Textures in terracotta

One of the perks of teaching at the Cathedral choir school in Chichester is being able to use their playground to park during the school holidays, right in the centre of the city. I had to run a few errands in Chichester today so I took advantage of this off street parking while I was there. As I walked back to my car I noticed the wonderful textures and shapes in this wall, which divides two areas of the playground. I must have walked past this wall thousands of times in the 16 years I’ve taught at the school but have never really looked at it closely before. Rather than being made in the traditional local style, with knapped flint set in mortar, it has been built from all sorts of odds and ends, including rough stones, bricks and even terracotta tiles. This makes for a wonderfully varied texture and I thought I’d try to capture this variety in today’s photo.