:00:02. > :00:05.I'm one of those people who has never really been too bothered
:00:06. > :00:09.about art. Not my cup of tea! But I'm about to make some discoveries
:00:09. > :00:13.that might just change my opinion. That is absolutely as is shown in
:00:14. > :00:17.paintings. That's fantastic. That picture could've been painted
:00:17. > :00:21.yesterday. It turns out that some artists were
:00:21. > :00:24.as devoted to recording the past as I am to discovering it. And some of
:00:24. > :00:28.the paintings here in the East Midlands, hidden away from the
:00:28. > :00:31.public gaze, hold the key to some fascinating, forgotten history.
:00:31. > :00:35.You never know quite what you're going to find.
:00:35. > :00:45.But is seeing believing? And can we trust the artist to tell us the
:00:45. > :01:00.
:01:00. > :01:04.All of my life I've been fascinated by history and the amazing stories
:01:04. > :01:07.from our past that surround us. And the way I like to explore these
:01:07. > :01:10.stories is by getting as close as possible to their source: diaries
:01:10. > :01:16.and manuscripts, digging up bones and ancient remains, climbing
:01:16. > :01:19.castle walls, driving tanks. Real, tangible history is what I like
:01:19. > :01:21.best! But there is one other potentially
:01:22. > :01:27.vast reservoir of information about history that all too often, I've
:01:27. > :01:31.tended to ignore. I'm talking about paintings. The whole country is
:01:31. > :01:34.full of them, and they're not only in the places that you might think.
:01:34. > :01:38.And what's so interesting about paintings is that they are time
:01:38. > :01:40.capsules packed with clues about the past. These murals for example,
:01:40. > :01:45.tucked away in a city-centre shopping arcade, are based on real-
:01:45. > :01:51.life Nottingham bigwigs from the 1920s: a local freemason, a
:01:51. > :01:57.prominent doctor's wife, a Notts County footballer. That's the thing
:01:57. > :02:00.about paintings they're not always what they seem. I'm really
:02:00. > :02:03.intrigued to find out how useful paintings can be in the pursuit of
:02:03. > :02:06.history and this is the perfect place to start looking. Nottingham
:02:06. > :02:10.Castle Museum, sitting on top of the city it's home to thousands of
:02:10. > :02:20.paintings from all over the world, many of them owned by us, the
:02:20. > :02:20.
:02:20. > :02:23.I'm not art critic, but I am fascinated by paintings that can
:02:23. > :02:26.use a historical source that tell us something about the faces,
:02:26. > :02:30.clothing and the ways of life of the people that lived hundreds of
:02:30. > :02:36.years ago. If you're interested in the history of Nottingham, there's
:02:36. > :02:40.a name that crops up again and again: Arthur Spooner. And here is
:02:40. > :02:43.his most famous painting. It's of the renowned Nottingham
:02:43. > :02:48.Goose Fair, painted in the mid 1920s when it was still held in the
:02:48. > :02:52.market square. When I look at this, I think how
:02:52. > :02:55.much has changed, but also how much has remained the same. It's a very
:02:55. > :03:00.recognisable scene. It's a fair, human beings all crammed into a
:03:00. > :03:03.city centre venue, much like still goes on today. People rammed into
:03:03. > :03:06.that space, but it's also that the details are so fascinating. You've
:03:06. > :03:11.got the little tram tracks on the street, that little boy's belt
:03:11. > :03:14.buckle is so clearly of its time. You've got what looks like a Middle
:03:14. > :03:17.Eastern figure there wearing a fez, a reminder that British society was
:03:17. > :03:21.a lot more diverse back the start of the 20th century than we now
:03:21. > :03:24.think of it as. The clown in the centre of the picture who's selling
:03:24. > :03:32.those annoying, gimmicky party things. And you've got these
:03:32. > :03:34.wonderful steam attractions, the chimneys blowing out steam. We can
:03:34. > :03:35.almost hear and smell the steam as well.
:03:36. > :03:39.So who is this artist, Arthur Spooner?
:03:39. > :03:42.He's a Nottingham man who paints Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. He
:03:42. > :03:46.studied here, he tried London and he came back. He wasn't
:03:46. > :03:50.internationally recognised. How do you define the kind of art
:03:50. > :03:56.that Spooner is producing? I suppose for the 1920s, it's quite
:03:56. > :03:59.old-fashioned, it's representational. So does that mean
:03:59. > :04:03.that he's trying to paint things as they actually are, to keep a record
:04:03. > :04:07.of it? Yeah, he's definitely documenting life, isn't he? When
:04:07. > :04:10.you look at his paintings, you get a sense of what life must have
:04:10. > :04:14.really been like at the time so it's full of detail. Ironically, he
:04:14. > :04:17.might not have been very popular at the time. He might be useful to us
:04:17. > :04:19.now because we can actually tell what was going on. Yeah, they're
:04:19. > :04:23.stacked full of information. what about The Goose Fair? It's
:04:23. > :04:26.such a vibrant painting. What does that tell us about the history of
:04:26. > :04:29.Nottingham? To me, that's a real end of an era. It's a very 1920s
:04:29. > :04:33.picture in terms of its fashions. You've got the Exchange building in
:04:33. > :04:37.the background, which was demolished in 1926. That's kind of
:04:37. > :04:40.the last Goose Fair in the centre of Nottingham. After that, it got
:04:40. > :04:44.moved out. What a wonderful source we have for that, those dying days
:04:44. > :04:48.of the Goose Fair. Yeah. Spooner clearly wasn't ever going
:04:48. > :04:51.to be an artist superstar but for me his decision to instead use his
:04:51. > :04:56.painting skills to record local people and events makes him a man
:04:56. > :05:00.after my own heart. To find out more about Spooner and his
:05:00. > :05:03.paintings I need to delve a bit deeper. Literally. Most public
:05:03. > :05:07.museums and galleries don't have enough space to display all the
:05:07. > :05:11.paintings in their possession. So where are the rest? Well in this
:05:11. > :05:17.case they're down here...in the very bowels of the building.
:05:18. > :05:21.This really is exciting, going to the store rooms. This is where they
:05:21. > :05:25.keep all of the treasures that they don't have room to display upstairs
:05:25. > :05:35.in the galleries. It's like Aladdin's cave, it's fantastic.
:05:35. > :05:42.
:05:42. > :05:52.Fantastic. Many more hidden Wow, that's amazing. These long,
:05:52. > :05:55.
:05:55. > :05:59.dead, old men, their faces emerging But what about that other man I
:05:59. > :06:03.came down here to investigate? Ah, this one here looks like a familiar
:06:04. > :06:09.artist, Spooner, a great, grand civic occasion. Very accurately
:06:09. > :06:13.painted. Beautiful buildings of Nottingham in the background.
:06:13. > :06:16.Amazing, isn't it? A bit of research tells me that the
:06:16. > :06:20.painting is a record of the then Princess Elizabeth's visit to
:06:20. > :06:24.Nottingham in 1946. It was clearly the kind of event that warranted
:06:24. > :06:28.the Spooner treatment. That must be a commission. The
:06:28. > :06:33.faces in that must be people who wanted to be in that picture. That
:06:33. > :06:36.was painted well after Goose Fair, 20 years later. His reputation then
:06:36. > :06:42.was somebody who could record things, not just record, but add a
:06:42. > :06:52.sense of life to them as well. I think that was what he was really
:06:52. > :06:58.
:06:58. > :07:01.And this is that scene today. It's called Old Market Square and it's
:07:01. > :07:04.still the beating heart of the city of Nottingham. But something
:07:04. > :07:08.troubles me about that painting - the faces of the great and good are
:07:08. > :07:11.all very carefully painted and everyone else is a bit indistinct.
:07:11. > :07:14.It's almost like he's been paid to show them right at the centre of
:07:14. > :07:21.the action. And that makes me question just how reliable a source
:07:21. > :07:25.these artists are. Did he paint that scene as it really happened?
:07:25. > :07:28.I've been told that just up the road from here I might find a few
:07:28. > :07:34.more clues about the elusive Mr Spooner and his art. Spooner was
:07:34. > :07:37.very much Mr Nottingham and inside this building his name was like God.
:07:37. > :07:43.The Nottingham Society of Artists was established in 1880 and from
:07:43. > :07:46.1946 till his death in 1963 Spooner was the society's President. I'm
:07:46. > :07:56.sure he'd be delighted to know that the pursuit of artistic excellence
:07:56. > :08:03.
:08:03. > :08:07.is still going strong today. That's not Nottinghamshire. It is
:08:07. > :08:09.supposed to be Delphi. That looks like it, I recognise the three
:08:09. > :08:15.columns. Muriel Norman remembers when
:08:15. > :08:19.Spooner's influence dominated the art classes here. Where and when
:08:19. > :08:25.did you first come across Spooner? I first saw him at the School of
:08:25. > :08:30.Art. I was never in his class, but he was to go through from the life
:08:30. > :08:34.class to the antiques room where Spooner taught so I knew him quite
:08:34. > :08:42.well by its side, although I was never one of his pupils. What was
:08:42. > :08:51.his -- he well known for? He was very strict and keen on drawing,
:08:51. > :08:56.and observation. If anyone, I remember one day, there was one of
:08:56. > :09:03.his female pupils in who had been doing a model. It was an abstract.
:09:03. > :09:08.He said, what is that she --? She said, that is how I see it. He said,
:09:08. > :09:12.your eyes must be different from mine. He was quite caustic. He
:09:12. > :09:17.wanted people to observe things closely and draw them. Drawing was
:09:17. > :09:24.the main thing. So it he like to to represent things on a campus as
:09:24. > :09:28.they were in real life? Absolutely. That what's -- that is what makes
:09:28. > :09:33.him great now because he was painting things as he saw them.
:09:34. > :09:38.That is right. He also wanted people to enjoy them. He loved
:09:38. > :09:41.colour, but he did insist on drawing. So it is something
:09:41. > :09:47.important was happening in Nottingham shire, they would get
:09:47. > :09:52.Spooner to record it? Yes. Talking to Muriel, Spooner was a
:09:52. > :09:58.man obsessed with detail and accuracy, but I am sceptical how
:09:58. > :10:01.far an artist can be trusting. Amongst all the formal portraits
:10:01. > :10:09.and pinpoint accurate commissions of Spooner's there were a couple of
:10:09. > :10:14.very striking paintings down in the Nottingham Castle secret vault.
:10:14. > :10:21.This one is a spoon as well, but it is a different kind of painting,
:10:21. > :10:24.more indistinct. It is a beautiful building. It is a ruined abbey.
:10:24. > :10:34.Classic British stately home. I think it's time to head out of
:10:34. > :10:48.
:10:48. > :10:54.the city and see some of Spooner's This Abbey is the ancestral home of
:10:54. > :11:01.the infamous Lord Byron. On a day like this you cannot imagine what a
:11:01. > :11:05.romantic setting it is. I wonder why Spooner painted these
:11:05. > :11:08.scenes. Like many of his works there's not much information on
:11:08. > :11:11.their background. It's almost as if they are totally self-contained
:11:11. > :11:21.with all the information locked within oil and canvas, ready to be
:11:21. > :11:26.
:11:26. > :11:31.I wonder whether Spooner came here to relax and enjoy the freedom. It
:11:31. > :11:37.is a bit like a modern-day spin- doctor: You have to tell a certain
:11:37. > :11:42.story in a certain way to suit the needs of poor has got the cash.
:11:43. > :11:45.It meant Spooner was prolific. But I want to track down examples of
:11:45. > :11:49.his work than can really tell a historical story.
:11:49. > :11:52.This could provide the answer. As we have learnt from our trip to the
:11:52. > :11:58.council, a huge number of oil paintings are owned by the public
:11:58. > :12:03.in this area. But this is the first attempt to catalogue them all.
:12:03. > :12:07.Spoon a features heavily as you can imagine. Lots of portraits of local
:12:07. > :12:17.bigwigs, military officers and horses. But there are a couple that
:12:17. > :12:26.
:12:27. > :12:30.are intriguing and not far from This is Portland College in the
:12:30. > :12:32.middle of Sherwood Forest. Here they specialize in giving people
:12:32. > :12:42.with all kinds of disabilities the opportunity to learn, re-train and
:12:42. > :12:50.
:12:50. > :12:52.It doesn't take long to find my Spooners hanging in a corridor. But
:12:52. > :12:58.before I investigate them there's another painting hanging nearby
:12:58. > :13:02.which has a lot to say about the 60-year history of Portland college.
:13:02. > :13:12.It's a portrait of a lady in her prime. She's gazing off to one side
:13:12. > :13:13.
:13:13. > :13:17.as if she's seeing a vision and a lady of vision she certainly was.
:13:17. > :13:24.Meet Winifred Duchess of Portland. I found this fantastic portrait
:13:24. > :13:29.inside the college. It was painted in 1912 by a favourite of the
:13:29. > :13:35.aristocracy. It is a beautiful portrait, her famous skiing is on
:13:35. > :13:37.show and it is dripping with pearls. She looks every inch the Duchess. -
:13:37. > :13:40.- her famous skin. Winifred may have been born a
:13:41. > :13:43.Victorian and married an aristocrat but it turns out she had a very
:13:43. > :13:46.modern attitude to disability and independence. It started early in
:13:46. > :13:48.married life with her support for injured soldiers and local miners
:13:49. > :13:51.and ended when she founded Portland college and realized her life's
:13:52. > :13:54.ambition. Here she is, a sprightly 82, with the young Princess
:13:54. > :14:01.Elizabeth and Prince Philip at the laying of the college foundation
:14:01. > :14:05.stone in 1949. But what inspired Winifred to start her mission and
:14:05. > :14:08.how does all this relate back to our old friend Arthur Spooner? Well,
:14:08. > :14:12.here are the paintings that brought me to Portland College and they
:14:12. > :14:19.appear to hold a vital clue to why the duchess developed such a
:14:19. > :14:25.passion for helping the injured and disabled.
:14:25. > :14:29.The paintings are titled Welbeck during the Great War. This was the
:14:29. > :14:33.stately home of the Duke and Duchess of Portland. Fascinatingly,
:14:33. > :14:40.the Union flag is flying up there and underneath it is the bed cross.
:14:40. > :14:43.It appears to be some kind of hospital or rehabilitation centre.
:14:43. > :14:47.People in gritters are playing croquet, nurses are very visible.
:14:47. > :14:51.This was the front of the House, the scene of great peace and
:14:51. > :14:57.tranquillity. Many of these soldiers would have escaped from
:14:58. > :15:03.the whole hall that was France, terrible fighting. This one is
:15:03. > :15:07.fascinating as well. Some red crosses and people recuperating
:15:07. > :15:13.from their injuries. A very military field, they are all in
:15:13. > :15:18.uniform. Perhaps this is a figure of the Duchess in the middle. She
:15:18. > :15:22.is wearing pearls, she has the tilt of her head I recognise from the
:15:22. > :15:26.other portrait. I wonder if this is the Duchess as she wanted to be
:15:26. > :15:36.represented and remembered, looking after those less fortunate than
:15:36. > :15:40.
:15:40. > :15:44.herself. This was 30 years before So how useful an historical clue
:15:44. > :15:47.has Spooner left us? To find out I'm heading 12 miles north to
:15:47. > :15:49.Winifred's old home. Welbeck Abbey is in the heart of the historic
:15:49. > :15:52.Dukeries, an area of north Nottinghamshire famous for once
:15:52. > :16:00.being seat to not just one but four Dukedoms, nestling shoulder to
:16:00. > :16:08.shoulder. Welbeck is no longer a ducal seat and remains a family
:16:08. > :16:11.home, alongside a gallery, a farm shop and a cookery school. But in
:16:11. > :16:14.Winifred's time you wouldn't have seen many members of the public
:16:14. > :16:17.wandering around here. Welbeck was a thriving centre of late Victorian
:16:17. > :16:25.and Edwardian high society with the 6th Duke and Duchess hosting lavish
:16:25. > :16:29.balls, grand dining, state politics and royal visits.
:16:29. > :16:34.As one of Nottinghamshire's finest artists, are third spinach had
:16:34. > :16:38.benefited from the patronage of the Duke and Duchess. -- are put
:16:38. > :16:48.Spooner. But the upper eyesore at Portman College produced a
:16:48. > :16:53.
:16:53. > :16:57.It's impossible to understate just how traumatic the First World War
:16:57. > :17:00.was for the whole country. The massive losses had never been
:17:00. > :17:03.experienced before and the vicious, mechanical form of warfare resulted
:17:03. > :17:12.in not only a huge death toll but totally new kinds of disfigurement
:17:12. > :17:22.and injuries. You can imagine why a woman like the Duchess with all of
:17:22. > :17:42.
:17:42. > :17:45.these resources to hand may have But I've got to keep my historian's
:17:45. > :17:49.hat firmly fixed in place and check that when Spooner painted the
:17:49. > :17:53.scenes at Welbeck during the war he wasn't just doing a bit of handy PR
:17:53. > :17:56.for the Portlands. And I know just the man to help. Derek Adlam has
:17:56. > :18:05.been the curator of Welbeck Abbey for almost thirty years and there's
:18:05. > :18:10.virtually nothing about its rich history he doesn't know. All was
:18:10. > :18:14.the Duchess Winifred like? She was a very warm-hearted person. She had
:18:14. > :18:23.a great deal of sympathy for the common man. She was particularly
:18:23. > :18:27.aware of the number of injuries that took place. Part of the family
:18:27. > :18:34.income came from the minds and so she founded an orthopaedic hospital
:18:34. > :18:39.to treat injured miners. It was turned into Portland College.
:18:39. > :18:46.picture in here, which shows patients and the Duchess in the
:18:46. > :18:50.middle, it was in October 1914. The war had only been going on for two
:18:50. > :18:55.months maximum. The hospital must have been founded very close to the
:18:55. > :18:59.beginning of the war. The Duke and Duchess must have been aware of
:18:59. > :19:06.just what the outbreak of war implied and that they must played
:19:06. > :19:09.some part in relieving the distress, and making up for facilities that
:19:10. > :19:15.might not appear to have been prepared by the government forced
:19:15. > :19:22.up it is a wonderful picture of her because she is in profile. She was
:19:22. > :19:26.extremely beautiful. She is beautifully dressed in a special
:19:26. > :19:30.unit for. You can see in the photograph that she is wearing
:19:30. > :19:39.pearls which would have been strictly forbidden a bunk -- among
:19:39. > :19:45.the other nurses. Her Vale looks different as well. A couturier
:19:45. > :19:51.designed and made her uniform as well. The thing that Winifred would
:19:51. > :19:56.have been getting her hands dirty? I think it is very unlikely. She
:19:56. > :20:00.would have been there to give moral support and comfort. She would have
:20:00. > :20:04.provided practical support in the sense that there was a Medical
:20:04. > :20:09.Facility lacking, if that was the case, she would have provided it
:20:09. > :20:12.all asked her husband to provide it. Welbeck Abbey is a fascinating
:20:12. > :20:15.place. While many similar estates have thrown their doors wide open
:20:15. > :20:18.to the public, Welbeck retains an air of remoteness and secrecy. But
:20:18. > :20:25.in pursuit of Spooner and the Duchess I've been allowed a rare
:20:25. > :20:31.visit into its heart. Just how accurate was Spooner when
:20:31. > :20:34.he was painting his pictures? This is a fantastic place. That is
:20:34. > :20:39.absolutely as is shown in the paintings. That picture could have
:20:39. > :20:44.been painted yesterday. Of course, the foliage has gone, but it is
:20:44. > :20:48.just extraordinary. I always like a piece of art are more when it is
:20:48. > :20:54.based on reality. It is wonderful to know that he was painting things
:20:54. > :20:57.in situ from probably around here. The fact that he got the buildings
:20:57. > :21:01.so accurate and put what looks like Winnifred the Duchess in front of
:21:01. > :21:05.them with the wounded soldiers means that we can believe that they
:21:05. > :21:10.probably would have been wounded soldiers and nurses mixing out here
:21:10. > :21:13.and enjoying the fresh air. People recovering so far from the trenches
:21:13. > :21:16.where they had sustained the terrible injuries forced up what
:21:16. > :21:21.was she trying to achieve when she got spinner to paint these
:21:21. > :21:27.paintings? Beat Spooner paintings simply are
:21:27. > :21:32.to make a record of what had happened at Welbeck. They date from
:21:32. > :21:35.1918 so it was already clear that the war was coming to an end and so
:21:35. > :21:40.the Duke would have commissioned them in order to make a record of
:21:40. > :21:44.what had occurred and the contribution that Welbeck had made.
:21:44. > :21:49.But they are a bit utopian. I would have liked to have been a patient
:21:49. > :21:55.at the hospital. I am sure they are an accurate the craft -- reflection
:21:55. > :22:00.of what was here. The kindness of the Duchess, the facilities of the
:22:00. > :22:06.hospital. We do not know whether the nurses here were dealing with
:22:06. > :22:12.serious trauma or whether it was more in the nature of convalescence.
:22:12. > :22:17.There is this charming men To which belong to to one of the nurses. It
:22:17. > :22:21.is a little collection of her own photographs. They are little
:22:21. > :22:27.snapshots. These seem to corroborate that the Spooner view
:22:27. > :22:34.of life here, it is a lovely realistic scene. Yes. Swimming and
:22:34. > :22:41.boating, and Spooner paints them playing croquet, skating. Why did
:22:41. > :22:47.they get spinner to paint them? was a very good painter. He had a
:22:47. > :22:52.great pair of hands when he wanted a record made. A so it implies that
:22:52. > :22:57.they wanted accuracy. Absolutely. The Duke like everything to the
:22:57. > :23:04.straight and clear. He labelled things, he lied leading accounts of
:23:04. > :23:09.things behind so that there would be no doubt about facts. Obviously,
:23:09. > :23:15.commissioning these paintings in 1918 as the first war was coming to
:23:15. > :23:23.an end, so that must have been why he called Spooner to make the
:23:23. > :23:28.record, an accurate record, of the day's in Welbeck's history. So this
:23:28. > :23:32.is the old kitchen block. This is the kitchen block as it was painted.
:23:32. > :23:37.It is where the soldiers were being looked after. Here is an
:23:37. > :23:43.inscription. This building was used as an obsolete hospital during the
:23:43. > :23:47.Great War. It continued to be used until the end of hostilities. All
:23:47. > :23:49.of the guys had acute injuries and needed medical care. So we've
:23:49. > :23:52.solved the mystery of why Winifred was so passionate about
:23:52. > :23:54.rehabilitation and why she founded Portland college - the pinnacle of
:23:54. > :23:59.her life's work. Winifred believed that disability shouldn't mean
:23:59. > :24:02.ending up on the scrapheap. Sixty years later her legacy lives on.
:24:02. > :24:11.Wayne Kirkham first came to the college because of spinal disorder
:24:11. > :24:14.that now means he uses a wheelchair. He now works here.
:24:14. > :24:18.Without this college, when you found out that you had the
:24:18. > :24:23.congenital disease, what would you have done? I would have been sat at
:24:23. > :24:26.home, climbing the four walls and twiddling my thumbs thinking that I
:24:27. > :24:31.was no use to anyone, including myself. My life would have been
:24:31. > :24:35.wasted. A tell me about the treatment you went through when you
:24:35. > :24:42.arrived here. I went through an initial assessment to see where I
:24:42. > :24:45.was, what stage, and what training I needed to go -- to get. Then I
:24:45. > :24:51.enrolled in everything I could, including coming to the physio
:24:51. > :24:55.department, using the gym, staff here, you don't just come down here
:24:55. > :25:00.to be somewhere at a specific time. If you come here, you work and the
:25:00. > :25:04.staff a year working. They soon find out what your capabilities are
:25:04. > :25:08.and they pursue. It does you the world of good. It has given me
:25:08. > :25:12.believe in myself. It has given me the tools to prove to myself and
:25:12. > :25:19.others that I am capable of living a normal life and being part of
:25:19. > :25:23.society. It probably still has ex service people here. We have a
:25:23. > :25:28.young lad who was a victim of Afghan. He took a bullet to the
:25:28. > :25:32.head. When he came along a few months ago, he was a completely
:25:32. > :25:35.different person. He is now walking with a stick which he is behind
:25:36. > :25:40.most of the time because he wants to be seen as one of the guys again.
:25:40. > :25:44.He has really come on leaps and bounds. He is a fantastic character
:25:44. > :25:49.to have around. Amazing that improvements in a short amount of
:25:49. > :25:52.time. That is what Portland does to you: It gives the belief that you
:25:52. > :25:58.can achieve what you want to achieve. The staff help you to do
:25:58. > :26:03.that. It is amazing that it is still doing the same job that it
:26:03. > :26:05.did 60 years ago. Yes. I am sure we will still be doing it in a another
:26:05. > :26:08.60 years' time. And so if it wasn't for Arthur
:26:08. > :26:10.Spooner and his half-forgotten paintings I'd never have come
:26:10. > :26:20.across Portland College and the story of Welbeck during the Great
:26:20. > :26:22.
:26:22. > :26:27.Spooner may be a big fish in a small pond, taking bits of work
:26:27. > :26:31.from the great and good, but thank goodness he was because his
:26:31. > :26:34.depictions of what went on here, detailed, accurate, are fantastic
:26:34. > :26:37.bits of evidence. They tell the story of a significant episode in
:26:37. > :26:41.local history - the story of the injured servicemen whose
:26:41. > :26:44.experiences inspired Winifred to set up Portland College. They shed
:26:44. > :26:51.light on why a rich aristocrat devoted so many years to a cause
:26:51. > :26:54.And beyond that Spooner captured a watershed moment in British history
:26:54. > :27:00.a time when the established order of British society turned upside
:27:00. > :27:02.down and inside out. In that moment when Winifred, Duchess of Portland,
:27:02. > :27:12.offers her matronly care to a battle-scarred soldier, everything
:27:12. > :27:18.
:27:18. > :27:27.Spinner may or may not have been aware of that, but he was there to
:27:27. > :27:30.record it, and for that, we should But there's one final twist in my
:27:30. > :27:33.investigation and it's back in Nottingham. It's hidden in the
:27:33. > :27:42.painting that first introduced me to the work of Arthur Spooner, the
:27:42. > :27:47.artist-historian. It has been very hard to find out
:27:47. > :27:52.about Spooner as a man. The archives have mostly vanished, but
:27:52. > :27:56.we have found this newspaper article from 1960. He gives an
:27:56. > :28:00.interview to this journalist and he admits in the interview that the
:28:00. > :28:06.figure of the clan in deep despair painting is actually a self-
:28:06. > :28:10.portrait. He says, I have been a town in my time. It is just
:28:10. > :28:14.brilliant, it adds another layer of interest about painting, bringing
:28:14. > :28:19.personality and colour to my understanding of Spooner. But it
:28:19. > :28:27.also makes me cautious when I approach pictures. It is a reminder