Lions, tigers & bears & savoury ducks
The Magician of Colour who drew me to Barnsley.
Before I begin this weeks tale, please indulge me a little. This is my three month anniversary on Substack. Thank you for following me and reading my posts. Last week I received my first subscription pledge. It’s important and lovely that you’re reading my words, but it’s wonderful that someone thinks that my words are worth paying for. And thank you to those of you who have recommended me. That’s rather wonderful too. Enough indulgence. Now read on!
On the Leeds to Sheffield train, I overhear two men in the seats behind me talking about food. My senses are immediately on the alert. They’re discussing how best to eat a goose egg, how to cook one, how to serve it. I’m tempted to interrupt their flow and introduce myself but I’m hemmed in by the market shopping of the dapper gent sitting next to me.
The goose egg connoisseurs get off at Barnsley, and so do I. I’m heading to the market but it’s not the only reason I’m here.
What do we think of when Barnsley is mentioned? Barnsley chops maybe. George Orwell stayed here when researching The Road to Wigan Pier. The Arctic Monkeys and The Human League claim Barnsley as their home town. I’m delighted to find out that the very first bottle bank in the UK was in…Barnsley. Given the towns’ history of glass making it makes sense. And, you’re undoubtedly thrilled to hear that Premier Foods who make Mr Kipling Cakes are based in the town. I’m here to spend a weekend with three friends from university. They were very forgiving when I said, let’s meet in Barnsley.
Barnsley is one of England's oldest market towns. The Royal Charter to host a market was given in 1249 under Henry III. Throughout the centuries, the market seems to have been at the centre of the community. There aren’t many markets that have such a long, continuous and resilient history. In 2014 the council announced major redevelopments to the town centre, and in 2018, the market moved to a new shiny building called The Glassworks. Initially there were grumbles about rent rises and stalls being asked to trade every day of the week in line with shops and for longer hours. This year, the market celebrated its 775th anniversary.
On a midday Monday the market is busy enough. The ground floor is a mixture of clothing, hardware, household goods, hair products, flowers and fresh produce; greengrocers, a few butchers, fishmongers, bakeries and a very busy pie and deli stall with ladies serving behind the counter, at lightening speed, taking no prisoners. It’s a large bright building, and there’s a definite regional identity here, which I love. Barnsley is one of the UK’s most deprived towns. It’s wonderful to see the market flourishing, and the council spending money to give it a new lease of life. Coaches bring customers from further afield, as far as Sheffield and Lincoln to shop at the market.
Upstairs are more stalls and the 'Market Kitchen' which seems to be divided into two clear zones, Barnsley and the rest of the world. The customer base is clearly equally divided here too. On one side; those who are sticking to what they know and love best, although to be fair, it's not all pies, there's baked potatoes, quiches and toasties too. On the other, there’s poutine, Mexican, Thai, Balkan and Greek food and a central bar.
Back downstairs I found that sadly I'd arrived too late in the season for Wakefield rhubarb but I could buy English asparagus. It’s the kind of market where you know there will be a pick and mix stall, in fact I found two where I buy bags of pontefract cakes, because where else would it be as appropriate to buy licorice, half an hour from its namesake?
One of the butchers had Barnsley chops on display, so all’s right with the world. I had to look up Savoury Duck. It’s a close relation of faggots; a ball of minced pork, pork offal, fat, breadcrumbs and herbs formed into small balls, wrapped in caul fat and baked. According to the Manchester Evening News it’s a forgotton delicacy. Not in Barnsley.
Up the hill from the market hall sits the Discover Barnsley Museum, and the Cooper Gallery.
I’m finding it an emotional homecoming considering I’ve never been to Barnsley.
It began with a book; The Child’s Garden of Verse by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Brian Wildsmith. A gift to my sister, we both adored it. So much so that I searched online for a copy of my own to keep. The illustrations are so bright, vivid, saturated and gloriously luscious I would have eaten them if I could to make them a part of me. They’ve never left me.
Brian illustrated 82 books in total. They’ve been translated into 30 languages, and published in 45 countries.
Back in 2010, walking past a gallery in Piccadilly that specialised in illustration, I was devastated to see that I’d just missed an exhibition by Brian. I later tracked down his website and started to correspond with his daughter, Clare. Brian Wildsmith was born in Barnsley, and his children have just spent a month there, setting up two long awaited exhibitions that celebrate his life.
Clare explained that the whole exhibition project started over 5 years ago. It restarted after being interrupted by COVID, and then took a couple more years to curate with the wonderful Barnsley museums team.
The works had to be sent from the south of France, where Clare and her brother and sister live, be driven through the country, across the channel via London customs, Brexit paperwork and then up to Barnsley where the siblings arrived to watch the whole build.
They’ve also been working with Liberty to bring some of Brian’s designs into print.
Clare found the whole experience very emotional; she explains that:-
‘‘for the first few days of the exhibition in Experience Barnsley I just couldn’t go into the room because the sound of my father’s voice which summed up his philosophy as well as the thoughts and energy that we had all put into taking his work back to where it all started was just so emotional for me.. I’d just break down and cry.’’
Brian was born in Penistone, just outside of Barnsley in 1930. He showed a gift for drawing and although he was torn between the career of a chemist or painter, he opted for the latter and enrolled into Barnsley School of Art in 1946. In 1949 he received a Scholarship to the Slade, and whilst working as an art teacher he started submitting art works to publishers including Faber and Penguin. He gained his first illustration contract for the book jacket of ‘Daffodil Sky’ by H E Bates which kick-started his career. In 1961 he was commissioned to do illustrations for the book, ‘Tales from the Arabian Nights’. Only a year later, he was Awarded the Kate Greenaway medal for his work on the book, ‘ABC’.
Clares’ parents met at Wentworth Woodhouse, a grand stately home where her mother Aurelie lived as the daughter of the Basque chef who worked there. Brian was there to sketch statues in the house. They married in 1955.
The family moved to France in 1971. As much as Brian had a great affection for the Yorkshire landscape and people, he was drawn to the light, sun and colours of the south of France. Clare and her siblings Rebecca and Simon grew up there.
Brian spent his life drawing, painting, and touring, with exhibitions and lectures across the world.
Clare told me:-
‘‘Although Brian and Aurélie died in 2015 & 2016 we had kept their ashes as we nurtured the idea that one day we would take them back home and scatter their ashes where their love story had started. And this is what we also managed to do the day before the exhibition opening.’’
Coming Home; The Life of Brian Wildsmith is on at Experience Barnsley. The exhibition focuses on Brian’s story, where he grew up, his early days and first art works, going to college, his influences. It’s a thoughtful, loving exhibition which allows the viewer to immerse themselves in his story and get to know the artist. Brian was often called The Magician of Colour after his Fantasia from a Fairyland exhibition toured Japan and Taiwan in 2004.
The Cooper Gallery is a few minutes walk from Experience Barnsley and it’s also free to enter. Paws, Claws, Tales & Roars, The Art of Brian Wildsmith isn’t a large exhibition but the works are so beautifully rendered, they almost burst from their frames, pulsating and glowing with life. It seems I’m not the only person to have travelled to reach here. I’m told that people have visited from all over the world.
One of the curators recommends going upstairs to see the exhibition of children’s art inspired by Brian. Brian said that “Children are all-important, and so is art. A picture book represents a child’s first encounter with art. Art is food for the soul.’’
The next generation of art is alive and well in Barnsley.
Paws, Claws, Tales and Roars is on at the Cooper Gallery in Barnsley
Coming Home; The life of Brian Wildsmith is at Experience Barnsley
Both exhibitions on until 21 September 2024
Barnsley Indoor Market, open Monday-Saturday 8.30am-4pm
If you’d like to see more of his work, the website about Brian Wildsmith, put together by his children is here.
Oh how lovely! I am dying to try savoury duck! Tomato scotch eggs sound good too...
Great article