One Street - Debut image

...as soon as I was pointed in the direction of the One Street idea, I knew I wanted to join in. As I am currently researching the history of Purbeck, I decided to choose a street that contains examples or pointers to as wide a range of historical interest as possible. So, I have picked on High Street, Langton Matravers.

This image, looking east, contains much of the lower end of the street, including what we might describe as some of the central elements - church, pub, village store, post office, and village hall - but I have skilfully deliberately chosen a viewpoint that keeps them hidden until each has its moment to shine in future episodes. The weather was a bit grey, today, so the visibility is not great. Consequently, it may not be immediately obvious that Swanage, the sea, and the Isle of Wight are all visible in the distance - they are quite clear in my RAW file but there may not be enough resolution in the blipped JPG.

Langton is a village whose history is built on farming and quarrying, but there are many other stories to be told - smuggling and education amongst them. Most of what we see today is Victorian but the history goes back to the Romans and, probably, beyond. As can be seen, it suffers from the usual parking problems that come with villages that were never designed for a world of cars.

I do not intend to be prescriptive about how often I add a One Street image to my journal, however once a week probably won't be far from reality. We will see...