In the Footsteps of Ravilious … and others

 

In the Footsteps of Ravilious … and others

Recently I spent some time cycling and walking around the South Downs – here seen on the last stretch of the South Downs Way by The Severn Sisters. 

I was often conscious of travelling in the footsteps of Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) who spent his school and early college years in Eastbourne and throughout the thirties often returned to explore and paint different scenes on the South Downs. Ravilious shared his love of the South Downs with many other artistic and literary figures – for instance, an earlier contemporary was Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). Ravilious would surely have agreed with the sentiments of his poem, Sussex (1902)

God gives all men all earth to love,
But since man’s heart is small,
Ordains for each one spot shall prove
Beloved over all.
Each to his choice, and I rejoice
The lot has fallen to me
In a fair ground—in a fair ground—
Yea, Sussex by the sea!

I have long been struck by one of Ravilious’ earliest depictions of the Sussex countryside - his woodcut of The Long Man of Wilmington (1926) but had never seen this Long Man, in the flesh (as it were).

Then over a decade later he did this watercolour in 1939, one of his most famous.

Kipling’s poem also reveres this sight -

I will go out against the sun
Where the rolled scarp retires,
And the Long Man of Wilmington
Looks naked toward the shires;

While walking on the South Downs north of Eastbourne I, like these two and many before me, was impressed by the sight as it appeared on the hill opposite – rightly called ‘the long man’ as it is the height of about 40 humans! But not, as many suppose, from the Neolithic period, nor the Iron Age, nor even is it Medieval. Archeologists have established that it dates from the early modern era (c16 or c17).

As I got much nearer I couldn’t resist my own twenty-first century take on this striking image - I call this photo, The Long Man of Wilmington and the shorter one from Norfolk

A few miles south of this long man, on the coast at Eastbourne, the even more famous sight we all know is the lighthouse at Beachy Head, a subject also painted by Ravilious in 1939.

It’s a sight that greets you as you walk the ups and downs of the last part of the Sussex Way, and it has surely become one of England’s iconic sights, whether viewed from afar as Ravilious painted it ... 

... or from as near the edge of the neighbouring cliff as it is safe to venture.

Perhaps Ravilious’ even more famous painting is of 1939, the present lighthouse’s predecessor, a few hundred metres to the West and standing on top of the cliff – Beachy Head Lighthouse (Belle Tout).  Here we, the viewers, are standing inside the lantern room of the Belle Tout lighthouse looking out over Beachy Head with the new lighthouse at the base of the cliffs. Belle Tout had served from 1832 to 1902 when it was decommissioned and the new one built in the sea just off the headland.

In 1986, the BBC purchased the lease to Belle Tout for the filming of the mini-series The Life and Loves of a She-Devil  and a year later it featured in the James Bond film The Living Daylights  From 1996 the lighthouse was used as a family home and, in 2007, the building was put up for sale again. It is now an upmarket holiday venue.

By 1999 the erosion of the cliffs was threatening the foundations of the building and drastic steps had to be taken to stop it from falling into the sea. On 17 March the Belle Tout was moved 17 metres away from the cliff face. The 850-ton lighthouse was moved using a pioneering system of hydraulic jacks which pushed the building along four steel-topped concrete beams that were constantly lubricated with grease. In its new location it has designed to enable further moves as and when they are required!

 

In 1935 Ravilious painted Chalk paths which powerfully evokes the peace and beauty of the South Downs – just perfect countryside for not-too-strenuous walking and musing on the centuries that it has been trodden by all and sundry.

It is a picture that catches so well the sense of serenity that my walks across the Downs gave to me last week, especially when my friend and I veered off the main pathway to visit the Chattri Memorial. I have no idea whether Ravilious ever visited this particular spot but I like to think that, as an official war artist in WW2, he would have been aware of this very moving memorial just a short walk away from Ditchling Beacon. It is the site of the cremation of many Indian Soldiers who died in WW1.

 

The Ouse Valley, as it winds its way from Lewes to Newhaven was another part of East Sussex that inspired Ravilious’ work. He painted several views of Newhaven Harbour – this one in 1937.

He shared his love of this part of East Sussex with the Bloomsbury Set whose famous farmhouse, Charleston is in this region and part way down the Ouse Valley Virginia Woolf and her husband had their favourite get away, Monk’s house. 

As we cycled down the traffic-free bridle way along this valley, one was seeing places that Ravilious knew well – and there are several literary and artistic memories along the way. Although he often stayed in Lewes, he would not have seen, as we did, the marvellous sculpture of St Michael the Archangel on the Tower of St Michael’s Church created by Harry Phillips in 1976 who was at that time a member of the congregation there – not his style, but had he not died so young it is fascinating to imagine how his own approach may have changed.

 

 I have no idea whether Ravilious shared my fascination with round tower churches but this was one of the reasons that drew me to cycle down this valley - it is where 3 of only 5 of the 185 round tower churches in England are to be found outside of East Anglia. As we cycled down this valley, we passed on the river bank the spot where Virginia Woolf committed suicide in 1941 and just a little further on arrived at Piddinghoe where another literary memory is evoked. The round tower of the church there is topped by a gilded weather vane which was immortalised in Rudyard Kipling’s poem.

 

I will go north …
Or south where windy Piddinghoe’s
Begilded dolphin veers …

Clearly here Kipling was using a good dose of poetic license – as it is a sea trout not a dolphin, as even he must have known!

For the last few years of his life, Ravilious served as a war artist, and died when the aircraft he was in was lost off Iceland. This painting, Cross Channel Shelling 1941 from the last few months of his life depicts his beloved coast line along the English Channel being bombarded by enemy aircraft.

And another of many similar ones ...

When I reached the end of the South Downs Way I was also reminded of the dangers of this coast even in peace time – of accidental or deliberate tragedy as a full scale air sea rescue was in full swing.

 But overall, both then and now, the south Downs and the Sussex coast speak the language of order, peace and beauty – as in this painting of 1934