Arts & Crafts Stone…

I was so lucky yesterday. I was invited to explore some ruins of New Cragg Hall which stand in someones private garden. The owner told me that after the hall burned down in 1921 it stood as a burned out shell until her house was built on the site in the 1950s. Much of the stone has either been plundered or sold. But there were a few decorative pieces that they kept and set in the garden walls. Aren’t they beautiful? Very Arts and Crafts….

Even more exciting were the turrets that stood in the walls of the hall. Now almost completely hidden and overgrown, the turrets are beautifully preserved.

And look at the stone decoration!

I did some drawings while i was there, trying to work out the patterns:

The paintings so far have some spaces left for tile work (I use decorated tiles a lot in my paintings) and these will be perfect. It feels like i found a piece of the jigsaw.