A brief return to the Cotswolds, Part Two

Extraordinary harmony.....

Two Seated Figures II, 1973

 

The highlight of our brief trip to the Cotswolds was our visit to Lypiatt Park, which came about after I recently published a piece on the exhibition of Lynn Chadwick’s sculptures at Houghton Hall in Norfolk (for which, please see https://www.richardpgibbs.org/2026/06/houghton-hall.html). 

Sitting Couple on a Bench

Lypiatt Park, a medieval and Tudor manor house near Stroud, was once the property of Dick Whittington, the Lord Mayor of London, but was acquired, in a dilapidated state, in 1958 by the modernist sculptor Lynn Chadwick, who lived and worked there until his death in 2003.

The Manor House

It was inherited by his son, kinetic artist Daniel, who now lives there with his family, but it is also where his half-sister, Sarah Marchant (née Chadwick) manages and catalogues her father's artistic legacy and writes introductions for publications on his work at Lypiatt Park, 

and it was by her invitation that we were privileged to visit the Park which now extends across 250 acres of land that Lynn purchased in 1988.
 

And so it was that we experienced, as a friend put it when I showed her some of my photos, an extraordinary harmony between the angular shapes and the comfort between the figures. 

Sitting Figures, 1979-80

The works on show, some thirty sculptures, ranging from the abstract, to human forms, via a number of ‘beasts,’ cover most of Lynn’s career from when he began to create three-dimensional pieces, which was after his service in the Fleet Air Arm in the Second World War, until the end of his life in the 21^st century.

Dancers, 1967

Having trained as an architectural draughtsman, Lynn’s approach to sculpting was to weld a framework of straight steel rods, as if drawing in space. This was then filled with ’stolit,' an amalgam of gypsum and iron filings. These sculptures were then cast in bronze in limited editions. In later works the frame was clad in stainless steel sheets. One sculpture was a unique commission in 1962 using sheet steel from a steel works (Two Winged Figures). 

Two Winged Figures, 1962

It was an entirely different approach to that of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, whose creations involved subtracting material from an initial block of wood or stone; Lynn’s creations grew almost subconsciously from his imagination.
 

Jubilee IV

The park, which falls away from the Manor House into the Toadsmoor Valley beneath Bisley, is a gracious haven for the varied pieces that were all placed in their positions by Lynn - which is important for collectors to see how the artist intended his work to be viewed. He started to place the sculptures in 1989 and this continued until it was complete in 2002. And this is where the harmony lies.  The older works, which have rough, dark, scraped finishes seem to belong organically in the landscape.  

Two Seated Figures II, 1973

The later figures, shiny with their stainless exteriors, reflect the sky and the natural environment, whether the yellow of the dry grass or the green of the arboreal shadows, changing as the light ebbs and flows, in harmony with each other and with nature.  

Sitting Couple on a Bench

The figures, most especially the pairs, as in Jubilee IV or Sitting Couple on a Bench, are comfortable with each other, and I can feel the artist’s belief in relationships and companionship – a message perhaps that peace is possible if only we would share our time..... The individuals, however, like Cloaked Figure IX, 

Cloaked Figure

or the trios, like The Watchers 

The Watchers

or the three Little Girls,

Little Girl I, Little Girl II and Little Girl III

are no less comfortable and they expand that idea of harmony, despite, as my friend noted, their angular shapes....  The relationship between the figures - and this is not to exclude the wonderful beasts, whether alerted, crouching, rising or howling

Howling Beast I, 1990

 

Rising Beast, 1989

- and their surroundings feels just right, and that is a reminder that while we walk or sit in the world, we are a part of that world and should respect it.

 

Sarah was a wonderful host, brimful of pride and delight in her father’s achievement and most welcoming and informative on our personal tour.  

Ace of Diamonds III

Sadly, at least in some ways, the park is not adapted to be open to the general public, the complications of such a move being currently insurmountable, but I hope that this piece may inspire my friends to seek out the works of Lynn Chadwick that are out there in various places, whether you have time to catch them at Houghton before October, or merely look up above the doorway of Fortnum and Mason in London.  

High Wind IV, 1995

As my followers will know my knowledge and understanding of art is limited, but I have found immense delight and - if this isn’t too strong a word – hope in his work and am most grateful to Sarah for granting us the opportunity to visit Lypiatt Park and see for ourselves where so many of his pieces are in harmony with their home.
 

Stranger III, 1959

With thanks.....

Ace of Diamonds III

By way of an intermission

Walking to Sunny Hunny....

Only a couple of weeks ago there was a sea of camomile on the Marsh.....

Now look at it:

Parched.

I walk through a landscape of drought; a savannah of sorts....

Already deeply into autumn:

And dry..... so very dry.....

Even the sea holly - designed to resist arid extremes  - is struggling.....

I blame that busy old fool, the unruly sun......  

Whose coy attempt to hide behind the moon the other day left me blinded by his aura.....

(Though I did catch him out in March 2015, on the shores of Sutherland.....)

Anyway. Onward, toward Sunny Hunny, as Hunstanton likes to be known, though yesterday a blanket of cloud wrapped the esplanade in uncharacteristic gloom:

There's little demand for ice cream today:

And it's not too hot to run:

Or cycle:

Or stand and stare [What is this life?  Ed]:

Or walk the dogs:

Or just to walk:

Or may be not .....

The British seaside, at its finest.  Sunny Hunny. 

 

Everyone (including the bikers)'s favourite.....

Ah yes.  The seaside [Where we do like to be beside?  Ed].....

Yes..... But....

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky;

I left my shoes and socks there — I wonder if they're dry?

Spike Milligan

A brief return to the Cotswolds, Part One

Far From.....

Lodge Park and Sherborne Estate

Three and a bit hours drive from North Norfolk and we are in a different country.  No more the quiet flatnesses of the tidal coastline, no more the black soils of the fenlands. Here the countryside rolls, tipping over edges into spring-loaded valleys, and landscapes without much evidence of settlement unfold from the uplands.  The Sherborne Estate could tell a lot of stories, from enormous wealth from the shearing of 3,000 sheep in the fifteenth century to penury in the eighteenth century as a result of misplaced bets on deer coursing.....

I am not a Cotswold virgin - I have ventured here often. I recall hearing of the death of Marilyn Monroe (August 4th, 1962) while at scout camp near Burford, in this very valley, in this very field...... Oh how we, pre-pubescent patrol members (well - some of us), wept at the loss, our bell tents creaking in lament.... Please see: https://www.richardpgibbs.org/2012/06/on-breast-of-river-of-time.html 

for much more on this (and related stories....).....

Our campsite, over sixty years ago....

Anyway, on this trip down the dead end of memory, we stop over at Minster Lovell, where St Kenelm (an eighth century Mercian Prince, murdered in the Clent Hills....) accepts us into his 12th century church (rebuilt by William, the 7th Baron Lovell, in 1450).  

And here he is (or may be) in alabaster, after he departed his armour in 1455.....

It is a remarkable spot, not least because English Heritage (unlike the National Trust) allows unlimited access and so we find families picnicking by and swimming in the Windrush, portable BBQs and stoves carefully attended (?) amidst the ruined masonry and tracery.....

There are even life-like effigies strategically placed in niches and openings in the stonework, reminding us of the scale (and actuality) of life in them there days.....

Anyways, we burn on, to Swinbrook, made much of in the associated piece linked above.  Here, at the Swan, courtesy of Debo, I have stayed in days of yore, and fond are the memories, though nothing is ever as good as the now....  

Despite the history.....

The Fettiplaces are still here.....

Their generations unspoiled by time:

As are the troubled Mitford/Mosleys......

All  quiet, on the Western front.....

And so, heat and dust notwithstanding, we make our way to Lypiatt Park, Lynn Chadwick's resting place.  But that is another story, to follow in a separate piece.....

And so, a return to Slad, famous for its links with Laurie Lee (I beg you to refer to https://www.richardpgibbs.org/2014/05/laurie-lee-26-june-1914-13-may-1997.html for much more about him and his story....) where we sample local fare and nod respectfully to his memory....

Yes, the Woolpack (coincidentally owned by Daniel Chadwick, son of Lynn, of whom more anon....) was Laurie's home from home, and sits favourably in my memories of previous (and current) visits. If only..... If only more pubs were like this. I really do believe the world would be a better place......

And then we take a walk, a little walk....

And only say.....

Yeah, well. It's all a dream. 

And so we come to the Romans, and what did they do for us? (All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? Ed.)

It may surprise you, but the finest Roman mosaics in the British Isles are in the Cotswolds, at Chedworth Roman Villa, once one of the grandest country houses in Roman Britain, dating from the second century AD and inhabited for at least two hundred years. It was possibly the country retreat of a certain Roman Abramovich - or at least someone who owned at least one football club.....

These are no ordinary floor tiles.  These tesserae were not from B&Q.  Someone, or more likely, a number of skilled artists, laid this floor, and more, with the patience and expertise of a Darren Lucas (oops, forgive me, a local artisan, famed for his tiling.....Ed.)

Decipher this:

Yes.  Art, or whatever you choose to call it, is not new to the Cotswolds, nor to Britain, nor to the world.  The Romans were not the first, the only, nor the last to explore the relationship between artefact and pleasure, or creation and satisfaction, or sensitivity and well-being.  

Their plumbing may have let them down, but they paved (sic) the way to sculpture and representation, and, as we shall see in part two of this sortie back into the Cotswolds, art and landscape have a most important place in the ongoing story of this world.....

Sitting Couple on Bench, Lynn Chadwick, 1990, Lypiatt Park

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Do, please, look out for part two of this account, where we visit Lypiatt Park, the erstwhile home of sculptor Lynn Chadwick......

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For those who travel with me

xxxx