LRE Issue 69

12 mingham’s industrial canals (3 images GARDENS IN NEWLY is the narrow strip of streetside land on page 11) as a focus for future tour- that a gifted guerrilla gardener has ism? . DEVELOPED HOUSING made into a floral paradise (see top AREAS image). It is opposite his kitchen win- by Bud Young dow! Their tiny gardens are invisible; some are approached only via the I spent some working time a few years ago mapping the structure of urban and suburban areas and at that time found a way of discriminating what planners had lumped into the category R - Residential into perhaps 35 types based on their age and the type of housing; some of this was high rise, some single storey, some terraces, some spaciously set houses, some local authority housing and so on. There was a strength in that analysis as it combined type with age. This study I performed across two London Boroughs, all of Doncaster MBC and much of Liverpool. The distribution so revealed is in itself a very telling demographic. All of this was done from aerial photography. Arenig, Nant Ddu and the beginning of Modern Landscape Painting in Britain Notably interesting was the large amount of space provided for subur- This year marks the centenary of the death of James Dickson Innes, an artist whose qualities and obses- ban gardens up to the 1950s and the sion with a North Wales mountain deserve to be better known. This article by Gareth Roberts, cele- poverty of space in modern day hous- house or by a shoulder -width narrow brates the work of Innes and other artists who painted in and around Arenig, North Wales between 1909 ing developments where ‘units per alley. The aerial view probably shows and 1914. A review of a re- hectare’ is policy tightened to gasping pot plants on patios. cently published biography of point. the life and work of Innes will A another development, a slightly Analysing the late-modern develop- larger site has a successful small pub- feature in Landscape Re- ments — dating them on aerial pho- lic green space (above), two residual search. tography each with its own date point oak trees, a new-planted now bushy — achieved by comparison of house roadside hedge and deep set rivulet, Arenig Fawr and Arenig Fach type and layout styles and the condi- fenced off — but part guerrilla gar- are outliers of ‘porphry’; igne- tion of the gardens — allowed fine dened by one householder. Children ous intrusions of volcanic date tuning of recent developments. actually play among the trees of the origin which rise, island like, Garden plots start as grass rectangles greenspace. Hurrah! surrounded by the usual board bound- from an extensive moorland ary fence. Then the garden path, then Few development today have space landscape between Bala and the shed and the trampoline. But how for those large trees that were and still Trawfynydd in North Wales. quickly is the change made to ‘gardens are the hallmark of pre 1950s areas. Although far from the highest of delight’. And how few properties So the dilemma. Pack those houses in? mountains in Snowdonia they display planting and design quality. Remove gardens? Increased paved runoff? Create small townscale have a presence enhanced by My town has developed by at least 4 spaces? Limit sprawl? Save our their isolation. The views housing patches in the last 12 years. I countryside? Spread out and let us afforded from their summits watch their development. The one breathe? What is all that farmland are among the finest in the Na- closest to me has the least provision of doing anyway! garden space. It is 8 years old and the tional Park. (see photo). The BY Migneint the blanket bog most significant feature visible to me moorland that surrounds the Arenigs is the most extensive in England and Wales. Its wet boggy nature Landscape Research Extra is published by Landscape made it difficult to cross historically. In 1798 the Reverend John Evans wrote that he saw here ‘no ves- Research Group Ltd. Landscape Research Group Ltd is a Registered Charity (No. 287610) and Company Limited by Guarantee (No. 1714386, Cardiff). Its tige of a dwelling, no mark of human footstep’ only the ‘awful desolation of this extensive tract of hope- Registered Office is at: 89A The Broadway, Wimbledon, London SW19 1QE th For disclaimer and addresses for editorial enquiries and administrative less sterility’. By the end of the 18 century North Wales had become a popular venue for artists in correspondence see the box on page 11. search of the picturesque but Arenig and the Migneint was not on their itinerary. By the beginning of the www.landscaperesearch.org 20th century attitudes had changed. This is the how that came about. 2 3 In 1910, a young artist James Dickson February 1913. It marked the pinnacle railway halt at Tryweryn only a few of North Wales quoted in Condry William valley bottoms and a sense of height I have been concerned during the kick- Innes, stumbled across Rhyd y Fen an of the careers of Innes who died of TB minutes’ walk from their front door, M (1990) The Natural History of Wales which makes the off-road views long. off meeting that ‘heritage’ was tacitly isolated inn on the moorland road be- the following year and Lees who was allowing guests to come and go rela- (page 45). Modbury on the north edge of the area being accepted as a largely unproblem- tween Bala and Ffestiniog in the committed to a mental institution tively easily. It was also close to Betws has woods, a twisting valley bottom, atic concept, unlike ‘landscape’ or 2 The National Trust for the preservation of shadow of Arenig Fawr. Born in shortly after. John outlived both and Gwerful Goch where John’s friend short slopes — nooky, comfortable, ‘culture’. This is emphatically not the historic buildings and natural beauty had Llanelli and trained at the Slade School went on to secure considerable acclaim John Sampson, Chief Librarian at Liv- been established in 1897 and endorsed by habitable and nice! case, so I am taking an immediate of Art, Innes had embarked on a tour of during his lifetime. erpool University and champion of Act of Parliament in 1907. opportunity to write a short summary North Wales in the summer of 1910 Romany culture, had a cottage. RAY/BY for the benefit of those who have not after reading George Borrow’s Wild In the history of British landscape Sampson had his own gipsy caravan 3 Augustus John, in particular, wrote exten- been immersed in heritage critical Wales. Suffering from TB and relying painting, the significance of the and travelled with Innes and Lees to sively in letters and in his autobiography, studies as it has developed over 25 heavily on the support of family and ‘Arenig’ period 1910 -14 cannot be visit the Romany families in local vil- Chiaroscuro (1962) about his work time in years, greatly influenced by French friends, Innes had lages and taverns North Wales, commenting very poignantly philosophical thinking, Bourdieu et al. about his relationships with his family, shown talent for land- frequented by gipsy friends and lovers and influences on his art. HERCULES AND scape painting from an girls places which the There are four distinct ways in which early age and whilst at Welsh nonconform- 4 Augustus John, J D Innes, Derwent Lees, CULTURAL heritage is studied. Two of these will the Slade had become ists shunned. The Paintings 1910-14. HERITAGE surprise no-one in the ‘landscape’ dis- close to Augustus John. three shared corre- cipline, as there is a study of stake- John’s bohemian life- spondence about the 5 ‘Crisis at the New English Art By Peter Howard holders (including the clash between style also attracted In- beauty of these girls Club’ (1904) a pen and watercolour draw- the expert agenda and the local agenda) nes. John preferred and their willingness ing by William Orpen caricatures John, and there are studies of identity level, countryside to the city to serve as models. dressed casually with long hair and beard although this has been very heavily and often travelled in a Women in landscape sitting on the edge of a precipice in remote dominated by the national level. Other landscape whilst his colleagues dressed for caravan and consorted was to become a work selects a field of heritage — the town, look on askance. [Illustrated as with gypsies. notable feature of figure 42 in ‘Gwen John and Augustus nature, monuments, artefacts, sites, their work during this John’ Edited David Frase Jenkins and Chris events, persons — but any attempt to The appreciation of the period, but for Innes, Stephens, Tate Publishing (2004)] define heritage by field inevitably fails. natural beauty of wild it was the relation- Lastly there is now wide agreement that landscape was fast be- ship between Arenig 6 Augustus John Chiarascuro (1962) Joh- ‘heritage’ is not a product but a coming a popular notion Fawr, ‘his favourite nathan Cape, quoted in The Mountains of process, and some papers attempt to and chimed well with girl’ and Euphemia Wales an anthology in verse and prose com- describe elements of that process and Innes. It is little wonder ‘the love of his life’ piled and edited by Ioan Bowen Rees. here note that gentrification is an inevi- Cardiff University of Wales Press (1992) then that Innes was at- that dominated. table element in that process. So heri- tracted to the landscape Augustus John re- tage is indeed Conserved, but there are at Rhyd y Fen, over- ported that Innes three other ways of remembering; some looked by Arenig Fawr.

Load more