Worcester in Film with the No.1 Pocket Kodak Camera

Looking towards the High Altar at Worcester Cathedral. 240s (T mode) 111mm F22 focus set at 5m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

This year I’ve been fortunate to be able to travel around the country for work, many of which have been new to me. One of these places was the historic city of Worcester, the founding of which goes back well over one thousand years. Walking the streets, it certainly gives off an impression of age, the long, cobbled streets flanked continuously by tall buildings and with few gaps can make the place a bit disorientating upon first arrival.

Heading into town from my accommodation took me along the major canal that runs through the city. Quite something if you can moor your own boat at the bottom of your garden. 3s (B mode) 111mm F45 focus set at 5m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

Many historic independent shops still remain in this ancient city. 5s (B mode) 111m F45 focus set at 5m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

There’s plenty of old independent shops alongside the more modern fare and of course the building that stands above everything else (quite literally) is Worcester Cathedral whose construction dates back as far as 1084. It never ceases to amaze me just how grand and spectacular Gothic architecture can be, and this cathedral is a perfect example of this. Beyond that is equally impressive stained-glass windows, signs of damage from the English Civil War and the tomb of the infamous King John, who was forced to sign the Magna Carta.

Perhaps the most impressive Slug & Lettuce in the country, it sits in an old converted church. 1s (B mode) 111m F45 focus set at 8m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

The Grade II listed Foregate Street Rail Bridge. It most recently underwent renovations in 2013. 3s (B mode) 111m F45 focus set at 8m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

The city is also home to a well-respected university. 1s (B mode) 111m F45 focus set at 8m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

With all this history in mind it made perfect sense for me to photograph my time in the city with my oldest film camera, the over-90-year-old No.1 Pocket Kodak, loaded with fresh rolls of the finely grained Ilford Pan F+ to maximise the detail. Having spent a large amount of time playing around with it previously I had a good grasp on how to get the best out of it and this was a great opportunity to try out what I had learned.

Worcester Cathedral towers over everything else around it. 1s (B mode) 111mm F45 focus set at infinity Ilford Pan F+ 50.

The last of the remaining ruins of Guesten Hall. I accidently got the aperture wrong and overexposed the image by two full stops. Thankfully with the resiliency of black and white negative film I managed to recover something useable. 1/2s (B mode) 111mm F16 focus set at 8m Ilford Pan F+ 50 +2 stops overexposed.

Edgar Tower serves as the entrance to the grounds of the cathedral. 1/2s (B mode) 111mm F45 focus set at 8m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

Shooting with it inside the Cathedral proved to be a major challenge, however. Despite the low ISO of Pan F+ it has some of the worst reciprocity failure characteristics of any of the Ilford range. Coupled with the fact that I needed to shoot at F22 to get as much as possible in sharp focus and I was onto some really long exposures, up to ten minutes in fact. Thankfully using T mode and my watch this was fairly straight forward, it just required some extra patience and praying that no one knocked the camera while exposing. As I’d never done anything like this before I was slightly questioning how it would come out but the hard work paid off and I was really happy with the results. It was certainly a lot easier when I got the camera back out in the daylight to photograph the rest of the city.

The Gothic interior architecture blows your away with its sheer scale and detail. A place certainly worthy for the burial of a king. 600s (T mode) 111mm F22 focus set at 8m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

The High Altar. 240s (T mode) 111mm F22 focus set at 5m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

Down below in the crypt which dates to Norman times. 600s (T mode) 111mm F22 focus set at 3m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

At the time of writing this it has been a few months since I’ve used this camera but looking back through these images does give me some more inspiration to get it out again. Although I seem to be accumulating even more film cameras these days, which has pushed this one down the pecking order. More about those in future blogs. As ever if you have any questions or comments then please do leave them in them down below.

At the back of the Cathedral you can look over a crumbling brick wall to see Worcester Bridge which strides the mighty River Severn. 1s (B mode) 111mm F45 focus set at 8m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

There are of course many other smaller churches that sit amongst the streets of the city. 3s (B mode) 111m F45 focus set at 5m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

The Tudor buildings of Friar Street make for perhaps the prettiest walk through the city. 3s (B mode) 111m F45 focus set at 5m Ilford Pan F+ 50.

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