Bradgate Park, in Leicestershire, lies on volcanic rock and the park’s great oaks seem to congregate around the outcrops. Bradgate was a medieval deer park and was subsequently owned by the family of Lady Jane Grey. Local legend has it that the oaks in the…
Continue reading Cantilever
Open Studios has moved online for 2020. Herculean efforts behind the scenes have repurposed the website to act as a gallery for this year’s INSIGHT exhibition, in addition to its usual role of online directory. All of this is available online now at https://www.open-studios.org.uk/ My…
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Four years ago, in March 2016, I found myself driving across Hungerford Common with half an hour or so to spare before I was due to meet some friends in the town. The common is lovely (even on a fairly dull day in March) and…
Continue reading Progenitor
Kingley Vale, a National Nature Reserve near Chichester in Sussex, is known for its yew forest, reputed to be one of the finest in Europe. The oldest yews are all on the valley floor, with younger trees on the slopes. The yews have, in most…
Continue reading The Guardians
The River Test flows quietly by itself through much of rural North Hampshire. Relatively few public footpaths coincide with it for any distance, which is probably no surprise when you consider how valuable the river’s banks are in terms of fishing rights. Towns and villages,…
Continue reading Backwater
The River Test has its notional source in the downs a mile from the village of Overton in north Hampshire. Last September, I used public footpaths to follow the river between its source and Overton, where it once powered several mills. The source itself was…
Continue reading Idyll (with tyre swing) -SOLD
This is a managed beechwood on the edge of parkland near Basingstoke, Hampshire. The drawing takes a different tack to most of my recent depictions of beech trees; instead of idiosyncratic convolutions or showy colours, here is a quiet, peaceful orderliness… Beechwood 16″ x 12″,…
Continue reading Beechwood – SOLD
The beech tree is traditionally known as the “queen” of the Forest (oak being the “king”). It seems a fitting epithet: beech grows tall and elegant, with smooth, supple bark and a fabulously coloured wardrobe of leaf colour – from fresh spring greens, though strong…
Continue reading Queen of the Forest – SOLD
Danebury hillfort, located between Andover and Stockbridge in Hampshire, has a fine collection of beech trees. I’m told that the beechwood once extended over the whole site, but that the county council, who maintain the site, cut it back to reveal the splendid earthworks. By…
Continue reading Gatekeeper
This is a real tree. It’s an ancient yew tree (somewhere between 1,500 and 4,000 years old) in the village churchyard of Crowhurst, Surrey. The tree, even by the most conservative estimate of its age, is older than records of the church or of the…
Continue reading The tree with a door