19thC; Jones Calvert, Pontwalby Viaduct

A stone built viaduct of five arches crossing a country valley. There is a recling man on the grass of the forground.
At the right of the photograph there is hand retouching to foliage inside the central and right of centre arches. The colour of this retouching suggests there has been little subsequent fading to this image.

During the 1830s William Henry Fox Talbot invented a way of making paper negatives and from them multiple paper prints. In doing so, he laid the foundations of modern photography. Calvert Richard Jones learned of these developments in 1839 through a neighbour, who was a cousin of Talbot. Jones made many pictures in the West of England and South Wales, where he lived. He also travelled widely, making photographs on the continent. Jones' work stands out in the early development of photography because he was one of the first to apply a schooled artist's eye to the medium.

Some of Jones' photographs make reference to the growing industrialisation in South Wales. This railway viaduct is evidence of the need for improved transport for coal and building materials and better communications. The forground figure give scale to this edifice to mid-nineteenthcentury life. The photograph includes both evidence of the recent construction (there is a pile of building stone to the right) and of the continuation of an agricultural way of life (there is a well layered hedge on the left in front of the lane).

The South Wales railway between Chepstow and Swansea opened in 1850

PH.82-1983