Tintern, Monmouthshire, South Wales

About Tintern:

Tintern Abbey is located in Tintern Village, a part of the Wye Valley now designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Abbey, immortalised by Turner and Wordsworth, was founded by Cistercian monks in 1131 and the present remains date from the late 13th century. The church was largely rebuilt by Roger Bigod the lord of the nearby Chepstow Castle.

The white-robed Cistercians were the most successful of all the medieval religious orders. They came to Britain in 1128, searching out remote places in which to practise their austere religion

King Henry VIII appropriated the wealth of many religious houses around 1536 and most of the fine buildings soon became roofless as their lead was plundered. That the Abbey still remains standing is a testament to the skills of the medieval craftsmen who built it.

Read Wordsworth's poem, composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the river Wye during a tour. July 13, 1798.

A view of Tintern Abbey from the surrounding hills in the Spring.

In Spring, the Abbey is a delightful place, surrounded by wildflowers. A taste of what to expect in May!

There are a number of places around Tintern where you can find some wonderful views. Getting to these places can be a bit of a challenge but as you can see from Robert Lawrence's photo above the results are worth it!

There will be a few more photos from this viewpoint appearing here soon so it may be worth a return visit.

A little over 60 years after Wordsworth wrote his wonderful poem about Tintern, the well known stereo photographer Francis Bedford was travelling around England taking stereo photos of places that he found interesting. These photos were printed onto cards for use in stereo viewers and sold worldwide - they are now very collectable.

Luckily for us, Bedford produced a series of photographs on Monmouthshire that included a set of Tintern Abbey.

Jeremy Hinton collects stereo photographs and has been kind enough to lend f32 a set of cards depicting Tintern around the mid 1800s, most of which were taken by Francis Bedford. Thumbnails of these photos are below - they link to a larger version that will open in a new window.

Jeremy's web site is rather interesting and a bit of a stereo image delight - Stereoscopic Images of Lighter than Air Flight - there are also some instructions there on how to "free view" the images without the use a stereo viewer. You may also be interested in having a look at Mark Blum's excellent books "Beneath the Sea in 3-D" and "Galapagos in 3-D" which come complete with viewers that have lenses for stereo image viewing.