The coloured front doors of Aberaeron

As you may recall, I recently changed the colour of the front door at Colour File HQ. ‘Yeah, so?’ I hear you say, and I would be inclined to agree with you.

But it would seem that changing it has thrown some people into a state of confusion. ‘I walked straight past your place,’ said one friend, ‘because I’m used to looking for a black door’.

I thought about this as I snapped pics of colourful houses in Aberaeron the other day.

History has it that the reason these harbour town homes were painted different colours was so that fishermen returning from sea could distinguish their homes from their neighbours.

The other story is that the colours were used as colourwashes to mask poor quality stones. Who knows, but I rather like the first explanation.

Just imagine the social consequences of all the homes looking the same? Sounds like the basis of a riveting soap opera to me…

Martha, The Colour File x

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