Anne of Cleves House

Anne of Cleves House, shown in the engraving, is an ancient building in the county town of Lewes. It was part of the divorce settlement between Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves.

The view was inspired by watching the rooks and jackdaws of my village. I am fascinated by these parallel communities mirroring our own and a view from my workshop shows the backs of a line of cottages. Each cottage has it's human occupants and also its jackdaw dwellers nesting in the chimney pots. And it is wonderful to see how their lives do mirror our own. They gather and go to work in the morning, playing and arguing in the evening sun. They pair off, raise families, age and die, just like their human neighbours.

The village Rookery is centred within some tall trees around an old Big House, now a care home. Rooks stay put and don't often move, therefore the same rooks I look up at every morning on my way into work. They no doubt look down on me. Are the ancestors of those rooks those who would have looked down on my Nanny as she made her way to work, as she did as a young girl, at the 'Big House' nearly 100 years ago?

This print was selected to be part of the "Society of Wood Engravers" Annual Exhibition 2014. And also featured in the Society's Quartely magazine, 'Multiples' August 2014

The box wood block is printed on Zerkall paper in an edition of 100.

As with all my prints, for safety they are sent through the post mounted but unframed