Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
More progress with my St Peter’s spire model the the John Carr display. I’ve done it all by eye but as I added frieze, balustrade and pilasters to the belfry I realised that even adding a slither of card to my model would change the proportions. I’ve been working from a photograph and one of my drawings made close to the church so the spire isn’t as tall and soaring as it appears when seen from a distance across the valley.
My first day – my first ever day – with a very faint positive test for Covid-19 and I’m taking the chance of being grounded to catch up with my cardboard model of St Peter’s Church, Horbury, spire for my John Carr tricentenary exhibit in the Redbox Gallery.
Barbara’s brother John unfortunately caught covid at the hospice but, as of this morning when we made a video call to him, he wasn’t showing any covid symptoms.
It’s a bit of a challenge fitting the life and works of Yorkshire architect John Carr into a phone box but I’ve got all the elements here:
To speed up constructing the models from cardboard cartons, I’ve invested in a glue gun. For think corrugated cardboard like this I find a stout pair of scissors more useful than a sharp craft knife.
Rather than go for regular architectural drawings I’ve used the exercise of drawing without lifting the pen from the paper for this facade of Harewood’s Grand Lodge for next month’s John Carr anniversary show in Horbury’s Redbox Gallery.
The split complementary colour scheme comes from my experiments with Procreate.
I’m going to experiment with 3D versions, building up the facade in card.
We’re going on a bear hunt . . .
On a moonlit night on Thursday 7th November 1867, sixty villagers from Newmillerdam joined a hue and cry to track down a bear that had gone missing from its den after a small travelling menagerie, which had set up on the banks of the lake, closed down for the day.
Tracking it with the aid of a naphtha lamp, the hunters gave chase as the bear made its way across the road and reached the mill race. It backtracked across the road and followed the muddy shore of the lake which was low at the time.
It appeared to consider plunging in but surprised its hunters by changing its mind and suddenly turning back towards them. In the rush to escape it most of the hunting party ended up falling into the mud and, according to the report in the Leeds Mercury, ‘got well soused’.
Back across the road again the bear found the archway leading to the waterfall at the outlet from the lake and again turned the tables on its pursuers by suddenly turning back towards them.
It was almost cornered in a pear tree in the garden of a Mr Woodhouse but made its way out across open country.
Finally, back in Mr Woodhouse’s garden his pursuers got the chance to ‘push him down and catch him in a tub’ and return him to his den.
I wanted to share my colourised Victorian photographs with my cousins in Sheffield so I’ve put together a ‘story-so-far’ booklet based on my recent blog posts.
Reading through the text again I’ve spotted one misnamed character, so it’s been worth doing it from that point of view but also seeing it in print helps me in considering the story that I’m hoping to tell.
In booklet form information isn’t just floating about in blog posts or stuffed into files, envelopes and albums distributed around my studio and the attic.
The Target House at Brodsworth Hall, built 1866 and originally thatched.
My grandad Robert Bell’s family: the Bells of Blaco Hill, Mattersey. That’s grandad, back row on the right.
According to my diary (above) Grandma gave me the photograph 50 years ago today when we called at Sutton-cum-Lound on Christmas Day 1972. My dad’s elder brother, Uncle Fred, was also there.
Grandad and Grandma had such large families that my father claimed that he could never sort out who all his aunties and uncles were. Somewhere I’ve got a key to the photograph but until I put my hands on it I’m as clueless as my dad was.
At least I know that this is my great grandfather, John Bell, born 1842, an agricultural labourer, later working as a groom at Blaco Hill.
And this is great grandma Helena Bell, born in 1845.
Look forward to finding out more about the Bells and my grandma’s family the Bagshaws as I’ve been so involved with the other side of the family, the Swifts and the Trueloves of Sheffield.
Blaco Hill Cottages – looks like the perfect location for a Bell Family reunion!
I’m currently catching up with a free FutureLearn course Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree from the University of Strathclyde and thought that this oak in the Capability Brown parkland (drastically remodelled by the National Coal Board Opencast Executive in 1975!) at Temple Newsam this morning was perfect for a basic family tree.
On the course we’ve been warned about the dangers of getting sidetracked – in my case that would be my Truelove great uncles – especially one particular Great Uncle Joe who had a rather colourful life. Coming back to this basic tree with aunties and uncles excluded makes me realise where I need to put in a bit more research into the basic structure. I’ve probably got most of those missing great grandparents covered in my folders of research but this is all that I remember without riffling through the various census forms and birth, baptism, marriage and death certificates that I’ve accumulated.
But I do look forward to getting back to my ‘bad’ Great Uncle Joe and the wife, Mary Tinker who attempted to murder him . . .
Pickering, a great town for a celebration . . . particularly a rather special one.
Happy birthday to Paul (last weekend).