Although I know the larger works in the collection I am constantly surprised and delighted by the attention to detail in the printed matter, especially the skill of Eric Ravilious’ wood engravings. How has the museum developed during your tenure?

Tragically, both Ravilious and Garwood died young – he was 39 when, in the midst of his work as an official war artist, he was reported missing and presumed dead in Iceland in 1942; Garwood died of cancer nine years later at the age of 43 – but as both Ravilious and Co. and Long Live Great Bardfield show, they’d achieved much in their singular lives and, along with their contemporaries, are highly deserving of this belated attention.Nowadays Great Bardfield is a thriving and popular village surrounded by glorious countryside much loved by walkers. It won the Calor Best Village in Essex award in 2009 and was a runner up in the national Village of the Year competition. The village boasts two pubs, a butcher, an electrical shop, the Co-op stores, two gift shops, a hairdresser, an estate agent and a primary school, not counting a huge variety of clubs and societies which offer something for everyone. The village recreation area is the home turf of the Mud Dogs football club, and funding is being sought for a purpose-built sports pavilion. The popular Blue Egg café and farm shop on the edge of the village provides Post Office facilities. Nearby in the Bardfield Centre, the beautifully restored late 13th century High Barn is a renowned recording studio and live music venue, where X Factor winner, Matt Cardle, regularly performed. The History of England " Architecture + Painting " THE GREAT BARDFIELD EXHIBITION". England-history.org . Retrieved 8 February 2014. The artist and ceramicist Grayson Perry RA spent some of his teenage years in Great Bardfield, where he delivered the newspapers and formed a supportive relationship with Guardian-reading Bardfield family which was instrumental in helping him to find his own successful career path. While the artists never constituted a school or movement as such, is there a common theme or a thread that connects the work you have on display in College? Long Live Great Bardfield & Love to You All: The Autobiography of Tirzah Garwood 1908–43. Simon Lawrence-Fleece Press. ISBN 978-0948375958. For many years Eric Ravilious was best known for his design work (commissioned by Wedgwood and London Transport), book illustrations, wood-engravings, and lithographs. Two years ago, an exhibition of his watercolour paintings at the Dulwich Picture Gallery revealed another side to his talents. Now, with the show ‘Ravilious and Co.: The Pattern of Friendship’ at the Towner Art Gallery (until 17 September), curator Andy Friend encourages us to see him firmly at the centre of a network of artists that included Peggy Angus, Edward Bawden, Helen Binyon, Barnett Freedman, Tirzah Garwood, Percy Horton, and Enid Marx. The book Friend has written to accompany the exhibition, beautifully produced by Thames & Hudson and including 239 illustrations, is the first comprehensive group biography of those loosely referred to as the ‘Great Bardfield Artists’ – after the Essex Village where many of them lived from the 1930s onwards.

The post-war period saw local villagers moving into modern council housing, freeing up more traditional properties, which in turn attracted a further wave of artists to the area. While offering relative peace and quiet, and affordable lifestyles, Bardfield was reasonably accessible to London or Cambridge, via a combination of bus and train, so that the artists could hold teaching posts at various schools of art, while also being available for commercial commissions. Is the village still a place of inspiration for artists today? Reactions to the exhibition have been extremely positive. Some visitors are familiar with the works in their Fry Art Gallery setting, but have been very pleased to see them in College. I was myself delighted to see how fresh the works appear when hung and displayed in the Combination Room and the Gallery alongside hall. They seem to give us all a welcome lift after the times we have been going through in the past two years. Remarks in the visitors’ book have commented on the breadth of the work of these artists, the range of the selection, and the downbeat English humour of some of the artworks. Arthur Lindsay Sadler, Professor of Oriental Studies (1922–48) at the University of Sydney, spent his retirement in the village

From the early 1930s until the end of the twentieth century, a significant number of professional artists were drawn to the small north west Essex village of Great Bardfield and its surroundings. Working across various media, they made a substantial contribution to twentieth-century visual culture in Britain. Morley College Art Collection". Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014 . Retrieved 9 February 2014. His work can be seen in many major collections and is shown regularly at the Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden and at the Higgins. [19] [20] [21] His notable surviving public works include a tile depicting a foot ferry on the River Lea, commissioned by London Underground and located on the Victoria line platform at Tottenham Hale tube station. Bawden also produced the cameo-like silhouette of Queen Victoria located at Victoria tube station. [22] An early map, produced in 1931 for Scarborough's Pavilion Hotel and presented to Scarborough Library when the hotel was sold, was recently restored and rehung in the library. [23] [24]

a b c d e f James Russell, ‘Garwood , Eileen Lucy [Tirzah] (1908–1951)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2016 accessed 12 Oct 2016Finally, the small but perfectly formed Great Bardfield Cottage Museum, on the Dunmow Road, is open at weekends from Easter to the end of September and there you can learn even more about the history of the village. Bawden's legacy 'the place to see' his work". BBC News. 16 February 2020 . Retrieved 16 February 2020.

Decorative paper | Garwood, Tirzah | V&A Search the Collections". collections.vam.ac.uk . Retrieved 9 May 2018. The artists never constituted a ‘school’ or movement, and they had diverse styles and interests. However, they have inevitably become known as the ‘Bardfield Artists’. Many of them were skilled printmakers, producing both limited edition art prints and inexpensive lithographs for wider circulation, often pioneering new methods. Most of them needed to earn their living, and as well as teaching they undertook a wide range of commercial work. Appeal on Bawden Map". High Tide. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014 . Retrieved 9 February 2014.One of the most important historical personages connected with Great Bardfield is William Bendlowes, Sergeant-at-Law to Elizabeth I. A man of great piety, Bendlowes endowed the village with a school, almshouses and made annual bequests to the poor. A Catholic, he surprisingly managed to sustain his faith under Elizabeth. He lived at Place House, a Grade II* building, and it is believed he worshipped in a chapel close to the house.