Red Hall artists

TWO PAINTINGS sold at auction in Stamford recently and broadcast on the BBC 2 TV programme Flog It have brought a reminder of the artistic connection with the Red Hall, one of the oldest secular buildings in Bourne.

The two pastoral paintings on offer were the work of the English artist Alfred Augustus Glendening Senior (1840-1910), both oil on canvas, signed and dated 1899 and showing river scenes, one with geese, a hay wagon and haymakers and the other with cows and church with steeple in the distance, in gilt frames and measuring approximately 50 cm by 29 cm. They were owned by two sisters who said that they had been in the family for some years and during the sale they fetched £6,100.

It is not known where they were painted but the possibility that the location might have been this area cannot be ruled out because the artist was the younger brother of a man who was stationmaster at Bourne for 14 years.

Thomas Montague Glendening (1838-1899) was the oldest of three sons born to James and Sarah Glendening at Hampton-on-Thames, near London, and after school went to work on the railways, winning gradual promotion and eventually becoming stationmaster at Bourne in 1878. At this time, the Red Hall was used as the railway booking office with accommodation for the stationmaster and his family and so he lived during this period at one of the grandest houses in the town where he was highly regarded.

Alfred chose to paint and by this time he had already achieved a reputation of some note and had exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865 when there is evidence that this artistic bent was manifest in many other members of the family, including Thomas himself who was also an amateur painter although one of his own sons also achieved some prominence.

Thomas had married twice and between them, his two wives appear to have presented him with four girls and nine boys, the sixth of them being Arthur Channing Glendening who was born in 1869. He lived with his parents in Bourne during the late 19th century, painting many local scenes and as a boy, he was both studious and talented and in February 1894, he won a prize of five guineas in a best handwriting competition run by a London newspaper, the Weekly Telegraph. He went to study at Cambridge University where he distinguished himself with illustrations that appeared in a number of literary publications.

But unlike his illustrious uncle, the only recorded example of his work is a painting of the Red Hall which was subsequently purchased by Robert Mason Mills, founder of the aerated water business and an enthusiastic art connoisseur and collector, and on his death in 1904 it fetched the highest price of 10 guineas at a two-day auction of his effects at the Corn Exchange, one of 140 oil paintings and engravings from his house in West Street. The whereabouts of this painting is now unknown and no other works by the young Arthur Glendening appear to have survived.

However, a copy of the painting does exist, an engraving made in 1891, probably by Glendening himself because he did have a reputation as a lithographic artist, to accompany a memorial or petition drawn up and signed by 76 leading businessmen, traders and residents, in an attempt to save the Red Hall which was then under threat of demolition to make way for extensions to the railway system.

The engraving was accompanied by a particularly evocative description of the Red Hall saying: "The red brick Elizabethan mansion has a gabled roof and stone mullioned windows, standing in park like grounds and forms one of the many interesting historical features of Bourne. The walls are thick and strong and the roof weather tight. It has formed the subject of academy pictures and is still admired, measured and sketched by students, the fine oak staircase inside and the venerable yew tree 300 years old being objects of peculiar interest. It has attracted the attention of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings who write with us in asking you to allow it to remain untouched that it may serve a useful purpose to your company and still exercise its quiet influence as an antidote to the restless spirit of its surroundings. We can ill afford to lose such picturesque and historical relics of the past and your memorialists therefore pray that it may still be presented to them."

The illustrated petition was successful because the Great Northern and Midland Railway Company which then owned the Red Hall relented and so the building was reprieved and continued in use as the station booking office until phased out in 1959.

Thomas Glendening left Bourne in May 1892 for a similar post at Muswell Hill and later Alexandra Palace in London, and his departure was marked with the presentation of a purse containing subscriptions from the nobility and leading inhabitants in appreciation of his work as station master, together with a handsome hall clock surmounted with a barometer and thermometer from station employees.

The presentations were made by the vicar, the Rev Hugh Mansfield, who referred to the efficient manner in which Mr Glendening has discharged his duties and said that it was a noteworthy fact that during his entire service at Bourne, there had been no collision or accident. Soon after retiring, he died at his home in Muswell Hill on 16th February 1899 at the age of 63. His work as amateur but talented artist was also acknowledged when critics of his work suggested that he might have won fame in that quarter had he pursued painting as a career.

The young Arthur, who had gone back to live with his parents after completing his studies at Cambridge, died in 1904. He was unmarried. His mother, Mrs Emma Sarah Glendening, died on 14th December 1923 at Porlock Road, Bush Hill Park, North London, at the age of 86.

Paintings by members of the Glendening family must still survive in homes around Bourne and in the London area, their owners probably unaware of their provenance while descendants continue to search for more information to add to their family tree.