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Last Friday night saw us in Cirencester, at a private view for another exhibition of the work of Tony Meeuwissen. I've gone on about Tony's work before, but at the Corinium Museum was another chance to see it again. I can only say you must try and see it. It's only on until the end of October, but there may be other opportunities. I can't remember the last time my jaw literally dropped open at the sight of such incredible design and illustration, unless it was when I saw his exhibition in Stroud last year. The two playing cards above will give you a hint as to what's in store; they're from his deck of cards The Key To The Kingdom. There are beautiful signed prints available too, and whilst I'm in recommending mood, if you need a good hotel in the town then give The Fleece a go. What a lot of links, but it's worth it.
As an addendum to the last post, I give you The Wheel & Compass public house at Weston by Welland. Not just because they serve an excellent pint of Banks or Pedigree but because of its connection to the railway nearby. As you can see, it has a slightly odd upper storey that is obviously an addition. Originally this was a two storey ironstone pub with a thatched roof. But the arrival of surveyors in the adjoining fields in the mid-nineteenth century meant that life was to be as upturned as the Welland Valley pastures that surround it. An extra storey was added to the pub as a long dormitory for navvies working on the line. One can only imagine the scenes here on a Friday night. The drunkenness, the brawling, the lusting after women. Actually....
Back soon. With news of English Heritage's Festival of History, (there weren't nearly enough portable toilets), and whatever I come across in Cumberland and Westmorland.
Clumber Park is an ex-Ducal estate of 3,800 acres south east of Worksop in Nottinghamshire. The grand Palladian house, begun in 1760, has gone, leaving no sign of its passing other than that ethereal ghost that such places imprint on the mind. The substantial remains in the park include a two-and-a-half mile double avenue of limes leading down from the impressive Apleyhead Gate, the stables, a walled kitchen garden with the Long Range glasshouse and a Gothic Revival Chapel of 1889. The latter is one of the most impressive of its type. At least on the outside. I found inside deeply depressing, as dark sandstone interiors tend to be. So what captured my imagination most? Not difficult to guess, it's this pair of watering cans in a side room of the glasshouse. Unloved, unnoticed, I may have missed them altogether if a kindly sun hadn't decided to illuminate them just for a brief moment of time as I walked in. Only a few cans, I expect there were once many more. Up until the thirties there were twenty five gardeners toiling amongst the orchards and herbaceous borders or here in the glasshouse. And then it was all considered uneconomic. Pulling the house down in 1938 couldn't have helped.
Last Friday night saw us in Cirencester, at a private view for another exhibition of the work of Tony Meeuwissen. I've gone on about Tony's work before, but at the Corinium Museum was another chance to see it again. I can only say you must try and see it. It's only on until the end of October, but there may be other opportunities. I can't remember the last time my jaw literally dropped open at the sight of such incredible design and illustration, unless it was when I saw his exhibition in Stroud last year. The two playing cards above will give you a hint as to what's in store; they're from his deck of cards The Key To The Kingdom. There are beautiful signed prints available too, and whilst I'm in recommending mood, if you need a good hotel in the town then give The Fleece a go. What a lot of links, but it's worth it.
