There are lots of postcards with aerial photos of the castle in my collection and this is one of my favourites. The company who produced the image have a huge collection of photos available to view on Amgueddfa Cymru’s website.
Scaffolding has been erected on the curtain wall and it looks like roof tiles were being replaced or repaired. The roof tiles on the rest of the castle were replaced in the 1970s.
H. Tempest (Cardiff) Ltd
H. Tempest Ltd was founded in 1942 by Horace Tempest and is still trading as Tempest Photography today. The company moved from Nottingham to its current home of Cornwall in the 1950s.
John Eede was the owner of H. Tempest (Cardiff) Ltd and a friend of Horace Tempest. The company was founded in June 1948 and covered the whole of Wales. Terence Soames, an established aerial photographer, joined the company in the 1950s. He operated a Miles M.38 Messenger 2A aircraft.
The postcard has an event postmark for the “plastics centenary 1862 – 1962”. This is a tribute to the first man-made plastic, “Parkesine”, which was unveiled at the 1862 Great London Exposition.
Aerial Photos of Cardiff
Here are few of my favourite photos by H. Tempest Ltd. Many thanks to the company for giving me permission to publish them. They are part of the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales Collections Online.
Many thanks to John from Tempest Photography, who very kindly provided information for this article.
Fascinating as ever, Jack. Thanks for doing all the hard work of the research and sharing it.
The aerial view of Cardiff Castle is very impressive – it shows the original layout of the site in a way which you don’t ever get to see at ground level.