NATIONAL LIFE STORIES ARTISTS’ LIVES Lynn Chadwick Interviewed by Cathy Courtney C466/28 This transcript is copyright of the British Library Board. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB 020 7412 7404 [email protected] This transcript is accessible via the British Library’s Archival Sound Recordings website. Visit http://sounds.bl.uk for further information about the interview. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk IMPORTANT Access to this interview and transcript is for private research only. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. 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Should you find any errors please inform the Oral History curators ( [email protected] ) © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk The British Library National Life Stories Interview Summary Sheet Title Page Ref no: C466/28/01-11 Digitised from cassette originals Collection title: Artists’ Lives Interviewee’s surname: Chadwick Title: Interviewee’s forename: Lynn Sex: male Occupation: Artist Dates: 1914 – 2003 Dates of recording: 1995.04.04, 1995.04.20, 1995.05.16 Location of interview: Lyppiatt Park Name of interviewer: Cathy Courtney Type of recorder: Marantz CP430 Recording format: D60 Cassette F numbers of playback cassettes: F4555 – F4565 Total no. of digitised tracks : 22 Mono or stereo: Stereo Additional material: Copyright/Clearance: Full clearance. © The British Library Interviewer’s comments: © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Lynn Chadwick Page 1 C466/28 Tape 1 [F4555] Side A F4555 Side A Interview with Lynn Chadwick on April 4th, 1995 To begin absolutely at the beginning, where and when were you born? When? I was born in November, 1914, in a place which was then almost a suburb of London, called Barnes. And it had a Common and horse traffic, I Remember that. In terms of carriages, or what? Carriages? Oh yes. You see, that only ... well, ... everything was horse-driven then. There were only just a few lorries and they usually had solid tyres too, they made a terrible noise. And there were also polo ponies that used to go backwards and forwards, because there was Roehampton and Ranelagh there, polo grounds, and so you could hear all these horses going past. And it was, it wasn’t a village, but it was much more removed from London, in those days, than it is now. Were you actually born at home, do you know? I was born at home, yes. Number 66 Station Road. And did you know either sets of grandparents? Did you know your grandparents, on either side? No, because two of them were dead, and the other one, my Chadwick grandfather, was not in England. In fact, he was just passing through on his way to New Zealand, so that’s the only time I ever saw him. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Lynn Chadwick Page 2 C466/28 Tape 1 [F4555] Side A Do you know anything about his life? No. Did you get told stories? Not really, no. No, I don’t really know about my grandfather. The other Grandfather, my mother’s father, I know a little bit about him. He was a curious man, because he was, in a way, a craftsman, as he had a joinery firm and made furniture. And, on the other hand, he was well-known as a sort of ... not a naturalist, but an antiquarian, he used to collect objects. And he was also slightly interested in the political scene, inasmuch as he was a political agent for somebody. In which party? That’s what I don’t know, really. I know that it was for someone called Trevelyan, but I don’t know what, what Party he was. Is that the famous Trevelyan family, do you think, or not? Well, it’s a big family, so I don’t really know which side of the family it was. I mean it’s a Welsh, it’s a Cornish name, isn’t it - Trevelyan. And where did your mother grow up? Was she a Londoner? © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Lynn Chadwick Page 3 C466/28 Tape 1 [F4555] Side A No. She was born, I think, in Galashiels in Scotland. And she went to school in Edinburgh, Edinburgh High School. She was brought up in a place called Galashiels, that’s where they lived, in Selkirkshire. And she, when she left school, she became a governess, or a school teacher, or something. She was both a school teacher and a governess, that’s right. And had she thought that she would go on having a career, or was it something to do before getting married? Have you any idea? Well, you know, I don’t know how it was in those days. In any case, you know, the trouble with all women, not the trouble, but the ... what the, what the history of all women is, that they set out on a career, and they get side-racked, so they don’t continue it. Anyway, my mother was a school mistress, or something like that, in Ireland for a while. Then she got married and went with her husband to Portugal, where they lived in Portugal for a while, I don’t know how long they lived, and then I think my mother’s first husband died. And she had no children with him? She had no children by him, no. No. And did she ever talk about him? Was he a shadowy figure in your life? He was a shadowy sort of ... no, no, I didn’t hear about him at all, but his brother lived near here, and so that’s how I first came to this part of the country, because my mother’s brother- in-law lived here, and we used to come to see him. Where did he actually live? © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Lynn Chadwick Page 4 C466/28 Tape 1 [F4555] Side A Well, I think it was somewhere near ... Sheepscombe. I think it was. And would you come and stay with him, or would you come for the day, or what? No, no, no. No, no. We used to rent a cottage near here, and used to come for summer holidays. For two summer holidays, anyway, I remember two summer holidays, roundabout 1920/21. And did they make very strong impressions on you? Have you got vivid memories of those holidays? Of? Of those two holidays. Yes. They were really, they were ... it’s a sort of formative period, you see, too, and it was marvellous being in the country and being able to wander about barefoot. Yes, it was very good. Mmm. And what about the lie of the land, did it make any impression? A little bit. Not much. But the biggest impression was, of course, quite a different thing, because this cottage we used to rent was near this place called Whiteway Colony, which was still inhabited by almost the original settlers who were sort of, if not Russian, there were some Russians, but they were still sort of people who were looking for an alternative way of life. And did you visit them? © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Lynn Chadwick Page 5 C466/28 Tape 1 [F4555] Side A Well, we were right next to it, and we used to go there to get, to get the bread and things, yes. And what was it like, what was the atmosphere? Well, you know, I was only six years old, it’s difficult to remember exactly how it was, because I, I don’t know. No, I don’t know from that ... at that age, at that age, I don’t really remember. Have you got any memory of the building and the interior? This ... No, the people you were talking about. No. In those days, they lived in extremely primitive sort of home-built fabrications, really, in those days, in those days, because I’m confusing it slightly when I, because later, when I was 20/21 years old, I used to come back here again, for a different reason, to see the people who were living in the house which we had rented. That’s right. So that was much later, that was sort of 1933 or ‘34. And so that it had changed considerably, and the people had changed, and they had become, shall we say, more bourgeois, the people, the original colonists, because they were, they were, you know, there was a community. They tried to run it as a commune, but it didn’t work very well, but anyway, they tried. And was that idea attractive to you, the idea of simplicity of the commune? © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Lynn Chadwick Page 6 C466/28 Tape 1 [F4555] Side A No, no. It didn’t really mean anything, really. Not really, because it probably wasn’t presented to me in a reasonable way, anyway, by the family. And, going back to your mother’s father, did anything of his collection of objects, or anything he made, get passed down to you? Did any of it filter through? Not to me, no.