|
View of the ruins of Flint Castle, taken from the Flint Marsh in 1882, showing the Keep
and the Eastern Tower in the foreground.
|
In 1882, Henry Taylor was completing his book Historic Notices...descriptive of the Borough and County-Town
of Flint For this he was able to use the above 1882 image of Flint Castle by Louise - possibly created with the book
in mind. Louise also supplied three other images, but only this
general view is dated, so while it's a fair assumption that they were done at the same time, we cannot be certain.
Flint isn't very far from Chester, so that offers one reason why Louise might have been asked to create the original art, but
Andy King has suggested a second: one of her major patrons was Thomas Hughes Esq. FSA. of The Groves, Chester - and he
is the first person listed in the acknowledgements in the Flint book. His son T. Cann Hughes is also listed and was one of
the main contributors of Louise Rayner (and other) paintings to The Grosvenor Museum at Chester.
The images here were engraved from Louise's work, so they are not strictly by her. But we know that this one at least
exists as a painting somewhere, and hence the others probably do so as well.
 This
is the known one, auctioned by Sotheby's on 15th January 1976, where it was titled
'A Ruined Castle, possibly Beaumaris'. A Ruined Castle may well have been the title on the painting,
but it clearly shows Flint. Even so, although the view is the same, the figure arrangement is different, so more than one
painting may exist.
|
 | 
Left: exterior view of the Eastern tower. Above: view of the Eastern tower from the courtyard, with
Parkgate, on the Wirral Coast, in the background.
Below: The keep of Flint Castle from the south west, with
Chester and Beeston in the distance on the right, and the Wirral coast on the left. |
At the beginning of the 1880s there were worries that the Eastern tower would not survive much
longer, and the area was fenced to preserve it.
Further information on these images is welcome. |
|
Below: Photos taken in April 2005 (on a wet and gloomy evening) showing the castle as it now is. It hasn't lost
much in height and some remedial work has been done, but the centre has been fenced off because of vandalism.
Clearly, nothing changes. The views are East tower from within the walls; general castle view from the south, and
looking north across the castle interior. All colour photos copyright (C) Harry Drummond 2005.
 
|
|
Harry Drummond, February 2011.
|
Please note: we claim no art expertise, and in no way do we offer provenance for any paintings. What
you see here was compiled out of interest in Louise Rayner's paintings and those by her family, but is based on sometimes
very fragmentary evidence. It is thus inevitable that there will be errors, though we naturally correct these when we can.
We would gratefully receive any information or corrections that will help us to fill the gaps and resolve
unproved links - for example confirmation of dates of birth, death, etc., and details of other addresses the family lived
at (and roughly when). Images of any of the family's paintings are also very welcome. Thank you!
Copyright © 2011 DudleyMall.
|
|
