Llanrwst bridge

[LDB]

My computer shows a new photo every 24-36 hours. This afternoon it showed Llanrwst bridge. It is a beautiful structure. I'd love to go see it one day.

[Draigflag]

That's just up the road from me. Does it have the little cottage covered in ivy? It's beautiful, I drive past it on occasion.

[JockoT]

I looked it up to see the cottage. Gorgeous Virginia Creeper covering. The cottage was built in 1480 and is Grade II listed.

[LDB]

Yes, it was taken from across the way looking to the left of the camera position and including the bridge and cottage. The cottage is beautiful. I don't know what Grade II means but if it means really cool I agree completely. It looks like it should be a Thomas Kinkade painting.

[JockoT]

Grade II (England and Wales), C (Scotland) or B1/B2 (N. Ireland) – A building of special interest, which needs to be preserved.
It means you have to get permission to make any changes at all to the building. You cannot change doors, windows or anything structural. Renovating, developing or extending a listed building may be difficult or impossible

[Draigflag]

Yea there's around 300 listed buildings in my town, including mine. I'm not allowed to pains my doors or windows certain colours, or make internal changes. I'm also not allowed double glazing etc, which is why listed buildings are exempt from energy performance certificates because it's too difficult to get them up to modern insulation standards. On the plus side, there are grants available, so any major work is partially paid for by heritage funds etc. There's an old news agents here being renovated and the owner got 90% grants, so cost them very little to restore.

[LDB]

I'm sure one could spend uncountable hours admiring registered structures there, much more so than here. We haven't had nearly as long to create such treasures and too many have been lost prior to being protected.

[Draigflag]

That's true, although the US traditionally uses wood which gets blown away, burns down, eaten by bugs or just rots after a few hundred years. Europe has traditionally used heavier materials like stone etc, which will last a few thousand years. I believe it was the Romans that invented cement, and many of their buildings are still standing here, even in the UK which gets pretty bad weather.