A visit to Rugby and Ashby Manor House.

Text and images by Carolyn Gifford

Rugby Art Gallery was hosting two exhibitions focusing on the landscape and natural materials. ‘Woven from the field’ showcased both practical baskets woven from willow by Sue Kirk and more abstract willow forms. Alongside them were textile artist Rosalind Stoddart’s handwoven pieces made with alpaca fleece dyed with natural plant dyes. Not only are the alpacas her own, she also grows a wide range of plants to use as dyes.

 

 

‘Found in the fields’ features prints by Carry Akroyd, inspired by the poet John Clare. Across a wide range of printmaking techniques and based on close observation of the landscape, flora and fauna, Carry’s work often quotes words and phrases from Clare, whose poems were reproduced below.

 

 

 

Both exhibitions are on until 15th November, and well worth a visit.

 

 

 

We also visited Ashby Manor House, which dates back to the Norman Conquest. A mellow stone building, it's set alongside the  Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Leodegarius (Ledger) and other stone buildings around a wide courtyard. It was the home of Robert Catesby and he and his fellow conspirators may have formed the Gunpowder Plot in an upstairs room of a small half-timbered house close by. The Manor House itself has had various modernisations and extensions but the most significant was by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who spent over thirty years on the house and its gardens.