Halsway Manor Wedding Photographer
Natural, documentary wedding photography by Patrick Newnham
Halsway Manor sits under the western scarp of the Quantock Hills at Crowcombe, between Taunton and Minehead, and it’s the National Centre for Folk Arts: a manor house with medieval roots that hosts music, dance and song all year round and is licensed for civil ceremonies and partnerships. It’s a venue with a soul rather than a brochure, and for couples who want a ceilidh, a barn dance or a house full of musicians it’s hard to beat; the hills start at the garden gate.
I haven’t photographed a wedding at Halsway yet, but I’ve photographed weddings at Crowcombe Court next door, at Hestercombe and Huntstile on the other side of the hills and at St Audries Park on the coast, and the Quantocks are my regular escape for portraits. A Halsway wedding would be a documentary photographer’s day: music, dancing and a house full of people doing things rather than posing for them.
How I photograph a wedding
Documentary first. I don’t run the day or stage it; I pay attention to it, and I keep the formal part to ten minutes of group photographs and twenty minutes of portraits in the best light we can find. Natural light, no flash during ceremonies, and editing that will still look right in twenty years. I take a limited number of weddings a year, which is partly how I get to give each one my full attention.
Good to know about Halsway Manor
Music. If your wedding has a band or a ceilidh, I photograph dancing without flash and from inside the set, which is where the pictures are. Light. The manor sits under the hills on the west side, so the afternoon sun comes over the scarp and the garden is lit late; the combes above are twenty minutes on foot for a portrait with the whole of West Somerset behind you. Travel. Forty minutes from my house; see the Taunton page and the Crowcombe Court page.
Taking a limited number of weddings for 2027 and 2028
If my way of working sounds like your kind of thing, I’d love to hear about your plans. Drop me a line with your date and venue and I’ll tell you straight away whether I’m free.
