Watercolour, 'Melford Hall, Long Melford', by Stanley Roy Badmin (Recording Britain, Suffolk).

A pen and ink and wash drawing of Melford Hall, seen from the front. The facade is in shadow; strong sunlight falls on the walls and neatly trimmed hedges in front.

Given by the Pilgrim Trust

This is one of two views of Long Melford by Badmin for the Recording Britain scheme. Melford Hall also appears in the background of his watercolour of Long Melford Green (E.2111-1949).

The 'Recording Britain' collection of topographical watercolours and drawings was made in the early 1940s during the Second World War. In 1940 the Committee for the Employment of Artists in Wartime, part of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, launched a scheme to employ artists to record the home front in Britain, funded by a grant from the Pilgrim Trust. It ran until 1943 and some of the country's finest watercolour painters, such as John Piper, Sir William Russell Flint and Rowland Hilder, were commissioned to make paintings and drawings of buildings, scenes, and places which captured a sense of national identity. Their subjects were typically English: market towns and villages, churches and country estates, rural landscapes and industries, rivers and wild places, monuments and ruins. Northern Ireland was not covered, only four Welsh counties were included, and a separate scheme ran in Scotland.

The scheme was known as 'Recording the changing face of Britain' and was established by Sir Kenneth Clark, then the director of the National Gallery. It ran alongside the official War Artists' Scheme, which he also initiated. Clark was inspired by several motives: at the outbreak of war in 1939, there was a concern to document the British landscape in the face of the imminent threat of bomb damage, invasion, and loss caused by the operations of war. This was allied to an anxiety about changes to the landscape already underway, such as the rapid growth of cities, road building and housing developments, the decline of rural ways of life and industries, and new agricultural practices, which together contributed to the idea of a 'vanishing Britain'. Clark also wanted to help artists, and the traditional forms of British art such as watercolour painting, to survive during the uncertain conditions of wartime. He in turn was inspired by America's Federal Arts Project which was designed to give artists employment during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Over 1500 works were eventually produced by 97 artists, of whom 63 were specially commissioned. At the time the collection had a propaganda role, intended to boost national morale by celebrating Britain's landscapes and heritage. Three exhibitions were held during the war at the National Gallery, and pictures from the collection were sent on touring exhibitions and to galleries all around the country. After the war, the whole collection was given to the V&A by the Pilgrim Trust in 1949, and it was documented in a four volume catalogue published between 1946 and 1949. For many years the majority of the collection was on loan to councils and record offices in each county, until recalled by the V&A around 1990. The pictures now form a memorial to the war effort, and a unique record of their time.

Long Melford, like most of the medieval villages in Suffolk, grew up around the wool trade. When the industry moved north, the town continued to thrive as a river port. Melford Hall, built around 1560, is now the property of the National Trust.

The handsome red-brick Melford Hall dominates the north side of Long Melford's village green. Badmin had already included it in a view of the green, but here he focuses on the house itself. His typically tight and meticulous handling of watercolour suggests the bright sunlight and strong shadows falling on the house facade in the afternoon.

Melford Hall was originally built around 1560 and after the war became the property of the National Trust.

E.2112-1949