Errata to the Survey of Halghe Tower

Second edition,
corrected

A. R. Weld, District Surveyor, 1972 · corrections by M. Halloran, 1996

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Exposure 01

I entered the tower at Halghe on the morning of 9 March and found the door already open.

The building was condemned in 1974 and has been empty since. It is nine storeys and the lift shaft is dry.

A concrete hall in low light, the door open behind the camera, a passage leading away into the dark.
Plate I — The entrance hall. 1/4 sec.

Exposure 02

The stair is of nine steps to the half-landing, and the handrail has been removed and the fixings left.

I went down it twice, once to be sure of the count.

A concrete stair descending straight away from the camera, handrail removed, its fixings left in the wall.
Plate II — The stair to the half-landing. 1/8 sec.

I have not been able to reconcile the count with the plate.

Exposure 03

The passage runs forty-two feet to a blank return. There is nothing at the end of it worth photographing, and I have photographed it.

A dog had been kept in the third bay; the fixings are still in the brick.

A corridor in low light, receding to a blank wall. At the far end, unlit, something the width of a person.
Plate III — The passage, sixth floor, looking east. 1/8 sec.

He counted three in the passage. I have counted four in every copy I have examined.

Exposure 04

In the light well there is a standpipe of dressed stone, carried up past the sixth floor and out of sight.

A carved stone stack rising out of the top of the frame, unresolved.
Plate IV — The standpipe. 1/2 sec.

The stack predates the building. It was not removed. It was built around.

Exposure 05

The effigy of Sir Rowland de Halghe was moved down here in 1938 for safekeeping and has not been moved since.

The hands are folded at the breast and the face is worn to a blank.

A carved stone figure lying on the lid of a tomb chest, armoured, hands folded, the face worn to a blank.
Plate V — The effigy, in the cellar. 4 sec.

The tower was built in 1958.

Exposure 06

The reliquary chest stands in the alcove, lid displaced. I did not disturb it.

We did not open it.

A cracked lavatory pan in a tiled alcove, lit flatly. Behind it, at the edge of the light, a stone chest bound with a chain.
Plate VI — The reliquary chest, lid displaced. 1/2 sec.

It is a lavatory. I have written to him twice.

Exposure 08

In the niche on the sixth floor there is a robed figure in painted plaster, and we are satisfied it is a statue.

A robed figure standing in a recess, half hidden by a pillar. Its face is turned slightly toward the camera.
Plate VIII — The attendant, in the niche. 2 sec.

There is no niche on the sixth floor. I have stood where he stood.

Exposure 09

I waited on the landing for the light to come back.

I waited on the landing for the light to come back.

I waited on the landing for the light.

A landing at the top of a stair. Nothing in the frame moves for a long time.
Plate IX — The landing. 30 sec.

Exposure 10

The chamber was empty. I did not look back.

A doorway at the end of a chamber. The walls appear to rush toward it while the door stays the same size.
Plate X — The chamber. 1 sec.
The sixth-floor passage seen over the surveyor's shoulder. Several figures occupy different depths; the nearest exists chiefly in the wet floor.
Plate VII — absent from all known copies.