)
Artist of mainly pastoral landscapes and riverscapes. His brother
was a civil engineer in charge of the building of the Manchester Ship Canal.
This work was originally painted for the chairman of the Ship Canal, Lord
Egerton. A companion work can be seen in Tatton Hall in Cheshire.
This painting was conserved in 2001 with the aid of a grant from North West
Museums Service.
Vast projects, designed to help us industrialise, transformed our built and
natural landscape. Canals and railways became the main arteries for moving
goods. These were gradually replaced by roads and motorways with the invention
of the car and lorries. We now look at canals and railways romantically, and
spend a lot of money restoring them. There is growing opposition to the building
of new motorways and roads. Trams will soon be returning to the streets of
Oldham after an absence of fifty years.