Hough End Hall ............. a time before now courtesy of Julian Beech

I have often wondered just what Hough End Hall would have been like before those tall office blocks were built which now loom large over this 400 year old building.

Of course to remember a time when you could have had an uninterrupted view across open land in all directions from the hall broken only by trees and the odd farm building would be to step back almost a century.

The office blocks may only date from the 1960s and 70s but the houses to the north and south of the hall were pretty much all in place by the late 1930s and the park had been laid almost a decade earlier.

All of which makes this photograph by Julian Beech so interesting.  Having taken the picture he set about with Photoshop to mute the surrounding buildings.

Now there are plenty of images of the hall dating back into the middle of the 19th century but what I like about Julian’s is that instant connection with what is now and what was once.

Picture Hough End Hall, March 2015, courtesy of Julian Beech