This post is dedicated to the lads at Miller Heritage – hats off to you gentlemen!
REPAIR OF MELLARD WAREHOUSE, MARKET LANE, NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME
From the first floor of ‘Pockets’ you can see a narrow gap on the south side of the Ironmarket. It’s easy to miss but this is Market Lane and it leads down towards the bus station on Hassell Street.
View from Pockets
Once on Market Lane, it is also quite easy to walk past what has been up until 2013, a tumble-down warehouse, dating from around the late nineteenth century.
However, it is worth taking a minute’s detour to take in the transformation, the difference is remarkable. You can now see that this is a handsome old warehouse, with its subtle mix of Staffordshire red and blue bricks laid in English bond, a pattern favoured industrially during the Victorian period, with blue engineering brick arched lintols and stepped cills.
Here’s wishing the building and future occupants every success and let’s hope that the view down Market Lane will soon be full of life, colour and activity.
Mellards Warehouse Side elevationMellards Warehouse Market LaneLoading the skip‘You are having a laugh!’We won’t all fit in there!
Take a look at this link to see just how far this building has come. Thanks for reading!
We are now into the second week in Advent and here is a suggestion for a Christmas present with a local theme.
A limited edition gift box set of 10 post cards is now available to buy from the Library on the Ironmarket, Newcastle-under-Lyme and from the Borough Museum and Art Gallery. Images have been taken along the entire length of the prize winning drawing ‘Ironmarket in Summer’ and are printed on fine art quality, satin finished cards. They are a neat A6 size: 165 x 116 x 17mm and are raffia tied with a tag of a mini image of the Ironmarket in summer.
Recommended Retail price is £15 though this may vary according to outlet’s overheads and commission.
Gift box set open, box size is A6 165x116x17mm
There are only 100 sets available so to reserve a set to collect from the library, please let me know by filling in the comment box below.
If you have been one of the people to visit the Drawing the Street exhibition, my wholehearted thanks! I have been very moved by the continuous flow of positive comments. These drawings have entailed endless hours of work and to read how well they have been received has been a wonderful vote of confidence in what I began a year ago this month. I hope to respond to each of your comments in turn via email or the blog pages.
It is evident that Newcastilians are most enthusiastic about their town and its history! The centrepiece drawing ‘Ironmarket in Winter’ has been enjoyed by so many of you that I have decided to donate the original to the library to keep it in the public domain. I would love to hear any thoughts or memories of the old Ironmarket and town centre so I can build up a living history alongside the drawings. I have come across a strong community spirit here in Newcastle, it would be good to draw some of it together through this website.
Ironmarket in winter – extract
I will retain the copyright of the drawing and a number of prints (of all my drawings) are being sold through Newcastle Library, the Borough Museum and Art Gallery and directly from me. I will get a price list together in my next web update, but if you are thinking about a print for a Christmas gift, do get in touch with me as soon as you can by email RonnieCruwys@drawingthestreet.co.uk or phone 07966 230909.
Coming soon…. gift box sets of ten best quality postcards of ‘Ironmarket in Summer’. There is a limited pre-Christmas launch of 100 sets, so if you would like me to reserve a set, please drop me an email.
The forecast is stormy but I am very excited by my week ahead. Tomorrow I begin my three year Icon Diploma course in Moele Brace, and have just set up a new blog site for anyone interested in following what I will be learning from Aidan Hart, one of the UK’s leading Iconographers (www.icondiplomastudent.wordpress.com).
Then, next Saturday afternoon, 2nd November, I set up my first two week exhibition for Drawing the Street. If you live in Newcastle-under-Lyme, please come along as I hope to have some of my better Newcastle drawings up for you to see, but you can be the judge of them! It will be up until 16th November.
I must add here a couple of ‘thank yous’. One to Terry at Jollies Arts & Crafts for helping me to assemble the frame for ‘Ironmarket in Winter’ – it isn’t easy to frame a 2.7m drawing. Another to Kevin at ‘I wis Framed’ in Stoke, who has been damping and weighing down some of my buckled cartridge paper ready for framing.
I’m also still recovering from the news that my ’Ironmarket in Summer’ was awarded a prize by the Friends of the Borough Museum and Art Gallery. I was truly delighted with this news! Thanks to the Friends and the Gallery.
Third Prize awarded by the Friends of the Borough Museum & Art gallery
I have been getting my work printed with Smith York printers in Ironbridge and gradually trying out different methods and papers so that I can have a range of prints available to buy. Please note that when any work is displayed in a gallery, there is a commission to include but it all helps the economy. I also would like to add that quality and sustainability is really important to me and this is reflected in my choice of suppliers.
I look forward to seeing some of you up at the library.
This is a section from my ‘Ironmarket in Summer’ drawing. The geraniums in the planters and begonias in the hanging baskets all looked so vibrant that I decided to do a 60% reduced size summer version of my original 2.8m long winter drawing to submit to the Borough Museum and Art Gallery’s open exhibition. This time, I applied all the tips picked up in Dave Brammeld’s drawing classes and used a heavier 300gsm watercolour paper. Most of the composition is in black and white, technical drawing pens Rotring .25 and .18 nibs, with Sumi ink wash. Colour highlights on flowers, windows and sky in egg tempera.
The drawing has been selected and will be shown in this years exhibition.
Drawing the Street 