MMC2023 :: Day 3 :: Then & Now

Mono Month Challenge 2023

A blended ‘Then & Now’ image from 1875 and today. Check out the Extra...

Today we visited Rievaulx Abbey (English Heritage) in the North York Moors near Helmsley. I wanted to do a ‘Then & Now’ image for todays MMC23 challenge. 

I have 5 old books, ‘Picturesque Europe’ by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co published c.1877. My research tells me the steel and wood engravings used throughout the volumes were started in 1875 under the supervision of Josiah Wood Whymper (1813-1903). 

Under the section of English Abbeys and Churches there is a wood engraving of a door at Rievaulx Abbey. I went to seek it out. It was leading out of the East Transept and apart from the missing sheep and overgrowth it remains much the same today. 

The engraving has the name WHJ Boot to the bottom left and Whymper to the bottom right. Under the credits only Boot was credited for the illustrations so I guess Whymper just signed off the picture. 

My main Blip is a photograph of the page with today’s photo superimposed to the upper section of the illustration. My extra shows both images side by side.