Novel: The Art Corps Regroups.
Characters from The Art Corps return in ten further episodes.
​
Chapter Two
​
IWeet Hall is a pleasant district in the west of Cliffefield. Through it runs Weet Hall Rd which, as it forges out beyond the skirts of suburbia, becomes Heatherholme Rd and begins a steady climb up the foothills of the Pennines towards to the villages of the Peak District,
Heatherholme, predictably, being the first one along the route.
When, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the fashionable district of Beech Hill ran out of space for thecity’s more prosperous residents, large detached houses were built in Weet Hall in a grid of broad, tree lined streets radiating out from All Saints Church, formerly at the centre of a largely rural parish and, with the influx of wealth and patronage into the neighbourhood, enjoying some architectural enlargement of its own along with the extension of its burial ground into the only piece of former farmland to survive redevelopment.
A memorial mason established a business adjacent to the church and above his yard and workshop loomed a large walled garden with a driveway winding through its undulations up to a handsome sandstone house named ‘Eccleswood’ by its first owners, Mr and Mrs Alexander Gilpin.
​
The Gilpins had acquired the property following the destruction by fire of the former family home ‘Beechwood’ in the aforementioned suburb of Beech Hill. The new Gilpin residence had been erected in 1888 on what was once Eccles’ Farm – hence the prefix, the suffix a nod to the former residence where Sir James Gilpin had spent the last years of his distinguished public life.
Lady Gilpin had been very happy in Beech Hill and it had grieved her to have to move. But her son had been insistent on a ‘clean start’ for his mother, himself and his new wife, Alice.
​
Lady Gilpin outlived her husband by fifteen years and was delighted to welcome four children into the world, all girls (she would have been happier with one boy at least, but never mind) while her son progressed from councillor to Lord Mayor and was in office in 1888 when Cliffefield finally had the status of ‘city’ conferred upon it and earned a visit from the Queen as an added bonus.
Alexander had escorted his Sovereign to the Jubilee Gardens, the town hall and finally to the recently opened Gilpin Gallery where she unveiled a portrait of Alexander and Alice’s beautiful children painted by Charles Singer. The Gilpin Sisters became a favourite in the city’s collection and was destined to be loaned to many institutions across the world in the century following its inclusion in the city’s art collection.
​
Business had been good for Alexander Gilpin. The brewery had thrived and he had acquired more breweries in the city and nearby towns as well as many pubs and hotels. He had also, much to his satisfaction, been able to buy out Mulholland’s manufacturing business
after the son had taken it on when his father became ill.
Archie had made an utter hash of running it, having to unload most of the assets including his prized racehorse ‘Sundial’ which was acquired by the Earl of Altonbury who raced it successfully for five years before putting it out to stud on his estate where it sired several more winners and became something of a local legend.
​
To read more, download the whole of Chapter Two for free.
​
The Art Corp Regroups (Chapter Two)
by Martin JP Green