THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE —   created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

CISSBURY RING MYSTERY WITH WARREN H.WILLIAMS (1863-1st September 1941)

Copyright Valerie Martin 2008

click on pic to enlarge

This painting is dated 1906 and is described as being of Cissbury Ring...... at first I could not get my bearings, can you?   

The artist was Hugh Warren Williams ...... who was born in 1863 and died in 1941... so I cannot ask him.  

In March 2010 I received an email from I. Hare saying.... "..... he in fact died on 01.09.1941 in Penmaermawr near Conway North Wales and is buried in Kyffin Churchyard. 

He was a fine artist as his auction records will confirm this and he maintained his interest in post card scenes from his early years in the 1900s working for E T W DENNIS of Scarborough until the late 1920s when he did a number of Sussex Scenes".

I received an email from a local lad, Peter Archbold (now in New Zealand)....."Dear Valerie......As a "long range" guess I would have identified it as an "artist's impression" of the southern approaches to Chanctonbury Ring... "End of day" shadows support this?

The Artist - I note - did not write the name on the painting...

What and where is the flag? Surely somebody closer to Home can remember it?   All best wishes, Peter".

The mystery continued.   I searched the countryside for this Cissbury Ring view...... the flag was a complete mystery at first.

An email from Mike Cooksey in Bristol tried to throw a little light on the subject....."Dear Valerie, I would suggest that the flag on Cissbury is the warning flag for the ranges. The hill on the left would be Salvington and that on the right, Vineyard Hill. The shadow of Salvington is cast over Vineyard. ...... but there's an awful lot of artist's licence!!

The horses are nice and I'm impressed with the man facing backwards ... but I don't think the flag is on a "Big Top"!

All good wishes Mike."

I replied..."Good thinking, Mike...... the whole painting is odd isn't it...... right down to the guy slumped side saddle!"

From another Findon lad, Roger Moulds (now living in Llandrindod Wells in Powys, Wales) ..."The painting of Cissbury Ring by Warren Williams is interesting. I don't think it looks much like the Cissbury that I know.

I have done a bit of research, but have had to rely on snippets from Ebay. Warren Williams seems to have been a Welsh artist from the Conway area of North Wales. According to one Ebay source, he was a founder member of the Royal Conway Academy of Art".

As day went by, it suddenly dawned on me that I had seen a painting with a flag depicted some time ago.......

The Rifle Range on the southern side of Cissbury Ring... looking north towards the butts.   Artist unknown.

Both paintings could be by the same artist maybe?   Warren Williams could have had a liking for flags in the distance in his works?

Roger responded....."You may be right, Valerie, the style of the paintings is very similar.

The only thing that bothers me is the direction of the shadows. I have been trying to work out where the sun would have been, and what time of day it would have to have been. Perhaps that is all down to Artistic Licence?"

Mark Hampshire from nearby Angmering and frequent dog walker on Cissbury Ring, emailed..... "HI V, IS THE ATTACHED PHOTO A MILLION MILES FROM WHERE WARREN WILLIAMS PAINTED IT IN 1906?..........."
 

I do not know the date of this old photograph from the Worthing Golf Course but it could have been taken around the time that Warren Williams executed his watercolour of the area......

click on image if wishing to enlarge

From my ensuing on-the-spot investigations (dodging the golf balls whizzing passed from enthusiastic early morning risers) I agreed that the picture is indeed from the south of Cissbury looking towards the Rifle Range area.    

click on my photograph to enlarge

My latest theory ....... maybe the artist, Warren Williams, lived (or was working) in Worthing and walked up through the fields towards Cissbury a hundred years ago and executed this painting.    

His portrayal was not really to my liking and I could not image exactly what the wagoners are doing with their cart horses.    It was going to be a long standing mystery.

I noted that the trees had grown up over the last hundred years....... (not so much sheep and cattle grazing).   

click on pic etc.

The rounded clump of woodland on the left are part of the South Wood...... some of the trees in that area are very old and came down in the hurricane of 16th October 1987 and so would have been standing when Warren Williams sat with his easel looking towards the Ring....

click on my pic to enlarge

The flag is not hoisted on a "pimple" as it appears..... this is an illusion..... and it is, in fact, the top of the Iron Age Ramparts at the East Gate of Cissbury Ring.

As I've said, I'm not all that keen on the portrayal of the scene..... but if I saw the painting for sale, I would buy it.... simple because it IS Cissbury Ring and has caused so much mystery to me !

Roger added an interesting bit .... "Well done Mark and Valerie to find just the right place. I am OK with shadows now.

There is no mystery about the horses. After, or before, a day's work the waggoners / ploughmen / whatever, often rode their horses to and from stable and work area, and it was a common sight to see a man riding sideways as in the picture. (Does this make me old?)"

I had no idea that anyone would ride a horse like that so I learned something.... thanks to Roger.  

Penny Smith-Berkeley added her pennyworth ......"Hi Valerie, I think Warren Williams most likely painted your current featured painting around the same time that he painted the Cissbury Windmill and Golf Course painting, which is on your windmill section."

I now conclude that if the artist had continued up the track from Worthing heading north......passed the Cissbury windmill (TQ 136 058) - (otherwise known as Offington Windmill, Ballard's Mill and Broadwater Mill - take your pick)..........he would have arrived at a good view of the ramparts at the East Gate and the warning rifle range flag.    Obviously it was one of Warren's favourite walkies.
 
I'm now on the look out for the actual watercolour.   I wonder who has it?   I hope it is not stuck in some museum somewhere and unobtainable.

Continue if you would like to read The Elephant Mystery.

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THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.