Castle Eden is a village south of Peterlee in County Durham. My partner and I frequently visit the village and surrounding countryside to walk and take photographs.
Although Castle Eden and the lands around it hark back to the 10th Century, it was during the 19th Century that the village had its heyday. During this period, there was a railway station, a toll road, a school, a brewery, blacksmiths, police station, corn mill, a pub, hotel and a cattle mart.
There was also a brief period of sail and rope making, which gave rise to the houses still known as The Factory, The Bleachery and The Ropery.
In 1931, the railway station lost its passenger service and in 1951 it had closed its freight service. The railway track, ballast, etc. were removed during the mid to late 60s during the Beeching cuts, which saw a major restructure of the railways in Great Britain.
Castle Eden started to decline as a bustling village. In the 1980s, the village post office closed and the once famous Castle Eden Brewery closed in 1998. The only amenities that currently remain in the village are the Castle Eden Inn, Cricket Club, Golf Club and Village Hall. There have been some new developments over the years, mainly on the site of former Castle Eden Brewery.
The following Before and After images will focus on The Factory, a row of houses used in the 1800s to produce rope and sails; it is still known as The Factory today.
Fig. 1 - The Factory taken on the 25 March 2018. Apart from a few alterations and the addition of street lights, this charming row of houses can still be recognisable when comparing to the old photograph above.
The above image (Fig. 1) was taken during a late March evening. The image needs a boost in brightness and saturation; also the 'For Sale' is quite distracting. I wanted to keep those beautiful clouds.
Fig. 2 - The Factory image after processing using Adobe Photoshop.
The second image (Fig. 2) shows the final edits and processing I have done using Adobe Photoshop. I boosted the brightness and also the saturation levels. I also added a slight gradient to the sky to boost the detail in the clouds.
One of the most challenging edits was the removal of the 'For Sale' sign from the doorway of the house in the middle of the image. I used the clone tool and healing brush to clone parts of the ivy and brickwork to hide the sign. It is debatable whether or not to crop the right-hand-side portion of the image.
Fig. 3 - This image was taken on 26th April 2018. I love the reflection and wanted to include it in the final edit.
The next image was taken in late April, the rain that fell the day before had left some great puddles (and a lot of mud). The above image has a lovely reflection but needs cropping.
Fig. 4 - Image after cropping and some slight colour alterations.
In the above image (Fig. 4), I decided to crop out the dark areas and the bush that was located on the right of the image. I boosted the highlights a little more in the image. I decided to leave the 'For Sale' sign in this image, due to it being in a more tricky location and the fact that it is being reflected.
The Factory is located near the golf club but please be aware that these are private houses, which is something I am always aware of; in addition, the road can be very busy with traffic from the nearby A19 heading towards Blackhall.
They are a charming row of historical houses with the war memorial, Castle Eden Inn and former brewery site all nearby.
