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About the Project |
Projects |
Activity: create your own Picture of Britain project
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The William Allitt School
Swadlincote, Derbyshire
Mrs James's Year 7 class
Beverley Minster CE Primary School
Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire
Mr Fuller's Year 6 class |
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 What We Did
Year 7 at the William Allitt School visited the "Magic Attic" at Sharpe's Pottery Museum. We found lots of information about the history of Bretby Hall and Sharpe's Pottery. We then made observational studies of these buildings and working in small groups developed our work in a variety of ways. We tried to include as much architectural detail as possible. Some of our work depicts the surrounding countryside and shows a stark contrast between lush rolling green fields and the more industrial landscape of pottery kiln chimneys and smoke filled skies.
Year 6 at Beverley Minster CE Primay made sketches of their local area around Beverley Minster, including North Bar, St Mary's Church and Skidby Mill.
Work by The William Allitt School:
Bretby Hall
by Amy, Jo and Rebecca, age 11
Hello our names are Amy, Rebecca and Jo. We are pupils at the William Allitt School. We are in class 7SC.
Our school is situated in Newhall Swadlincote south Derbyshire. We have based our work on Bretby Hall and Bretby Church.
We hope you enjoy looking at our pictures and sharing our research on some real treasures of the South Derbyshire Landscape.
Some of our "Picture of Britain project" images were created with computer graphics. Because we wanted to experiment with different materials and media in our "Picture of Britain project" we decided to use the computer to scan our work and modify them using the software program Paint Shop Pro. We used various effects to produce really unusual "atmospheric pictures".
We have also used watercolours to enable us to get more subtle effects and soft pastels. With the pastels we quickly learnt how to blend our studies by layering the different colours. We tried to include important detail like brickwork stonework and foliage on the trees and bushes with a darker tone. Throughout this project we have realised just how much we have had to really look at the buildings and the different surroundings. Bretby Hall stands in beautiful lush parkland with lovely mature trees and ornamental ponds. A very peaceful idyllic setting that we have enjoyed being a part of.
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Bretby Church
by Melissa, age 11
This tiny church stands on the village green in the quiet village of Bretby. The nave is 40ft 5ins by 15ft 8ins. There is a square wooden bell turret over the west gate with 5 bells. A brass tablet in the porch records that Anne Elizabeth, Countess of Chesterfield, opened the church for worship on The 4th of July 1878, in the memory of her husband, 6th Earl of Chesterfield.
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Sharpe's Pottery by Lee, age 11
My study shows Sharpe's Pottery as it was in the 19th century with its huge chimney and bottle kilns. |
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Abstract Image of Bretby Hall
by Katherine, age 11
Hello my name is Katherine I am a pupil at William Allitt school and I am in class 7SC.
Our school is situated in Newhall, Swadlincote, South Derbyshire.
We hope you enjoy looking at our pictures and sharing our research on some real treasures of the South Derbyshire Landscape.
My description of Bretby hall: Bretby hall is a large place the big front Gate is decorated with black paint and gold embelishment. There are posts either side of the entrance. And there is a big window at the top/over the entrance. My original painting was scanned on to a computer and I have used Paint Shop Pro to produce this digital image using a foil effect. |
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Bretby Hall Estate
by Lydia and Carys, age 11
Hi our names are Lydia and Carys. We are pupils from The William Allitt School and we are in the form 7SC. Our school is situated in Newhall, Swadlincote, South Derbyshire. We have based our artwork on Bretby Hall and Sharpe's Pottery. We hope you enjoy looking at our pictures and sharing our research on some real treasures of the South Derbyshire Landscape. |
Bretby Hall, "A little bit of History" in South Derbyshire: Before the invasion of William the Conqueror, Bretby was one of the properties of Earl Aelfgar of Merci'a. In 1300, the Lord of the manor of Bretby, John de Seaugrave had his house converted to a castle. Nothing is known of the castle itself, which passed through a series of Lords of the manor, until in 1585, the manor and castle were sold to Thomas Stanhope for £2,500 and remained in the hands of the Stanhope family until the end of the nineteenth century. The castles seems to have been still habitable when the Stanhopes purchased it and it was probably demolished about 1610, when Bretby park was enlarged and a new mansion was built in the park, using stone from remains of the castle.
In1616 Philip Stanhope was created a Baron Stanhope. He was a Staunch Royalist and support of the king. There was a legend that in 1622, Prince Charles spent a night at Bretby and it was in 1628 that Stanhope was created the first Earl of Chesterfield. We have taken digital photographs of Bretby Hall from various angles to try and show the magnificent parkland in which it stands.
At one time the gardens had elaborate fountains, majestic statues, Labyrinths, groves, greenhouses and a summerhouse built of marble. The whole park covered an area of 600 acres and had a string of 6 lakes. Philip Stanhope spent most of his life at Bretby and enjoyed hunting and riding in the park. He stocked the Bretby lakes with duck and imported German falcons to catch the ducks!! We have tried to capture in our drawings and painting some of the architectural features of the hall, for example: the mostly rectangular windows and the gothic - Tudor plusher and woodwork. The turrets at both ends and the tower in the middle are also interesting features of this old building.
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Bretby Hall - A Ghostly Vision
by Lydia and Carys, age 11
This image was created from our original painting. It was scanned into the computer and we added effects to create a ghostly looking image. |
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A digital image of Bretby Village Green
by Jamie, age 11
This is a digital interpretation taken from my original sketch of a monument on Bretby village green. |
Work by Beverley Minster CE Primary:
A watercolour of Skidby Mill by Carys
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A pencil sketch of Skidby Mill by Jordan |
A pencil sketch of North Bar, Beverley, by Anna |
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A pencil sketch of St Mary's Church, Beverley, by Isabel
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Final Thoughts
William Allitt students say:
We are a Year 7 class at The William Allitt School in South Derbyshire. We have thoroughly enjoyed participating in the "Picture of Britain" project. It has been great to exchange digital photographs and written information with our partner school. Our time has been spent researching some of the historical buildings and cultural heritage of South Derbyshire. We have been involved with the planning of our art work, making initial sketches and gathering information before producing our final studies using paint, pastels, crayon and pen and ink. This project has enabled us to use a variety of media and we have experimented with the software programme Paint Shop Pro.
We think that some of our digital images worked really well and show unusual and interesting abstract effects. It has been a good learning experience because we have had to talk to different people from another area and share different ideas, read up information about the buildings we have studied, look through important archive material and study different types of architecture. We know that the area in which we live is rich in history and culture.
The Picture of Britain Project has made us look with "seeing eyes" and has provided us with lots of new and exciting challenges that we now intend pursuing further as a cross curricular project in our school during the Autumn Term. We hope to produce some poems about our work in our English lessons and possibly construct a model of Sharpe's Pottery as part of a History project. We would like to say a big thank you to our partner school. We think their sketches are really good and hope that they have enjoyed it as much as we have.
Beverley Minster students say:
We are a Year Six class at Beverley Minster Church of England Primary School in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. We have been busy looking at pictures and real-life places in our local area. We have looked at several places including Beverley Westwood, the old Market Cross, Skidby Windmill, North Bar, St. Mary's Church and Beverley Minster. We have done some pencil sketches of these places. We have enjoyed drawing them and we have learnt more about the area in which we live. The project has been good fun!
Teacher says:
This project has really fired my pupils with imagination and enthusiasm because it has given them the opportunity to share their ideas and experiences with another school in another area of the country. They enjoyed sharing their art work and written information. Most of all they were extremely proud of their work and hope to pursue the project further next term.
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