Castle mural:- final details.

From £10 per square foot.

Prospect mill, Blackburn road, Bolton, UK. Demolished around1981.

Oil on canvas

12x14 inches

£125

As the textile age unravelled because of cheaper imports, so great Victorian mills like this were demolished. But that was not before time or because they were ugly. far from it. The picture shows an engine shed, built in the late fifties, to accommodate the machinery inside, whilst adding speed to the production line. The orange facier bricks, in stark contrast to the old Victorian monolith, add a more modern dimension. It was all to little to late. As unemployment rose sharply, workers were laid off, the mills fell silent. I entered a few times as a teen, looking round, alone in this giant, eerie shell. All the machines, cotton bales and artefacts just lay there as if everyone was on lunch break. Newspapers, half empty cups of tea sit in canteens. I never had a camera then, I'm gutted!. But I hope my picture stirs a bit of a loss inside you, as you look back on a world that has changed so dramatically...By R.A.Hall.

Park mill, Gaskell street, Bolton. Demolished around 1981.

Acrylic on boxed canvas, painted all round.

12x14 inches.

£85

The decline of the cotton industry saw many mills being pulled down. In Bolton, Halliwell, eleven mills were pulled down in the space of 3 years. Together with hundreds of Victorian terraced houses, it seemed like the whole area had been bombed. Or an image to that affect. It did open the horizon though, allowing you to see a lot further. But during this time, unemployment had risen to three and a half million so lots of people couldn't see beyond the horizon anyway!. I captured it in black & white first time round. Today, as I improve as an artist, my choice is colour.

Bradshaw brook, Bolton.

Oil on canvas

7x5 inches

£25 unframed.

Poppy fields.

Oil on canvas

9x16 inches

£125 unframed.

A packet of poppy seeds, goes a long, long way.....

Bradshaw brook, Bolton.

Oil on canvas board

8x6inches

£40 unframed.

Its hard to imagine this little brook could look so quaint after all these years of neglect. Volunteers, conservationists, are all hard at work now, stripping back the dead hand of time. Or to put it more poetically, the hands of nature that man could not control after his self indulgence, 100 years ago, exploded and strangled the unkempt countryside, especially waterways, railway embankments and hedgerows.

Giant hog-weeds continue to march on. Himalayan balsam thrives like scenes from 'Day of the Triffids'.  And worst of all, the Japanese knot weed that penetrates through solid concrete. But lets not forget the bindweed, so rampant, it covers even the above mentioned, strangling, tangling and suffocating all native species. 

Now that brings me back to my Plein air painting. Done on location at a spot that had been hidden for 30 years or more. I sit in peace on the bank of the brook, looking across at mans construction, right on the waters edge. Lots of conditions played a part in him retreating from here. It would have been forgotten but for all the hard work of the Balsam army. And one little known local artist, who played here as a child, 40 years ago!. 

High & Dry

Oil on canvas board.

8x6 inches.

£25 unframed.

This is the spot, on Leverhulme park, where the river Tong and Bradshaw brook meet, in more turbulent times. The black bank, on the opposite side of the river, shows the usually height of the water. Summer hasn't been particular hot, though it has been dry. Dry enough to leave these would be skimmers plenty of ammunition for their daily sport. The dog loved it too as he waded in after every stone. This sandbank is often flooded with the swirling waters so everyone that passed, had an opportunity to break records.

I sat and took it all in at first, with dog lovers not keen to make eye contact for fear of being trapped in a painting. They quickly moved upstream. Young children however, screamed with delight at every throw, often glancing back to see if I had captured their new record.