Went to the local auction this past week and came away with a number of prints and drawings.  The prints are nice but it was the pencil drawings which caught my eye and which have brought me delight while researching them.  The drawings are not signed so I do not know who they are by but a number of them have titles and dates.  I believe they are by the same artist.

East End of St Mary’s Church, Birkin drawing by unknown artist 1842

The east end of the Church of St. Mary, on the edge of the village of Birkin, Yorkshire as seen in 1842.  I love that even back then the head-stones were leaning to and fro.  An impressively built Norman church with a Romanesque south door carved with roll mouldings and beak heads which was reset into the south wall of the south aisle when it was rebuilt in 1328 as well it has a richly carved corbel table around chancel and apse.

The canal near Wither, Leeds drawing by unknown artist @1850

From #St.Mary’sChurch,Birkin lets travel over to a place called Wither Grange on the Leeds -Liverpool canal.  The canal is 127 miles long and crosses the Pennines with 91 locks in the process.  #WitherGrange no longer exists but you can walk by where it use to be.   The canal was built to facilitate the moving of goods and this can be seen in the drawing  as the barges are laden with goods.  Next let’s travel over to #TheOldHall,Knostrop the one time home of artist #JohnAtkinsonGrimshaw.

Old Hall, Knostrop drawing by unknown artist @ 1850

Grimshaw became a full time painter in 1861 but it is not known if he received any formal training.  He began painting still-life studies of birds, fruit, and forest scenes eventually finding that he excelled at  the depiction of moonlight, which was to become a notable feature of his work.

So as to not make this chapter too long, I will end here and we will continue our travels with this unknown artist in the next. There are more wonderful and charming places to visit down this road in history.