At the western end of Sidmouth was in the 16th century a lime kiln built high above the beach. Lime was shipped to the beach and then brought up the hill by donkeys. In the beginning of the 19th century Emmanuel Lousada started the construction of a villa called Cliff Cottage at this location incorporating the clock tower that can be seen on the image above. In 1930 Sidmouth town bought the villa and although most parts are now demolished the clock tower remains.
A lovely garden, Connaught Gardens, was designed and established on the grounds overlooking the sea. Some of the walls of the original house was retained and incorporated in the gardens. The gardens were named after the Duke of Connaught, Queen Victoria’s third son and the Duke opened the gardens in 1934. Due to its strategic location with vast views over the sea, it became part of the coastal defences during World War II and two guns were installed at the Connaught Gardens and a search light was installed at the Clock Tower.
Jacob’s Ladder was the name given to the tall set of white steps leading from the beach up to the Connaught Gardens. The first wooden steps were built in 1871. Before that access was by steps cut into the cliff, but those steps gradually eroded. The first wooden ladder looked very much like what we expect a ladder to be and would have been quite precarious to climb up or down. And for a lady dressed appropriately in Victorian times, it would be a scary experience. The present ladder doesn’t look very impressive in the photo above, but I am far way and have used a wide angle lens to capture the lovely morning light on the clouds.
The original Jacob’s Ladder comes of course from the story of Jacob, who dreamt of angels ascending and descending the heaven from earth. I wanted to allude to that story by having the light of heaven in form of the rising sun from the sea near the top of the ladder. In December and January the sun is rising so far south that it can be seen just to the west of the ladder, if you stand on a viewpoint looking at the Connaught Gardens, the Clock Tower and Jacob’s Ladder, so that had to be the time for my composition.
So I set up my tripod and camera and waited patiently for sunrise one cold January morning. A couple of joggers ran around my tripod on the path, but didn’t seem to mind the intrusion of my equipment. And the sun appeared colouring the clouds blood orange. But we have to imagine the angels along the ladder!
After this shot I rushed over to the Gardens and the Clock Tower to capture a second image (a few minutes after the first one) from the ramparts outside the Tower looking east towards the town. You see the town beach and the houses along the Esplanade and beyond that the sandstone cliffs that characterise this part of the Jurassic Coast lit up by the morning sun.
Sidmouth, being only 15 minutes away from my home, has received many visits by my camera (and me), but this time I was lucky to be blessed by such lovely cloud formations towards the sea.
