Green Court, Raglan 1858

Alfred Capel Cure captured "Green Court, Raglan" with his camera in 1858, freezing in time a fragment of British history and identity. Consider the cultural fascination with ruins during the Victorian era; they were seen as symbols of mortality, and a romantic link to the past. But what does it mean to photograph the ruins of a great house? The overgrown state of the architecture speaks to the changing social structures of the time. As aristocratic power waned, nature reclaimed its space, blurring the lines between the built environment and the organic world. The photograph prompts reflection on the passage of time and the impact of social change on both the landscape and collective memory. Cure invites us to consider how we are all shaped by the histories embedded in our surroundings.