Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
Stonecrop, viper’s bugloss, marsh woundwort, bream, banded demoiselle and a family of swans on our walk alongside the canal and the Calder today. Now we’re past midsummer’s day racken and bramble have grown up shoulder high, trees are in full leaf and on the riverside path, tall grasses are going to seed
Once known as Four Lane Ends, this is the view as it was in 1967 from Tithe Barn Street looking across Westfield Road to Jenkin Road, with Arnold Tattersfield’s newsagents on the left, Lee & Briggs ironmongers on the right. The fourth ‘lane’ on the near right is Manor Road.
I drew the little sketch that it’s based on while sitting at the Tithe Barn Street back entrance to the old Congregational Chapel (extreme left) while working as a teller when my dad was standing for Horbury Urban District Council. I had to politely ask every voter as they walked in for their number on the electoral roll. Towards the end of the day the local ‘independents’ (really Conservatives) would go around rounding up anyone who had promised to support them but hadn’t yet turned up.
The original of linocut was black on white but I like this reversed version, made by going for the wrong keyboard shortcut in Photoshop (Control+I instead of Control+Alt+I. After all these years I still get that wrong when I’m resizing an image). I’m currently re-scanning drawings of Horbury for a reprint of my local guide to the historic buildings of the town.
I was influenced by Daily Mail cartoonist Trog’s bold pen and ink drawings in the paper’s long-running cartoon strip Flook.
There’s just time for one last sowing for late summer vegetables. Going through the packets of seeds that we’ve already got in, there are eight that I can try but there’s only a 4 by almost 8 foot section of raised bed that I can fit them into, so I’ve gone for 2 foot squares instead of rows to get more in.
| Calendula | Carrot | Kohl Rabi | Spring Onion |
| Salad leaves | French bean | Perpetual Spinach | Pea |
Some of the crops, such as salad leaves, will stay where I’ve sown them but as we clear the potatoes and other crops over the next few weeks I’ll be able to plant some on, such as the French beans and perpetual spinach.
There are still a couple of candidates I haven’t drawn and it’s the Wakefield by-election tomorrow but here’s Mick Dodgson, standing for the Freedom Alliance and Paul Bickerdike of the Christian People’s Alliance.
I didn’t get around to drawing Therese Hirst, standing for the English Democrats, but here she is in a drawing I made when she was standing in the election for a Mayor for West Yorkshire a year or so ago.
Two more of our candidates in the Wakefield by-election: Christopher Jones, Northern Independence Party and Jordan Gaskell, UKIP. If Jordan gets elected on Thursday he’ll be the first Gaskell to represent Wakefield since Daniel Gaskell, who represented the borough as a radical independent from 1832 to 1837.
“Robin Hood being sore smitten with fever, betook himself to the prioress of Kirklees, his own cousin and one cunning in leechcraft, to let blood, the which false and cruel woman, being thereunto set on by her infamous favourite Sir Roger of Doncaster, having blooded him in the arm, would by no means staunch the same, but so left him.
“He in a while, finding himself like to die, sounded feebly a blast on his bugle-horn; whereat Little John, his fellow and most trusty friend, doubting that his gentle master had fallen into some grievous strait, speedily made way into the chamber where he lay, and perceiving the truth of the matter, would incontinently have set fire on the house; but Robin would not that he should do any violence, and calling for bow and arrow, let fly through the window, bidding Little John to bury him wheresoever he should find the arrow; and straightway there he died.”
Portions of the old ballad of Robin Hood relating to the subject are introduced on a scroll at the base of the subject, and run as follows:-
“Yet he was beguiled, I wis,
By a wicked woman,
The prioress of Kirkleys,
That nigh was of his kin.
For the love of a knight,
Sir Roger of Doncaster,
That was her own special.
“Give me my bent bow in my hand,
And a broad arrow I’ll let flee;
And where this arrow is taken up,
There shall my grave digged be.
Lay me a green sod under my head,
And another at my feet;
And lay my bent bow at my side,
Which was my music sweet.”
Another verse of an old ballad is inscribed on the flag across the canopy-work:-“Gentles and yeomen all, comely, courteous, and good, one of the best that ever bore bow, his name was Robin Hood;” and on the other side, ” God have mercy on Robin Hood, and save all good yeomanry.”
The collar round the greyhound’s neck has the suggestive motto, “Fidèle à la mort.”
The grotesque figures about the canopies and the cabinet, the serpent strangling the eagle, which supplies the place of one of the crockets; the tapestries in the background, on one of which is represented Jael about to drive the nail into the head of Sisera; and other details, are all arranged so as to carry out the general idea of the artist, who, we would add, has produced a very excellent and original work, which, owing to its unfortunate position in the building, could not be properly appreciated.
The design and cartoons for the Robin Hood window were drawn entirely by Sebastian Evans, Esq., M.A., at a time when he was manager of the artistic department of the Messrs. Chance’s glass-works, but who has since entered into business on his own account. The glass was manufactured at the establishment under his superintendence.
“THE high reputation of the Messrs. Chance as glass-manufacturors is so widely extended that further eulogium on our part would be quite superfluous.
On referring to the official Report of the Jury, Class 34, we find the following remarks :
Messrs. Chance Brothers & Co. are large exhibitors in the English department, of crown-glass, sheet-glass of all descriptions, coloured pot-metal, and flashed glass of all colours, patent plate, patent rolled plate, stained and embossed glass, and stained windows. Mr. Chance having kindly consented to act as one of the Jurors in this class, is thus prevented from receiving a medal, to which he is so well entitled. The report made by the experts upon the glass exhibited by Messrs. Chance & Co. places it, in most respects, without a rival.
To Mr. Evans also is due one of the best reviews on the glass department of the International Exhibition, which appeared in the «Practical Mechanic’s Magazine,” Parts VIII. and IX., 1862.
Both at the Exhibitions of 1851 and 1855, in London and Paris, the highest encomiums of the Juries were given to the window and optical glass of the Messrs. Chance; and the Jury of 1851 specially praised ” the magnitude and variety of operations undertaken by this firm, the merit of their works, the liberality, intelligence, and spirit of enterprise which they have manifested, at great cost and risk, in experiments tried for the purpose of introducing into this
country branches of manufacture almost exclusively practised hitherto by continental enterprise.”
My thanks to L. Addyman of Brighouse for passing this Victorian print on to me. It was Chromolithographed and Published by Day & Son, London, ‘Lithographers to the Queen, J. B. Waring direx.’
These notes are adapted from a leaflet supplied with the print, which is numbered ‘Plate 262.’ There’s a French translation on the back of the page.
From the latest date mentioned in the notes and the comment: ‘a very excellent and original work, which, owing to its unfortunate position in the building, could not be properly appreciated’, my guess is that this was an exhibit in the International Exhibition of 1862.
Giant sequoia, hoverfly and bumblebee on hypericum and common spotted orchids at Brodsworth Hall this morning.
Drawn with a Canada goose quill that I picked up at Cannon Hall last week, another colourful candidate in our Wakefield by-election: Sir Archibald Stanton, Earl ‘Eaton, Monster Raving Loony Party.
Happy birthday to Simon, who’s been dipping his toes in the water in Brighton.
Our first attempt at the Great Yorkshire Creature Count got off to a good start with four elephant hawkmoths in the moth trap this morning, along with peppered moth, flame and heart and dart. I left the box wedged right up against the hedge under the crab apple so that they don’t get picked off by the birds.
I set up the trail cam on the bird table this morning but caught only the regular visitors.
Smooth newts are on the list of creatures that the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust would like us to count, so I did a bit of pond dipping. While I was at it, I skimmed off the duckweed and started taking out the slimy algae that has built up and sunk down into the pond, but this was where most of the newts were hunkered down, so I’ll leave that for another day.
Woodpigeon, dunnock, starling, bullfinch, chaffinch, magpie, greenfinch
Butterfly: Large skipper
Moths (UV trap): peppered moth, common swift, elephant hawkmoth, the flame, heart and dart
I know a lot of the species that the YWT Creature Count is asking use monitor are present but they didn’t show up on the day and I didn’t go digging about to find them.
I tried an overnight trail cam but whatever triggered it once in the middle of the night didn’t show up in the video clip.