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Pimp Hall Granary, Chingford

Watercolour
1941 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This Tudor half-timbered granary and barns are set in deceptively rural surroundings. By 1941, when Robins painted the scene, Chingford had already been an outer suburb of London for over half a century. It would eventually be absorbed into the London Borough of Waltham Forest in 1965.

As Robins noted in the inscription, the granary and barns were the last remaining buildings of the Tudor manor of Pimp Hall. The manor went down in culinary history when Henry VIII, dining at a banquet there, jokingly knighted a cut of beef as 'Sir Loin'.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Pimp Hall Granary, Chingford (assigned by artist)
  • Recording Britain Collection (named collection)
Materials and techniques
Pen and ink and wash on paper
Brief description
Watercolour, 'Pimp Hall Granary, Chingford', by William P. Robins; from the Recording Britain Collection (Essex).
Physical description
A monochrome wash drawing showing a half-timbered granary and barns surrounded by trees. Signed, dated and inscribed.
Dimensions
  • Height: 9in
  • Width: 11.25in
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'Wm. P. Robins 41' (Signed in ink by the artist, lower right corner)
  • 'The Granary and allotments, Pimp Hall, Chingford, Essex' (Inscribed in pencil by the artist, below signature)
  • 'This granary and the adjacent barns are all that remains of Pimp Hall. Henry the VIII is said to have knighted the "Sir Loin" of beef at a banquet at Pimp Hall.' (Inscribed in pencil by the artist, lower left.)
Credit line
Given by the Pilgrim Trust
Object history
This work is from the 'Recording Britain' collection of topographical watercolours and drawings 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.

Historical significance: As Robins noted in the inscription, the granary and barns were the last remaining buildings of the Tudor manor of Pimp Hall.
Historical context
By 1941, Chingford had been absorbed into the orbit of London's outer suburbs. It officially became part of the Borough of Waltham Forest in 1965.
Subjects depicted
Places depicted
Association
Summary
This Tudor half-timbered granary and barns are set in deceptively rural surroundings. By 1941, when Robins painted the scene, Chingford had already been an outer suburb of London for over half a century. It would eventually be absorbed into the London Borough of Waltham Forest in 1965.

As Robins noted in the inscription, the granary and barns were the last remaining buildings of the Tudor manor of Pimp Hall. The manor went down in culinary history when Henry VIII, dining at a banquet there, jokingly knighted a cut of beef as 'Sir Loin'.
Bibliographic references
  • Catalogue of Drawings in the 'Recording Britain' Collection given by the Pilgrim Trust to the Victoria and Albert Museum published by the Victoria and Albert Museum, Prints, Drawings and Paintings Department, 1951.
  • Palmer, Arnold, ed. Recording Britain. London: Oxford University Press, 1946-49. Vol 2: Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, Northhamptonshire and Rutlandshire, Norfolk, Yorkshire. p.1.
Collection
Accession number
E.1398-1949

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Record createdNovember 24, 2005
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