History – Venetia Hawkes

Bruce Munro & Art in the Landscape

30 November, 201430 January, 2021Venetia Hawkes

“Sculpture gains by finding a setting that suits its mood and when that happens there is gain for both the sculpture and setting.” – Henry Moore

I was treated to a preview of Bruce Munro’s ‘Winter Light’ exhibition in the grounds of Waddesdon Manor recently. Flamboyant light installations in a formal Victorian garden. I wrote a short piece about it for Buckinghamshire Life: Bruce Munro.

Here’re some more pictures from ‘Winter Light’ and a few other bits of art in the landscape.

Winter Light

Beacon by Bruce Munro at Waddesdon Manor

Beacon was originally constructed in 2013 on a hill at Long Knoll near the artist’s home, to raise money & awareness for breast cancer charity Cancerkin. “This hill and surrounding countryside has long been my ‘canvas’,” Munro explained. “I lost a dear friend very young to breast cancer. By illuminating the night sky for a brief moment, I hope to send the message ‘you are not alone’.”

Bruce Munro’s Moon-Harvest at Waddesdon transforms hay-bales in their black plastic wrappers into a galaxy come to earth.

The exhibition is on till 4th January 2015, illuminating from 4pm.

Prehistoric

“Bid men of battle build me a tomb fair after fire, on the foreland by the sea that shall stand as a reminder of me to my people, towering high over Hronesness so that ocean travellers shall afterwards name it Beowulf’s barrow, bending in the distance their masted ships through the mists upon the sea.” – Beowulf

Part of the charm, for me, of standing stones and burial chambers is the way they sit like ancient sculptures in the landscape. I wrote an article about Welsh Standing Stones for Pembrokeshire Life, ‘Romancing the Stones’.

“An entrance fee allows you to admire Stonehenge from beyond a fence. At its closest fifteen feet from the stones. Afterwards you can snack on a ‘megalithic scone’ as the A303 roars past and another coach load of visitors arrives. In Pembrokeshire stones stand alone, unassailed by gift shops, quietly keeping a sense of ancient mystery and eerie beauty.”

The Great Storm

One of a series of sculptures by Jill Watson around the Berwickshire coastline, commemorating the Great Storm of 1881 in which 189 fishermen were shipwrecked. This one is at Eyemouth, figures forever looking out to sea, hopeful their friends and families might yet come home.

Henry Moore

I was lucky enough to visit the fantastic 2007 exhibition of Henry Moore sculptures at Kew Gardens. Henry Moore is back at Kew, his Reclining Mother & Child in the gardens described by Kew as – “This bronze beauty will perfectly illustrate the clear synergy between Moore’s delight in the natural world and Kew’s celebration of nature. Having his works perceived within a natural setting was crucial to Moore’s vision.”

At RHS Wisely, Henry Moore’s King and Queen contemplate the view from their chilly bench.

“Landscape has been for me one of the sources of my energy… The whole of Nature is an endless demonstration of shape and form.” – Henry Moore

The Crow Road

Fence-post crow guarding the path up to the ruins of Dinas Bran castle in North Wales, near Llangollen. Dinas Bran has been translated as Crow Castle or The Hill of the Crow.

Autumn Delights

28 September, 201430 January, 2021Venetia Hawkes

“The mellow autumn came, and with it came the promised party.” – Lord Byron, probably one thing you could trust him on was to spot an opportunity for a good time. And surely autumn is the best of times. Glowing leaves, crisp skies, bright berries urging us to get out there and snatch the last golden days before the winter dark. New England may have ‘leaf-peeping’ hotlines, but the beech-woods of Bucks have their own enchantments. Even when it rains.

I love autumn, so was delighted to be asked to pick some places to enjoy autumn in Bucks (even if it rains) for Buckinghamshire Life magazine – Bucks Autumn

And here’re links to the places featured in the article –

Waddesdon Manor

For fairy-tale grandeur and innovative art installations

Bruce Munro art installations for the 'Winter Light' trail through the grounds — Bruce Munro art installations for the ‘Winter Light’ trail through the grounds

Chiltern Open Air Museum

For Halloween nights, harvest traditions and stories by the fire in the roundhouse

Hughenden Manor

For all things apple and for being a secret WWII map-making base, codename ‘Operation Hillside’

Apple Day - 57 varieties grown at Hughenden — Apple Day – 57 varieties grown at Hughenden

tree sculpture — One of Ed Elliott’s ‘Watchmen’ sculptures commemorating the top-secret WWII map-makers

Stowe

For neoclassical elegance and pumpkin hunting through the grounds

Wendover Woods

For the Rothschilds creating a trackway through the woods for their zebra & cart, but mainly for the Gruffalo….

‘The secret of freedom is a brave heart’ – WWI pacifist ambulance unit

3 September, 201430 January, 2021Venetia Hawkes

I’ve always loved the Quaker Meeting House in Jordans village in Buckinghamshire. Sure, it’s a beautiful seventeenth century building, all herring-bone brick floor and diamond-latticed windows, old wooden tables with vases of wild-flowers and so forth, but more than that, it has an air of tranquility – maybe that’s what you get from centuries of people meeting somewhere to sit together quietly. Or maybe it’s just in a nice setting.

Out of this tranquility came passionate pacifists, brave enough to stand by their beliefs during the First World War, yet go to the front-line anyway as the ‘Friends Ambulance Unit’ – praised by the Red Cross as “one of the brightest chapters in our history”.

For the centenary of the First World War, I wrote an article commemorating the Friends Ambulance Unit, ‘Friends in Deed’, for Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Life magazine.

On 21st August 1914, barely 2 weeks after the First World War began, Philip Noel Baker put out a call to fellow pacifist Quakers for volunteers to “form an Ambulance Corps to go to the scene of active operations.” Adding, “It is possible that it would in various ways involve some personal risk to members of the Corps. But it would probably result in the saving of a great many lives.”

Philip Noel Baker is the only person ever to be awarded both the Nobel Peace prize and an Olympic medal – silver in the 1500m in 1920. His Nobel Peace prize citation begins, “Frequently when the storm clouds gather the world is made aware of the forces of good, rallying to meet the threatened danger.”

He set up a training camp at Jordans for the ambulance volunteers – “A rather motley band of lawyers, doctors, students, engineers, surveyors, accountants, businessmen and workers in arts and crafts” – as they described themselves.

Volunteers camping in the orchard at Jordans training camp © Religious Society of Friends in Britain, 2014

Over a thousand men, and some women, worked in the Friends Ambulance Unit during the First World War. Twenty-one were killed. Ninety-six, nearly one in ten, were awarded medals for bravery. Their achievements were one of the reasons the Quakers were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In accordance with the Friends Ambulance Unit motto – ‘Go anywhere, do anything’, they established and staffed hospitals, founded orphanages, set up and ran recreation rooms at Dunkirk – The Pig and Whistle and the Cat and Fiddle, to boost troops’ morale, provided civilian relief, including 27,000 typhoid inoculations when an epidemic threatened near Ypres, worked on hospital ships and by the end of the war had transported over half a million patients across France on ambulance trains.

The work of the Friends Ambulance Unit prompted one historian to recall the Ancient Greek advice – “The secret of happiness is service and freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart.”

As part of my research I had the great pleasure of meeting local Quakers Sue and John Smithson, who both had relatives who served in the Friends Ambulance Unit.

Sue and John Smithson at Jordans Meeting House

John’s father Michael drove an ambulance on the front-line, aged only seventeen. At the end of the war he came to work at Jordans where the Quakers had established a convalescent home. He’s pictured here at Jordans in 1918, seated fifth from left:

Friends Ambulance Unit volunteers at Jordans © Religious Society of Friends in Britain, 2014

Sue’s Uncle, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and editor of The Washington Post, Felix Morley also volunteered for the Friends Ambulance Unit. When Sue became engaged to John, Felix recognised John’s surname and realised he had worked alongside his father Michael on an ambulance train in France during the war.

A memorial to the Friends Ambulance Unit was unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire in 2013. The Society of Friends, as Quakers are more properly known, have more information about the Friends Ambulance Unit and kindly permitted use of some of their library photos in the article.

And huge thanks to Sue and John Smithson for chatting to me about their inspirational relatives.