SAY NO TO THE NORTHERN RELIEF ROAD
GOING
THROUGH THE WENSUM VALLEY AT RINGLAND !!!
O S T E S S E Y
People
and Events through the Centuries
1878-1959
Sir
Alfred
Munnings K.C.V.O Artist,
Past President of
the
Royal Academy
(2)
Munnings
and Jimmy Drake the gypsy horse dealer of Costessey.
James Drake a
Norfolk
horse-dealer
lived the gypsy life as a young man but later in life settled in an old
cottage in the West End at Costessey. The author of this page
remembers
him well in the 1930's and 40's. He drove a pony cart with a high
stepping Norfolk Trotting pony between the shafts. He visited the
Cattle
Market on Norwich hill most Saturdays and his faithful pony would bring
him safely home in spite of its master imbibing liberally in the Fox
and
Goose in Ber street. His wife, who always wore the typical gypsy garb,
was kindly to us village boys, she grazed her goats and ponies on
the common were we played called the "Cricket Field ". His son
Walter
Drake lived as a gypsy, having married into the Price family. He
often parked his vans and family on a meadow opposite my home in West
End,
Costessey. He is one of the persons who accompanied my father on
a poaching expedition.
Munnings introduces Jimmy Drake thus :-
" At this time a white pony came into my life. I bought him one
Saturday
in Norwich from Drake, an old acquaintance, a dealer in horses, who was
always about near the Bell Hotel on Saturdays. I see him now; his
pale- blue, watery eyes, his scrubby moustache, his horsey clothes
trimmed
with velvet, a black silk scarf round his neck, a gold ring on his
finger.
He carried a long brass-bound whip. The grin on his face showed
he
possessed a kind soul. "Look, Mr Munnin's " said he,
"
'e 'on't 'ev nothin' to dew wi' a cart or 'arness but what a
beautiful
pony for a picture ! " And so the pony came to Swainsthorpe. "
Click to
see larger
image
of the pony Augereau.
And
again later he accompanied Drake to his camping place at Alby :-
"One
Saturday in September,....,I saw Drake in the sale yard near the Bell
Hotel
at Norwich. He was with the usual throng of horse- dealers and
trotting
fraternity of the Fox and Goose, Ber Street.
"Mr Munnin's, " said he, staring with his queer blue eyes "me and the
missus
and kids with the caravan and hosses are up near Alby. There's a common
with geese , ducks,cows, ponies, and I don't know what else, for ye to
paint ; and you'll see all sorts of blokes at the Horseshoes. Why don't
ye come for a week ? "
In
planning his painting trip to Ringland Hills and Costessey, Drake
was the obvious man to supply the horses and equipment for Munnings to
camp out for a few months on Ringland Hills.
<> "In
1910, I think it was, Varnishing day being over, the usual vexations
that
followed roused me to action. On
my
return I
planned another, longer and more serious painting expedition to Ringland.
The gorse was in bloom; to hesitate was foolish. ................
Already I had arranged matters with Drake who often stayed with his
family
and caravan near the Bush
Inn in Costessey, an establishment of lesser fame - a haunt of
harpiesof
the lower world, connected with the trotting fraternity of Norwich.
(My grandfather George Barley had
his pewter pot hanging in the Bush at
this time....T.G.B.) Dependent
on Drake,to supply ponies, horses or figures, I was full of
resolutions,
boiling over, impatient to be straight away at Costessey and Ringland
Hills,
making pictures out-of-doors, in the right environment, with the models
I needed.
Here
was a lucky start, full of possibilities - the landlord, the
place,
the river, the the hills, the gorse beginning to bloom; horses, ponies
and above all Shrimp,
that utterly uneducated, wild, ageless youth who slept under
Drake's
caravan...........He
was a good bare-back rider and as sly as a fox.
I found Drake in his usual haunts near the Bell Hotel. Then
for
twenty
pounds I bought a beautiful old white Welsh mare,.........I bought her
as a model. My next deal was a little dark-brown Dartmoor mare,
fat
and round with flowing tail and tail for five pounds
.....................No
man alive could harness her to a cart. If placed between the
shafts
she would certainly kick the cart to pieces.............
Then
I bought a bay yearling colt and a small dun coloured
horse...............A
blue caravan was shown to me
-
a real, proper boaty, curved van with the stove- pipe sticking out of
its
roof on its right side. The figure was reasonable and I agreed to
buy it.
.......I next bought a long, shallow cart, of the kind so often seen
with
a gypsy family, with brass- bound harness and all complete for, for
fifty
shillings. The same evening at the Fox and Goose in Ber Street
..........I
again contacted Drake, who had found Shrimp, and after considerable
beer-drinking
and arranging for the moving of the caravan, horses and ponies to
Swainsthorpe,
I bought another pony and a donkey: a poor humble donkey, impervious to
all our talk - so patient.
.......Not so many days after, at about four o'clock on a perfect May
morning
the van was loaded..........Colours, white, turps, oil, copal,
canvases,rags
etc. ..............and, most important, brushes in piles....
At length all was ready to set out to Ringland Hills. The white
Welsh
mare was in the shafts of the caravan, the white pony Augereau, on a
whipple
tree at her side. Shrimp with a yellow handkerchief around his
neck
was in charge of these.
Two
ponies tied to the caravan; the rest with the donkey following loose,
stood
ready behind and at the rear was Bob, my new man, seated in what was
called
the long cart packed with more belongings..........
There was a
thrill
of adventure about the whole thing, and soon, with rumbling of caravan,
sounds of wheels, hooves and voices, they ........had started on their
fifteen- or sixteen-miles journey to Ringland via Costessey, where they
were to call and leave my personal luggage with the landlord Mr Lyons,
at the Falcon
Inn.
I
had given Bob strongly expressed instructions not to let Shrimp drink
anything
on the road." (Munnings had written in chalk on the
vehicles
"Jasper Petulengro , Swainsthorpe, Norfolk" and went home to breakfast)
" About ten o'clock......... I rode off without a care. This state of
bliss
lasted until I reached the Falcon. Ot came Mr. Lyons, red in the
face, wearing a bowler hat and a serious look of deepest concern.
My happiness died out. What had happened was this :
"Your men and ponies and van arrived about mid-day, sir. Both men
were drunk. " "
To
find out what happened to Munning's next ,see :-
(3) Painting on Ringland Hills and in Costessey in 1910.
.
Return
to.......... Tom Barley's "COSTESSEY" Page.
Part
Two. Costessey from 1555 to present day
Latest
Revision 27 August 2008
