Scenes are identified
OUR latest selection of old sketches by celebrated local artist, the late Alfred Thomas Warbis have seen looking back readers contacting us.
The sketches were taken from AT Warbis’s regular slot: From the Artist’s Sketchbook - Special to the Echo, which ran in the newspaper from the 1950s to the early 1970s.
He travelled all over the area, with his sketch book and in addition to his drawings he would add a few lines about the places he captured
These particular sketches dated back 50 years ago.
Peter Faulks rang to identify the view of Kegworth High Street. The smaller building at the very far end has long since gone and the village library now stands on the site.
Peter also identified the sketch looking down Shepshed’s Charnwood Road towards the Bull Ring.
In his notes with the sketch AT Warbis described the Westminster Bank in the Bull Ring: “Although striking in appearance, it has many Gothic adoptions. Its colouring is unusual, being terra-cotta with horizontal bands of a lighter tint.
“It’s most striking feature is the main door, which is rich in design. On one stone wall under the eaves is a carved stone panel with figures.
“One of the roofs is a graceful canopy, surmounted by a pillared turret and spire of slender form on the upper part of which are several small details like beads of different sizes, threaded on a needle.
“The whole is reminiscent of the Great Industrial Exhibition in Hyde Park, London, in 1851.”
Peter spotted another Shepshed scene, looking down Field Street towards the corner with Britannia Street, with what looks like an old chapel on the site of which is now the health centre car park.
Phillip Thorpe also contacted us to identify the Charnwood Road and Field Street sites.
Phillip also recognised the: “Small square in Syston off High Street.” and: “The row of houses just off Grove Lane, Barrow-upon-Soar adjacent to the railway bridge (the one that partially collapsed and had to be rebuilt).
Another caller also rang in to identify the Grange at Quorn, which used to be called Woodside.