Thatched cottages
David Shepherd
An oil painting on canvas by David Shepherd dated 1955
Image Size 16" x 20" (39.5 x 49.5cm.)
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David Shepherd was 24 years old when he painted this work. The painting illustrates a tremendous attention to detail, light, and shadow.
It portrays a time and way of living much slower, and where the quality of life was based more on actions than material wealth of our modern society where speed and technology are of importance.
The village 'Wherwell' Hampshire in the south of England still exists, and remains quite unchanged.
Wherwell is a village on the River Test in Hampshire, England.
The name may derive from its bubbling springs resulting in the Middle Ages place name 'Hwerwyl' noted in AD 955, possibly meaning 'kettle springs' or 'cauldron springs.'
Pronunciation of the name has ranged from 'Hurrell' to 'Wer-rel' to present-day 'Wher-well.'
Before the Dissolution, the parish of Wherwell was in the hands of an important abbey of Benedictine nuns, whose abbess was Lady of the Manor of an area much larger than the existing parish.
The town is associated with the Cockatrice.
The story is that the cockatrice terrorised the village until it was imprisoned in the dungeons below Wherwell Priory.
A prize of land was offered to anyone who could kill the creature.
None were successful, until a man named Green lowered a mirror into the dungeon.
The cockatrice battled against its own reflection until exhausted, at which point Green was able to kill it.
Today there is an area of land near Wherwell called Green's Acres.
For many years a weather vane in the shape of a cockatrice adorned the church of St. Peter and Holy Cross in Wherwell until it was removed to Andover Museum.
Sir William Russell Flint.
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