Wakefield Museums and Castles

Artist, Alan Bracken has painted a vast, dramatic depiction of medieval Pontefract Castle before it was destroyed. The painting is large in scale, measuring over 160cm wide and a metre tall in its gilded frame.

It draws on archaeological evidence but is also the artist’s interpretation, stepping back in time to imagine the imposing castle in its heyday.

Bracken has chosen an unusual vantage point for his scene. The artist seems to look down on the castle from an aerial viewpoint.

The impressive fortress sits on a hill beneath a brooding sky. Bubbling clouds in shades of black and grey are tinged with hints of violet and wisps of pink and orange. Below the tumultuous clouds, the horizon is brighter and clear. A rural landscape undulates gently in the distance, dappled in light and shade.

The castle commands the scene - its stark, cold grey walls contrast with the yellow of the scorched grass surrounding it. Reinforced walls with a uniform line of crenelations rise to rectangular towers. At the centre of the scene, the round Keep towers above the rest of the structure and catches the distant sunlight. Two flags appear to ripple from the highest point of the towers.

In the midground sits the recognisable landmark of All Saints’ Church beside a cluster of small buildings. Dusty paths weave between the smallholdings but all seem to lead towards the castle.

A glistening stream separates the settlement from the dominant figure of St John’s Priory in the bottom right corner of the scene. Lined with trees and crossed by a delicate wooden bridge, the water culminates in an inviting turquoise pond.

Enclosed by angular paths, the Priory comprises a gothic church in grey stone and lead tiles with ornate arched windows. Next to it a series of cloistered courtyards are topped with terracotta tiled roofs, a distinctive conical spire in the centre.

This painting is unusual within the exhibition. It’s a rare interior view showing a detail from inside All Saints’ Church. The piece focuses on a stained glass window.

The artist has used vibrant jewel tones to capture the warm atmosphere inside the church. The view is welcoming and inviting. The church wall glows in rich yellow with a border of dark teal to the left and underneath, and a bar of bright red along the base.

The stained glass window dominates the right-hand side of the painting. It is a tall thin window topped by a gothic arch. The glass in shades of green is criss-crossed by black lines suggesting the leading between panes. They create a border of tall thin rectangular panes, each one with detail in warm yellow, red and blue. In the centre of the design stands a figure wearing deep green and crimson. The pale face with sketchy abstract features is topped by a bright yellow shock of hair.

A diagonal shaft of pale sunlight draws your attention to the glistening gold lectern in the bottom left of the picture. The viewer feels to be standing in front of the open text, spotlit by the beam of light. A shadow falls across the bottom right of the painting, casting the wall in a darker yellowy brown and a deep luxurious red.

New Hall was a grand Elizabethan house on Ferrybridge Road. It was built in 1591 with stone taken from St John’s Priory. During the Civil Wars, the house was damaged by cannon fire. It became uninhabitable and fell into ruins. At the time of painting, New Hall had been empty for 250 years.

In Frederick Lawson’s watercolour, the ruin sits at the centre of a peaceful rural scene. The artist was a prolific painter of the Yorkshire countryside.

Lawson’s loose brush strokes and abstract shapes lend an almost dreamlike quality to the painting. It has a gentle, reflective mood.

The hall with its uneven broken walls is a warm yellow. Brown stippling suggests the rough texture of the stone. The ruin stands open to the elements with no roof, though the sky in this scene is washed with pale yellow sunshine filtering through soft clouds. Pockets of cold blue suggest a clear wintry sky breaking through on the horizon.

In front of the hall, fields in shades of orange and brown represent the land worked by farming. At the edge of the field, a tree stands proudly in the centre. Its gnarled branches can be seen twisting and letting the light trickle through.

A group of cattle are gathered in front of the tree, standing in a pool of shimmering water. Strokes of pale blue and yellow reflect the sky above. In a few simple brush strokes, the artist suggests abstract human figures apparently tending to the livestock. The animals appear undisturbed and in harmony with the people.

New Hall was eventually demolished in the 1960s. Its rubble was used to build the A1. The quiet contentment of Lawson’s painting contrasts sharply with the hubbub of modern motorway traffic.

The church of All Saints is one of Pontefract’s most memorable views. The contemporary church nestles within older ruins, evidence of past violence and destruction in the Civil Wars.

This pair of paintings by H.E. Hebdon captures the iconic local landmark in contrasting scenes: one in summer sunshine and the other by wintry moonlight.

In the daytime scene, the church’s distinctive octagonal tower reaches up into a summer sky. Bubbles of bright white cloud gather around the surrounding ruin. Through the empty arches of former windows are glimpses of vibrant blue.

The church clock shows the time is approaching midday. The sun must be high in the sky, and the stones of the ruin are glowing orange. Through the lower arches, glimpses of greenery peep through, where trees and plants have taken root in the abandoned structure. Pockets of ivy are growing out of the stonework above.

Beside the structure, trees are in full leaf. Neatly manicured flowerbeds bloom amid the lush green lawn. Uniform rows of red, white and blue petals contrast with the more unruly yellow weeds sprouting in the corners of the ruin.

The churchyard is dotted with proud headstones in shades of warm pink, orange and grey.

By contrast, in the second painting, the view appears stark and grey. Now in darkness and shadow beneath a pale cool moonlight of a winter evening. High in the darkening sky between large stretches of cloud, a full moon presides over the scene.

The church is surrounded now by bare trees - spindly branches reaching out and appearing to crack the cloudy backdrop. The scene is enclosed by low walls and uniform black metal railings.

Amid the grey, glows a pool of golden light emanating from arched and leaded windows of the living church. It suggests a warmth and welcome within in contrast to the cold outside.

This painting shows archaeologists excavating at Pontefract Castle. The archaeologists are also training young people. Unlike Alan Bracken’s dramatic representation of the medieval fortress, here the artist depicts the castle’s contemporary ruin. But far from being abandoned, the site feels alive with activity and a new lease of life.

The painting has a bold, contemporary feel. Large blocks of bright, saturated colours give it an almost graphic style.

Shades of pale yellow, pink and blue in the sky and horizon denote a watery winter sunlight. Elsewhere in the scene, there are signs of spring. Flashes of lime green on otherwise bare trees suggest leaves coming into bud. The lush grass of the castle keep is a vivid green and there are pockets of yellow daffodils poking through beneath the drooping branches of a tree.

In the foreground, a flimsy looking wire and wooden fence frames the scene, undulating across the bottom edge of the painting. Behind it, the higgledy, rugged stonework of the castle glows orange and red, catching the light of the sun.

To the left of the foreground, archaeologists and students are working in the remains of the bakehouse. They are bent over and seem to be studying something closely, apparently engrossed in their work. The royal blue of their overalls stands out against the grey and brown of the distinctive horseshoe-shaped stone ovens. Irregular shapes denote the texture of the ruins where the stonework has eroded and worn haphazardly.

Behind, more blue figures are hard at work, studying stonework or carefully raking the ground. In the brewhouse, long thin wooden planks mark out the archaeologists’ trenches.

More fencing wends its way across the grass behind the dig site. Stretching diagonally from the left-hand side of the scene to the base of the castle keep on the right, it divides the foreground from the background of the painting. In the distance, steps climb to the top of the keep, where you can imagine the panoramic view spreading out below.

Pontefract has celebrated its liquorice heritage annually since 1995. Every summer, people flock to the town to enjoy music, market stalls, fairground rides, and a fantastic liquorice parade.

S. M. Alderton’s watercolour captures the atmosphere of the festival in the millennium year. Although the scene is painted with soft brushstrokes, the loose shapes suggest movement and the colours are vibrant. The painting thrums with the buzz of the fair.

It is an action-packed scene. A multicultural crowd of people are milling about in the foreground. With the viewer placed in the centre of the festivities, it feels as though you are joining the throng of revellers heading to the fair with a sense of excited anticipation.

The fair-goers are dressed in summer colours. Many people are wearing shorts and shirt sleeves. The sky above them is blue and dappled with white clouds. Sunlight casts gentle shadows on the pale grey pavement.

Brightly coloured bunting criss-crosses the scene above the people’s heads. Triangular flags in blue, green, red and yellow appear to flutter as though caught in a warm summer breeze.

A helter skelter reaches above the scene on the left. Its red and yellow slide spirals around a tall white trellised structure. Next to it, a bouncy castle looks to be swaying precariously. The fairytale structure with a brick effect and glowing yellow window frames is topped by a cluster of lurching pointed turrets.

In amongst the crowd are hidden little details. To the left-hand side of the scene, a boy clutches a prized yellow balloon. In front of the helter skelter, another young child gazes up in wonder at the towering figure of a stilt walker. And in the bottom right, an intrepid toddler is weaving through the legs of the crowd.

You can almost hear the laughter and the shrieks of childlike joy and exhilaration. You might even smell the sugar and perhaps taste the sweetness in the air.

From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, there was a mural on the museum gable wall. This is a working sketch for the mural by the artist.  

The design is created from a collage of exploded cut out segments in irregular shapes. The segments are painted with scenes of Pontefract’s industrial and architectural heritage. They are arranged to create a long thin panoramic design.

The scenes are painted mostly in pale pastels with pockets of bold detail in deeper, warmer colours. They are mounted against a rich burgundy background, mimicking the red brick of the museum wall.

From right to left, the painted vignettes are arranged in a loose chronological order.

On the far right, a standalone segment depicts Pontefract Castle in its heyday. The pale castle landscape shows the fortress in soft yellow against the pale blue sky and pastel green grass. In the foreground, a soldier is minting coins. The scene is bordered at the bottom by Civil Wars siege coins in close up. They are a warm gold and shown in a variety of shapes, from octagonal to diamond.

In the centre of the mural, the largest piece of the collage features key Pontefract landmarks. To the right-hand side, a workman stands atop simple wooden scaffolding seeming to build a Gothic stone arch. The distinctive octagonal tower of All Saints’ church is clearly recognisable behind the arch. A gold bell is suspended beneath the arch and in the foreground a worker is a shaping a larger unpolished bell in a deep reddish brown – perhaps he is honing the town’s market bell?

On the left-hand side, two coal miners are securing wooden props underground. They are working shirtless in the heat and dust of the mine, their yellow trousers contrasting with the dark conditions. Above ground, the shadowy outline of the spoil heap and headgear are shown in the distance. The heap seems to tumble diagonally downhill. As it nears the bottom, the spoil transforms into the recognisable black and white stripes of Pontefract’s other key export: the Liquorice Allsort.

Waiting at the bottom are two liquorice thumpers. Wearing crisp white overalls and cloth caps, the women are stamping a pile of iconic Pontefract cakes. Larger close ups of the sticky black discs frame the scene, and the sweets mirror the siege coins on the opposite side of the composition.

Finally, on the far left and offset slightly to suggest distance, stand the cooling towers of Ferrybridge power station in a pale pastel wash, a reminder of a once imposing presence on the horizon.