-

 

Denise Brennan

'I wanted to juxtapose old Newport with the wooden remains of the posts with the reflection of the new bridge. The reflections in the water make it very abstract so you don’t necessarily know what you are looking at'.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Bridges over the Usk on a Fonmag Walk, 29th June 2021

-
Image
  The Bridges over the Usk on a Fonmag Walk, 29th June 2021 Edith McCarron If it wasn’t for the tidal properties of the Usk we would not need so many bridges so Newport is in a very unique situation and also so many of them have won awards. We need the bridges because the Usk has the largest recorded tidal range for a city anywhere in the world and is tidal as far as Newbridge on Usk.  The name  probably came from the Welsh 'Wysg' meaning water. The Romans called it Isca. The Usk Railway Bridge Copyright: Ace McCarron It was opened to traffic in 1850. It crosses the River Usk in an east - west direction, carrying the Great Western Main Line.  However,  the original bridge was constructed for the South Wales Railway and was designed by the railway engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel . Brunel's viaduct, was primarily constructed of creosote-treated timber and suffered a catastrophic fire near completion, on 31 st May 1848,...
Read more

Spytty Pill and Monkey island and City Bridge

-
Image
Spytty Pill and Monkey Island and City Bridge Does anyone know how Spytty Pill and Monkey Island became named? Spytty Pill is one of the many tidal inlets on the Usk and the land below it is known as Monkey Island. It is below Newport's City Bridge. It was opened in 2004 as part of the construction/re-generation of the Southern Distributor Road/A48 road in Newport. copyright: Ace McCarron The name Pill is defined as the tidal reach of a waterway, suitable as a harbour, but is only common along the Bristol Channel and the Severn Estuary.  Here is the entrance to Spytty Pill. The Pill is larger than many on the Usk and divides to create two Reens. Liswerry Pill Reen is to the north. A reen is a running waterway that links a ditch or stream to a river and there are many in the Gwent Levels.   River Usk and the edge of Spytty Pill, Newport Viewed from the western side of City Bridge.  Link The gap in the river bank is...
Read more

Time and Tide

-
Image
 Time and Tide "The rise and fall of the mercurial Usk is a perfect metaphor for the collective unconscious of the  people who straddle it. At its best, the vigour of surging tidewaters covers the basin, filling muddy  banks, obscuring organic and inorganic detritus. A vast mirrored surface appears, with light  reflected from sun, moon, electricity. Lake Usk. Contented water fowl glide. Small boats chug along  a course now swollen with potential, re-imagined with hope. As if summoned by aquatic sprites,  the human population also rises to the occasion. At times fuelled with curiosity and energy, the  intrepid among them lust to conquer worlds beyond their reach. And yet, all too soon, new  confidences come unstuck. Insecure in its self-proclaimed bravura, the river sucks in its cheeks,  turns fickle, and abandons the reedy banks it merely flirted with. Retracted, it fees back to the  briny sea, where bigger pickings lie. Equally defeated...
Read more