National Trust

Charlecote Park

Spring has sprung and the bees are buzzing at Charlecote, as new hives are being introduced into the grounds. In addition, the woodland area is being renovated and improved and the young herons can sometimes be spotted in their nests in the heronry. The parterre has been magnificent during the spring, with tulips providing a blaze of colour, so watch out for the summer surprises. If you are keen to get involved, either in the gardens or elsewhere at Charlecote, please think about volunteering: there are plenty of different opportunities and a very friendly welcome for all. On 15th May there will be a chance to find out what the staff do and how the whole place ticks, when you will be able to “Meet the Team” between 11am and 4pm. The Gardener will be available for a free “Walk with the Gardener” at 2pm on 28th May, as he is on the last Saturday of each month. From time to time it is possible to allow limited accompanied access to the viewing platform on the top of gatehouse – the views are worth the 46 steps up – or is it only 44? – you count! For further details of opening times, etc, please contact Charlecote Park on 01789 470277 or visit: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-charlecotepark .

Spring at Compton Verney:
a celebration of ‘ordinary man’

Compton Verney is even better this year, because they have put in a lot of work on the grounds. There is a camera obscura by the lake (go and have a look if you don’t know what it is – I didn’t know until I saw the one in Grahamstown, South Africa), the ice house has been renovated, and there are willow creations for children to clamber through.

The permanent galleries have been given a new twist. Items from the folk art collection have been placed next to ‘high art’ objects. The idea is that the folk art ‘interrogates’ the high art (I went to a talk and learned the language), and it is very illuminating. For instance, there is a folk art painting of a shipwreck next to a huge high art shipwreck scene, and the folk art picture has more energy and immediacy. It’s also fun – I found a papier mâché flying creature hanging above a classical sculpture of a winged man. The project is called ‘What the folk say’.

Then there is the exhibition: Alfred Wallis and Ben Nicholson. They painted in the first half of the 20th century. Nicholson was a trained modernist artist, Alfred Wallis an elderly fisherman who took up painting late in life and was discovered by Nicholson. I love Wallis’ paintings – mainly of boats, harbours and towns – all painted on a flat plane with complete disregard for conventional perspective and space, on odd shaped supports, in soft muted colours. And it’s great to see them hung next to Nicholson’s, showing how much Wallis influenced Nicholson, and how Nicholson’s abstract paintings have a basis in landscapes. A treat.

The mixture of human story and artists’ work is also what makes the exhibition ‘Wool work: a sailor’s art’ so fascinating. Curator Bridget Crowley grubbed about on her knees through the storerooms of various collections to gather and display these amazing ship portraits stitched in wool. As the image of sailors changed from drunken layabouts to national heroes with the Crimean war, sailors took pride in their ships, and used their sewing skills (for mending sails and clothes) to depict their ships: some speeding along flags flying, some surrounded by patriotic emblems of hops, shamrocks, roses and oak leaves – always with very accurate rigging. The final picture is of a ship in a blizzard, strongly echoing Wallis’ expressionist style. Enjoy.

Rev’d Kate Mier

(WADS)

On Saturday 14th May at 7.45pm Wellesbourne & District Amateur Dramatic Society present a comedy night including two one act plays – The Cardboard Cavaliers by John Waterhouse and A Quiet Night In by David Walker plus sketches.
There is a licensed bar open from 7.00pm. Tickets are available on the door or in advance by calling Andy or Julie Stokes on 01789 841939.

Wellesbourne Choral Society

The choir is coming to the end of another busy year, singing both for their own pleasure and hopefully, for those of you who come to hear them.

The final concert of the 2010/11 season, before the well-earned summer break, will be the annual performance of lighter music to be held at St Peter’s Church, Wellesbourne on Friday 20 May at 7.30pm.

The programme will consist of some well-known English songs and folk songs followed by “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. This modern, tuneful work is always popular with people of all ages and the choir is very pleased that children of Wellesbourne C of E School will be joining them to help with the singing.

The children have chosen the two charities to benefit from the proceeds of the concert and they are the Dampha Shipman Nursery School in Serakunda, Gambia and Acorns Children’s Hospice.

Tickets will be available at the door and are priced at £7, with accompanied school age children free. The admission price will include refreshments during the interval.

The choir look forward to having a large audience to help support these two deserving charities and guarantee that the music will get your toes tapping.

MENDELSSOHN’S ELIJAH

14^TH MAY 2011

Stour Singers will be presenting Mendelssohn’s sublime two-part oratorio “ELIJAH” in St Edmund’s Church, Shipston-on-Stour at 7.30pm on 14^th May – not too far from the location of its premiere, in Birmingham’s Town Hall in August 1846.

Tickets can be obtained from choir members, Clarke Electrical in Shipston-on-Stour, and on the door, at a cost of £12.50.

Tailpiece

Two campers were walking through the woods when a huge brown bear suddenly appeared in the clearing about 50 feet in front of them. The bear saw the campers and began to head toward them. The first chap dropped his backpack, dug out a pair of sneakers, and frantically begins to put them on. The second said, “What are you doing? Sneakers won’t help you outrun that bear.” “I don't need to outrun the bear,” the first camper said. “I just need to outrun you.”