William Newzam Prior Nicholson 4th January

Facades with modern buildings behind

Since being moored in Newark we have walked past the facades of several buildings along the river bank numerous times. One has a plaque “W.N. Nicholson & Sons Ltd (Nicky’s) Agricultural Implement Makers 1858 – 1968”. Nicky’s was a well renowned Iron Works ideally situated on the Trent with good connections to iron and coal districts in Staffordshire, Yorkshire and Derbyshire. With both the Great Northern and Midland Railways on the doorstep there was direct access to ports across the country for their goods. They made such things as Haymaking Machines, Oil-Cake breakers and Winnowing Machines.

A bit of internet hunting brought me to find that W.N. Nicholson’s son, William Newzam Prior Nicholson was quite a famous artist, this was that bit more interesting to me than haymaking equipment!

Famous ‘Animated tea cosy Queen’.

William was sent to Magnus Grammar School as a boarder despite living less than half a mile away when his father became an MP for Newark. He hated his school days until his art teacher, William Cubley, took him under his wing. In 1888 at the age of 16 he moved to Paris to study at the Academie Julian. This was the age of the artistic development of the poster. By the 1890’s Toulouse Lautrec had mastered the use of simple clear outlines and flat areas of colour in his work and was a great influence to Nicholson who developed his own style.
William Heinemann Ltd, the publishers, saw his potential and commissioned their distinctive wood block trademark of a windmill from him.

In partnership with his brother in law they became known as the ’Beggarstaff Brothers’, and their poster work became famous. He broke ground with his experimental techniques and his original woodcut portrait of Queen Victoria was one of the most famous British prints ever made, despite W Heinemann refusing to publish it originally.

In 1898 he was commissioned to do an illustrated alphabet. Being paid £5 for the letter ‘A’ he as able to pay his rent for the next 28 weeks as the rest of the alphabet followed.

After 1900 he concentrated more on painting still lifes and landscapes. He did however win a gold Medal at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam for graphic design. His publisher had submitted his work and on finding this out he had to run to catch the first plane to Amsterdam where he arrived just in time to collect his medal.

Despite only exhibiting in small galleries he became a Trustee of the Tate and was knighted in 1936. A lot of the images are familiar from my childhood, he illustrated The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco plus he was a Theatre Designer, designing the original production of Peter Pan in 1904. It’s amazing what you find out on a miserable wet day.

The Trent getting close to the top by the Castle Barge

Today we have been gaining height here on the Trent. Since midnight last night we have risen an extra foot, the fisherman’s stages on the river have disappeared and another foot and it will be over part of the low bank  by the Castle Barge. Luckily today it hasn’t been raining much and our ascent is gradual. The flood gates have been closed above Town lock, but we are dependant on what the weather does further upstream.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1.33m river level, 1 day home alone for me, 1 trip to Scarborough for Mick, 4/31,1 Xylographer, 4 joints of chicken heading for the stove top with some tarragon.