Sowerby Bridge (2024)
Original media: Original media: Inks, gouache, acrylics, watercolour, coloured pencil, gold leaf and gold thread.
Painted for 'Engineers & Chocolatiers' - a solo exhibition to celebrate Calderdale at Bankfield Museum, 2024.
I’ve tried to capture as many Sowerby Bridge landmarks as I can in one painting. The town is dominated by huge mill buildings that have been demolished in other parts of Calderdale. The weight of the town seems to be towards the bottom - by the river, lower than the canal. Sowerby Bridge’s industry was more for building the machinery for the textile trade, than for the textile trade itself. At the bottom of the painting is Dugdale Ltd formerly ‘Wood Bros - Engineers and Millwrights’. Dugdale manufacture polymers, but the mill used to supply machine parts to textile mills, and export to India, Japan and the USA. Also at the bottom of this valley would have been Pollitt & Wigzell, which made world famous stationary steam engines. They supplied their steam engines to mills all over Lancashire and Yorkshire and had a huge foundry (demolished in the 1930’s). The railway arches seem to divide the lower valley from the lighter valley above. The beautiful building with the domed clock tower was once the town hall, and then Lloyds Bank. Far left (and out of sight in reality) is The Puzzle Hall Inn, along from the bottom of the footbridge over the canal and tow path. To the right is The Bull on the Bridge, and behind that The Blind Pig. The Navigation Inn is at the far right of the painting. There were a lot of important pubs to try and fit into this picture! The Canal Wharf is where the Calder & Hebble Navigation and the Rochdale Canal meet. It’s also where I spend a lot of time proofing pictures with Rob at Knight Graphics. Christ Church, at the bottom of Tuel Lane, and the huge Corporation Mill behind the main street.
Most important are the legendary Sowerby Bridge Geese. Hebden Bridge has geese too (often holding up the traffic on the main road and opposite my house), but I believe the Sowerby Bridge geese came first, and have their own Facebook Page...
I’ve tried to capture as many Sowerby Bridge landmarks as I can in one painting. The town is dominated by huge mill buildings that have been demolished in other parts of Calderdale. The weight of the town seems to be towards the bottom - by the river, lower than the canal. Sowerby Bridge’s industry was more for building the machinery for the textile trade, than for the textile trade itself. At the bottom of the painting is Dugdale Ltd formerly ‘Wood Bros - Engineers and Millwrights’. Dugdale manufacture polymers, but the mill used to supply machine parts to textile mills, and export to India, Japan and the USA. Also at the bottom of this valley would have been Pollitt & Wigzell, which made world famous stationary steam engines. They supplied their steam engines to mills all over Lancashire and Yorkshire and had a huge foundry (demolished in the 1930’s). The railway arches seem to divide the lower valley from the lighter valley above. The beautiful building with the domed clock tower was once the town hall, and then Lloyds Bank. Far left (and out of sight in reality) is The Puzzle Hall Inn, along from the bottom of the footbridge over the canal and tow path. To the right is The Bull on the Bridge, and behind that The Blind Pig. The Navigation Inn is at the far right of the painting. There were a lot of important pubs to try and fit into this picture! The Canal Wharf is where the Calder & Hebble Navigation and the Rochdale Canal meet. It’s also where I spend a lot of time proofing pictures with Rob at Knight Graphics. Christ Church, at the bottom of Tuel Lane, and the huge Corporation Mill behind the main street.
Most important are the legendary Sowerby Bridge Geese. Hebden Bridge has geese too (often holding up the traffic on the main road and opposite my house), but I believe the Sowerby Bridge geese came first, and have their own Facebook Page...
Available to buy as a mounted and signed limited edition print - unframed. Hand-finished with gold leaf and gold thread.
75cm x 59cm (including mount)
Limited print edition of 150
£290.00