference to camera shops was regarding the Fox Talbot chain of camera stores which no longer exists but was very popular in the 1970s and 80s.

[Kurt]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

Well, it took me a long time for the references to hit home. I haven't heard of the camera shops under the Fox-Talbot name and strangely my recollections with his name always concentrate on the "Talbot" which leads me to Sunbeam - its an age thing, I guess!

I visited Lacock during Jubilee celebrations in 2012 and spent some time around the village as well as the house. The streets were full of people and bunting! I do remember some references to Harry Potter. I must visit again.

I will now get down to finding a suitable image for another challenge.

Kurt

[Kurt]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

Just a glimpse taken on a wet evening, but I don't think it will take long for someone to get the location. No clues required, methinks.



Kurt

[Ian]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

Is this the Royal Crescent in Bath?

Ian

[Kurt]

Re: Challenge: Where is this? IV

Is this the Royal Crescent in Bath?

Ian

Even faster than I imagined. You have it in one.