Landscape and Rural History

It is strange how my path seems to keep crossing and re-crossing that of the mid 20th Century artist and writer, Thomas Hennell.
His work has provided me with much information, inspiration and encouragement and so it seemed only right to show my appreciation and celebrate his memory.

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How Oliver Goldsmith's poem 'The Deserted Village' inspired a painting, many years ago, and why his words and the image formed in my mind from them still dwell with me today.

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Can landscape art mediate a link between us and figures from the past, defying the passage of time in a place?

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How the enigma of an old plough in the nettles led to an insight into the landscape all around and helped seed a lifelong interest in the significance of ploughs, ploughing and ploughlands.

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How looking at the roots of the old words for the hills and other places in the landscape around us, can bring us into closer touch with our surroundings.

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How a place name comes about in the first place and what it might tell us about those who first used the name.

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The open field system represented a way of life that allowed our recent forbears to live a balanced life, albeit a hard working one, in touch with the land. It gave them the means to provide their own dignity and a degree of independence. I came to see how much more ubiquitous it was than I had once thought, and how its presence and loss through enclosure was a great tragedy that is still really relevant today.

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