Ha-ha: Margam Revisited

MARGAM PARK was the ancestral home of the Fox Talbots, of whom Henry was a pioneering photographer. Some of the earliest photographic images were made there. Steel made Margam Park, whose gothic mansion looks down on the town of Margam and the works formerly owned by the Fox Talbots. Today, it is Margam Country Park, owned by the local authority and a leisure facility open to the public - and to the workers of those steelworks. A feature of the old park was its ha-ha, a ditch which creates an invisible barrier between mansion and estate. Through stunningly produced photographs this book revisits this birthplace of the form and portrays it anew in contemporary landscape styles. The photographers also explore past class distinctions and the changing social history of both town and estate, a subject addressed in words by one of them, Karen Ingham, and at greater length by Hugh Adams, art lecturer and cultural critic who returns to the scene of his childhood to discuss its artistic and social heritage. The result is a unique and beautiful journey through the history of a place which has significance in industrial, social and photographic history. Co-published with Swansea Institute and Ffotogallery.