Pregled posta

Marketing

The Cat & Wheel Public House on what is now Castle Park a former Georges Brewery owned public house. Now demolished

There was a tavern/public house on this site for many years called the Catherine Wheel. The building, which existed at the time of the November 1940 blitz, was built in 1900 and called the Cat & Wheel. This was a Georges Brewery pub and was run by Wally Thorne and his wife (Wally was drafted in by the government to work at Llewellins & James during the Second World War as running a pub was not regarded as essential war work!).

The premises survived the blitz, was de-licensed in January 1968 and demolished in October 1969.

This was one of the pubs attacked in the 1831 riots by 'gangs of 20 men or so demanding drink'. A countryman was also brought here at the time 'in a state of intoxication'. And expired there a few minutes later. - When he was cut open to determine the cause of death his stomach was found to contain an enormous quantity of port wine. - It was determined that he had died from an apoplexy brought on by overindulgence in this liquor.

This building was demolished 1960s. - Some landlord(s) as listed in directories, etc: Gabriel Rymer 1775 - J England 1824 - George Meatyard 1836 - George Hedges 1840 1845 - Charles Cowper 1852 - Richard Nash 1857 + 61 - George Knight 1867 - G H Webber (vict) 1870 + 78 - Mary Ann Webber 1882.

1861 An inquest at Cat and Wheel Tavern, Castle Green

1861 An inquest was held by coroner Mr J.B. Grindon at the Cat and Wheel Tavern, Castle Green, on the death of two-year-old Frederick William Fisher of Castle Mill Street. On 5 November, Frederick was slightly feverish from teething and his mother Maria gave him a cooling powder, after which the little boy went straight to sleep. Soon afterwards, Maria noticed that Frederick was twitching. She called her husband to look at the child, but by the time he arrived Frederick was sleeping peacefully again.

However, a few minutes later, he began to convulse violently, his tiny hands clenched into lists. Walter Fisher stripped off his son’s clothes and plunged him into warm water, where he continued to lit. A neighbour reassured Maria and Walter, saying that her child had suffered from teething convulsions but had fully recovered. She asked if the Fishers had given the baby any medicine and Maria went to fetch the packet to show her. Only then did she realise that she had accidentally given Frederick rat poison.

A doctor was summoned and arrived within minutes. Walter and Maria showed Mr Joseph Mortimer Granville the empty packet of ‘Marsden’s poison for killing rats and vermin’, telling him that Frederick was given the powder approximately two hours earlier and had been fitting for about an hour. Granville again immersed Frederick in warm water and tried to administer an emetic, but the child’s jaws were firmly locked and the doctor was unable to prise them apart to introduce any medicine.

Although he called in two colleagues, they were unable to save the little boy The teething powder and rat poison were wrapped in almost identical white paper envelopes but the rat poison, which contained strychnine, also had a blue outer wrapping, which was clearly inscribed ‘Poison’ in large letters.

The two powders were stored in a cupboard and the poison had somehow fallen out of its outer wrapping. The inquest jury found that Frederick was accidentally poisoned by strychnine, administered by mistake instead of soothing medicine. They remarked that they thought that it was very careless of Mrs Fisher to administer any medicine to a child without carefully checking it first.

Is there any other sort of visual art that requires such a combination of speed, timing and accuracy? And do those constraints change throughout the year, month to month and sometimes minute to minute?

This was originally going to be called Seventeen Sun Circles which sounds like a much cooler number than five.

But I started too late and the evenings are really drawing in fast and I started to run out of thorns. If I wanted to make seventeen circles then by the time I had finished it would be dark and I would have missed my chance.

Of course musicians and dancers have to be accurate, fast and timely. Perhaps painters have to apply their paint in a particular fashion so it does or doesn't dry. A stone sculptor must tap the chisel just right to reveal the shape within the rock, whilst the bronze must be at the right temperature for correct casting. All important technical skills for artists in a myriad of disciplines. But, as I have never followed these disciplines, their subtleties pass my by.

The materials I use come from nature and change and grow and decay all the time. Leaves rip, tear, dry out, shed fixing thorns, curl up and go brown. You need to be accurate so that you aren't fixing them over and over as they cannot take the punishment. Wood and sticks dry out and contract, will snap and not be moist enough to be pierced with thorns. Colours fade and everything becomes brittle so you need to be fast too if you want to bring your ideas into fruition.

I try to incorporate the elements themselves into what I create, the sun, the moisture in the air, the temperature all play a part and as you become more skilled with the materials, you reveal more and more about how they behave. You notice the subtle nuances in everything: the height of the stream, the angle of the sun, which new plants grow at different points throughout the year.

This may sound like I am bemoaning the variability of what I use but that couldn't be further from the truth. Does paint change throughout the year? Will a piece of music die off in autumn and return once again in spring? The more time I spend making land art the more gifts Mother Nature throws up for me to discover.

I may have set off to make seventeen circles but I had to adapt. Therein lies the essence of land art. I had to experience and feel the change in the movement of the sun, the drawing in of the evenings and the impending dark time I feel within.

Nothing ever stands still, everything is in constant flux and making natural art sculptures from anything I find around me opens a little window into the world of nature and all her wonderful and fascinating nuances.

By the way - I am still hibernating. I made this is in September. I'm off back to my cave...