Their gate is open, their door is unlocked.
I can dust their table and sweep their floors and lift down their tea-cups. I can look at the changing colours of the same sea when I stand at their windows.
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Downstairs Window
Rooms
Some doors open on a thickly-peopled air
Of moving shadows, those whose lives, long gone,
Were spent there....
Some on a waiting silence - of expectancy
For those to come; some to the musty smell
Of mere desuetude; and some in constancy
To the long loving years of sweet content
In which the light of sun and moon have blent
In lasting light that bids all dark farewell -
Of such will this room tell.
Mary Stella Edwards, 1962.
Of moving shadows, those whose lives, long gone,
Were spent there....
Some on a waiting silence - of expectancy
For those to come; some to the musty smell
Of mere desuetude; and some in constancy
To the long loving years of sweet content
In which the light of sun and moon have blent
In lasting light that bids all dark farewell -
Of such will this room tell.
Mary Stella Edwards, 1962.
Appledore Arts Festival 2010
National Trust
North Devon AONB
About Me
- Kate Paxman
- Devon, United Kingdom
Followers
Blog Archive
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2010
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May
(15)
- Day 1: Opening the Door (1 May 2010)
- Day 2: Reading Poems at the Burton Gallery, Bidefo...
- Day 3: The Portable Writing Desk (May 3 2010)
- Day 4: Judith Ackland Reading (4 May 2010)
- Day 5: Fulmars (5 May 2010)
- Day 6: Going Upstairs (rain), 6 May 2010
- Day 7: The Linen Cupboard (7 May 2010)
- Day 8: Maimie Braund's Parlour (Saturday 8 May 2010)
- Day 9: Coats (Sunday 9 May 2010)
- Day 10: Water (10 May 2010)
- Day 11: The Baskets Under the Bed (Monday 11 May 2...
- Day 12: Wolsery School Workshop (Wednesday 12 May ...
- Day 13: Wolsery School Workshop (Thursday 13 May 2...
- Day 14: Spring (Friday 14 May 2010)
- Day 15: Closing the Door (15 May 2010)
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Judith Ackland and Mary Stella Edwards
Judith Ackland (1889-1971) and Mary Stella Edwards (1893-1989) met as students at The Regent Street Polytechnic where they both studied art. They used the tiny Cabin at Bucks Mills as their studio from the 1920s until Judith's death, a period of nearly 50 years.
They lived and worked here in the summers, painting watercolours of the beach, the coastal landscapes and the village. They also produced dioramas: collaborative work where Judith made all the models, and Mary Stella painted their backdrops.
When they closed the door of their Cabin for the final time, it remained ready for them to return - and it stands preserved almost as they left it over 40 years ago.
They lived and worked here in the summers, painting watercolours of the beach, the coastal landscapes and the village. They also produced dioramas: collaborative work where Judith made all the models, and Mary Stella painted their backdrops.
When they closed the door of their Cabin for the final time, it remained ready for them to return - and it stands preserved almost as they left it over 40 years ago.