Nicholas Radburn— "If you think about locations transformed by the transatlantic slave trade, you’ll likely recall American plantations or former slaving forts on the coast of West Africa. You are less likely to think of the English countryside. Nowhere is this truer than Lakeland, a rural area of northwest England that has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its cultural importance and natural beauty, which is seemingly unmarred by industry and commerce. [...] Lakeland thus captures the appealing essence of rural England: comforting, unchanging, and insulated from the outside world.

Despite its carefully cultivated appearance of timeless pastoralism, Lakeland was nonetheless intimately connected to the Atlantic World through the manufacturing of gunpowder for the slave trade. "

@histodons #histodons #SlaveEconomy #RuralEngland #HistoryOfTrade

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2023/07/24/the-lake-district-and-atlantic-slavery/

This is probably my favourite oil painting of all of my works. The farmhouse can be seen near Whitby Abbey and it's a walk I do often. It was a moody, but dry winter's afternoon. The starlings were going about their business. I managed a few photographs, enough to paint from along with my memories of something I know well and get peace from.
#whitby #ruralengland #northeast #northyorkshire #starlings