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A new temporary public art trail, matching the four Ravilious images of Newhaven in Towner Eastbourne's collection with works by contemporary artists, has recently opened in the town. The four pairs of large-scale, billboard-sized artworks are positioned in accessible locations, within the landscapes that Ravilious depicted nearly a century ago. All the works can be seen and appreciated from far off as well as close up.
This is a photo of one of the largescale images. It features an original work by Eric Ravilious (on the right) and a contemporary work by Mark Titchner on the left.
Mark Titchner, shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2006, frequently produces large-scale works in the public realm and has a long-standing interest in incorporating words, text, and language. His Newhaven piece takes as its starting point Ravilious's interest in the collision of the East Sussex landscape with modern industry. Titchner wanted to consider the contested nature of contemporary industrial landscape, its environmental consequences, and the reality of living within it. His artwork adapts a biblical text that is inscribed upon the gravestone of Ravilious and his wife Tirzah Garwood, moving the emphasis of the sentence away from individual perception towards a collective reflection.
For the British artist, designer and illustrator Eric Ravilious (1903–1942), location was at the heart of his work. He drew inspiration for his extensive body of work from the places he lived and worked during his short life. He is best known for his watercolours of the South Downs and the Essex villages around his later home in Great Bardfield.
Born in London but brought up in Eastbourne, Ravilious had a strong connection to the Downland landscape of East Sussex. His depictions of the rolling hills frequently included recognition of human intervention such as fences, flint walls, farm equipment or discarded machinery, all executed in his muted colour palette and typical dry watercolour technique.
His fascination with vehicles, boats, equipment and machinery led him naturally to Newhaven as a source of artistic inspiration. Newhaven Harbour lies within walking distance of Furlongs, the home of Ravilious' close friend, the artist Peggy Angus. Ravilious would regularly visit Angus and undertake painting trips around the area where he was attracted by the town's busy port and unique combination of marine, rural and industrial landscapes. As man-made objects with personality, ships were an ideal complement to his fascination with wheeled vehicles.
Ravilious stayed at Newhaven's Hope Inn during August and September 1935 with friend and fellow artist Edward Bawden. He had been commissioned to produce a lithograph for schools and found his inspiration for this among the 'attractive jetties and dredgers' of the harbour. He picked out the small lighthouses at the harbour mouth, including one with a signalling mast seen in the foreground of Newhaven Harbour, pictured against a cloudless blue sky. The 'James' and the 'Foremost Prince', with a belt of buckets and mud chute, suggests a Constructivist sculpture, whilst Channel Steamer Leaving Harbour captures the romance of the night ferry departure.
During a later Newhaven visit, from mid-September into October 1940, he made six paintings of this coastal town, now heavily fortified due to its targeting as part of Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of Britain by German forces. Climbing up to the fort, he painted its ditches and retaining walls perched on the cliffs and overlooking the beach scattered with barbed wire and harbour with military ships and long searchlight beams. It was a very different scene from the one he and Bawden had depicted five years earlier. A number of these Coastal Defence works are now held in the collections of the Imperial War Museum and Aberdeen Art Gallery.
Ravilious died in September 1942, aged just 39. As an official war artist on active service he had been posted to Iceland where, whilst on a search-and-rescue mission, the plane he was flying in was lost at sea.
Kate Ravilious of National Geographic News reports today that "In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row." Given the effects of solar-induced global warming on Mars, and the timeliness of new pictures of Saturn being released by NASA today, I thought it would be cool to take a look at what sort of vegetation might appear as the dusty ice caps give way to life-giving water. Intelligent life in the form of sentient grasses, perhaps? :-)
This image of mine is obviously the work of Photoshop, of course. The original shot being a snow scene on good old Terra Firma.
A brave pre-WW2 experiment was the Lithographs for Schools series issued by Contemporary Lithographs Ltd and who produced a series of lithographs that, at the time didn't sell and that now are highly sought after.
This wonderful scene of Newhaven Harbour is by Eric Ravilious - whose life was tragically cut short when he died in active service as an official UK War Artist in 1942.
Along with the Bawden "East Coasting" booklet, by fellow British railway company the LNER, this has to be one of my favourite items of railway publicity married to graphic design and typography. A small card cover booklet with three 'stories' and three illustrations by Eric Ravilious no less, the booklet was issued by the Southern Railway to celebrate the 1935 Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary. It seems to have been aimed, mostly, at the North American market to drum up tourist trade that year as part of the widespread national celebrations.
It was printed by the exemplary Curwen Press and uses this delighful version of a pattern paper on covers. This, the title page, shows the three authors resposnible for the three chapters - the 'thrice' and includes a wonderful Ravilious vignette of cliffs and lighthouse.
Went to London with my pal Clive to to see the Eric Ravilious exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Galley. Really amazing. Afterwards we walked through all our old haunts in South London. Here is Crystal Palace
Today I was supposed to be taking a group of people out for a fabulous Faversham fungal foray in Blean Woods. The group leader phoned early this morning to cancel the meeting, in a way probably for the best as walking around knee deep in sticky wet mud not recommended when its blowing a hoolie and pouring down with rain. What to do, well thats easy, "Rugby!" This being "Super-Saturday" we have the beer, crisps, peanuts in and the sandwiches already prepared, stinky, runny cheese from Macknades on a platter for which promises to be a spectacular afternoon of sport. On the sofa with leaves and branches hitting the windows outside, all warm and safe and before the spectacle begins its time to start a new read. I have just finished a fascinating profile of my favourite interwar artist, Eric Ravilious so time for some fiction me believes, loosing oneself in a well told story of dare and do, Robert Harris and his new best seller V2 bought on a trip to the fabulous Heffers book shop as we show Phoebe around the colleges she would like to go to in a few years time. Today sorted and who knows maybe fish-and-chips or a take-away curry for later, we live the life here in Faversham.......
Come on Scotland, come on England and come on France!
Well done Scotland....next!
Well done England....next!
Well done France.......England six nation champions, oh yes!
Now come on Bringal and Bhindi bhaji, aloo gobi, tarka dhal, saag and chana, garlic and coriander naan and fragrant rice, yummy yummy.....
Along with the Bawden "East Coasting" booklet, by fellow British railway company the LNER, this has to be one of my favourite items of railway publicity married to graphic design and typography. A small card cover booklet with three 'stories' and three illustrations by Eric Ravilious no less, the booklet was issued by the Southern Railway to celebrate the 1935 Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary. It seems to have been aimed, mostly, at the North American market to drum up tourist trade that year as part of the widespread national celebrations.
It was printed by the exemplary Curwen Press and uses this delighful version of a pattern paper on covers. Mais was one of the best known travel writers of his time and this chapter describes the many beauty spots served by the Southern's network across the South Coast of England. The page is headed by another of Ravilious's charming engravings - of a country house amidst landscape.
Eric Ravilious designs used for Version 4 Dustjacket illustrations of Publishers Dent & Dutton's "Everyman's Library"
(Go to all Sizes to view at max 1530x500 - 150 dpi).
The tiny white spire almost out of shot, one third down on left, marks the village of Berwick. Behind me is the rest of the slope up to the South Downs Way footpath, leading to Alfriston and Eastbourne, walking eastwards.
I think the WB is pretty much as it was. Hazy sunshine felt warm and sunnier than this, but I'm resisting the vibrancy slide. Sussex is greening up fast.
Go-Ahead Brighton & Hove 710 YX24 PPK 'Eric Ravilious' on the 12A at Brighton Pier. Thursday 14th November 2024. DSCN61105.
Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC.
Photo (c) GJW 2024.
The Kynoch Press, along with Curwen, is one of my favourite 'fine printers' of the mid-20th century and this is a delightful slip of a thing. The Press had, in 1939, not long escaped a very fallow period in the mid-1930s following the 1933 departure of Herbert Simon, one of the great names of British printing at the time (and still one of the great names I suspect). The manager from 1933 - 38 had sadly allowed the Press to decline both as the 'in-house' printer for the ICI empire it belonged to as well as its reputation to external clients. In 1938 Michael Clapham, from the Bradford based Lund Humphries, took over the reins and helped restore the reputation of Kynoch even in the midst of what was to become wartime pressures.
One of the casualties of 1939 was the proposed issuance of an updated type specimen book to include some of the newer typefaces that Clapham had acquired and was to have been issued in late 1939/40. Needless to say this didn't happen. Oddly as a stop gap, at Easter 1939 as this little brochure states, the Press issued a "Bulletin on Typefaces" to show an abridged selection of 'faces and sizes available. It is a slim booklet of only eight pages in these grey rag paper covers with this simple title vignette on the cover. Hmm, the excellent history of Kynoch (by Archer) doesn't say a lot about this item and so I'm not sure who 'did this' for them. It has a feel, in some ways, of Reynolds Stone, but it also has a lightness of touch fo say, Ravilious. Over to you all....
The Midland Hotel is a Streamline Moderne building in Morecambe, Lancashire, England. It was built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), in 1933, to the designs of architect Oliver Hill, with sculpture by Eric Gill, and murals by Eric Ravilious (subsequently destroyed).[1][2] It is a Grade II* listed building. The hotel has been restored by Urban Splash with architects Union North, Northwest Regional Development Agency and Lancaster City Council.
Prompted by a comment made by Simon Chirgwin, I had a go at an Homage to Eric Ravilious. All processing done in Lightroom, no plug-ins, with my tongue firmly in my cheek.
The original masterpiece can be seen here shop.townereastbourne.org.uk/products/eric-ravilious-beac...
From the HERE | Uncovering North Devon exhibition about the Beaford Archive, featuring photographs from James Ravilious and Roger Deakins, at The Burton, Bideford.
There are three books that I really love to own - and this lithograph is from one of them! This is one of Ravilious's glorious lithographs from the book 'High Street' - it appears in an annual dating from 1938 printed at the Curwen Press in London.
Brand new Brighton and Hove Bus Company Mercedes Benz Wrightbus Streetdeck BH4 double decker bus 941 BX15ONT 'Eric Ravilious' on display for the public to inspect on Terminus Road in Eastbourne in East Sussex (UK).
BX15ONT was delivered to the Brighton and Hove Bus Company just 4 days previously on April 21st 2015. It will be used on their Coaster Route 12 between Eastbourne and Brighton.
My Bus and Coach album flic.kr/s/aHsjJgWqCA
Photograph taken by my regular photostream contributor David on his travels and is posted here with very kind permission.
The White Horse Hides from Prying Eyes
Sometimes, the White Horse gets tired
Of celebrity status: loud children treading
In his eye, turning three times and making
Wishes, people setting up easels, thinking
They’re Ravilious, devotees of von Daniken
Insisting in his hearing that he is a message
For aliens – and then the archaeologists
Get going, digging down to his thigh-deep
Underside, sampling silt. A horse has got
To kick heels occasionally; sometimes climbers
On his back tickle and itch like flies. Even
At dark-moon, there is the danger some
Human do-gooder will climb up there, find
He has absconded, leaving behind a dusty,
Horse-shaped trench. And when he has
Scampered off, a mile above the Ridgeway,
Making diversions to visit his chalky
Friends, he risks being spotted by some
Drunken neo-Druid who has staggered
Out of the public house at Avebury
For a pee. It has happened once or twice,
And the White Horse has loped into
The cirrus, then come panting to ground
At Swallowhead, craving water. He lies
Flat as East Anglia, splayed out across
The landscape, his head slotting perfectly
Under the arched bough of an ancient
Willow. A cloutie is sucked inadvertently
Up his nostril. He has to suppress
A sneeze. All around him, there’s an ooze
Of wetness which will make the Kennet,
Augmented by the Winterbourne. His leg
Sinks whitely under the Spirogyra. Now
His breath is held. But no one comes:
No one notices the black shadow of his
Absenteeism, no one reports him
As a U.F.O., and the neo-Druid’s Wiccan
Friend has bought another round of real
Ale. A tardy swallow decides to migrate.
The horse blinks. It begins to rain.
Poem by Giles Watson, 2012. Swallowhead Spring, which is a short walk from Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow, is regarded as the source of the River Kennet, although much of the water is supplied by the Winterbourne, which joins the Kennet at the same point. The spring, with its over-arching willow, is a popular walking destination for modern pagans, who regularly hang clouties (strips of coloured cloth and ribbon) from the branches of the tree. Large sarsens laid across the river-bed serve as stepping stones when the river is awash.
A fine reproduction of a Ravilious woodcut "church under a hill" that I have seen dated to 1928 in this 1948 advert for the ink manufacturer's Lorilleux and Bolton who were based in Tottenham, north London. The advert appears in "Alphabet & Image", published by Art & Techniques, edited by Robert Harling and printed at the Shenval Press.
I saw this in a magazine, and was struck by the depth and the perspective of the paths...it's from a painting by Eric Ravilious in 1935, but it looked as though it was done yesterday..
Reading through a fascinating Contact Book, this Number 10 from the shortlived postwar series, and the end papers caught my eye. As it should have done. This was designed by Tirzah Swanzy, an artist who was one of the Great Bardfield Group based in Essex during the mid-20th Century. Born in 1908 she was an accomplished artist and designer who married Eric Ravilious. Eric was so sadly lost, missing presumed dead, as a war artist in 1942. Tirzah subsequently remarried to Henry Swanzy in 1944. Sadly in 1948 she was diagnosed with a reocurrance of cancer and she died of the disease in 1951.
The Postcard
A Frith's Series postcard. The card, which appears to be a coloured glossy real photograph, has a divided back.
The card was posted in Cambridge on the 4th. May, although the year of posting is not visible against the dark purple of the 3d. stamp. The stamp was in fact current between 1967 and 1968.
The card was posted to:
Mr. & Mrs. R. N. Anderson,
351 Fulbridge Road,
Paston,
Peterborough,
Northants.
The message on the divided back was as follows:
"We are having a few days
with Russell's niece and her
husband here.
So far we have had good
weather.
We are going to Cambridge
to have a look around -
there is so much of interest.
The colleges are wonderful -
the finest examples of English
building in the 16th. Century.
Hope you are all well.
With love,
J.H".
Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, 12 miles (19 km) north of Bishop's Stortford, 15 miles (24 km) south of Cambridge and 43 miles (69 km) north of London.
It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The 2001 parish population of 14,313 had risen to 15,504 by the 2011 census.
History of Saffron Walden
After the Norman invasion of 1066, a stone church was built. Walden Castle, dating from about 1140, may have been built on pre-existing fortifications.
A priory, Walden Abbey, was founded under the patronage of Brendan Wood, 1st Earl of Essex in about 1136, on the site of what is now Audley End village. After the dissolution of the monasteries, Sir Thomas Audley converted its cloisters into a dwelling. Later this became the site of Audley End House.
The market was moved from nearby Newport to Walden during de Mandeville's tenure, increasing the town's influence. This Tuesday market was held from 1295.
The town’s first charter was granted in about 1300, to what was known then as Chepyng (i. e. Market) Walden. The town at that time was largely confined to the castle's outer bailey, but in the 13th. century the Repel Ditches were built to enclose a larger area to the south. The focus of the town moved southwards to Market Square.
The main trading item in medieval times was wool. A guildhall was built by the wool-staplers in the market place, but demolished in 1847 to make way for a corn exchange. In the 16th. and 17th. centuries the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) was widely grown, thanks to the town's favourable soil and climate.
The stigmas of the flower were used in medicines, as a condiment, in perfume, as an aphrodisiac, and as an expensive yellow dye. The industry gave Walden its present name.
By the end of the 18th. century, saffron was no longer in demand, and the industry was replaced by malt and barley. More than 40 maltings stood in the town by the end of the century. The trade was less lucrative than saffron, but the town continued to grow through the 19th. century, and had a cattle market, corn exchange and other civic buildings.
During this time Quakers became economically active in the area. The influential Gibsons - one of the founding families of Barclays Bank – aided the construction of several public buildings that remain today, such as the museum and town hall.
Industry arrived after the Second World War. Acrows Ltd, makers of falsework, built premises to the east of the town and became a significant employer in the area. Falsework refers to temporary framework structures used to support a building during its construction.
Light industry was added to the south of the town at Shire Hill. As the agricultural economy continued to mechanise, the new employment opportunities were welcome and migration into the town from surrounding villages led to a major expansion of housing estates in the 1970's and 1980's.
Coat of Arms and Maces
Saffron Walden's unofficial coat of arms showed the saffron crocus within the walls of the castle in the form of an heraldic pun – as in, "Saffron walled-in". In 1961, a formal coat of arms was granted by the College of Arms, and this was adapted in 1974 into its current form.
The town has three ceremonial maces. The large mace was given to Saffron Walden by James II in 1685, and provides an early recording of the unofficial coat of arms. Made of silver gilt, it is approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) long.
Two smaller silver maces were bought by the corporation in 1549 to commemorate the granting of a new town charter by Edward VI.
Sites and Buildings of Interest in Saffron Walden
The 12th-century Walden Castle, built or expanded by Geoffrey de Mandeville, the first Earl of Essex, is in ruins. After the medieval period, the castle fell into disuse, and much of the flint was taken and used in the construction of local houses and the wall surrounding the Audley End estate. All that remains is the ruined basement.
Near the castle is a turf maze, a series of circular excavations cut into the turf of the common. It is the largest example of this style of maze in England, the main part being about 100 feet (30 m) in diameter. The earliest record of it dates from 1699, although its origin may be earlier. It has been extensively restored several times, most recently in 1979.
The oldest inhabited building in the town is believed to be the former maltings at 1 Myddleton Place. The 15th.-century building with a courtyard garden was used by the Youth Hostel Association from 1947 to 2010. It is now used for functions. Pevsner described it as: "Without doubt, the best medieval house of Saffron Walden".
Other notable early buildings are in Bridge Street, Castle Street and the side streets off the High Street. The High Street contains some late-Georgian and Victorian buildings.
Bridge End Gardens, a group of seven interlinked 19th.-century gardens – including a maze, rose garden and walled garden – were originally laid out by the Gibson family. They have been restored with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund and volunteers.
St Mary the Virgin, Saffron Walden is the largest parish church in Essex. The church dates mainly from the end of the 15th. century, when an old smaller church was extensively rebuilt by the master mason John Wastell, who was building King's College Chapel in the nearby city of Cambridge.
In 1769 the church was damaged by lightning and the repairs, carried out in the 1790's, removed many medieval features. The spire was added in 1832 to replace an older lantern tower. The church is 183 feet (56 m) long and the spire, 193 feet (59 m) high, is the tallest in Essex.
The town's Catholic church, Our Lady of Compassion, is on Castle Street. Created in 1906 from a 16th-century barn, it was restored in 2004-5. With a long history of non-conformism, Saffron Walden has a Baptist church and a Quaker meeting house.
Audley End House - once one of the largest mansions in England - is now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public. During the summer months, picnic concerts and a last night in the style of the BBC Proms have been held in the grounds. Audley End Miniature Railway - originally built by Lord Braybrooke - is a 10 1⁄4 in (260 mm) gauge railway ride through woodland adjoining Audley End House. The track is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, and opened in 1964.
Saffron Walden Museum, which was established in 1835 by Saffron Walden Natural History Society, is close to the town castle. The museum had many benefactors from local families, including the Gibsons, Frys and Tukes. The museum contains the stuffed remains of a lion named Wallace (1812 – 1838), said to have inspired Marriott Edgar's comic poem "The Lion and Albert".
The Fry Art Gallery exhibits the work of artists who had an association with Saffron Walden and north west Essex. The collection includes extensive artworks by Edward Bawden, who lived in the town during the 1970's and 1980's, and Eric Ravilious.
Saffron Hall, which is attached to Saffron Walden County High School, opened in 2013. The 730-seater venue came about as a result of a £10 million donation by an anonymous music- loving donor. In 2014, former head of music at the Barbican Centre Angela Dixon became its director.
The Anglo American playing fields, located close to Bridge End Gardens on Catons Lane, are home to the town's cricket club. They were donated to Saffron Walden by the US forces after the war. Prior to that, Saffron Walden Cricket Club played on the town's common - with a history of cricket matches recorded back to 1757. A monument at the site commemorates the American airmen and people of Saffron Walden who died in the Second World War.
Notable Residents of Saffron Walden
Notable residents, in alphabetical order, are as follows:
- Edward Bawden (1903–1989), artist, was resident from 1970 at 2 Park Lane Studio.
- Stig Blomqvist (born 1946) and his son Tom Blomqvist (born 1993), racing drivers, live in the town.
- Elizabeth Butchill (c. 1758–1780), hanged for infanticide, was a native of the town.
- Rab Butler (1902–1982), cabinet minister, was MP for Saffron Walden between 1929 and 196565, before being created Baron Butler of Saffron Walden.
- Jack Cardiff (1914–2009), Oscar-winning cinematographer, lived at 7a High Street.
- Thomas Cornell (c. 1595–1655), a Quaker who emigrated to British North America and founded the Cornell family there.
- Charles Dunstone (born 1964), co-founder and chairman of Carphone Warehouse and chairman of TalkTalk Group, was born in the town.
- James Gapes (1822–1899), born in the town, became mayor of Christchurch, New Zealand.
- George Stacey Gibson (1813–1893), botanist, banker and philanthropist, lived at Hill House, High Street.
- Gabriel Harvey (1552–1631), scholar and writer, lived at 13–17 Gold Street.
- Imogen Heap, singer and songwriter, was a boarder at the Friends' School.
- Jeff Hordley (born 1970), actor, played Cain Dingle in Emmerdale.
- Gordon Jacob (1895–1984), composer, was resident in 1959–1984 at 1 Audley Road. He was president of Saffron Walden and District Music Club.
- Ian Lavender (born 1946), actor, best known as Pike in Dad's Army, lived in the town until 2001.
- Stephen McGann (born 1963), actor, resides in the town.
- Jojo Moyes, romantic fiction author, lives nearby in Great Sampford.
- Clare Mulley (born 1969), biographer, lives in the town.
- Sarah Ockwell-Smith (born 1976), child-care author, lives in the town.
- Cliff Parisi (born 1960), former Eastenders actor, who played Rick "Minty" Peterson.
- Tom Robinson (born 1950), singer-songwriter, attended the Friends' School in 1961–67.
- Sir Thomas Smith (1513–1577), scholar and diplomat, was born in the town.
- Stan Stammers, songwriter and musician, formerly of UK Subs, grew up in the town.
- William Strachey (1572–1621), historian, was born in the town.
- Heidi Thomas (born 1962), TV and film screenwriter, lives in the town.
- Stuart Wardley (born 10 September 1975 in Cambridge), professional footballer.
- Raymond Williams (1921–1988), cultural critic, divided his time between Saffron Walden and Wales in later life.
- Henry Winstanley (1644–1703), creator of the first Eddystone Lighthouse, was born in nearby Littlebury and lived at 5 Museum Street.
- Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011), author, attended the Friends School (1946–1952).
Market Drayton Livestock Auction, Shropshire. November 2012.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
A second, and really engaging visit to Market Drayton livestock auction. Being the second week in a row, I've now been seen or spoken to by a large percentage of their regular customers which is helping to spread the word about what I'm doing and why. The staff at Market Drayton have been wonderful and today they were asking me what I want to photograph, answering my questions about local farmers, goat farms, events and more, even coming up to me to let me know there's someone I should meet.
Today was very much about the people, with me asking to make formalised portraits of those I talked to or found visually interesting. These are such a stoic and friendly group of people who I am gaining a huge respect for through this project.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Market Drayton Livestock Auction, Shropshire. January 2013.
Photograph by Lee William Hughes © The Rural Eye.
Another engaging trip to Market Drayton, albeit on a very cold day. I took a large number of prints from the other visits up with me and gave them to Bob Oakes and the staff as a thank you for their help. It was nice to see him take them around and show them to people who were featured and I will need to ask him to put some names to those faces in a future visit.
I was planning to leave the cattle out for the most part, and so I concentrated on the people and again with a mixture of formalised portraits and reportage. There is something very beautiful about the background interiors at this site, particularly in black and white, the tonal values seem to all compliment the people and their own clothing too. I did however visit the back of the building and photograph some of the animals as it was so cold that I wanted to get that across. I also photographed at the very back where I hadn't previously realised that there was an area for washing out trailers and cleaning everything off, presumably for disease control rather than pure aesthetics.
Each trip to Market Drayton Auctions leaves me inspired to keep going and gives me the belief that there are always more ways to show, to present and to make photographs, while all the time giving me such a rich subject matter in a welcoming environment.
To purchase prints, please click the link below and then select 'The Rural Eye Archive' folder...
Two delightful panoramas of Herefordshire streets from the 1946 Planning Survey that was formulated by the West Midlands Group on Post-War Reconstruction & Planning, one of a number of fascinating publications they issued as part of the post-war planning drive towards a "new" Britain. The ideas on these planning reports, similar to the many issued by most local authorities, can seem a little dated now but they were bold and ambitious and as well as shaping some aspects of post war planning they are often a superb snapshot of towns and and communities at the time of publication. Amongst the many illustrations and photos in the Herefordshire report, interesting in that it covered a largely agricultural county, are this charming illustrations by Kenenth Rowntree.
Rowntree (1915 - 1997) had a long career as a teacher, artist and illustrator and was one of the "Great Bardfield" set alongside Bawden and Ravilious in pre-war years. These works are reminiscent of his WW2 work that became part of the large scale "Recording Britain" project.
Ravilious, Son & Co were a men's tailor's, hatter's, hosier's and outfitter's shop in Acton High Street from at least 1893. At some point in the 1980s the building became a branch of McDonald's. While looking on Google StreetView I spotted a sign "Ravilious for Van Heusen" just around the corner in Church Rd. A while later I realised that this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/49428126@N00/6868391588/in/photostream was of nearly the same spot in Church Rd, and there had been a second Ravilious shop. The premises is now the Damien Centre, a drop-in facility for the homeless.
One of 24 London shop fronts drawn by Eric Ravilious in 1938. The sign says: 2 Pharmaceutical Chemist 2
The Postcard
A postcard that was printed and published by Harvey Barton & Son Ltd. of Bristol. They state on the back that the image is a real photograph.
The card was posted in Saffron Walden on Friday the 31st. July 1959 to:
Miss H.H. Douglas,
4, Townsend,
Woodford Halse,
Nr. Rugby.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"I do hope you are
having a lovely time.
We went to Saffron
Walden yesterday and
to Bishops Stortford
this morning.
Pen and mother seem
to be having a happy
time.
Love from E".
Harvey Barton & Son (1885-1960)
Harvey Barton & Son Ltd. of St. Michael’s Hill, Bristol, were photographers who published real photo postcards of their landscape work in southwest England.
Many of these view-cards were hand coloured.
They also produced printed art reproductions, and a set of picture postcards under the Vistasound name that could be played as 45 rpm records. They were manufactured by the Hardy Record Mfg. Co. of London.
Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, 12 miles (19 km) north of Bishop's Stortford, 15 miles (24 km) south of Cambridge and 43 miles (69 km) north of London.
It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The 2001 parish population of 14,313 had risen to 15,504 by the 2011 census.
History of Saffron Walden
After the Norman invasion of 1066, a stone church was built. Walden Castle, dating from about 1140, may have been built on pre-existing fortifications.
A priory, Walden Abbey, was founded under the patronage of Brendan Wood, 1st Earl of Essex in about 1136, on the site of what is now Audley End village. After the dissolution of the monasteries, Sir Thomas Audley converted its cloisters into a dwelling. Later this became the site of Audley End House.
The market was moved from nearby Newport to Walden during de Mandeville's tenure, increasing the town's influence. This Tuesday market was held from 1295.
The town’s first charter was granted in about 1300, to what was known then as Chepyng (i. e. Market) Walden. The town at that time was largely confined to the castle's outer bailey, but in the 13th. century the Repel Ditches were built to enclose a larger area to the south. The focus of the town moved southwards to Market Square.
The main trading item in medieval times was wool. A guildhall was built by the wool-staplers in the market place, but demolished in 1847 to make way for a corn exchange. In the 16th. and 17th. centuries the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus) was widely grown, thanks to the town's favourable soil and climate.
The stigmas of the flower were used in medicines, as a condiment, in perfume, as an aphrodisiac, and as an expensive yellow dye. The industry gave Walden its present name.
By the end of the 18th. century, saffron was no longer in demand, and the industry was replaced by malt and barley. More than 40 maltings stood in the town by the end of the century. The trade was less lucrative than saffron, but the town continued to grow through the 19th. century, and had a cattle market, corn exchange and other civic buildings.
During this time Quakers became economically active in the area. The influential Gibsons - one of the founding families of Barclays Bank – aided the construction of several public buildings that remain today, such as the museum and town hall.
Industry arrived after the Second World War. Acrows Ltd, makers of falsework, built premises to the east of the town and became a significant employer in the area. Falsework refers to temporary framework structures used to support a building during its construction.
Light industry was added to the south of the town at Shire Hill. As the agricultural economy continued to mechanise, the new employment opportunities were welcome and migration into the town from surrounding villages led to a major expansion of housing estates in the 1970's and 1980's.
Coat of Arms and Maces
Saffron Walden's unofficial coat of arms showed the saffron crocus within the walls of the castle in the form of an heraldic pun – as in, "Saffron walled-in". In 1961, a formal coat of arms was granted by the College of Arms, and this was adapted in 1974 into its current form.
The town has three ceremonial maces. The large mace was given to Saffron Walden by James II in 1685, and provides an early recording of the unofficial coat of arms. Made of silver gilt, it is approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) long.
Two smaller silver maces were bought by the corporation in 1549 to commemorate the granting of a new town charter by Edward VI.
Sites and Buildings of Interest in Saffron Walden
The 12th-century Walden Castle, built or expanded by Geoffrey de Mandeville, the first Earl of Essex, is in ruins. After the medieval period, the castle fell into disuse, and much of the flint was taken and used in the construction of local houses and the wall surrounding the Audley End estate. All that remains is the ruined basement.
Near the castle is a turf maze, a series of circular excavations cut into the turf of the common. It is the largest example of this style of maze in England, the main part being about 100 feet (30 m) in diameter. The earliest record of it dates from 1699, although its origin may be earlier. It has been extensively restored several times, most recently in 1979.
The oldest inhabited building in the town is believed to be the former maltings at 1 Myddleton Place. The 15th.-century building with a courtyard garden was used by the Youth Hostel Association from 1947 to 2010. It is now used for functions. Pevsner described it as: "Without doubt, the best medieval house of Saffron Walden".
Other notable early buildings are in Bridge Street, Castle Street and the side streets off the High Street. The High Street contains some late-Georgian and Victorian buildings.
Bridge End Gardens, a group of seven interlinked 19th.-century gardens – including a maze, rose garden and walled garden – were originally laid out by the Gibson family. They have been restored with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund and volunteers.
St Mary the Virgin, Saffron Walden is the largest parish church in Essex. The church dates mainly from the end of the 15th. century, when an old smaller church was extensively rebuilt by the master mason John Wastell, who was building King's College Chapel in the nearby city of Cambridge.
In 1769 the church was damaged by lightning and the repairs, carried out in the 1790's, removed many medieval features. The spire was added in 1832 to replace an older lantern tower. The church is 183 feet (56 m) long and the spire, 193 feet (59 m) high, is the tallest in Essex.
The town's Catholic church, Our Lady of Compassion, is on Castle Street. Created in 1906 from a 16th-century barn, it was restored in 2004-5. With a long history of non-conformism, Saffron Walden has a Baptist church and a Quaker meeting house.
Audley End House - once one of the largest mansions in England - is now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public. During the summer months, picnic concerts and a last night in the style of the BBC Proms have been held in the grounds. Audley End Miniature Railway - originally built by Lord Braybrooke - is a 10 1⁄4 in (260 mm) gauge railway ride through woodland adjoining Audley End House. The track is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, and opened in 1964.
Saffron Walden Museum, which was established in 1835 by Saffron Walden Natural History Society, is close to the town castle. The museum had many benefactors from local families, including the Gibsons, Frys and Tukes. The museum contains the stuffed remains of a lion named Wallace (1812 – 1838), said to have inspired Marriott Edgar's comic poem "The Lion and Albert".
The Fry Art Gallery exhibits the work of artists who had an association with Saffron Walden and north west Essex. The collection includes extensive artworks by Edward Bawden, who lived in the town during the 1970's and 1980's, and Eric Ravilious.
Saffron Hall, which is attached to Saffron Walden County High School, opened in 2013. The 730-seater venue came about as a result of a £10 million donation by an anonymous music- loving donor. In 2014, former head of music at the Barbican Centre Angela Dixon became its director.
The Anglo American playing fields, located close to Bridge End Gardens on Catons Lane, are home to the town's cricket club. They were donated to Saffron Walden by the US forces after the war. Prior to that, Saffron Walden Cricket Club played on the town's common - with a history of cricket matches recorded back to 1757. A monument at the site commemorates the American airmen and people of Saffron Walden who died in the Second World War.
Notable Residents of Saffron Walden
Notable residents, in alphabetical order, are as follows:
- Edward Bawden (1903–1989), artist, was resident from 1970 at 2 Park Lane Studio.
- Stig Blomqvist (born 1946) and his son Tom Blomqvist (born 1993), racing drivers, live in the town.
- Elizabeth Butchill (c. 1758–1780), hanged for infanticide, was a native of the town.
- Rab Butler (1902–1982), cabinet minister, was MP for Saffron Walden between 1929 and 196565, before being created Baron Butler of Saffron Walden.
- Jack Cardiff (1914–2009), Oscar-winning cinematographer, lived at 7a High Street.
- Thomas Cornell (c. 1595–1655), a Quaker who emigrated to British North America and founded the Cornell family there.
- Charles Dunstone (born 1964), co-founder and chairman of Carphone Warehouse and chairman of TalkTalk Group, was born in the town.
- James Gapes (1822–1899), born in the town, became mayor of Christchurch, New Zealand.
- George Stacey Gibson (1813–1893), botanist, banker and philanthropist, lived at Hill House, High Street.
- Gabriel Harvey (1552–1631), scholar and writer, lived at 13–17 Gold Street.
- Imogen Heap, singer and songwriter, was a boarder at the Friends' School.
- Jeff Hordley (born 1970), actor, played Cain Dingle in Emmerdale.
- Gordon Jacob (1895–1984), composer, was resident in 1959–1984 at 1 Audley Road. He was president of Saffron Walden and District Music Club.
- Ian Lavender (born 1946), actor, best known as Pike in Dad's Army, lived in the town until 2001.
- Stephen McGann (born 1963), actor, resides in the town.
- Jojo Moyes, romantic fiction author, lives nearby in Great Sampford.
- Clare Mulley (born 1969), biographer, lives in the town.
- Sarah Ockwell-Smith (born 1976), child-care author, lives in the town.
- Cliff Parisi (born 1960), former Eastenders actor, who played Rick "Minty" Peterson.
- Tom Robinson (born 1950), singer-songwriter, attended the Friends' School in 1961–67.
- Sir Thomas Smith (1513–1577), scholar and diplomat, was born in the town.
- Stan Stammers, songwriter and musician, formerly of UK Subs, grew up in the town.
- William Strachey (1572–1621), historian, was born in the town.
- Heidi Thomas (born 1962), TV and film screenwriter, lives in the town.
- Stuart Wardley (born 10 September 1975 in Cambridge), professional footballer.
- Raymond Williams (1921–1988), cultural critic, divided his time between Saffron Walden and Wales in later life.
- Henry Winstanley (1644–1703), creator of the first Eddystone Lighthouse, was born in nearby Littlebury and lived at 5 Museum Street.
- Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011), author, attended the Friends School (1946–1952).
ETA
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 31st. July 1959, Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), the Basque separatist organization, was founded in Spain. In its first 40 years, ETA's paramilitary attacks killed more than 800 people and wounded thousands.
Cliff Richard
Also on that day, the Number One Chart hit in the UK was 'Living Doll' by Cliff Richard.
www.arqueologiadelperu.com/writing-on-the-church-wall/
Cley-Next-the-Sea's 14th-century prosperity is reflected in St. Margaret's church and its cathedral-esque proportions. The interior contains examples of medieval religious graffiti.
Imagine walking into your local church, pulling a penknife from your pocket, and scratching a little drawing into the wall: a geometric design, a drawing of a boat, even a few meaningful words. Today that would be sacrilege, but a new survey of the walls of medieval churches in England is revealing that many of them are covered in riots of graffiti, scratched into what were once boldly colored walls. Furthermore, the practice appears to have been condoned, and sometimes even encouraged, by Church authorities. The finds are changing the perception of how medieval worshippers viewed religion and interacted with their churches.
Cley-Next-the-Sea, on the north coast of Norfolk in eastern England, is a well-heeled tourist village of ancient flint-walled houses and narrow streets. Situated far from England's highways, it draws visitors—but only committed ones—year-round. Its harbor silted up in the seventeenth century, so the village is now separated from the sea by spectacular salt marshes that draw many bird-watchers. But 700 years ago, Cley-Next-the-Sea was at the heart of one of the busiest ports in England, the Glaven Port, where grain, malt, fish, spices, coal, cloth, barley, and oats were exported and imported. That period of prominence explains why the seemingly insignificant village sports a glorious church of cathedralesque proportions.
Panels on the octagonal font in the nave of St. Margaret's church have medieval markings thought to bring luck or protect from evil. As the large wooden door shuts behind him, Matthew Champion, project director of the Norfolk and Suffolk Medieval Graffiti Surveys, proceeds to the ornate octagonal font that dominates one end of the nave of St. Margaret's church. Its elaborately carved stone panels depict religious scenes, including a baptism and the ordination of a priest. Tiny fragments of paint in the crevices confirm that the font was brightly decorated in medieval times. “The blue color was made from lapis lazuli pigment,” Champion says, “which was very exotic and expensive then.”
Approaching what appears to be a bare patch of stone on one of the font's panels, Champion illuminates it with his flashlight—at first from the front, and then from the side. As the panel is bathed in raking light, patterns come into view: a series of perfect circles, filled with six-petaled flower patterns, scratched into the stone.To twenty-first century eyes, the scratched designs seem incongruous with the magnificent setting, but Champion sees more than ancient graffiti. He moves quickly to the north side of the church and, this time, sweeps the beam of his flashlight down a column, where the raking light reveals repeats of this same precise geometric design. “In the past, fonts were usually situated on the north side of churches, close to the ‘Devil's door' [a door on the north, or ‘heathen,' side of a church], and we find concentrations of these designs on and around the area where the font would have been,” he explains.
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In 2008, Champion was asked to manage a conservation program of medieval wall paintings at Lakenheath church in Suffolk. It was when he closely inspected the paintings that he first observed marks scratched into the paint: previously unnoticed graffiti. “I was a bit nonplussed to begin with,” he says. He began to dig around in the literature and realized that no one had thoroughly documented such medieval graffiti. Perhaps this was because of its rarity, he thought. So he selected another medieval church at random—All Saints' in Litcham, Norfolk—and inspected the walls. “I started to shine my torch and realized there were hundreds and hundreds of markings,” he says. “They are almost invisible unless you shine light on them from the side, and I think they simply hadn't been noticed before.” Champion was hooked, and in 2010 he started a community archaeology project, using teams of volunteers to systematically record the graffiti in the County of Norfolk's medieval churches. With ordinary flashlights and cameras, volunteers have mapped the wall markings in half of Norfolk's 650 or so medieval churches. To date, they have uncovered more than 28,000 inscriptions. In 2014, Champion established an equivalent survey in the neighboring County of Suffolk, with similar results. Now Champion has surveys springing up all over the country, and the findings, along with reports from other countries, suggest that medieval religious graffiti was a widespread phenomenon. “I've seen the same kind of symbols cropping up in churches in Norway, Germany, Spain, and even Malta,” he says. “It seems that graffiti was normal and accepted everywhere the medieval Christian Church got to.” With these data, and the promise of more, Champion has been able to provide some context and interpretation for the symbols the volunteers are finding. “Everyone from the lord of the manor to the lowliest commoner was making these marks,” says Champion.
Circular floral designs (highlighted here to show the shape clearly) are the most common motif in medieval church graffiti, and were thought to trap malevolent spirits.
The circular floral designs, for example, turn out to be the most common motif, with several thousand recorded in Norfolk and Suffolk alone. The majority are quite small—less than four inches across—and are precise enough that they must have been drawn with compasses or other tools. “Originally, we thought these might have been created by the masons, perhaps to teach their apprentices the basics of geometry, or to create a guide for themselves,” Champion says. Indeed, some of the larger compass-drawn designs are probably exactly that, but the small designs that Champion has found peppered around fonts would have been impossible to draw with the giant compasses that masons used. Rather, the clustering of the symbol on and around fonts is a crucial clue. Traditionally, baptism ceremonies were meant to cast out the devil, and Champion thinks that the marks served as ritual protection, brought luck, and protected the person being baptized from evil. “Christianity was not the warm and fluffy religion that it is today,” he says. “People believed in the power of evil, and would do everything they could to ward off the ill forces that lurked outside the church door.” Designs like this, intricate and mazelike, were thought to trap malevolent spirits, which would follow the lines and be unable to find their way back out.
Mark Gardiner, a medieval graffiti expert from Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, agrees that the symbols were probably intended to ward off evil. “We also find an abundance of these kind of marks inside medieval houses, often close to fireplaces. This coincides with the interest in and fear of witches,” he says, “which grew markedly during the second half of the sixteenth century.”
So who could have made these marks? Compasses from this time are exceedingly rare in the archaeological record. Champion speculates that they could have been made using the little shears that women tended to carry around with them. “The shears would be about the right size, so we think it could have been predominately women making these protective symbols around the font,” he says. Medieval women carried small shears, which they may have used to incise the circular graffiti designs.
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St. Nicholas' in Blakeney, which was located at the harbor mouth of a bustling medieval port, is the site of much intricately drawn graffiti depicting ships.
At St. Nicholas' church in Blakeney, the village that sat at the harbor mouth of the Glaven Port, Champion squeezes past some wooden paneling to view part of a stone column normally hidden from view. Practiced in applying the right amount of raking light to make the designs emerge from the stonework, Champion flourishes his flashlight to reveal ship after ship etched at eye level and below—more than 30 in all, ranging in size from two to 12 inches. Every ship is intricately drawn, with details such as anchors, rigging, and flags. Like the font at St. Margaret's, the column holds minuscule flecks of paint, which confirm that the ships, faint today, would have once stood out boldly on a colored background. They reflect another side of life in a medieval port—the uncertainty that comes with a culture built on the hazards of the sea. “Most of them are single-masted cogs, which were typical trading ships in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries,” Champion says. By analyzing the types of ships depicted, he concluded that they were all drawn over a period of 200 to 300 years, and must have been tolerated by the priests of the day. “They could easily have repainted the column to cover them up,” he says, “but they didn't.”
It will never be known exactly who drew the ships, but it is no accident that they are clustered around the side altar of St. Nicholas—patron saint of those in peril upon the sea. “I think they were like little prayers made solid in stone, perhaps thanks for a voyage safely undertaken, a prayer for a voyage yet to come, or maybe a plea for a ship long overdue [to return to port],” he says. According to documentary records, the Glaven Port usually had 50 to 60 ships that would have considered the harbor home, and, on average, one ship was lost at sea every two or three years. “Some of these ships were taking people on pilgrimage, and when one ship was lost, that could be as many as 250 people gone in one go,” says Champion.
Ship graffiti from St. Nicolas' church, used as prayers for safe voyages, depict late 14th- and early 15th-century vessel designs.
Ship etchings are no surprise in a church so closely tied to the sea, but such pieces weren't only found in coastal churches. Champion and his volunteers have found them as far inland as Leicestershire, a good 50 miles from the coast. “This inland ship graffiti is quite possibly associated with pilgrimage, with people traveling to or from continental shrines,” he explains.
The church in Steeple Bumpstead, a small village in eastern England, doesn't have etchings of ships on its walls, but rather more stark, literal expressions of anxiety. “God help us, God help us, God help us,” reads an inscription dated 1348. “It is the scariest inscription I've ever seen and sends shivers down my spine,” says Champion, who documented a peak in inscriptions like this in the middle of the fourteenth century, when the Black Death swept across Europe. People were terrified of the mysterious disease, which wiped out entire villages and killed nearly half the European population over four years, and Steeple Bumpstead was particularly hard-hit. Meanwhile, in All Saints' and St. Andrew's in Kingston, near Cambridge, three names—Cateryn, Jane, and Amee—are inscribed, thought to belong to three children from one family who died during the 1515 plague outbreak.
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Crosses (highlighted) found carved in stone around church porches are thought to have been a way of sealing important agreements.
Written records clearly state that churches at the time were always locked, except during services. This reinforces the idea that the graffiti was made during Church services, condoned, and intended to be seen. “These were not the furtive scratchings of people making illicit messages, but were part of the ritualistic activity, which seems to have been quite widespread in the late Middle Ages,” Gardiner says. Indeed, some of the graffiti may have even been part of ceremonies. In many churches Champion found crosses scratched around the doors and in porch areas. “In medieval times documents and agreements were often signed in the porch, and it may have been that scratching a cross into the wall was a way of making an oath,” he says.
At St. Mary's in Wiveton, church graffiti depicts the crests of a patron family. Another form of Church ritual—the making of donations—was the subject of still more graffiti. In Wiveton, near Blakeney, a church column sports a strange angular symbol that also appears on a crest above the “parish chest,” a huge locked trunk, located on the other side of the church, used to hold the parish's valuables. In Wiveton, the chest had been donated by a local businessman named Raulf Greneway. Greneway's mark was memorialized on the plaque, but then was also repeated as graffiti on the column, perhaps as a symbol of the aspirations of the family or pride at their rise in society. “This man was a working man,” explains Champion, “who had done well for himself, and the mark on his crest is a kind of heraldry or guild mark for the working man, something that was passed down through the family after he had gone. It was their way of preserving the memory of their family for posterity.” Similar merchant's marks have turned up in the surveys across the country, though in most cases it has been impossible to trace the families to whom they belong.
And finally, some churches sport inscriptions made by stonemasons and architects for purely functional purposes. At Binham Priory, for example, sweeping lines represent working architectural drawings dating to the 1240s. The architect in this case was experimenting with a window design from France—called bar tracery—that the English were only beginning to employ at the time. In fact, the drawings have helped settle just how the church's large arched windows, long since collapsed, had been conceived. “It was totally revolutionary designwise,” says Champion, “and not the gradual progression in architecture we might have expected.” Taken together, all this graffiti provides Champion, his volunteers, and a visiting writer with a strong sense of connection with the people who scratched into church walls hundreds of years ago.
The daisy-wheel patterns from St. Margaret's transmit an aura of fear, protectiveness, and hope for the best possible start in life. Meanwhile, the exquisite little ships at Blakeney exude excitement but also terror about the unknown. And the merchant's marks represent the desire for a person or family to be remembered for posterity. Prior to the Protestant Reformation, which began in 1529 in England, people's relationships with God were officially mediated via priests or the Pope. “For me, the graffiti represents the religion and spirituality of ordinary individual people,” Champion says. “It was their opportunity to communicate with God without needing the interaction of a priest.” Following the Reformation, the amount of church graffiti declines. “After the Reformation, religion became more personal—you could read your own Bible for example—so perhaps people didn't feel the need to make their own individual mark on the church wall any more.”
At a time when writing materials were expensive and many people were illiterate, it seems that church walls were an accepted place to express one's deepest hopes and fears.
Kate Ravilious is a science journalist based in York, United Kingdom.
The Twisted Oak
The tale of ...
The Twisty Tree of Ide
In the village of Ide lived long ago a sprite who gave everyone as much trouble as possible. No-one knew where he came from or why he was so mischievous, but there were few cottagers who had not suffered from his tricks.
"Would'ee believe it now? If my milk 'ant turned sour upon me, and only April at that!" one villager would say to another.
"Yu doan' say so," sympathised her neighbour ;
"'tis thaccy ole sprite, I'll promise. My husband's cider was so sour as vinegar las' week. All his doin's, I'll warrant."
However she laboured, Mother Hexworthy couldn't get her butter to set anyhow, and said as much to Farmer Cheriton's wife.
"I b'an't surprised neither," said she; " that wicked ole sprite's around. My dough wouldn't rise for love nor money this mornin'. Flat and sour my bread is, and our Sunday cake's as heavy as ole clay."
Young girls were frightened to go home along the lanes in the dark, and old folks daren't so much as venture out of doors, such tricks did the wicked sprite play. Jumping and calling, mimicking and teasing as he did, all were frightened out of their wits. But when it came to such good peaceable neighbours as Mrs Trundle and Mrs Pease actually quarrelling in the high road, and all over such silly nonsense as whether 'twas an owl or a cat that kept Mr. Trundle awake, everyone agreed that something must be done. It was felt that the village of Ide would be getting a bad name. It would be an impossible place for respectable folk to live in. Something must be done and done quickly.
Let learning do its share, they argued. So an Oxford scholar who lived thereabouts was called in, and the case explained to him. Now what did he suggest?
The Oxford scholar no doubt gave serious thought to the matter, with the result that by dint of clever spells he succeeded in laying the ghost. But its spirit could not be got rid of so easily, and took refuge in a tree.
"Life's a deal quieter now, Mrs Hexworthy," said Farmer Cheriton's wife.
"Ess, fay. Tis that. Quite pleasant here in Ide now thaccy ole sprite's gone," returned her neighbour.
"But have'ee noticed that tree lately? The bark of it's twisted all round and round, for all the world like the curl on a corkscrew. Tis powerful queer, I reckon."
"You can't expect'n to take a girt likin' to a prison house," replied Mrs Cheriton. "So long as we b'an't pestered with'n I can't say as I minds the ole tree goin' fair twisty-like. I s'pose he'll wriggle round and round until he tires hisself, And a properer occupation too than worritin' us poor souls."
And everyone agreed with her, for so it seemed. The sprite's mischievous energies were now inside the tree trunk, and ever after the tree was known as the Twisty Tree of Ide.
To sneeze on Monday hastens anger,
To sneeze on Tuesday kiss a stranger ;
To sneeze on Wednesday stay at home.
To sneeze on Thursday far to roam ;
To sneeze on Friday give a gift,
To sneeze on Saturday receive a gift ;
To sneeze on Sunday before you break your fast,
You'll see your true love before the week is past.
From Folk Tales of Devon (1952), pp 61-63, by V. Day Sharman
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Still time to take part in tree photography competition - [Exeter City Council - Published: 3 November 2020]
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Another legend of the county of Devon ...
Tweet (05/11/2020):-
'Every 5th November at 8pm, in the Devon village of Shebbear, the Devil's Stone which lies in the village square is turned over by the bellringers. Photograph by my Dad ©Beaford Arts
@beaford
#Devon #photography #folklore #DevilsStone #Shebbear beafordarchive.org/archive-image/untitled-1384/ THREAD' - @JamesRavilious - [James Ravilious]
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