WIDE WEDNESDAY - WITH THANKS TO SARAH

You may remember that last week for Wide Wednesday, I said that I had something in mind, but that there was a story behind it and this week I can reveal what that is.

Our car is due to go in for service today, so I was disappointed thinking that I couldn’t reveal the story, but decided to get up very early again - at 6.30 in fact, have my shower and shoot off to the place I wanted to go to and get back before the car was picked up - and I did it with half an hour to spare!  I know that I could have used last week's photograph, but the ethos of Blip is that the photograph should be taken on the day, hence me getting up early!  At the time of writing - just after 9 o’clock - we are still waiting for the car to be collected, so I needn’t have rushed!

The story is that the mural, which is my main photograph was also going to be the subject for last week’s Wide Wednesday challenge.  I took lots of photographs, but was a little disappointed that it wasn’t quite finished - in fact, it had a notice that said “Back Next Week” in front of it.  However, when I got home, I couldn’t find out anything about the mural, so decided that rather than just let it be a mural with no substance, I would try to find out more about it and perhaps do it for this week’s Wide Wednesday challenge.

Last Wednesday afternoon, Mr. HCB decided to sort out his jigsaw puzzles and found 15 that could go to a charity shop - and as we support the DEBRA charity shop in Old Town, I rang and spoke to Sarah, the Manager, and asked if she would like them - she said she would, so I said I would take them up, which I duly did.

I left the shop, having delivered the jigsaws and came down the usual road to drive home, when I saw lots of tins of paint in front of the mural and a lady standing in front of  it - I quickly parked the car - on double yellow lines (!) but knew I would be near it in case I saw a Traffic Warden - and jumped out.  I asked the lady if she was the artist and she confirmed she was.  I told her about Blip and how I had photographed it that morning but hadn’t been able to find out anything about it, so had decided to leave it until I could get more information.

I asked her name and she said it was Sarah Harris and that she had been commissioned to paint it on this particular wall for the Landlord of the flats because he was fed up with the wall being plastered with graffiti all the time, so thought that a mural on there would deter any graffiti artists. 

We had a lovely chat and she said that she does have a “day job” but her  boss was very kind and allowed her to have a couple of hours off during the day, so that she could paint, because of course, after work, it would be dark!  She said that she painted for fun,  and it was the first time she had done anything like this, so we then chatted about the mural.  I asked if I could take her photograph and Sarah was happy to oblige - only when I got home did I realise that the feather from the quill pen was showing behind her head!  Obviously this photograph was taken last week, but I hope I can be forgiven for that. 

I said that I recognised Christ Church, the Parish Church, just up the hill and was aware that the man with the pigs in a cart was obviously a reference to the Cattle Market, which also used to be in Old Town, but this has been closed for many years.  However, both Mr. HCB and I chatted about this and said we both used to go there when we were children and always enjoyed hearing the auctioneers selling pigs, sheep and cattle.  

Swindon or Suindone and Suindune is mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086, hence the book and the feather quill in the mural.  The Domesday Book is an historical manuscript record, or a “Great Survey” and describes the landholdings and resources in 11th century England and parts of Wales at that time.  It was made by order of William I, known as William the Conqueror and is now held in The National Archives at Kew, London.  Suindone was said to  comprise 12¾ hides - a hide being about 120 acres or 50 hectares so the total area of the town at that time was in the region of 1,530 acres or about 620 hectares - so that you can visualise this, Suindone in the 11th century was the size of 765 football pitches!

The Swindon Corporation Tram is a reminder of a very serious road accident in 1906, when a number 11 tram, which was taking passengers from the Bath & West Show that was held in Old Town, down into New Town, suffered brake failure on Victoria Hill and crashed near Regent Circus, killing five people.  

Interestingly, whilst speaking to Sarah, she said that a man had been watching her paint and said that the tram which crashed was NOT a number 75 - she politely told him that she was well aware of that, but thought that it would have been disrespectful to put the actual number in this mural.

The last subject of the mural is a “Wiltshire Moonraker”, which will be a story familiar to most school children of my day - although I’m not sure whether they are taught about it today.  

I always thought that the story was about smugglers in Devizes, but it appears that Swindon was mentioned too, hence the appearance on this mural.  At the time, French Brandy and Dutch Gin carried heavy import duties so after barrels were brought from the south coast, they were hidden in church crypts or village ponds, where green weed concealed them.  One night, when the smugglers had returned to rake their barrels out of the village pond, some Excise men found them, but with quick thinking, the smugglers pointed to the moon and told the Excise men they were trying to rake cheese.  Of course, they were laughed at and thinking that the smugglers were simple country yokels, they let them go - but they were dubbed “The Wiltshire Moonrakers”.  

So there you have it - and would you believe that the mural also appears in our local paper today - but the above information has been obtained by me and I haven’t read the article as yet.

It was such a lovely morning and having watched the sun come up, I stopped at various places on the way home and in the extra mural you can see Christ Church - and you can see from the clock that it was just before 7.30 a.m., some beautiful trees, the bell tower on top of The Locarno, a lovely building that has been allowed to fall into disrepair and to prove I wasn’t the only one up this early, a photograph of two lady joggers - I have no idea who they are, but I shouted out some words of encouragement!

A great morning and it is still only just after 9 o’clock, so I think a cup of coffee and a read of the newspaper are on the cards for the next hour or so.

I hope you will agree that this quote sums up the mural - and thanks to Sarah for her help in making this a good Wide Wednesday Blip.

“To my mind a picture should be 
     something pleasant, cheerful and pretty. 
There are too many unpleasant things 
     in life as it is, 
          without creating still more of them.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir

P.S.  As promised when I spoke to Sarah last week, I emailed a link to my Blip to her - she responded and said she was pleased with the write-up, but didn't know it was in the local paper, so was going to buy one!