Artists of Great Bardfield

In his depictions of the people of Great Bardfield in Noel Carrington’s 1949 book, Life in an English Village, Edward Bawden captured a particular moment in time, ‘a moment, following a world war, when rural life was poised in a liminal space, on the threshold of a brave new world.’

The story told here draws on the voices and memories of Great Bardfield residents to enrich our understanding of what it was like to live in that moment in time, placing their narrative in the context of what came before and what followed, from the coming of two young artists to the village in the 1930s to the extraordinary outpouring of creativity seen during the Open House exhibitions of the 1950s.

Written by the Chair of the Great Bardfield Historical Society, this small format book provides an introduction to the group of artists who gathered in the Essex village of Great Bardfield from the 1930s onwards.