St Mary's Church te Bathwick 1860 - 1900

This photograph captures St Mary's Church in Bathwick, immortalized by J. & J. Dutton with their camera. Notice the church's tower, an architectural echo of the Tower of Babel. It reaches toward the heavens. This symbol has carried different cultural baggage. In ancient Mesopotamia, it represented human ambition to reach the divine, a motif seen across centuries and cultures. In Christian iconography, it represents a challenge to divine authority and the fragmentation of humanity. The tower's verticality channels a powerful, almost primal yearning to transcend earthly limits, a desire deeply embedded in our collective psyche. It represents humanity's eternal effort to bridge the gap between the mortal and the divine, a symbol that continually resurfaces, adapting to new contexts, yet echoing the same fundamental desires and fears.