17 May 2007 Abingdon

Avenue that is, Northampton. And, with suitable Boris Johnson type apologies, the Northampton header wouldn't have produced the same excitement would it?! (And later I remembered it's ABINGTON Avenue after all! Oops!)

FB designed a window for what was the Congregational Church and is now the United Reformed Church (shown above, and detail below - isn't she lovely!). Obviously a very vibrant parish with daily events. We were welcomed by Ruth Redhead, Eddie and Joyce Jeyes. Ruth read us a piece written by a relative of Fitness who had commissioned the window, Joyce enlightened us as to the symbolism in the design, and Eddie was cajoled into taking his place at the organ seat and giving us a recital.

Filming outside the church, the net curtains of adjoining houses twitched - 'Ooh, who's that then, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Bill Odie and Kate Moss, it just must be, and its the starlings in the belfry they're after.' Well, we may be delusional but unfortunately none of those descriptions fit us 100%!

Back to Film Farm via Fired Earth showroom at Warmington Mill (a coffee shop there would be a great addition next to the canal?) and a superlative Waitrose cum JL at Rushden.

16 May 2007 Guinness country

Well almost - Charles and I loaded up the Alfa and drove down to the church of St Andrew and St Patrick, Elveden in Suffolk to film the stained glass window FB designed as a memorial to Lord Iveagh (Guiness family) - the window is above the door in the photo. Gillian and Neville Turner (see above) were most welcoming and gave us the full guided tour including the graves of the Maharajah Duleep Singh and family (I kid you not), the original mediaeval St Andrew's church, the shepherds on the pinnacles of the Western Tower (they gave the money and demanded recognition!), the extension dedicated to St Patrick and designed by Caroe (the o should be topped by an umlaut but I can't find the symbol), and the magical cloister and bell tower (also Caroe mit umlaut) erected in memory of the first Vicountess Iveagh. Ah, there's love and devotion for you - recalls the Taj Mahal (which, incidentally, I always considered chocolate box kitchy - that is, until I went there, some twenty years ago, and, despite the crowds, it just took my breath away. It is beautiful and truly magical).

Back to basics after that detour. The church is, unfortunately, cheek by whatsit with the A11 along which traffic thunders in a never ending manner. The photo shows Charles trying to record bird song amid the traffic roar!

The other bird - me - wasn't quite on song, mind elsewhere or something so we had to retake my blurb rather more than a few times (and then afterwards, looking at the rushes, noticed I'd still got my sandals on instead of some slightly smarter black shoes - ***** - can't win 'em all as FB might have said).

Persuaded Gillian to talk about the window but then mortified her because we compared the feel of it to All Things Bright and Beautiful which isn't exactly her favourite hymn! It might be rather jolly to have some youngsters singing the hymn though - any offers of help? The church hosts a campanologists get together in the summer and Neville has promised to tape the ringing for us, which is splendid.

Recovered from our labours in the newly opened Elveden Estate Shop and Cafe (with accent) Restaurant which is excellent - well worth a visit.

Back to Film Farm through sheeting rain - ugh!

15 May 2007. Smokery

Dear Reader

No, I haven't descended to the dreaded weed, or even Bill and Ben, but did give a lecture to a super NADFAS group at Cley by the Sea (Norfolk) and at the same time stocked up on smoked salmon and smoked olives and smoked cheese and kippers at the fabulous smokery there (surprise surprise), and purchased some lavender bread at the Deli (never come across this animal previously, but believe me, warmed in the oven and combined with the smokery delights was truly magnificent).

I was due to lecture to the group last year, but it happened to coincide with the opening of the BRANGWYN Liss Fine Art show at The Fine Art Society - and I just couldn't get from one to the other in time - and hey, I wasn't going to miss my first BIG Brangwyn show of the year! I had, therefore, been feeling frightfully guilty, but think/hope I redeemed myself.

And on to Film Farm to devour said goodies and discuss progress. Have decided to complete the film this year if possible, leaving Gareth's episode as a separate film which can be edited and added at the last moment.

11 May 2007 Spirals and knots

Relevance? Well, possibly the spirals of the projected V&A structure, or spiralling out of control, or the position I find myself in viz a viz the designs FB did for Tiffany in 1898-99.

It's like this. Two finished panels are listed in the Grafton Gallery catalogue (1899), Music and Baptism of Christ. The former doesn't appear to exist but the latter does as does another panel, Child with Gourd. There are two designs which could possibly be Music - but which one is the right one? There are some obvious sketches and some cartoons (with leading shown) illustrated in contemporary magazines but might some of the latter be finished panels? Difficult to say. Wot [sic] a dilemma.

So I've been digging through various old magazines at the V&A Library trying to sort out this knotty problem. But I never graduated from Brownies, so my entanglement in granny, reef, slip and weaver, not to mention Gordian is overwhelming.

8 May 2007 Gareth's glass

Visited Gareth near Carmarthen. What a super chap, hugely enthusiastic, similarly non PC, and could talk the hind leg off the proverbial donkey. He's obviously highly intelligent and was a teacher in a previous life, but luckily isn't didactic. Will come over superbly on film - the energy, the mobile smiling face, the character - and he loves Brangwyn - what more could one want! Rhetorical dear chap, rhetorical.

I had sent him images of all the known designs Brangwyn made for Tiffany and left it to Gareth to decide which one he wanted or felt most able to recreate - and he's chosen the one I secretly wanted him to choose, Girl with fruit bowl (see below) - so that's absolutely brilliant. Saw works in progress, took photographs of the studios (aka the spare room and the garage - here's one of Gareth, smiling of course) - agreed a price, always the heart stopping moment! Unfortunately he won't be able to start work until later this year and the panel won't be finished until about March next, which puts my whole timetable awry, but I feel it is worth waiting for. He's also agreed to be interviewed seperately as a practitioner about FB's approach to designing stained glass.

Also worked out logistics for filming 'how a stained glass panel is made' without negotiating multiple trips from Kent via Lincolnshire to west Wales which would deplete the budget more than a little - might have to do the Blue Peter 'Here's one I made earlier' tack.

Now occurs to me what a wonderful mini exhibition it would make - the new stained glass Tiffany panel, FB's original drawing (well, a photo of it anyway, location of original unknown), Gareth's working sketches, the film of the panel being made, and maybe we could have Miscellany and Mike Westbrook to perform at the opening. Wouldn't that be glorious?!

Got another donation towards the film from relatives!

17-19 April Crevettes, Oysters and Mussels

The first filming for the DVD and we're off abroad - what fun! Dover-Calais ferry and then nipped into Cite Europe to stock up on wines, cheeses, pate, olives etc and something for a picnic lunch (crevettes, baguette and some superior mayonnaise since you ask - and there's Charles devouring the proceeds!). Thence on to Bruges, checked into the hotel, gathered portable film equipment (that's Charles carrying half of it below!) and out on the town to capture the atmosphere (Charles got hooked into the horse drawn carriages and was determined to record the clip cloppy sound of hooves on cobbles (a pair of coconuts was good enough for us students in Radio Sheffield turn of the 1970s), Arents House Museum where there is an excellent and varied permanent exhibition of Brangwyn's work (centre above), the canals etc.

After Charles finally agreed to stop for the evening we progressed to Den Dijver (just along from Arents House), an absolutely superb restaurant. This is about the 4th time I've been there and it just gets better. Not cheap, but wonderful food, including oysters, great atmosphere, friendly and communicative staff without being officious. No, I'm not getting a backhander for this plug!

Following day we again took to the streets, filming the house where FB was born, the fish market (probably because CM spotted some pretty girls behind the stalls) and then on to St Andrei's Abbey at Zevenkerken which boasts a small Crucifixion window in one of the chapels and 5 double lancets in the Chapter House, all designed by FB. Father Victor Broekaert was our very patient guide, seen here sitting behind the filmmaker. We persuaded Father Victor to speak to camera, I did my twirl along the cloisters and spouted outside and CM did his usual professional job on filming and photographing all the windows and everything else in sight until I stopped him filming the horses in a nearby meadow as just a step too far and not exactly relevant.

Back to town and back to more filming and recording, the Beguinage, St John's Hospital, the main square, chiming of the bells, those horse drawn carriages AGAIN, and it was only the fact that it was finally getting too dark which persuaded the man that it was time to pack it in. Phew! He may surface late but makes up for it the tail end of the day by which time your scribe (a lark) is dead to the world!

Occurred to me that we now had masses of film showing Bruges and maybe it would be a jolly wheeze to add an FB Bio to the DVD. Since Charles was hungry and I was paying, he agreed! We trotted along to a dedicated mussel restaurant only to be told they had run out! But got some in the end!

19th we set off for The Hague where some friends wanted me to inspect a Brangwyn painting. Despite me being somewhat dubious about it, they still gave me sponsorship money (they were aghast at the lack of funding for academic researchers in the UK) and bought us both lunch - that's faith, dedication, devotion for you - whatever it is, I was exceptionally grateful - true friendship probably.

And back to Calais, getting stuck in loads of horrible traffic round Rotterdam so that the last part of the journey was playing catch-up to make the ferry in time, possibly breaking a few speed limits, and CM keeping me awake with banalities and a constant stream of music from his ipod.

16 April 2007 Diversions

No, not what you're thinking! I've been commissioned to write all the Brangwyn entries for a book the Ferens Art Gallery are publishing later this year on their Victorian and Edwardian collections. And I've until the end of August to write everything up - so FBSG may go on the back burner for a while - only NOT for the next three days!