An hour long guided walk and drawing session, taking inspiration from some of Stockton's ancient sites, was the latest offering from the Peg Powler Gallery people, Rebecca Little and A.J. Garrett.
Start point was the Trinity Church Gardens, a burnt out Church which was built to commemorate the victory at Waterloo by a grateful government. The Church slowly declined after the Second World War and was subsequently set on fire in October 1991. The imposing structure was the setting for the first drawing, with background information supplied on the mass burial site's of plague and cholera victims....
We then moved on to the site of Stockton's former castle, first mentioned in 1183 in the Boldon Book survey and garrisoned by Henry V111 men in 1543, it was positioned roughly where the Swallow Hotel now stands, (also the Castlegate Centre gets its name from it). We were given more quirky historical background facts to fire our imagination's further. Stones were taken from the site, such as the Lion stone and two slabs of blue Frosterly marble that finished up outside what is now Trader Jack's bar (formerly the Blue Posts Inn).
From here we went across to the Town Hall, and Rebecca pointed out that it once contained a dungeon to house prisoner's before they were transported to the colonies...if we think times are hard now, Paul Larkin spent time here for nicking a pear!
Next stop was the flea market via an alley way next to the oldest house in Stockton, pointed out by A.J., the idea here was to pick out an item of interest from the market and sketch that. If you wanted a loo stop the oldest one in Stockton was close at hand, though only for the brave!
Moving on to the River Tees, we were invited to draw the river demon Peg Powler, all sharp teeth, green skin and straggly hair.
The drawings done on the day are being used as inspiration for a further work.
A well run event was topped off in the nearby coffee shop, in Silver Street. Hope there's more to come...very enjoyable.
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