East Midlands Hidden Paintings


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I'm one of those people who has never really been too bothered

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about art. Not my cup of tea! But I'm about to make some discoveries

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that might just change my opinion. That is absolutely as is shown in

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paintings. That's fantastic. That picture could've been painted

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yesterday. It turns out that some artists were

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as devoted to recording the past as I am to discovering it. And some of

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the paintings here in the East Midlands, hidden away from the

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public gaze, hold the key to some fascinating, forgotten history.

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You never know quite what you're going to find.

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But is seeing believing? And can we trust the artist to tell us the

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All of my life I've been fascinated by history and the amazing stories

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from our past that surround us. And the way I like to explore these

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stories is by getting as close as possible to their source: diaries

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and manuscripts, digging up bones and ancient remains, climbing

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castle walls, driving tanks. Real, tangible history is what I like

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best! But there is one other potentially

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vast reservoir of information about history that all too often, I've

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tended to ignore. I'm talking about paintings. The whole country is

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full of them, and they're not only in the places that you might think.

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And what's so interesting about paintings is that they are time

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capsules packed with clues about the past. These murals for example,

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tucked away in a city-centre shopping arcade, are based on real-

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life Nottingham bigwigs from the 1920s: a local freemason, a

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prominent doctor's wife, a Notts County footballer. That's the thing

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about paintings they're not always what they seem. I'm really

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intrigued to find out how useful paintings can be in the pursuit of

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history and this is the perfect place to start looking. Nottingham

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Castle Museum, sitting on top of the city it's home to thousands of

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paintings from all over the world, many of them owned by us, the

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I'm not art critic, but I am fascinated by paintings that can

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use a historical source that tell us something about the faces,

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clothing and the ways of life of the people that lived hundreds of

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years ago. If you're interested in the history of Nottingham, there's

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a name that crops up again and again: Arthur Spooner. And here is

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his most famous painting. It's of the renowned Nottingham

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Goose Fair, painted in the mid 1920s when it was still held in the

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market square. When I look at this, I think how

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much has changed, but also how much has remained the same. It's a very

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recognisable scene. It's a fair, human beings all crammed into a

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city centre venue, much like still goes on today. People rammed into

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that space, but it's also that the details are so fascinating. You've

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got the little tram tracks on the street, that little boy's belt

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buckle is so clearly of its time. You've got what looks like a Middle

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Eastern figure there wearing a fez, a reminder that British society was

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a lot more diverse back the start of the 20th century than we now

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think of it as. The clown in the centre of the picture who's selling

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those annoying, gimmicky party things. And you've got these

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wonderful steam attractions, the chimneys blowing out steam. We can

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almost hear and smell the steam as well.

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So who is this artist, Arthur Spooner?

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He's a Nottingham man who paints Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. He

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studied here, he tried London and he came back. He wasn't

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internationally recognised. How do you define the kind of art

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that Spooner is producing? I suppose for the 1920s, it's quite

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old-fashioned, it's representational. So does that mean

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that he's trying to paint things as they actually are, to keep a record

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of it? Yeah, he's definitely documenting life, isn't he? When

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you look at his paintings, you get a sense of what life must have

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really been like at the time so it's full of detail. Ironically, he

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might not have been very popular at the time. He might be useful to us

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now because we can actually tell what was going on. Yeah, they're

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stacked full of information. what about The Goose Fair? It's

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such a vibrant painting. What does that tell us about the history of

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Nottingham? To me, that's a real end of an era. It's a very 1920s

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picture in terms of its fashions. You've got the Exchange building in

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the background, which was demolished in 1926. That's kind of

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the last Goose Fair in the centre of Nottingham. After that, it got

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moved out. What a wonderful source we have for that, those dying days

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of the Goose Fair. Yeah. Spooner clearly wasn't ever going

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to be an artist superstar but for me his decision to instead use his

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painting skills to record local people and events makes him a man

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after my own heart. To find out more about Spooner and his

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paintings I need to delve a bit deeper. Literally. Most public

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museums and galleries don't have enough space to display all the

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paintings in their possession. So where are the rest? Well in this

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case they're down here...in the very bowels of the building.

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This really is exciting, going to the store rooms. This is where they

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keep all of the treasures that they don't have room to display upstairs

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in the galleries. It's like Aladdin's cave, it's fantastic.

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Fantastic. Many more hidden Wow, that's amazing. These long,

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dead, old men, their faces emerging But what about that other man I

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came down here to investigate? Ah, this one here looks like a familiar

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artist, Spooner, a great, grand civic occasion. Very accurately

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painted. Beautiful buildings of Nottingham in the background.

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Amazing, isn't it? A bit of research tells me that the

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painting is a record of the then Princess Elizabeth's visit to

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Nottingham in 1946. It was clearly the kind of event that warranted

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the Spooner treatment. That must be a commission. The

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faces in that must be people who wanted to be in that picture. That

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was painted well after Goose Fair, 20 years later. His reputation then

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was somebody who could record things, not just record, but add a

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sense of life to them as well. I think that was what he was really

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And this is that scene today. It's called Old Market Square and it's

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still the beating heart of the city of Nottingham. But something

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troubles me about that painting - the faces of the great and good are

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all very carefully painted and everyone else is a bit indistinct.

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It's almost like he's been paid to show them right at the centre of

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the action. And that makes me question just how reliable a source

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these artists are. Did he paint that scene as it really happened?

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I've been told that just up the road from here I might find a few

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more clues about the elusive Mr Spooner and his art. Spooner was

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very much Mr Nottingham and inside this building his name was like God.

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The Nottingham Society of Artists was established in 1880 and from

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1946 till his death in 1963 Spooner was the society's President. I'm

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sure he'd be delighted to know that the pursuit of artistic excellence

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is still going strong today. That's not Nottinghamshire. It is

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supposed to be Delphi. That looks like it, I recognise the three

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columns. Muriel Norman remembers when

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Spooner's influence dominated the art classes here. Where and when

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did you first come across Spooner? I first saw him at the School of

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Art. I was never in his class, but he was to go through from the life

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class to the antiques room where Spooner taught so I knew him quite

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well by its side, although I was never one of his pupils. What was

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his -- he well known for? He was very strict and keen on drawing,

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and observation. If anyone, I remember one day, there was one of

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his female pupils in who had been doing a model. It was an abstract.

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He said, what is that she --? She said, that is how I see it. He said,

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your eyes must be different from mine. He was quite caustic. He

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wanted people to observe things closely and draw them. Drawing was

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the main thing. So it he like to to represent things on a campus as

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they were in real life? Absolutely. That what's -- that is what makes

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him great now because he was painting things as he saw them.

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That is right. He also wanted people to enjoy them. He loved

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colour, but he did insist on drawing. So it is something

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important was happening in Nottingham shire, they would get

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Spooner to record it? Yes. Talking to Muriel, Spooner was a

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man obsessed with detail and accuracy, but I am sceptical how

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far an artist can be trusting. Amongst all the formal portraits

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and pinpoint accurate commissions of Spooner's there were a couple of

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very striking paintings down in the Nottingham Castle secret vault.

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This one is a spoon as well, but it is a different kind of painting,

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more indistinct. It is a beautiful building. It is a ruined abbey.

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Classic British stately home. I think it's time to head out of

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the city and see some of Spooner's This Abbey is the ancestral home of

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the infamous Lord Byron. On a day like this you cannot imagine what a

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romantic setting it is. I wonder why Spooner painted these

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scenes. Like many of his works there's not much information on

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their background. It's almost as if they are totally self-contained

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with all the information locked within oil and canvas, ready to be

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I wonder whether Spooner came here to relax and enjoy the freedom. It

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is a bit like a modern-day spin- doctor: You have to tell a certain

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story in a certain way to suit the needs of poor has got the cash.

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It meant Spooner was prolific. But I want to track down examples of

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his work than can really tell a historical story.

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This could provide the answer. As we have learnt from our trip to the

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council, a huge number of oil paintings are owned by the public

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in this area. But this is the first attempt to catalogue them all.

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Spoon a features heavily as you can imagine. Lots of portraits of local

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bigwigs, military officers and horses. But there are a couple that

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are intriguing and not far from This is Portland College in the

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middle of Sherwood Forest. Here they specialize in giving people

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with all kinds of disabilities the opportunity to learn, re-train and

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It doesn't take long to find my Spooners hanging in a corridor. But

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before I investigate them there's another painting hanging nearby

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which has a lot to say about the 60-year history of Portland college.

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It's a portrait of a lady in her prime. She's gazing off to one side

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as if she's seeing a vision and a lady of vision she certainly was.

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Meet Winifred Duchess of Portland. I found this fantastic portrait

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inside the college. It was painted in 1912 by a favourite of the

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aristocracy. It is a beautiful portrait, her famous skiing is on

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show and it is dripping with pearls. She looks every inch the Duchess. -

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- her famous skin. Winifred may have been born a

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Victorian and married an aristocrat but it turns out she had a very

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modern attitude to disability and independence. It started early in

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married life with her support for injured soldiers and local miners

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and ended when she founded Portland college and realized her life's

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ambition. Here she is, a sprightly 82, with the young Princess

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Elizabeth and Prince Philip at the laying of the college foundation

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stone in 1949. But what inspired Winifred to start her mission and

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how does all this relate back to our old friend Arthur Spooner? Well,

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here are the paintings that brought me to Portland College and they

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appear to hold a vital clue to why the duchess developed such a

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passion for helping the injured and disabled.

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The paintings are titled Welbeck during the Great War. This was the

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stately home of the Duke and Duchess of Portland. Fascinatingly,

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the Union flag is flying up there and underneath it is the bed cross.

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It appears to be some kind of hospital or rehabilitation centre.

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People in gritters are playing croquet, nurses are very visible.

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This was the front of the House, the scene of great peace and

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tranquillity. Many of these soldiers would have escaped from

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the whole hall that was France, terrible fighting. This one is

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fascinating as well. Some red crosses and people recuperating

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from their injuries. A very military field, they are all in

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uniform. Perhaps this is a figure of the Duchess in the middle. She

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is wearing pearls, she has the tilt of her head I recognise from the

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other portrait. I wonder if this is the Duchess as she wanted to be

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represented and remembered, looking after those less fortunate than

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herself. This was 30 years before So how useful an historical clue

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has Spooner left us? To find out I'm heading 12 miles north to

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Winifred's old home. Welbeck Abbey is in the heart of the historic

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Dukeries, an area of north Nottinghamshire famous for once

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being seat to not just one but four Dukedoms, nestling shoulder to

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shoulder. Welbeck is no longer a ducal seat and remains a family

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home, alongside a gallery, a farm shop and a cookery school. But in

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Winifred's time you wouldn't have seen many members of the public

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wandering around here. Welbeck was a thriving centre of late Victorian

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and Edwardian high society with the 6th Duke and Duchess hosting lavish

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balls, grand dining, state politics and royal visits.

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As one of Nottinghamshire's finest artists, are third spinach had

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benefited from the patronage of the Duke and Duchess. -- are put

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Spooner. But the upper eyesore at Portman College produced a

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It's impossible to understate just how traumatic the First World War

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was for the whole country. The massive losses had never been

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experienced before and the vicious, mechanical form of warfare resulted

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in not only a huge death toll but totally new kinds of disfigurement

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and injuries. You can imagine why a woman like the Duchess with all of

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these resources to hand may have But I've got to keep my historian's

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hat firmly fixed in place and check that when Spooner painted the

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scenes at Welbeck during the war he wasn't just doing a bit of handy PR

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for the Portlands. And I know just the man to help. Derek Adlam has

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been the curator of Welbeck Abbey for almost thirty years and there's

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virtually nothing about its rich history he doesn't know. All was

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the Duchess Winifred like? She was a very warm-hearted person. She had

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a great deal of sympathy for the common man. She was particularly

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aware of the number of injuries that took place. Part of the family

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income came from the minds and so she founded an orthopaedic hospital

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to treat injured miners. It was turned into Portland College.

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picture in here, which shows patients and the Duchess in the

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middle, it was in October 1914. The war had only been going on for two

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months maximum. The hospital must have been founded very close to the

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beginning of the war. The Duke and Duchess must have been aware of

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just what the outbreak of war implied and that they must played

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some part in relieving the distress, and making up for facilities that

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might not appear to have been prepared by the government forced

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up it is a wonderful picture of her because she is in profile. She was

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extremely beautiful. She is beautifully dressed in a special

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unit for. You can see in the photograph that she is wearing

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pearls which would have been strictly forbidden a bunk -- among

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the other nurses. Her Vale looks different as well. A couturier

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designed and made her uniform as well. The thing that Winifred would

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have been getting her hands dirty? I think it is very unlikely. She

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would have been there to give moral support and comfort. She would have

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provided practical support in the sense that there was a Medical

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Facility lacking, if that was the case, she would have provided it

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all asked her husband to provide it. Welbeck Abbey is a fascinating

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place. While many similar estates have thrown their doors wide open

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to the public, Welbeck retains an air of remoteness and secrecy. But

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in pursuit of Spooner and the Duchess I've been allowed a rare

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visit into its heart. Just how accurate was Spooner when

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he was painting his pictures? This is a fantastic place. That is

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absolutely as is shown in the paintings. That picture could have

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been painted yesterday. Of course, the foliage has gone, but it is

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just extraordinary. I always like a piece of art are more when it is

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based on reality. It is wonderful to know that he was painting things

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in situ from probably around here. The fact that he got the buildings

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so accurate and put what looks like Winnifred the Duchess in front of

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them with the wounded soldiers means that we can believe that they

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probably would have been wounded soldiers and nurses mixing out here

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and enjoying the fresh air. People recovering so far from the trenches

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where they had sustained the terrible injuries forced up what

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was she trying to achieve when she got spinner to paint these

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paintings? Beat Spooner paintings simply are

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to make a record of what had happened at Welbeck. They date from

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1918 so it was already clear that the war was coming to an end and so

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the Duke would have commissioned them in order to make a record of

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what had occurred and the contribution that Welbeck had made.

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But they are a bit utopian. I would have liked to have been a patient

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at the hospital. I am sure they are an accurate the craft -- reflection

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of what was here. The kindness of the Duchess, the facilities of the

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hospital. We do not know whether the nurses here were dealing with

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serious trauma or whether it was more in the nature of convalescence.

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There is this charming men To which belong to to one of the nurses. It

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is a little collection of her own photographs. They are little

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snapshots. These seem to corroborate that the Spooner view

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of life here, it is a lovely realistic scene. Yes. Swimming and

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boating, and Spooner paints them playing croquet, skating. Why did

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they get spinner to paint them? was a very good painter. He had a

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great pair of hands when he wanted a record made. A so it implies that

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they wanted accuracy. Absolutely. The Duke like everything to the

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straight and clear. He labelled things, he lied leading accounts of

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things behind so that there would be no doubt about facts. Obviously,

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commissioning these paintings in 1918 as the first war was coming to

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an end, so that must have been why he called Spooner to make the

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record, an accurate record, of the day's in Welbeck's history. So this

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is the old kitchen block. This is the kitchen block as it was painted.

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It is where the soldiers were being looked after. Here is an

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inscription. This building was used as an obsolete hospital during the

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Great War. It continued to be used until the end of hostilities. All

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of the guys had acute injuries and needed medical care. So we've

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solved the mystery of why Winifred was so passionate about

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rehabilitation and why she founded Portland college - the pinnacle of

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her life's work. Winifred believed that disability shouldn't mean

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ending up on the scrapheap. Sixty years later her legacy lives on.

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Wayne Kirkham first came to the college because of spinal disorder

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that now means he uses a wheelchair. He now works here.

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Without this college, when you found out that you had the

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congenital disease, what would you have done? I would have been sat at

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home, climbing the four walls and twiddling my thumbs thinking that I

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was no use to anyone, including myself. My life would have been

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wasted. A tell me about the treatment you went through when you

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arrived here. I went through an initial assessment to see where I

:24:35.:24:42.

was, what stage, and what training I needed to go -- to get. Then I

:24:42.:24:45.

enrolled in everything I could, including coming to the physio

:24:45.:24:51.

department, using the gym, staff here, you don't just come down here

:24:51.:24:55.

to be somewhere at a specific time. If you come here, you work and the

:24:55.:25:00.

staff a year working. They soon find out what your capabilities are

:25:00.:25:04.

and they pursue. It does you the world of good. It has given me

:25:04.:25:08.

believe in myself. It has given me the tools to prove to myself and

:25:08.:25:12.

others that I am capable of living a normal life and being part of

:25:12.:25:19.

society. It probably still has ex service people here. We have a

:25:19.:25:23.

young lad who was a victim of Afghan. He took a bullet to the

:25:23.:25:28.

head. When he came along a few months ago, he was a completely

:25:28.:25:32.

different person. He is now walking with a stick which he is behind

:25:32.:25:35.

most of the time because he wants to be seen as one of the guys again.

:25:36.:25:40.

He has really come on leaps and bounds. He is a fantastic character

:25:40.:25:44.

to have around. Amazing that improvements in a short amount of

:25:44.:25:49.

time. That is what Portland does to you: It gives the belief that you

:25:49.:25:52.

can achieve what you want to achieve. The staff help you to do

:25:52.:25:58.

that. It is amazing that it is still doing the same job that it

:25:58.:26:03.

did 60 years ago. Yes. I am sure we will still be doing it in a another

:26:03.:26:05.

60 years' time. And so if it wasn't for Arthur

:26:05.:26:08.

Spooner and his half-forgotten paintings I'd never have come

:26:08.:26:10.

across Portland College and the story of Welbeck during the Great

:26:10.:26:20.
:26:20.:26:22.

Spooner may be a big fish in a small pond, taking bits of work

:26:22.:26:27.

from the great and good, but thank goodness he was because his

:26:27.:26:31.

depictions of what went on here, detailed, accurate, are fantastic

:26:31.:26:34.

bits of evidence. They tell the story of a significant episode in

:26:34.:26:37.

local history - the story of the injured servicemen whose

:26:37.:26:41.

experiences inspired Winifred to set up Portland College. They shed

:26:41.:26:44.

light on why a rich aristocrat devoted so many years to a cause

:26:44.:26:51.

And beyond that Spooner captured a watershed moment in British history

:26:51.:26:54.

a time when the established order of British society turned upside

:26:54.:27:00.

down and inside out. In that moment when Winifred, Duchess of Portland,

:27:00.:27:02.

offers her matronly care to a battle-scarred soldier, everything

:27:02.:27:12.
:27:12.:27:18.

Spinner may or may not have been aware of that, but he was there to

:27:18.:27:27.

record it, and for that, we should But there's one final twist in my

:27:27.:27:30.

investigation and it's back in Nottingham. It's hidden in the

:27:30.:27:33.

painting that first introduced me to the work of Arthur Spooner, the

:27:33.:27:42.

artist-historian. It has been very hard to find out

:27:42.:27:47.

about Spooner as a man. The archives have mostly vanished, but

:27:47.:27:52.

we have found this newspaper article from 1960. He gives an

:27:52.:27:56.

interview to this journalist and he admits in the interview that the

:27:56.:28:00.

figure of the clan in deep despair painting is actually a self-

:28:00.:28:06.

portrait. He says, I have been a town in my time. It is just

:28:06.:28:10.

brilliant, it adds another layer of interest about painting, bringing

:28:10.:28:14.

personality and colour to my understanding of Spooner. But it

:28:14.:28:19.

also makes me cautious when I approach pictures. It is a reminder

:28:19.:28:27.

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