Caer Caradoc Hill in Shropshire

At the end of September I spent a weekend with my extended family in Shropshire to celebrate the Australian contingent being in the country and my cousin's 40th wedding anniversary of "the best wedding ever" on 30th September 1972!

A house had been rented just outside All Stretton which had a wonderful view of the hills nearby.

Caer Caradoc Hill from The Oaks
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is my sketch of Caer Caradoc Hill which I did late Saturday afternoon after my cousin's husband had climbed to the top in the morning.

The hill is made of Pre-Cambrian rock (see page 3 of the link) and has a whaleback shape.  It's approximately 459 metres or 1500 feet above sea level. From the top you can look north to The Wrekin, a hill in east Shropshire, look east to Wenlock Edge, a limstone escarpment just outside Much Wenlock and south west to the Long Mynd situated a little way down the road just past Church Stretton.

On top of the hill are the remains of an Iron Age Hill Fort (see aerial view plus you can read more about the Iron Age in Shropshire).

The hill is associated with Battle of Caer Caradoc in 50 AD.  King Caractacus was a first century British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe who became King of the Britons between 43-50AD and led the British resistance to the Roman conquest. There are many legends associated with King Caractacus - also known as Caradoc - and one of them is that he made a last stand with his followers on this hill - which is now known as Caer Caradoc. He was defeated and Caractacus was taken, as a prisoner, to Rome.  There he pleaded for his life in front of the Emperor Claudius - and got drawn by nineteenth century artists for his efforts!

The Rill Garden at Wollerton Old Hall

The Rill Garden, Wollerton Old Hall

11.5" x 17", pencil and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'm going to start "Travels with a Sketchbook......in the north of England" with the one garden and one post which relates to Shropshire. All the rest of my sketchbook on my recent journey up north was devoted to Yorkshire and it seems better to keep those posts together in sequence.

This sketch of the Rill Garden is a double page spread in my Daler Rowney black hardback A4 sketchbook - which means it's a big sketch. Getting the perspective right - including all those round box 'puddings' - was a bit of a challenge! The box hedging and mounds were interesting to do. The trick seemed to be to keep mixing greens across the range from dark blue green to light yellow green. I'm not sure I made such a good job of the pleached limes though!

Wollerton Old Hall Garden is a real find. For me it's the nearest equivalent to Sissinghurst that I've ever come across in the north of England - and my mother and I are veteran garden visitors. Lots of small garden rooms - each with its own very distinctive personality. You can take a virtual tour of the garden here.

The really interesting thing is that the garden is not that old and it's still developing and changing. It's also an RHS Partner Garden. This is the way the website summarises what the garden is about.

Wollerton Old Hall Garden is a four acre plantsman's garden developed around a 16th Century house (not open) in rural Shropshire, England. Strong formal design has created many separate gardens each with its own character. It features intensive cultivation of perennials using planting combinations with an emphasis on colour and form, as well as many rare and unusual plants.

The Wollerton Old Hall Garden website starts thus - and I repeat it here as the garden certainly lived up to its plaudits!

A formal garden with exuberantly planted borders set in the Shropshire countryside, in the heart of England.

"Artistry, vision and discipline combine here to make a garden of exceptional quality." - The Good Garden Guide

"This is truely a delightful garden to explore and learn from." - Noel Kingsbury, House & Garden

"This is a garden to be enjoyed - and to be plundered for inspiration"- Patrick Taylor, Daily Telegraph Gardeners' Guide

The food's good too! We had lunch and tea there and both were most enjoyable.

Links:

• Wollerton Old Hall Garden
• Wollerton Old Hall Garden - virtual tour
  
• Garden location - just west of Market Drayton in Shropshire
  
• RHS - Wollerton Old Hall Garden

Technorati tags: art, coloured pencils, colored pencils, drawing, plein air, sketch, sketchbook

Travels with a sketchbook.....in the north of England

The refectory windows at Fountains Abbey
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in daler Rowney A4 sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'm interrupting the posts about Kent for a new section of sketches recently done on my trip to the north of England. Over the next week or so I'll be posting sketches of:

• The Rill Garden at Wollerton Old Hall Garden, near Market Drayton in Shropshire
• The view from Sutton Bank - the finest view in Yorkshire according to 'James Herriot'
• Fountains Abbey - part of a world heritage site in North Yorkshire
  
• Views from Rievaulx Terrace, North Yorkshire
  
• The centre of Helmsley in Ryedale, North Yorkshire
  
• The ruins of the cistercian Abbey of Rievaulx, North Yorkshire
  

[10th June 2007: Revised/Updated ] This summary post will be updated as blog posts are posted to this blog.

Sketches have been transferred from Making A Mark. These include:

• Staffordshire: Drawing people and delaying the cream tea (13th April 2006) - a visit to Biddulph Grange Gardens - and its tea room.
  
• Cheshire: Sketches from Tatton Park (18th April 2006) - two double page sketches of scenes from this 50 acre garden set in a 1,000 acre deer park.

Both of the above posts on this blog now include links to the places mentioned in the blog post.

[2nd November 2007: Revised/Updated] More sketches from the North of England:

• Cheshire: Early Morning Light in Cheshire (1st November 2007) - sketching the views and the early morning light - including a sunrise - from windows in my cousin's home.
• Manchester: Eating in the Gallery Cafe at Manchester Art Gallery (2nd November 2007)

A link to this summary post is inserted into the "Travels with my sketchbook in...." section in the right hand column (which groups together all summary posts).