THE LISTED BUILDINGS OF ROLLESTON ON DOVE

Earlier this year English Heritage launched their "Images of England" project to create an Internet home for England's Listed Buildings. The project, which is expected to take 4 years to complete, has been given a grant of £3million by the Millennium Festival Fund. There are currently around 450,000 listed buildings in England of which approximately 360,000 remain to be photographed. This is where I come in as the photography is being undertaken by around 450 volunteer photographers, all of us being members of the Royal Photographic Society, and that works out at about 800 photos per volunteer!

Each listed building has a unique identification number together with a detailed description of its architectural details and in some cases, like Mileposts, a map reference as well. We are allowed to take only one 'defining' image of the exterior of each building which has to capture the essential characteristics as well as being a pleasing picture with good lighting, a minimum of obstructions (trees or high walls) and distractions (eg parked cars). Wherever possible the photos have to be taken from public land, but if this proves to be impossible then permission from the owner has to be obtained before taking the photo from within the property.

Included in my initial list of buildings in the Burton area are 29 in Rolleston alone, ranging from the obvious like the Church of St Mary, the Lychgate, Spread Eagle Public House, Brookhouse Inn etc, through the less obvious like Dean Cottage on Brookside, Ivy Cottage Linden Lea and Wesley Cottage in Chapel Lane, to the somewhat unexpected like the Hand Pump in front of the Almshouses, the Ridgeway Memorial in the churchyard and the Iron Railings and Gate bounding the western boundary of the churchyard. For readers' interest, all of the 29 listed buildings in Rolleston are shown at the end of this article. I have now completed photographing the Rolleston buildings, so barring the need for any re-takes and once Kodak have processed the films and English Heritage have digitally scanned the negatives and put the images on the Internet they will be available for the whole world to view on: www.imagesofengland.org.uk

It has been a fascinating project, through which I have learnt a great deal about the important buildings in the village. It has brought me into contact with many people who have expressed great interest in the project and I have been given every assistance by those owners from whom I have had to ask permission to photograph in their grounds.

Thank you all for helping to make what is quite a demanding task into a very pleasurable activity. (Geoff Hood)

1, Beacon Road

3, Beacon Road

Brookhouse Inn, Brookside

Brookside Farm, Brookside

Dean Cottage, Brookside

Dower House, Brookside

Outbuildings at Brookside Farm

7 & 8 Brookside

The Almshouses, Burnside

Hand pump 10m E of Almshouses

Perimeter wall to E, N, & S of Almshouses

14 & 15 Burnside

Milepost at SK 224 270 (Burton Road)

Barn Farmhouse, Chapel Lane

Ivy Cottage, Chapel Lane

Linden Lea & Wesley Cottage, Chapel Lane

1, Chapel Lane

Church of St Mary, Church Road

Lychgate & War Memorial to Church of St Mary

Railings & gate 100m W of Church of St Mary

Ridgeway Memorial 30m W Church of St Mary

School & House 100m W of Church of St Mary

The Spread Eagle Public House, Church Road

9 & adjacent cast iron railing, Church Road

4 Gate piers adjacent to 9, Church Road

Craythorne Hall (includes Craythorne Grange)

Ferndale Cottages, 2 & 3, Marston Lane

Croft House, Station Road

Bladon Yard (5 & 6) Burton Road