Issue 60 - The Bowes Museum

AUTUMN 2015 // Number 60
What’s inside:
Yves in Marrakesh PAGE 6
Richard III – Saint or Sinner? PAGE 8
Bonaparte and the Bowes PAGE 10
Gresgarth Hall Gardens PAGE 16
Friends of
the Bowes
Museum
Bowes Arts
AUTUMN 2015 // Number 60
(Fr. beaux arts = Eng. fine arts) is the Newsletter of
the Friends of the Bowes Museum, named after a
competition among Friends in December 2011.
In this issue
3
4
5
6
8
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 18 20 21 22 23 24 From the Chair
From the Director
The Passion Altarpiece
Yves in Marrakesh
Richard III: Saint or Sinner?
Bonaparte and the Bowes
Current Exhibitions
Friends’ Events this Autumn
How to Book Friends’ Events
Friends’ Committee
Esther Rantzen’s ‘Silver Line’
Gresgarth Hall Gardens
More on Merrie England
Education Update
The Lightness of Lace
The Roman Fort Museum
News from BAfM; Editorial
Our Sponsors
On the cover: The Berber Museum in
the Majorelle Gardens, Marrakesh. With
acknowledgement to the Fondation Paul Bergé –
Yves Saint Laurent, Paris.
See the special feature on pages 6 and 7
On this page: Napoleon I in his Coronation
Robes, by Anne-Louis Girodet, 1812. With
acknowledgement to the Bowes Museum, Barnard
Castle. See the special feature on page 10
PAGE 2
From the Chair
FRIENDS
OF THE
BOWES
Dear Friends,
As we move into summer, what
about following the advice of
Jerry Saltz, New York magazine’s
senior art critic? He writes:
‘Summer is a great time to visit
art museums, which offer the
refreshing rinse of swimming
pools – only instead of cool water,
you immerse yourself in art.’
With so many new things happening at
the Bowes Museum, this is an ideal time
to immerse ourselves in art, be it the art of
the celebrated fashion designer Yves Saint
Laurent or that of countless, often unnamed,
ceramicists in the new displays on the
museum’s second floor. We hope Friends will
make use of their privileged access to enjoy
these to the full.
In terms of Friends’ events, art is also our
focus in September, when those involved in
the conservation of the Flemish altarpiece will
tell how they met the challenges it presented
and delivered the spectacular revelation that
greets the visitor today.
MUSEUM
In the centre pages you will, as usual, find
details of the Friends’ forthcoming events
but, in response to requests, an independent
booking sheet. This offers more than one
form, which avoids the pressure to book for all
events at once. Please remember, though, that
a prompt application will always be the safest
way of ensuring a place.
Please also give us your email address so that
last-minute changes to our plans can reach
you or we can let you know when a sudden
opportunity opens up. This happened with
the visit of Dame Esther Rantzen, who gave
us a very lively talk about her new charity, the
Silver Line; sadly we only had time to notify
those we could reach by email.
We hope to see you frequently throughout the
summer and autumn, and we remind you that
if you would like to support the Friends by
helping in any capacity, whether in the office,
at individual events or on trips we should be
delighted to hear from you!
Caroline Peacock
Inspired by all these developments, your
Friends’ Committee members have also
chosen this summer as the right moment for
an update of our newsletter. Change always
brings comment, and some may be taken
aback by the new design and slightly increased
size of Bowes Arts, but we felt that a more
contemporary style was overdue. We hope
you will welcome the result.
PAGE 3
From the Director
Recently a wonderful picture
has come to our attention. It’s an
unfinished portrait by Thomas
Gainsborough of John Joseph Merlin,
maker of our wonderful Silver Swan.
Painted in the mid to late 1780s, the
portrait shows Merlin holding another
of his inventions, the miniature scale
he devised for testing the weight (and
thus legitimacy) of currency.
The prime version of the picture was
exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1782,
and is today at Kenwood House. The
version we are offered was probably made
by Gainsborough for Merlin, though there
is no early provenance for it. However,
Merlin never owned the Kenwood painting,
and there is some evidence of a transaction
between Merlin and Gainsborough which
would accord with Merlin owning this
painting. Merlin was Belgian, so perhaps
this portrait ended up in Belgium on
account of his family.
Alison Nicholson, the Bowes
Museum’s Digital Communications
& Fundraising Officer, celebrates the
unveiling of the museum’s restored
fifteenth-century Flemish altarpiece
and updates us on the Catalyst
Endowment Fund.
Gainsborough’s unfinished portrait of J. J. Merlin
PAGE 4
On 22 April, the newly conserved Flemish
altarpiece was blessed by the Right Reverend
Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham. This was the
culmination of a year’s hard work, including
fundraising on the Art Fund’s crowdfunding
platform Art Happens, conservation of the
‘oil on panel’ pictures by Jon Old and Paul
Turner and the creation of a new oak case
and altar by Rupert McBain and his team at
Winston.
Whilst we would have liked to have invited
all 196 donors, the event was kept to a small
group of higher level donors and those
involved in fundraising. The person who
received the highest reward, in return for
donating £995 towards the £21,000 total, was
given the exciting job of opening the shutters
for the first time to reveal the beautifully
conserved paintings, re-united oak carvings
and new gilded pillars. As he did, there was
an audible gasp from the guests, followed by a
round of applause.
The price to the Bowes is £27.5k: cheap for
a Gainsborough of an important sitter, but
there is an old tear across the face and down
the right hand side of the jacket. Though
it has been well repaired, that affects the
value. However, the portrait would look
wonderful hanging in the gallery where the
swan is played and would give our visitors a
sense of the man behind our most popular
exhibit.
Adrian Jenkins
The Passion Altarpiece
is a real ‘crowd-pleaser’!
Merlin’s swan automaton, 1772 - 1774
It was a truly memorable evening, and I’d like
to thank all the donors, all those who helped
fundraise and the conservators who have
made the altarpiece a magnificent focal point
of the Early Picture Gallery.
The Bishop of Durham with the formerly hidden
paintings of St Anthony, the Family of Zebedee & the
Four Fathers of the Church
If you haven’t seen it yet, please do visit
to enjoy this amazing example of early
Renaissance art, or come along to the Friends’
event on 4th September (see page 12).
Following our Art Happens success, we are
focussing our attention on the ‘window of
opportunity’ for doubling donations into our
Catalyst Endowment Fund until June 2016.
Donations received to date total £342,000
and the new Catalyst donation box in
reception has already received gift-aided
donations.
Our first conservation project to be funded
by the interest on the investment of the
endowment means that Napoleon III’s boots
are now back from the specialist leather
conservator. We sincerely thank the Friends
and all those who have already donated.
Please keep sharing our fundraising message
and help us reach our target of £1m in the
coming year.
PAGE 5
Yves in Marrakesh:
the Jardin Majorelle
by Tony Seward
As a twentieth-century artist, Saint Laurent was well aware of the way that
predecessors such as Braque and Picasso took inspiration from the so-called
‘primitive art’ of Africa and Oceania, while Matisse was drawn to the Orient.
He would pay homage to all three artists in his own creations.
Saint Laurent’s tendency to use non-European
cultural references suggests the abiding
influence of his North African upbringing,
while his developing preference for black
models – including the British supermodel
Naomi Campbell, Katoucha Niane from
Senegal, Iman from Somalia and Mounia
from Martinique – challenged European
standards of beauty.
Yves Saint Laurent was born in Algeria to
French colonists. As a designer, he had the
genius to hybridise Africa and Europe, art
and fashion, the active and the spectacular.
As a product of French ‘civilisation’ who grew
up on the edge of Africa, and as a gay man
with a profound appreciation of women’s
bodies, he was himself a hybrid. During his
scintillating rise to international fame, Saint
Laurent became well-known for his stylistic
gender-blending – for example, the merging
of men’s and women’s wear aptly described as
Masculin/Féminin in the splendid catalogue of
the current show at the Bowes Museum.
Having left Algeria in the 1950s, Saint
Laurent found a refuge in Morocco in the
1960s. In 1980 he and Pierre Bergé bought
the garden and house created by the French
PAGE 6
painter Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962),
which were at that point semi-derelict. As
well as developing the garden, they adapted
Majorelle’s house and former studio – a
significant Modernist building in its own
right – to house Bergé’s collection of Berber
artefacts.
When Saint Laurent died in 2008, his
ashes were scattered there. Subsequently,
the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves
Saint Laurent absorbed the Fondation
Majorelle, set up in 2001 to safeguard
the ecological, historical and cultural
legacy represented by the garden and the
museum. In 2011, the Berber Museum was
inaugurated with a major exhibition, ‘Yves
Saint Laurent and Morocco’.
Many Friends will remember supporting
the purchase of the Jacques Grűber glass
panels a few years ago. Like Grűber, Jacques
Majorelle was born in Nancy, the son of the
famous Art Nouveau furniture designer Louis
Majorelle, whose home in that city Friends
visited in 2012. Apart from his paintings of
Moroccan subjects, Jacques Majorelle is best
known for the striking, and still very popular,
posters which he designed to promote tourism
to the country in the 1920s. These combine
cheerfulness, bright colours and just enough
hint of the exotic to entice the traveller.
Having had the good fortune to visit the
Jardin Majorelle last year, I can confirm that
it is a must-see for anyone planning to spend
a few days in Marrakesh. You approach the
garden along – of course – the Rue Yves Saint
Laurent. On entering, the overwhelming
first impression is of the ubiquitous deep
ultramarine used on the hard landscaping and
decorative pots, a colour patented by the artist
as Majorelle Blue. The garden, originally
developed on the edge of a palm grove, is
essentially an oasis, featuring palm trees, cacti,
bamboo, and flowering shrubs, interspersed
with lily ponds and fountains.
At its centre is the Berber Museum, whose
collection is divided into Traditional Skills,
Jewels and Finery (dress and textiles). The
climax is a darkened gallery with a few
discreetly-lit Berber costumes under a starlit
dome, evoking night in the desert. The
museum could actually be anywhere, but its
location within the garden neatly combines
two major sources of Saint-Laurent’s
creative vision: North African culture and
European style.
‘We were seduced by this oasis where
colours used by Matisse were mixed
with those of nature.’
Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent: Une passion marocaine (2010)
PAGE 7
Anthony Pollard is Emeritus Professor of
History at Teesside University and an expert
on the north of England in the Wars of the
Roses. His publications include The Kingmaker
(on Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick) and
Richard III and the Princes in the Tower (now
available as a lavishly illustrated ebook).
Richard III:
Saint or Sinner?
by A J Pollard
The rediscovery of Richard III’s body in Leicester, and the creation of a shrine
to him in Leicester Cathedral, have generated extraordinary interest in the last
Plantagenet king of England. Those who heard the recent lecture by Lin Foxhall
will be familiar with the story of the discovery of his remains and the detective
work involved in proving beyond reasonable doubt that the skeleton was of
his body. The most remarkable finding was that he suffered from scoliosis and
indeed had a twisted back leading to one shoulder being higher than the other,
as was rumoured within a few years of his death.
‘Queen Margaret’, by Gerald Scarfe
© Gerald Scarfe
For the art historian this raises an intriguing
conundrum. For it is well established that the
surviving representations of Richard, dating
from the late sixteenth century (one hundred
years after his death), but almost certainly based
on a lost likeness, as the reconstruction of his
skull confirms, were ‘doctored’.
Analysis of the best-known portrait (pictured
here) shows that the right shoulder was later
over-painted and raised to conform with the
then current view of his deformity. This used
to be interpreted as an addition to reinforce the
blackening of his name; but now we can see that
it was a ‘correction’ of an image that had not
originally shown the sitter ‘warts and all’. So
who was guilty of airbrushing: the commissioner
of the original portrait, possibly the king himself,
from which the surviving copy was first made,
or the copyist? Did the original portraitist even
know about the king’s condition?
In truth, however, questions about
representations of Richard III’s appearance
make but little difference to how modern
historians interpret his life and reign. They do
nothing to resolve the mystery of the fate of his
brother’s two sons in 1483, one the boy king
Edward V, whom he took into his care and to
whom he initially swore allegiance. His actions
that year divided contemporaries as deeply as
they continue to divide modern opinion.
In this respect one may perhaps liken him to a
later, controversial ruler, Margaret Thatcher,
hated and loved in equal measure (witness the
recent exhibition of Gerald Scarfe’s cartoons
at the Bowes Museum), who continues to
be reviled or admired (witness the revival of
controversy at the time of her death).
We have a Milk Snatcher or a Blessed Margaret;
we have a Child Killer or Saint Richard.
Thatcher, however, succeeded and therefore the
dominant account of her years is favourable to
her, while his was written by his enemies. This
does not, in itself, make it invalid, any more than
the dominant interpretation of the Thatcher
years is in itself unfounded. Assessments of both
will always be contested because they were
contested in their own times. The historian of
both has to be disinterested.
Richard III, by an unknown artist,
© National Portrait Gallery
PAGE 8
PAGE 9
JOHN & JOSEPHINE
Bonaparte
and the Bowes
Current Exhibitions
The Bowes Museum’s honorary
archivist, Judith Phillips, describes a
new display – created by volunteers,
students and staff – to mark the 200th
anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo
and John and Joséphine Bowes’
fascination with Napoleon Bonaparte.
As Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of
Waterloo took place in June 1815, we decided to
use some of the cases in the John and Joséphine
Gallery to display material about the French
Emperor that was collected by Mr and Mrs
Bowes. There was so much to choose from that
we could only put out a small selection.
In the Picture Gallery are several portraits of
Bonaparte’s family, as well as the splendid one
of Napoleon I in his coronation robes, painted
in 1812 (see page 2). We found John’s catalogue
entry for this painting, which he thought was by
David, though it was in fact by his pupil Girodet.
In contrast, there are three German cartoons
poking fun at Napoleon’s imperial pretensions
and his anxieties as a general. You can compare
the depictions of the confident emperor with the
ridiculous figure in the cartoons.
Among the memorabilia are a number of items
bearing Napoleon’s image. These include a snuff
box of Amoyna wood (c. 1830) and a gilded
cup of Paris Porcelain (c. 1810). A bust of the
Emperor in enamelled Staffordshire earthenware
dates from before Waterloo, while another
marble bust can be matched to a bill from the
archives – always satisfying!
PAGE 10
Prehistoric People Until 13 September
There are two Waterloo medals, which were
given to all who took part in the battle. One
man who would not have received this medal
was John Cooper from Startforth. He served
right through the Peninsular War in Spain and
Portugal and, like so many British veterans,
was with his regiment in America at the time
of Waterloo. In old age, Cooper wrote his
memoirs of the campaigns: there is a copy in the
Reference Library.
We were surprised at how many books about
Napoleon’s life and military career were in the
library of John Davidson that Bowes inherited
from his cousin Susan Davidson. Clearly
Bonaparte was of great interest to both men.
The Battle of Waterloo ended a quarter of a
century of warfare in Europe that began with the
French Revolution. The period fascinated John
and Joséphine Bowes, and it still fascinates today.
An informative and entertaining exhibition
which explores over 700,000 years of history
in one gallery. Artefacts from the Bowes
Museum’s own collection will be displayed
alongside items from the Yorkshire Museum,
and there is an ongoing programme of
activities for adults and children. Details on:
www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk/events
Napoleon and the Bowes
Until May 2016
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of
the Battle of Waterloo, volunteers, students
and staff have curated this fascinating
selection of items associated with Napoleon
which were collected by the nineteenthcentury Founders of the Bowes Museum. The
display in the John and Joséphine Gallery
includes ceramics, cartoons and medals,
complementing the Napoleonic portraits in
the Picture Galleries.
Yves Saint Laurent:
Style is Eternal
Until 25 October
In partnership with the Paris-based Fondation
Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, the Bowes
Museum hosts the first major retrospective
in the UK dedicated to one of the greatest
fashion designers of all time. Yves Saint
Laurent’s creative career spanned half a
century, from the 1950s to the millennium.
This show will highlight the defining elements
of his vision and his continuing international
influence on what women wear.
To meet the exceptional interest in this
spectacular exhibition, advance tickets for
timed entry have been available since June,
both at the museum and online. Friends of
the Bowes Museum will, as usual, have the
privilege of free unlimited entry. If you can
offer some time to represent the Friends and
assist in stewarding the many visitors expected
over the coming months, please contact the
Friends’ Office (details on page 13).
PAGE 11
Friends’ Events - Autumn 2015
Restoring the Flemish Altarpiece
Friday 4 September 10.15 for 11.00 am
John Bowes favoured early religious art, and
bought the magnificent ‘Passion’ altarpiece
by the Master of the View of St Gudule
from his regular supplier, Monbro, in 1859,
possibly intending it for a private chapel.
We shall hear from Alison Nicholson who
led the appeal through the Art Fund’s new
crowdfunding scheme Art Happens, Jon Old
and Paul Turner who restored the paintings,
and Rupert McBain whose team restored the
woodwork.
Coffee and biscuits will be served.
Friends £10
Guests £13
❏
❏
An ‘All Things Belgian’ Evening
Tuesday 20 October 7.00 pm
In this issue, Adrian Jenkins draws attention
to an unexpected opportunity: to acquire a
portrait by Thomas Gainsborough of John
Joseph Merlin, who made the Silver Swan.
The Friends would like to help raise funds –
but have a little fun too. Are there really only
two famous Belgians? Surely Merlin, at least,
should be added to the list! We invite you to
an entertaining event to celebrate everything
Belgian and to explore all ten (or not even
that many?) things we know about Belgium as
well. So swot up your Belgian knowledge for
a devilishly tricky quiz, and we promise you
a surprise here and there, as well as a special
delicacy or two, in honour of Joseph Merlin.
Refreshments are included.
Friends and Guests £15
❏
Excavations near Cataractonium Friday 6 November 2.00 pm
Anyone who regularly uses the A1 travelling
south will have noticed the recently completed
archaeological dig to the east of the road near
Catterick, where road widening is now taking
place. These excavations were led by Richard
Fraser of Northern Archaeological Associates,
and we are delighted that he has accepted our
invitation to come and tell us more about the
extraordinary discoveries made and what they
have revealed about the early history of this
key trading and transport route.
Afternoon tea will follow this talk.
Friends £12
Guests £15
❏
Lighting the Friends’
Christmas Tree
Sunday 29 November 2.30 - 4.30 pm
As this event is principally aimed at children,
we have decided on a complete change of
time and day of the week. We hope that
picking a weekend afternoon will enable many
more young families to join us for music, craft
activities, meeting Green Santa and enjoying
the moment when the lights on the tree are
switched on by ... I wonder who?
The Bowes Café and Shop will be open.
Free to all after 2.30 pm
Barnard Castle School
Carol Concert
Friday 11 December 7.30 pm
The Friends look forward to this event
every year. Please make a note of the date
and remember that early booking is always
advised.
Drinks and nibbles will be served from 7.00pm.
Friends £10
Guests £13
❏
PAGE 12
❏
❏
How to Book Friends’ Events
You may use the enclosed page of booking forms to book events one at a time, if
you wish, but remember that early booking is advised and is essential for visits
and day trips.
(Please do not use these booking forms for Museum events.)
✔ Complete a separate booking form for each event,and record your choices in the boxes
❏
on page 12.
✔ Enclose a cheque, made payable to ‘Friends of the Bowes Museum’, covering the total cost
❏
of events booked.
✔ Include a stamped and self-addressed envelope for the return of your tickets; bookings not
❏
accompanied by an SAE will result in tickets being held for collection at the event.
✔ Mark the outer envelope ‘Events’ and address to the Friends’ Office, the Bowes Museum,
❏
Barnard Castle, DL12 8NP.
Tickets are non-refundable unless an event is unavoidably cancelled by the Friends. Please allow
at least a week to receive tickets by post.
How to Contact the Friends
Or find out more about joining us
Friends’ Office
The Bowes Museum
Barnard Castle
County Durham
DL12 8NP
Voicemail: 01833 690 606 ext. 233
Email: [email protected]
www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk
Subscribe to our emailing list and
become part of our online community
Follow us on twitter @friendsoffice
The Friends’ Office is run by volunteers,
so it will not always be possible to speak to
someone. If you leave a telephone message, or
send an email, we will get back to you as soon
as we can.
Registered Charity Number 507680
PAGE 13
FRIENDS’ EVENT
Friends of the Bowes Museum
Committee, 2015 - 2016
Esther Rantzen’s
‘Silver Line’
by Ian Kirkbride and Peter Wood
Dot Beeny of Teesdale Day
In April, the well-known campaigner and TV presenter
Clubs with Dame Esther
(photo: Teesdale Mercury)
Esther Rantzen DBE took part in Darkness to Light, a
Holocaust Memorial performance at Durham Cathedral
presented by InterOpera. The Friends were delighted that, at short notice,
Dame Esther also agreed to visit the Bowes Museum to talk about her career
and her latest charity.
Some Committee Members with Esther Rantzen, April 2015. From left to right: Moppet Cooke-Hurle, Jonathan
Peacock, Vicky Chilcott, Jo Crowe, Caroline Peacock, Esther Rantzen DBE, Susan Kirkbride, Clarissa Milbank.
(Photo by Ian Kirkbride.)
Patron: The Earl of Strathmore
Current Committee Members:
President: The Hon. Harry Vane
Dianne Austin (2016)
Vice-Presidents:
Vicky Chilcott (2016)
George Laing
Joanna Crowe (2017)
Lesley Taylor MBE
Elizabeth Gott (2017)
Fiona Turnbull
Moppet Cooke-Hurle (2018)
Heather Scott OBE
Niall Hammond (2018)
Chairman: Caroline Peacock
Jonathan Peacock (2018)
Vice-Chairman: Sandra Moorhouse
All of the above can be reached through the
Friends’ Office (see page 13)
Hon. Secretary: Clarissa Milbank
Hon. Asst. Secretary: Susan Kirkbride
Attending on behalf of the museum:
Hon. Treasurer: John Bird
Jane Whittaker
Hon. Asst. Treasurer: Shirley Richardson
Rosie Bradford
PAGE 14
Dame Esther Rantzen was in the North
East, with Kevin Whately and other stars,
to commemorate the seventieth anniversary
of the liberation in 1945 of the Nazi
concentration camp Bergen – Belsen. That
involved troops from the Durham Light
Infantry, while Dame Esther’s godmother was
there as a Quaker relief worker. As she is a fan
of Gerald Scarfe’s caricatures, an invitation to
visit the Bowes Museum en route to Durham
was just too good to refuse!
So it was that Dame Esther spent an
afternoon at the museum, before addressing
Friends and their guests and hosting a lively
question and answer session on her newest
venture, The Silver Line. A selection of
silver-wrapped tombola prizes raised over
£100 for the charity, which supports elderly
and vulnerable people with a free helpline.
Having interviewed Dame Esther for Radio
Teesdale to promote both the InterOpera
commemoration and the Friends’ event,
I can say that we met a very articulate,
approachable and caring person whom the
Friends may now reasonably consider –
a friend! Ian Kirkbride
Esther Rantzen told an audience of over
forty people how The Silver Line came in
to being. We learned that the stimulus for
starting the free helpline came from responses
to an article she wrote about her feelings of
loneliness following the death of her husband.
Dame Esther said that loneliness can erode
confidence and affect health; having someone
to talk to can prevent this and improve
wellbeing. The Silver Line uses trained
volunteers and offers regular befriending calls
on 0800 470 8090.
Dame Esther was especially interested
to hear from community groups already
working in this area. She invited them to
send information to The Silver Line, so
that its volunteers can direct callers to local
activities where appropriate. One group that
has aims similar to those of The Silver Line is
the Association of Teesdale Day Clubs. This
organisation operates ten clubs at different
venues and provides opportunities for social
interaction to about 225 people each week.
It has now sent details of its work to Dame
Esther’s charity and is promoting The Silver
Line to its members. Peter Wood
Note:There are vacancies for members and volunteers at a number of the Teesdale Day Clubs.
Anyone interested should contact the office on 01833 695 822.
PAGE 15
FRIENDS’ EVENT
Gresgarth Hall Gardens
by Caroline Peacock
The Friends seldom visit gardens, but we had a particularly valid reason on
Friday 29th May when we visited Gresgarth Hall Gardens at Caton in Lancashire,
the home of Sir Mark and Lady Lennox-Boyd, because it is Arabella LennoxBoyd’s design that was recently chosen for a re-vamp of the Park at the Bowes
Museum. We were therefore interested to see something of her planting style and
judge whether her approach might suit the setting of the museum.
Arabella (pictured here with Moppet Cooke-Hurle) met
us on the front lawn and confessed that she had
not originally been taken with the Hall at all! It
was Sir Mark who fell in love with this rather
solemn, partly ‘Gothicised’ stone house and,
in 1978, swept her into buying it, so the lovely
garden that now surrounds it is essentially their
personal creation. Arabella, now in her early
seventies, continues developing it, seeking out
rare varieties and even, she says, still raising
plants from seed.
To one side the house sits almost on top of the
Artle Beck, a rushing stream against a steep
bank, while on its other side the garden spreads
generously until the surrounding hills again
climb steeply to enfold it. The arresting statue
of a wild boar that greets the visitor (a copy of
the Calydonian boar in the Uffizi Gallery in
Florence) refers to the name of the Hall itself,
‘Gresgarth’ meaning ‘boar yard.’
This area, given the geography, is the only one
where Arabella, who is Italian in origin, has
been able to introduce any real formality to the
design; further afield an enchanting freedom
takes over. On the day of our visit, the terraces
that embrace the house were already lush
with peonies that would be followed, later, by
roses; a captivating perfume was being spread
PAGE 16
among them by Azaleas just below. The skill of
Arabella’s ‘succession’ planting ensures that the
herbaceous beds, already striking with stately
white or purple Alliums, and elsewhere with
blue Meconopsis and candelabra Primulas, will
still offer plenty of colour later in the year.
From the terrace, we enjoyed views over
the tranquil lake and the nearby stream that
leads the eye up the narrowing valley beyond.
Outside the formal walled vegetable garden
several routes climb into the wooded upper
areas, offering enticing glimpses through mixed
plantings of more than 6,000 trees and shrubs,
many of which are rare varieties. Pre-eminent
on the day of our visit was the Halesia monticola
with its delicate white pendant flowers, though
nearer the house two flowering crab apples,
Malus baccata, matched it for sheer beauty.
These, then, were the images we mentally
transferred to Arabella’s proposal for the Bowes
Park. The challenge of transforming the twelve
acres of her own garden had been triumphantly
met through her sympathy with, and
understanding of, the landscape, the make-up
of the soil, the local weather conditions and the
consequent planting possibilities, and these same
sensitivities inform her design for the Bowes.
Along with her understanding of the museum’s
history, Arabella has been avidly interested
in what little can be divined from Joséphine
Bowes’ will, where essentially only a wish for
a formal parterre in front of the building and
the introduction of an orangery are actually
specified. Having seen Gresgarth Hall, and
being aware that Arabella has successfully
designed several hundred gardens, both formal
and informal, I believe our group came away
reassured.
From Gresgarth Hall we travelled through the
beautiful Dales countryside to Farfield Mill
near Sedbergh. This fine former woollen mill is
now a flourishing contemporary art and craft
venue, with an excellent café serving entirely
homemade food. This visit rounded off a richly
rewarding day, one that had in no way been
affected by the cool and intermittently damp
weather – but then it takes a lot to dampen the
spirits of the Friends of the Bowes Museum!
Note: Gresgarth Hall Gardens are open to the public on
second Sundays in the summer months.
PAGE 17
FROM THE ARCHIVES
More on Merrie England
advertisements for local businesses. Among
them were cafés and hotels (such as the Black
Horse, the King’s Head and the Morritt Arms)
which stayed open until 11 pm to cater for the
crowds. Still familiar names, such as Kent and
Peat, feature in the advertisements and, indeed,
among the cast. The Pageant Society succeeded
in involving the whole community.
by Diana Collecott
The continuing commemoration of World War One reminds us of the central
role played by the Bowes Museum in the life of the local community; never more
so than after World War Two, when lavish open air productions of the musical
pageant Merrie England were performed in front of the museum itself, which was
floodlit for the grand finale.
Last July, in a feature on Barnard Castle’s part
in the national celebrations (Bowes Arts No. 56,
p. 19) we appealed for more information about
items already in the museum’s archive. Two
Friends have shared with us their memories of
the pageant, together with physical mementos
in the form of programmes, press cuttings and
photographs.
Margaret Watson recalls the first production of
Sir Edward German’s Merrie England in 1949,
in which she played one of the attendants
to the May Queen (pictured). In the second
production, two years later, she was a Lady in
Waiting. That production featured, as before,
professional actors in the roles of Queen
Elizabeth I, Bessie Throckmorton, Sir Walter
Raleigh and the Earl of Essex.
Betty Beadle has kept, for over sixty years, the
complete programme for the 1951 production,
in which she performed as a young dancer.
The sister of photographer and archivist Parkin
Raine, Betty also appeared in Gilbert and
Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard, presented on
Scar Top in 1953 to mark the coronation of
Queen Elizabeth II.
PAGE 18
north’, to coincide with the show. These were
displayed in the period rooms and included Sir
Thomas Lawrence’s painting ‘The Red Boy’,
lent by the Earl of Durham.
Posters for Merrie England featured the Bowes
Museum and attractions such as High Force.
Special travel facilities were provided by British
Rail and local bus companies, while regional
newspapers covered the productions in full. In
August 1949, the pageant was front page news
in the Teesdale Mercury for two weeks running,
and in July 1951 the North-Eastern Weekly News
produced a Pageant Souvenir Edition.
A Barnard Castle Musical Pageant Society
was formed to present these ambitious events.
Among its objects were: ‘To draw attention to
the educational facilities and aesthetic delights
of the Bowes Museum.’ The programme
included a page on the museum and an
acknowledgement to the then curator, Thomas
Wake, who lived in the apartment intended
for Joséphine Bowes above the museum and
whose three daughters performed in the 1949
production.
For 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain, the
museum staged a special exhibition of ‘treasures
borrowed from some of the stately homes of the
Our thanks go to Betty Beadle, Tony Craig and
Margaret Watson, for sharing their memories
and mementos with us. The Bowes Museum’s
honorary archivist, Judith Phillips, welcomes
material that throws light on its historical role.
She adds that the literary references to Merrie
England mentioned in our previous feature
include E. F. Benson’s Mapp and Lucia novels
of the 1920s and early ’thirties. Recently
televised for the BBC, these include Queen Lucia,
where Mrs. Emmeline Lucas characteristically
cast herself as Queen Elizabeth I!
The logistical challenges of these productions
drew on the organisers’ wartime experience.
Besides the six ‘London artistes’ in named parts,
there were fifty amateur actors recruited locally,
twenty-four dancers, an eighty-two strong
chorus and an orchestra of thirty players, plus
six trumpeters from the Royal Dragoons! The
producer was Mrs. Chandos Cradock from
Durham City; the other posts were honorary
and included Mr. Jenkinson of Galgate as
‘Hon. Electrician’, two directors, and Frederick
Ferguson L.R.A.M. of Barnard Castle’s County
School as Musical Director.
The evening performances were repeated for
a fortnight – ‘Sundays excepted’ – and seats
were priced 7/6, 5/- and 2/6. The expense
of the productions was guaranteed by lists
of subscribers and the programmes featured
PAGE 19
EDUCATION
After School Club
by Alison Mounter
FASHION & TEXTILES
The Lightness of Lace
by Anne Lee
Since January 2015 the children
attending the Bowes Museum’s
After School Club have been
working on the Arts Award
Discover programme.
They used three recent exhibitions (Julian
Opie, Birds of Paradise, Plumes and Feathers and
Paul Scott’s Confected, Borrowed and Blue) to
inspire their own artwork. The programme
culminated in an exhibition of the children’s
work which they proudly shared with their
family and friends.
Little Treasures
by Alison Smith
The Little Treasures toddler
groups have recently enjoyed
exploring the Prehistoric People
exhibition.
They had enormous fun creating handprint
pictures for display in the Education Vaults,
recreating their own versions of cave art.
They used paint with their hands and sponges
to decorate the paper, themselves and their
parents, grandparents and carers! Afterwards
they visited the gallery to see some of the
wonderful objects on display.
PAGE 20
Alison Smith
Sarah Casey at work in her studio
Bertha collar, eighteenth century
Common Grounds: Lace Drawn from the Everyday, recently shown in the Bowes Museum,
consisted of light-sensitive drawings by the Lancaster-based artist Sarah Casey. These installations
were inspired by a treasure-trove of lace and linen caps, discovered in tightly packed layers in
a carriage trunk that forms part of the Blackborne Lace Collection. A modest catalogue is still
available.
The artist decided, after much experimentation, to represent the creased and flattened lace caps
by drawing them in linseed oil onto paper using a very fine stylus. Back-lighting further enhanced
the ephemeral quality of the studies: they hung in limbo, some a little difficult to see, the oil gently
yellowing with age like the lace. As three-dimensional drawings of complex lace patterns, they
could be viewed as translucent family keepsakes given the chance to reveal their past stories.
Congratulations to Hannah Jackson, Assistant Curator
of Fashion & Textiles!
Hannah is one of five curators in the UK to have won the New Collecting Award, funded by the
Art Fund. The award will enable Hannah to collect a capsule wardrobe of French haute couture
reflecting the tastes, lifestyle and passions of the museum’s Founder Joséphine Bowes. Hannah has
£60,000 to spend on the two year project, which started in June.
PAGE 21
BAfM
BAfM
Regional Conference at the
Roman Fort Museum
National Conference
in Cheltenham
On 25 April eleven members of
the Friends of the Bowes attended
BAfM’s Regional Day Conference
at Segedunum – Wallsend to you
non-Romans. Our hosts were
the recently-formed Friends of
the Roman Fort Museum and six
Friends’ groups from the North
East were represented, of which we
were the largest.
We were delighted to welcome BAfM’s
National Chairman, Bernard Rostron,
to the North East Regional Conference
in April. Before taking on his current
role, Bernard was Regional Coordinator in the North West. After
eighteenth months, we still do not
have a new Regional Coordinator for
the North East.
by Jonathan Peacock
The keynote speaker was Bill Griffiths, Head
of Programmes for Tyne & Wear Archives
and Museums, who gave us a most interesting
presentation on ‘The Present and Future of
Museums, especially here in the North East’.
He argued that our future lies in working
together, as well as in finding ways to connect
with the wider audience.
After lunch, Bill gave us a fascinating virtual
tour. Having led the excavations and created
the museum, he was very much on home
ground. Bill was able to talk us round the
site from the wonderfully positioned viewing
tower that overlooks it.
From our bird’s-eye view we could see across
the Tyne, and appreciate the location of the
fort at the end of Hadrian’s Wall in relation
to the river.
In the tower (right) is an ingenious ‘time-line’
video, which demonstrates the changing
appearance of the site over the centuries,
from its pre-Roman settlement by British
tribes right up to the present day.
PAGE 22
The Roman Fort Museum, with its recent
excavations, reconstructed bath house (above)
and exceptionally well-displayed artefacts,
offers vivid insights into life at the empire’s
northern extreme. This makes it an exciting
setting for ROMAN EMPIRE: POWER
& PEOPLE, a touring exhibition from the
British Museum that is in the region until
mid-September. Highlights include sculptures
from Hadrian’s Villa, Roman coins, fine
jewellery and almost perfectly preserved
children’s clothing. For more information,
and to plan a visit, go to
www.segedunumromanfort.org.uk
by Fiona Turnbull
A congenial way of sampling the British
Association of Friends of Museums will be to
attend this year’s national conference from 16
to 18 October 2015.
Cheltenham Spa is the elegant venue
and your hosts will be the Friends of the
Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, with
the Members of the Holst Birthplace Trust.
The Conference Base will be the Cheltenham
Chase, a four-star hotel in the Cotswolds
between Cheltenham and Gloucester, just
one mile from the M5. There will be free
coach transfers to and from the town centre
for conference events, which will include free
walking tours of ‘the most complete Regency
town in England’.
The theme of the Conference is: ‘Does
the past have a future? Engaging the next
generation’. Among the eminent and
entertaining speakers will be Luke Tyson,
formerly at the National Gallery, London,
now at the Metropolitan Museum, New
York, Professor Peter Hennessy of London
University, and Francesca Canty of the 2012
Olympic Committee. There will also be
representatives of the Scott Polar Museum,
Cambridge, and Oxford’s Ashmolean
Museum.
You are welcome to choose your own
accommodation or, uniquely, stay with
Friends as guests in their homes. As a guide,
the cost of two nights at the Cheltenham
Chase, with the Conference Reception on
one night and the Conference Dinner on the
other, will be about £300.
For full details, either visit the new BAfM
website www.bafm.org.uk , or email
[email protected] , or write enclosing
an sae to: BAfM Conference 2015, c/o 93
St George’s Place, Cheltenham, GL50 3QB.
Bookings are already being taken!
We hope you have enjoyed the new look Friends’ newsletter.
Please send your comments to [email protected].
Do you have experience in journalism, publishing, or IT?
If so, the current Editor would love to hear from you!
Bowes Arts appears four times a year, in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
Copy for the next issue must reach the Editor by 1 September.
PAGE 23
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