Today, once more I have been lost in memory. It started with Anna Dillon's painting of the downs, both in Wiltshire and Oxfordshire, she came to a megalithic meeting at the Red Lion in Avebury and Paul and I met her. It reminded me of all the churches Paul and I visited around Avebury. Then of course another memory flashed by, this time Robin (1904-1988) and Heather Tanner, they worked and lived round that part of Wiltshire at Kington Langley.
Watch the half hour video of this lovely couple above, and his exquisitely engraved prints capturing the old English countryside long lost and perhaps more importantly the wild flowers. They, always inseparable, collaborated on a book which you will see towards the end.
Deborah Harvey, a poet from Bristol, you will see her name on the side bar, wrote about an outing to their Arts and Craft house, Old Chapel Field in Kington Langley in a blog here.
It is coffee time, join me if you will.
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| The Hovel |
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| Old Chapel Field House |
What a joy to witness Robin Tanner's craftsmanship and boyish enthusiasm. It puts an entirely new slant on the old request, "Come up and see my etchings darling!" Marvellous.
ReplyDeleteOld film but it captures that moment of time, so much richer but slower. He reminded me a bit of John Betjeman, who used to live in Calne where I did at one time, though I think he was dead by the time I got there. We have a lot to be thankful in the digital age for Youtube and its many shots of history.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how much the young appreciate it though Thelma - I think it is only as one gets older that these things really appeal.
ReplyDeleteWell what I try to do with my blog is record things I find for later viewing Pat. As for the young, one has just passed through needing to grow up. But what I find is not necessarily for the young or old.
ReplyDeleteI finally found time to watch the first half of Watch Stranger this afternoon - brought me to tears when he was drawing the wild daffodils as it looked like he was at our favourite church, Kempley. The wild daffodils will be short on admirers this spring . . .
ReplyDeleteI too have finally got round to watching this video after realising I had it open as a tab on my laptop. So beautiful, thank you so much for sharing. My grandparents spent many years living in Wiltshire, it was where they lived when I was growing up, a place we spent many hours exploring and visiting. It is a beautiful county but a long way from where I live now.
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