When I got up in the morning and looked out of the window I noticed that the weather had changed to rain.  After breakfast, equipped with raincoat and umbrella, I left the hotel and set off towards Grey Street to see the monument.  Luckily on this occasion the scaffolding had gone so I  could enjoy the view properly.  I didn’t take any photos though because it was raining too much.

When I turned the corner into Central Arcade I realised the scaffolding hadn’t gone, it had just moved around the corner!  After visiting the arcade Mr C and I made our way back towards the Castle Keep via the Vampire Rabbit and Amen Corner. The Castle Keep was very interesting and there were some spectacular views from the rooftop.  However during the walk to the keep, I had somehow managed to get one of my trouser legs soaked. This meant that after the tour of the keep I had to go back to the hotel to change before having lunch in the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas.  The Cathedral’s tea shop does very nice cherry scones and the young man who served me tried very hard to tempt me into having two.  I managed to resist the temptation!!

After lunch Mr C and I went back to the hotel where we had arranged to meet JD in its newly refurbished reception area .  He came bearing ‘mini’ gifts (thank you JD ).  We again set out into the rain to the Side Gallery which was displaying old photographs of Newcastle.  They rather reminded me of Frank Meadow Sutcliffe’s work.

Afterwards, we walked to the Laing Art Gallery which contains some interesting art.  JD got talking to the curator and asked her about two pieces of art that used to be on display in the gallery but she couldn’t immediately recall them.  She must have been intrigued because, even though she was busy with a large group, she later caught up with us whilst we were enjoying a cup of tea and produced a catalogue of all of the artwork that is in the possession of Tyne & Wear’s galleries. JD found the two paintings listed in the catalogue, which delighted the curator. She mentioned that by prior arrangement they could be brought out of storage and viewed.

When we left the gallery, Mr C  and I parted ways with JD after which I got a bit carried away in Waterstones, ending up with three books and some ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ mini-bookmarks!!

In the evening we dined in a nice Italian restaurant after which we returned to the hotel lounge for a nightcap before retiring for the evening.

One of his most famous works Water Rats was controversial and led to him being excommunicated by the local clergy.

Water Rats caused a little comment at the time as it featured naked children, but the image is not erotic. Sutcliffe was using the conventions of the academic nude to show how photography can approach art. He was, however, excommunicated by his local clergy for displaying it, as they thought it would ‘corrupt’ the opposite sex.

Copies of his work can be purchased from the Sutcliffe Gallery in Whitby which cites the following about his work:

All the sepia photographs you see on this website were taken in and around Whitby by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (Hon. F.R.P.S.) between 1875 and 1910. His large camera was made of mahogany with brass fittings and took ‘whole plate’ glass negatives (6.5″x8.5″).
Photography in Victorian times was not an easy craft to master and people were often content to produce an acceptable image which was sharp and well exposed – but there were a handful of photographers who wanted to lift their pictures into the heady realms of ‘Art’.
Frank Meadow Sutcliffe was one of these artists! He became World famous as one of the greatest exponents of pictorial photography, winning over 60 gold, silver and bronze medals from exhibitions in Tokyo, Vienna, France and the U.S.A. as well as Great Britain.
He was made an honorary member of The Royal Photographic Society in 1935, the highest award attainable.

I am very fond of his work, probably because one of my ancestoral lines lived in the Whitby area.  The photographs give me the chance to see where my ancestors lived and worked bringing their world alive for me.  I have four Sutcliffe  photographs on my wall at home: