Happy New Year

 

A Warning on Spontaneous Combustion

This charming little verse is written in the Scottish vernacular by Stuart Mclean. I can find nothing about the author. A Google search consistently brings up the late Canadian Broadcaster of the same name or Alistair Stuart McLean the author of thrillers.

A Warning on Spontaneous Combustion by Stuart McLean

O whisky is the king of drinks,
Renowned the world o'er,
But here's a word o' caution,
Tae think of when ye pour.
There's a certain combination,
That tastes so very good,
But when it hits your tummy,
And mixes with your food.
That's when the trouble starts,
For yer pleasure hits overload,
And half an hour later,
Ye'll suddenly explode.
So there ye are in the pub,
Completely engulfed in flames,
And yer good wife's dashing home,
Tae lodge insurance claims.
Well now that I have told ye,
Don't say ye've no' been warned,
So don't try it oot yersel',
Or ye'll soon be bein' mourned. 

It's clearly not great poetry but neither is it at the level of William McGonagall, (about whom there will be a future post). And it does have wonderful humour and a great joke towards the end, re the insurance claim! Something to bring in the New Year with a laugh!

I'm listening to a rough demo copy of George Harrison's All Things Must Past with all of the Beatles. I prefer it to the more polished final version. Hear it here.

I hope everyone reading this this has a wonderful 2018!

Seasons Greetings

Painting of the Month (77) Dec 2017: Stanley Spencer

Sir Stanley Spencer (1891 – 1959) was born in the Berkshire village of Cookham which sits by the bank of the River Thames. Kenneth Grahame was inspired to write The Wind in the Willows by that beautiful and serene stretch of water. In a sense Spencer never really left the village. Many of his paintings are set there, including some of his various religious works especially of The Resurrection, a theme he returned to throughout his career. He turned the streets of Cookham into visions of holiness using family and neighbours as his models.

In an age that was beginning to be heavily imbued with the influence of Darwin, Spencer held on to his faith throughout his life. He produced his best work between the two World Wars when church attendance in Great Britain was drastically falling but he saw Cookham as heaven on Earth, a paradise invested with mystical significance.

Sir Stanley Spencer: The Resurrection, Cookham 1924-1927. Tate Britain

In this monumental work (it's 2.7m by 5.5m in size) Spencer has set the scene in Cookham Churchyard where the dead are risen and can be seen, top left, being transported up to heaven by the Thames pleasure steamers, which were plentiful at that time. In the painting Spencer can be seen naked, right of centre, while his fiance sleeps on a bed of ivy. The figure of Christ sits in the church porch. Click on the picture to enlarge or hold down 'Ctrl' and press '+' several times.

Spencer compared his emotional approach to his work with Moses seeing the burning bush and taking his shoes off; "I saw many burning bushes in Cookham. I observe the most sacred quality in the most unexpected places".

Below are some of his other paintings, showing his great range which had the unifying quality of seeing the sacred in everyday life:

And a selection of his self-portraits

The English artist Beryl Cook was inspired by the work of Stanley Spencer and she will feature in my next Painting of the Month in January 2018

Winston Churchill at Blenheim Palace

This is the second of a series of three themed posts about 

Sir Winston Churchill

Blenheim Palace near the village of Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England, is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill (1874 -1965).

Blenheim Palace had been built for John Churchill, who was created the first Duke of Marlborough after he had secured victory in the battle of Blenheim in the War of Spanish Succession (fought to halt Spain and France uniting against the other European powers).  John Churchill was the son of the first Sir Winston Churchill (1620-1688) and a direct ancestor of the twentieth century one.

Blenheim is in fact a huge country house and the only building in Great Britain to be styled a ‘Palace’ that is neither Royal nor the residence of a Bishop. Currently the Palace is still the home of the 12^th Duke of Marlborough. Interestingly the title ‘Duke of Marlborough’ is the only aristocratic one deemed suo jure which means it can be inherited through the male or female line.

Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, his grandfather’s home, on 30^th November 1874. When aged seven he was sent to boarding school where he massively under-achieved and “misbehaved”. These were to be characteristics of his continuing education. His parental contact with his father was virtually non-existent and with his Brooklyn-born mother Jenny,  it was “distant”. From this distance in time it does not  surprise me that he was difficult! Blenheim is located in the delightful historic market town of Woodstock and makes for a very lovely place to visit. It's full of Churchill memorabilia and is now a World Heritage Site.
When a British Prime Minister steps down it is customary for them to be offered an earldom but Churchill had the offer of the special privilege of being created Duke of London in 1955. He turned it down because, at the time, it was not possible to renounce any kind of peerage and the hereditary title would have prevented his descendants from sitting in the House of Commons.

Aerial view of Blenheim Palace

I’m listening to Sissel Kyrkjebø, the utterly fabulous Norwegian soprano, showing her effortless talent when singing Puccini's 
O Mio Babbino Caro. Listen here

Great Popular Songs (5): Waterloo Sunset

Sir Raymond Douglas Davies, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), better known as Ray Davies, singer and songwriter of the very successful UK band The Kinks, wrote and self-produced Waterloo Sunset in 1967. In Great Britain it is relatively rare for songs to feature geographical locations, especially when compared with the USA.

Waterloo Station is one of several major railway termini in London being named after Waterloo Bridge which was itself named after the famous British victory at the Battle of Waterloo. It is located on the south bank of the River Thames.

The wistful lyrics of the song were a Ray Davies speciality. They are a bit mysterious, describing a scene from the point of view of a person apparently content to be a 'loner'. Or is he? Are Terry and Julie figments of his imagination or is he Terry. It's a strange and intriguing mix of perspectives. Ray said in a recent interview, “Of course, everyone thought “Terry and Julie” was a reference to Terry Stamp and Julie Christie, since they were immensely famous because of Far From the Madding Crowd. But actually, the image I had in my mind was of my sister and her boyfriend walking into the future”. But this was said nearly fifty years after the record was released.
Many of Davies's song have a strong social element and he is a keen observer of his world; Sunny Afternoon, Dedicated Follower of Fashion and Well Respected Man are typical of this vein of writing.
The song is so iconic that it hasn't been covered very often. David Bowie is a notable exception but I find his version doesn't add anything new to it.
Originally the song was to be called Liverpool Sunset because Ray Davies had a strong affinity to that city bit realised he should "write what you know" and changed the title. The guitar sound as heard in the introduction was achieved by using a tape-delay device.
Listen to the song HERE

Dirty old river, must you keep rolling
Flowing into the night
People so busy, makes me feel dizzy
Taxi light shines so bright
But I don't need no friends
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset's fine

Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station
Every Friday night
But I am so lazy, don't want to wander
I stay at home at night
But I don't feel afraid
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset's fine

Millions of people swarming like flies 'round Waterloo underground
But Terry and Julie cross over the river
Where they feel safe and sound
And they don't need no friends
As long as they gaze on Waterloo sunset
They are in paradise

Waterloo sunset's fine

Winston Churchill at Chartwell

This is the first in a series of three themed posts about

Sir Winston Churchill.

Winston Churchill purchased Chartwell near Westerham, Kent in south-east England in 1922 at a time when he was in the political wilderness and it was his primary home for forty years - almost the rest of his life. He did not live there during the war years because of it's location only twenty miles from the centre of London and it's proximity to the channel coast.

He employed the successful English 'society' architect Phliip Tilden to carry out major improvements and enlargements. The pair eventually fell out and a long-running legal dispute ensued. I think Churchill must have been a difficult client - he was a man of strong opinions knew exactly what he wanted for the property. I have seen some of the written instructions he gave Tilden and they are very specific and rather subjective.

At the time of purchase he claimed that it was the view of the Weald of Kent - a sprawling collection of rural towns and pretty villages set in pristine countryside, that he fell in love with.

The house became possibly one of the most important country houses in Europe and now has Grade I listed status. This is often awarded for historical rather than architectural reasons - definitely in this case. From there Churchill planned his campaign of opposition to Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement to Adolf Hitler. He had long been wary of Hitler's intentions.

Chartwell is not an especially pretty building being in the vernacular style; that is, local materials and design were used and not necessarily built by conventionally-trained architects. I think this gives the building character. Churchill became obsessed by the property and constructed ponds gardens, brick-walls by his own hand. A heated swimming pool and two cottages were built in the grounds. He also painted many scenes of the gardens.

The garden wall on Mapleton road, the less attractive entrance to the property, is based on a garden wall in Quebec House, General Woolf's home in nearby Westerham town in the English county of Kent.

After the war Churchill was in critical financial circumstances and some of his friends arranged a deal with the National Trust who paid him an enormous sum for the house which he agreed to leave to the trust in return for allowing him and Lady Churchill to live there for the rest of their lives. Lady Churchill relinquished the property to the trust as soon as Winston became to ill to live there, in 1962. He died in 1965.

The property has prospered in the hands of the trust and receives over 500,000 visitors a year.

Painting of the Month (76) November 2017: Vermeer

This famous painting of the Girl with a Pearl Earring  by Jan Vermeer has become so familiar as an icon of the art world that it has almost surpassed the recognition level of the Mona Lisa. Now we have another enigmatic almost-half-smile to consider. This makes this post problematic for me because I want to try to see beyond that familiarity.

Girl with a Pearl earring, Johannes (Jan) Vermeer, 1665

The popularity of the Baroque style of art had been encouraged by the Catholic Church at The Council of Trent (1545-1563) as a weapon in the Counter-Reformation's struggle against the rise of Protestantism. It was determined that the arts should communicate religious themes and direct emotional involvement. The Baroque style is characterised by exaggerated motion and clear detail used to produce drama, exuberance and grandeur in the arts. This includes the use of a technique known as chiaroscuro, developed during the Renaissance, which employs exaggerated light contrasts to create the illusion of volume. This all relates to Vermeer's work. His early works were of a religious nature but he soon started to produce genre works - scenes of everyday domestic life - and continued in this way all through his career. Most of his work seems to have been located one or two rooms of his middle-class home and often featuring the same few models repeatedly. Typical of this period is The Milkmaid.

The girl in this portrait is possibly his daughter, Maria who some experts believe may have painted as many as a fifth of the works attributed to her father. Turbans were not fashionable at that time but it gives the artist an opportunity to display his skill with drapes and folds. The large amount of blue paint around her head and at the end of her scarf would have been made from lapis lazuli probably ground by the artist himself. This would have been very costly at that time and usually used in religious paintings but clearly not exclusively. The girl is captured as though looking round in mild surprise to be frozen for eternity. The pearl earring is huge and some have suggested it may have been fashioned from tin but it does seem to have appeared in other paintings. The eyes are like molten liquid, the lips are moist and slightly parted. Oh dear, I think I'm falling in love! 

Of course the novel by Tracey Chevalier and later film have helped to spread her fame over the world. After a sensationally popular world tour the picture is back home in the Mauritshuis in The Hague where it will stay indefinitely, being deemed too fragile to travel again.

                                              Probably Vermeer self-portrait, 1654
Jan Vermeer lived and worked all his life in Delft in The Netherlands where he lived until his death at 43 having achieved some local fame but he was forgotten for two hundred years after his death until being rediscovered in the 19th century. It is fair to say that he is now recognised as one the greatest artists of the Dutch Golden Age of painting.
He fathered 11 children. So he did have some other interests; always healthy not to be obsessed by one's work I think......

I'm listening to Mahler's Fifth Symphony trying not to think of where it was used in Death in Venice.

Great Popular Songs (4): Strawberry Fields Forever

This article is as much about a recording as it is about a truly great popular song. I know a lot about Strawberry Fields Forever because I wrote a dissertation comparing the psychology of this song with Penny Lane as a part of my Bachelor of Arts degree and did lots of research on the subject.

Strawberry Field, Liverpool, England

First, some background details. In 1966  the Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, was pressing George Martin for a new single release. They had just begun work on a new ‘concept’ album that became Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The idea behind the album was initially that they would create a retrospective biographical look back to their home city of Liverpool. The first contributions were John Lennon’s Strawberry Fields and Paul McCartney’s Penny Lane. It was decided to release the songs as a double A-sided single and they never appeared on the final album. George Martin later claimed that "it was the biggest mistake of my career". Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army children’s home near to where John Lennon lived with his Auntie Mimi.

Lyrically the song is an emblem of Lennon’s indecision and uncertainty at the timer of writing it:

“Always, no sometimes, think it’s me,

But you know I know when it’s a dream.

I think er no, but I mean er yes but it’s all wrong.

That is I think I disagree.”

Further remarkable evidence of indecision is shown by a really innovative event in the recording studio. Many versions of the song were recorded over several months. After Take 7 on 29^th November 1966, everyone thought that Strawberry Fields Forever was finished. Except John Lennon. After Take 26 on 21^st December 1966, everyone thought that Strawberry Fields Forever was finished. Except John Lennon. John told George Martin “I like both versions. Why don’t we join them together?” However, there were two MAJOR problems; the two versions were in different keys and in very different tempos. These days that would be no problem but in the sixties the digital technology that could achieve this was decades away.

John Lennon. 1940-1980

The first version was in B-flat Major at 90 beats per minute and the second, a whole tone above, in C-major and at 108 beats per minutes. In those days 'splicing' literally meant using a pair of scissors and splicing tape!  What to do?

John Lennon, never a realist and not technically minded, left the problem to George Martin and recording engineer Geoff Emerick.

I don’t believe in miracles but what happened next was, well I would say, sensational. They had variable speed tape-recorders at the Abbey Road studios and they found that by speeding-up one recording and slowing down the other one they could get an exact match. They had very fine control over the speed (and therefore the pitch) but by the most amazing luck and ingenuity they achieved Lennon’s wish. It turned out that the differences in pitch were exactly compensated for by slowing one and speeding up the other.

When you listen to the recording (click here) you can hear the change, just about, after 59 seconds. Listening to the drumbeat is the easiest way to pick it out. The purpose of an edit, of course, is that it shouldn't be heard and a marvellous job had been done.

A by-product of this work was that it gave Lennon’s voice a smokey, other-worldly sound which really suits the song. It also left the recording in an in-between pitch not exactly in any recognised key. Although Lennon had composed it in C using a guitar the published version is written as being in B-flat. The song has an unusual structure in that it starts with a chorus followed by alternate verses and choruses and ending with a chorus which gives it a musically palindromic structure. The introduction is played on a Mellotron, a keyboard instrument that used electronic recording tape so that many different sounds could be used by pre-recording them. Some sources claimed that it was played by Lennon and others by McCartney.

FOOTNOTE: It turned out that Strawberry Field wasn't forever. The Salvation Army closed the children's home in 2005 and it was demolished in 2007. Lennon Hall now stands in it's place.

Spotlight on a Website (10): Big Think

The Big Think site is a little bit like a broader version of TED Talks. (See my article about TED here.)

Big Think has been described as a You Tube for ideas and it has sections such as Videos, Playlists, Articles, Experts and Podcasts. It's the kind of Website where you might drop in to have a quick look at what's happening in current thinking and be drawn into reading articles and watching videos and then an hour has gone by....and then another...

Recent articles have included "The Universe May Be Conscious, Say Prominent Scientists",  "Addictive Behaviour Isn't Just for Addicts. We May All Be Hooked" and "Why Poetry is a Refuge for Your Brain"
And how about these video titles?: "Download Your Brain into Another Body? To No Longer Die Changes Everything", "Why A.I. Might Run the World Better Than Humans" (by Richard Dawkins) and "What Does it Mean to Fully Be Human? Opening Yourself to Uncomfortable Truths" - this video is by Bryan Cranston, yes Breaking Bad's Walter White!
I believe that most people who visit this site are thinkers who are curious about the world and possess a certain level of intelligence and so would be enthralled by Big Think.
Find it here and I hope you enjoy it.

I'm listening to The Grateful Dead. Currently its Uncle John's Band; an absolute classic that you can listen to here.

Painting of the Month (75) October 2017: Bazza

I am amazed to realise that this my 75th Painting of the Month. I posted the first one in February 2010 and have published one most months since then. 

OK, this isn't exactly a painting in the usual sense but I had some fun making it by copying from a photo using the Microsoft Paint programme. It's very time consuming but it's something I enjoy doing. I am about to get my new computer so I have been dredging through my Documents folder looking for things to delete and came across this from a couple of years ago. And now, you lucky people, I decided to share it. Vermeer or whoever, will just have to wait until next month! Below I have shown a couple of earlier efforts from when I was still trying to get the hang of it.

I would to mention that I have had some some technical trouble posting on some Blogs but I always read them and should be back to normal shortly.

Great Popular Songs (3): Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather was written in 1933 by Harold Arlen 1905-1986 (music) and Ted Koehler 1894-1973 (lyrics). It was first performed in that year by Ethel Waters at The Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City and she recorded it later that year. It was sung in the same year in London by Elizabeth Welch who sung it forty-six years later at the age of 75 at the end of Derek Jarman's film of The Tempest. Since those days it has been recorded many times.
Notable versions have been sung by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington and famously by Lena Horne in the 1943 film Stormy Weather.  There are many other great versions also available- too many to name here!
But I have to say that my personal favourite is the version by Etta James. Listen here.

Etta James 1938 - 2012, not a natural blonde.

Don't know why
There's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Since my man and I ain't together
Keeps raining all of the time

Oh, yeah

Life is bad
Gloom and misery everywhere
Stormy weather, stormy weather
And I just can't get my poor self together
Oh, I'm weary all of the time
The time, so weary all of the time

When he went away

The blues walked in and met me
Oh, yeah if he stays away
Old rocking chair's gonna get me
All I do is pray
The Lord will let me
Walk in the sun once more

Can't go on

Everything I have is gone

Stormy weather

Since my man and I ain't together

Keeps rainin' all the time

Keeps rainin' all the time

The song is heavy with the weather as a powerful metaphor for the singer's feelings as she moves from "gloom and misery everywhere" and eventually aspires to "walk in the sun once more". There is plenty of space within this song for a singer to display strong feelings and express emotions.

Harold Arlen wrote more than 500 popular songs. His most famous composition was Somewhere Over The Rainbow, voted the twentieth centurie's number one song. Ted Koehler  was  inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1972.

I'm in Crete for a while so will respond when I get back home.

Great Popular Songs (2): Hallelujah

Hallelujah is a Hebrew word meaning "Praise you, Jehovah" or "Glory to the Lord". Leonard Cohen, the late Canadian singer, wrote the song for his 1984 album Various Positions but it really became popular after it was featured in the 2000 film Shrek. It has been much recorded including versions by John Cale, Jeff Buckley, Willie Nelson, Rufus Wainwright, k.d.lang, Susan Boyle and Alexander Burke. But, after Leonard Cohen's own version, my favourite one is by the fragile-voiced English folk-singer Kathryn Williams.  There have been over 300 recordings of the song and Bob Dylan has performed it on stage.

Leonard Cohen, 1934 - 2016

Cohen's version really emphasises the poetical nature of his work. As with Bob Dylan many of his lyrics stand up on their own as poetry. The song was voted into the top ten of greatest songs by songwriters in the British magazine Q. 

It is often stated that lyrics and poetry differ because lyrics were written to be sung and it's true that reading aloud the lyrics of many wonderful songs just doesn't work as poetry. I think there should be a newly-coined word for song-lyrics that are somewhere in between because great lyrics are often underrated. I hope recognition of Bob Dylan as a Nobel Laureate brings acceptance of this closer.

Cohen, a notorious perfectionist, is said to have originally written 80 verses for the song and has performed almost totally different versions on stage. This variety is reflected in many of the cover versions which allows the song to be interpreted in an assortment of ways from religious iconography to explicit sexual meanings. I would say that Cohen's recorded version contains both of those elements at once.

Probably my favourite verses are the fabulous first and second ones:

Well I heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah.

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to her kitchen chair
And she broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

The second verse contains reference to a pair of notorious biblical women: Bathsheba ("You saw her bathing on the roof") and Delilah ("....she broke your throne and she cut your hair.") I find it unsurprising that so many singers have recorded this song and sing it live on stage because it is so immaculately constructed - perhaps I should have said 'conceived'. Leonard would have known what I meant by that......

Interestingly the fourth and fifth lines of the first verse actually describe, musically, what the song is doing as those lyrics are sung. The accompanying chords are often used in hymns. Also, it's in the relatively rare 12/8 time signature. That is, if you like, a regular four-beat bar with each beat divided in a triple rhythm. 

Painting of the Month (74) Sept 2017: Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian, 1872-1944, was a Dutch painter born as Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, He worked in Paris and was heavily influenced by the work of Picasso and Braque who were developing cubism. Mondrian's early work shows influences of impressionism, post-impressionism and pointillism. The first picture below shows strong influences of Paul Cezanne; although clearly three dimensional the picture surface is beginning to break into two-dimensional shapes. There are recognisable objects such as books, glasses and some cheeses in a cloth. The top right of the painting clearly suggests some depth of field.

                           

Piet Mondrian, Still Life with Gingerpot I, 1911

However, in the second slightly later picture analytical cubism has begun to be seen. That is the early stage of cubism as distinct from the later synthetic cubism which was where Picasso and Braque had begun to make collages from newspaper and other items applied to the picture surface. In the second picture, books and glasses can just about be made out but the painting is virtually two-dimensional (of course, the painting is two-dimensional but the point is that no attempt to create any depth is made). The surface, apart from the Gingerpot itself, is really just a series of shapes. The range of colours is very limited and the style is geometric.

Piet Mondrian, Still Life with Gingerpot  II, 1911-12

Mondrian is more well-known for his later work using only horizontal and vertical lines and black plus the primary colours. He rejected references to the outside world pushing toward pure abstraction. His use of asymmetrical balance and of simplification were crucial in the development of modern art, and his iconic abstract works remain influential in design and familiar in popular culture to this day.

Composition in Blue, Yellow and Red. Piet Mondrian 1942

"...forbidding, ascetic, pure, impersonal, ideal, clear beyond the mess of an ordinary life...."

I'm listening to Mozart's Symphony No.40 K550)in G Minor, 
the familiar first  movement - Allegro. Listen here.

Spotlight on a Website (9): Brilliant Maps

I think it has been four years since I was moved to post anything in this series but Brilliant Maps is such an interesting website that I decided to make this post. Thanks are due to my friend Curtis Gallant who has a Cambridge Degree in the History of Cartography, for directing me to this site.

From the Whicker's World Foundation website: 

"Curtis Gallant is a Cambridge classics graduate who has a specialist interest in the history of cartography. As a lover of documentaries, particularly those shedding light on cultures around the world, he was very keen to work for the Whicker’s World Foundation as Jane Ray’s researcher. It’s rumoured that the Whicker’s World Foundation decided to employ Curtis as their researcher having seen him correcting Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge on a question about African coastlines."

Brilliant Maps beautifully illustrates what the function of a map can be. Of course, primarily they tell us where things are especially in relation to each other. But they can also tell us lot about history, geography, travel, politics, populations and humour (eg, see European Food According to Italians).

 Here is a selection of some their interesting maps. Clink on the links to see the page:

1. Percentage of Young Adults In Europe, aged 25-34, Who Still Live With Their Parents

2. How North Londoners View The Rest Of The UK Or Why The Rest of The UK Hates London

3. The Genetic Map Of Europe

4. European Food According to Italians

Take a look at their site for yourself!

I'm listening to Tom Rush's original 1968 version of his song No Regrets which later became a big hit in the UK for the Walker Brothers. Listen here

Chigwell Village

“Chigwell, my dear fellow, is the greatest place in the world.....”  Charles Dickens, in a letter to a friend in 1841.

Chigwell is right on the edge of the Green Belt on London's north-west boundary with the county of Essex and had been around for a long time. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1080AD and the Romans were known to have been in Chigwell from 300AD. From further back in time Iron Age flints and a bronze axe have been found. The British Iron Age is usually dated as from around 800BC until the Romans came in 43AD.

(If you happen to be unfamiliar with the term 'Green Belt', it is defined as a ring around a city on which new building is generally prohibited. In London this has the affect of inflating property prices within it while preserving the pleasant countryside around it.)

There are at least two theories as to the origin of the name Chigwell. One is that it is from Chicca's Well, referring to an Anglo-Saxon chief, Chicca meaning King. There are many natural wells in the area so another theory claims the name simply refers to that fact.

A thousand years after the Romans were there, in 1391, there were just 72 dwellings in the area.

The Kings Head pub in Chigwell Village

One of the most famous buildings in Chigwell is the Kings Head pub, much beloved of Charles Dickens. He actually based The Maypole pub in Barnaby Rudge upon this one. Each floor overhangs the one below and there is a story that King Charles I hid there when he was on the run. While quite possibly being true, that claim is made by many other places as well! The building is now owned by local resident, Lord Sugar. Former patrons include the highwayman Dick Turpin and Sir Winston Churchill.

Chigwell School is famous for many things, one of which is that a former pupil William Penn was the founder of Pennsylvania. Other former pupils include the actors Sir Ian Holm and Ken Campbell and the TV presenter Ben Shepard. Harsnetts House built in the late 1500s was purchased for the school in 1627.

Chigwell School today

The finest building in Chigwell is Grange Court which lately was used as a residence for boarding pupils at the school. However when I saw it recently it looked empty and neglected. It is a Grade II* listed building  so would be an expensive undertaking for any purchasers - and there have been many famous ones in the past.

Grange Court, a late 18th century house in Chigwell Village

St Marys church in Chigwell High Road was founded in the 12th  century. The view below shows the only Norman parts remaining. The door way is completely original but the bell tower is 15th century and there was extensive 19th century enlargement of the building. The church is also Grade II* listed.

St Mary the Virgin, Chigwell

Two other local features are Rolls Park, a former Stately Home that was once the lifetime residence of  Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey who fought alongside Admiral Nelson as one of the key figures in the Battle of Trafalgar. He was the Captain of The Fighting Temeraire in Turner's famous painting.

JMW Turner, The Fighting Temeraire

The other local feature worth seeing is Chigwell Meadows Nature Reserve,  a 21 acre park land with hard paths providing a circular route around the tree and flower lined walkways. Among others Poplar, Oak, Walnut and Willow trees provide shade while a plethora of indigenous wild flowers such as bluebells, creeping cinquefoil, red and white clover, cow vetch and yarrow  provide colour and texture to the landscape. 

Chigwell Meadows

If you tread carefully among the log piles you may witness the beetles, wood lice and other insects that help to balance the meadows delicate eco system. At night the site come alive with owls, bats and other nocturnal animals. The swale that runs through the centre of the meadow is a man-made water feature and is part of a sustainable urban drainage system connected to the tranquil pond. It is of special scientific interest as its ecological development can be studied from construction through to maturity. The reeds within the Swale help to filter the water and they also create valuable habitat for wildlife.

Postscipt: When I led my walking group through Chigwell Village a couple of weeks a go I told them as we entered a field through a Kissing Gate that I would like their opinion on whether or not a recent excavation on the far side of the field was a Roman bath. What I knew was that there was an abandoned modern bath-tub in among the long grass. When we came across it there was hysterical laughs all round. I don't know how long the bath had been there but you can just make it out on Google maps!

I'm listening to the magical Granada from the Suite Española by Isaac Albéniz, possibly my favourite composer. You can hear it here.