Before Corfe Castle – A Mupet Show!…
I got off the bus at Corfe Castle – it was a bit difficult to see where I had to get off for where I was headed – the Corfe Castle Camping and Caravanning Club site, on a road out of Corfe, about a mile or so. I took my pack up the busy-ish tiny road in the heat, and saw an entry to path and wondered if it went to the campsite…I didn’t risk it and stayed on the fairly busy road. I eventually found the signed turn off via a track and got to the camp site, totally knackered and half expecting to be told to bog off, we’re full….
But actually I was met by a lovely woman who said the magic words ‘we always have space for backpackers’. After being treat like a pariah in places like Durdle Door,Holiday Park this was magic to hear. The ethos of the campsite – and I guess the club is to always keep to it’s roots and be pro-walker and pro-backpacker and not let the massive motorhomes and caravans edge the campers out. I am really tempted to become a member because of this – sadly it was the only Camping and Caravanning Club site in the area.
Although I’ve just read on their site they are reverting back to being private which is a shame – that means there will be no club sites in the area?
I instantly fell in love with the place, and the man and woman who ran the place were brilliant. They were also serious about COVID-19 and deep-cleaned the toilets and showerblock every morning, and insisted on masks and didn’t have any truck with this anti-mask nonsense. They supported me when the caravan next to me was grumbling to them about access for their gigantic 4×4, when actually I agreed the spot with them, and tried to give enough space to the motorhome and caravan on either side.
Compared to some of the places where I felt the facilities were a little unclean and maybe risky, this place I felt safe. Very much the opposite of the campsite in Nuts in May! Highly recommended.
So I pitched my tent next to a motorhome and next to a small tree, and went walking to Corfe Castle. There’s a path at the back of the site that connects to the footpath to Cocknowle and Knowle Hill on one direction and West Hill and Corfe Castle on the other. This would have been a far better way to arrive, if I’d known about it!
The view of Corfe Castle and the stone NT sign was so beautiful I stopped in my tracks on the track and drew it there and then. I kind of got into the habit at this point of drawing rather than taking photos, there aren’t as many of towards end of the trip as there are at the beginning! I got less snap-happy and more down to business. And my business here was that castle…
You see what actually provoked this specific trip was someone posting a photo of Corfe Castle on the Grayson Perry Art Club Facebook page – like this it was along a track, with the castle in the distance. When I saw that I just wanted to visit again but this time draw and paint the castle. I then remembered my walk from Studland to Swanage and Durlston Castle – and wanting to continue that walk but having to turn back. So the two joined forces. And now I was here at the genesis of this trip.
I did take a few photos though – this is as I walked closer and past the castle to the National Trust tea room – I wanted some food! I was hungry after my bus ride and tent erection (get your mind out of the gutter!).
But as it turns out, you cannot get hot food anywhere in Corfe Castle between the times of 2-3pm and 6pm. All places stop food like clockwork and then restart in the evening; the only supposed ‘All Day Food’ place was the The Greyhound Inn and they were ignoring anyone who walked in and hiding at the far end of the bar, despite the place being almost empty inside. So I had to settle for the National Trust tea room which had some gluten free scones.
This was fortuitous as I realised what a great view it was, so waiting for my scone I started drawing a watercolour…you can see the results below and the featured image on this post. I actually drew it this day and then came back and did the watercolour the next day, at the same time. The people in the tea room were lovely, very supportive and nearly all women and many were also artists, so we talked about art, lockdown and the state of the world.
A woman working there told me that for the first time peregrines nested and fletched three young birds in the Castle – first time in 40 years – one of the few silver linings of lockdown, I guess. Apparently this year they were scared off by the increasing tourism – no sign of peregines but the ever present rooks were everywhere. The staff remembered me on day two, and wanted to see how I got on – and I showed them another view of the Castle I did – but that’s for the next part.
Again I keep forgetting to say this – but this work like all the non-sketchbook pieces is for sale.
After I had to leave the tea room as they were closing, I took a look around the area and the nearby National Trust shop, which was on the high street. It was full of trendy bamboo middle class tat and books like ‘How To Go Plastic Free!’ and tomes muttering of The Plastic Bag Apocalypse but ironically they still sold single-use biros. I’ve ranted here before about how plastic bag = bad but single use pens = seemingly good in the ranking table of handwringing and mostly middle class recyclemania. It doesn’t make sense to sell ANY single use plastic, including disposable pens if we can avoid them.
The moulded bamboo as used in bowls and cultery is usually a type of plastic formed from epoxy resin, and thus is often created with petroleum chemicals and often not recyclable unless it is marked as compostable. Bamboo fabric is sometimes a form of rayon, and unlike petroleum-based plastic, none of this chemically treated stuff is currently recyclable at all. And then you add the miles it travels from China, and the lack of information about how it’s farmed and converted…it’s better, but not the sustainable saviour some make it out to be.
It’s better to use a plastic object for many years, or a locally sourced product, or second hand/recycling than something ‘greener’ shipped from a long way away and that displaces local ecologies or maybe uses polluting chemicals in it’s production (if you can afford that, which is another subject entirely). Certainly bamboo plastic shiny thing vs imported plastic shiny thing, the bamboo comes out better, but it is better to avoid buying it in the first place!
But the selectiveness gets me – sure I understand it’s a big ask to avoid plastic entirely, but refillable pens exist now, unlike other planet saving technologies they don’t have to be invented. We have fountain pens, refillable rollerballs, cartridge technical pens, even refills and biros made from recycled plastic. It’s sheer laziness that people use disposable pens which go straight to landfill as they are mixed materials and cannot be recycled. Rant over!
So I went and sat by the church. This is St. Edward, King & Martyr, one of few in England and probably the only king that became a saint? The teenage king was murdered at Corfe Castle in mysterious circumstances while waiting at the gate, possibly by his step-mother, but no-one knows. What I do know is that this 12th century church is odd, really odd. The clock and features are off centre, a rather spooky statue on top, the building just doesn’t seem to ‘fit’, looks wonky?
But it does has beautiful greenish stone as you can see from my watercolour. I painted this as the evening sun hit the church.
I also drew the church with one of the fine nib fountain pens – I think that one was the Monami Olika – the next morning – and the view of the rooftops. This was at a local posh cafe which I won’t mention, the coffee was nice but they weren’t artist friendly and basically rushed me off the table even though there wasn’t a big demand. Hence the name of the second drawing of the rooftops which I had to abandon. As I said in the last part these people like artists if they can get commission or it increases their property value, but they paradoxically don’t like them dirtying the place up!
What I was waiting for behind the Church was for the Castle Inn to start serving hot food. I had bumped into some people from the campsite and they recommended this place…and it’s very good, very unpretentious and most of all for someone who was existing solely on fish and chips at this point as usually the only fairly gluten-free thing available – they had risotto. That risotto was lovely, I ate it in the garden and then went in when it went dark. I saw two people sitting inside and recognised them – the couple from Mupe Bay (the cute bearded guy) – turns out they lived in Corfe Castle and we chatted about art for a bit until their food came.
I left rather sozzled but as I walked towards the castle I saw the outline of the Castle and thought – hey I’ve not seen night paintings of Corfe, I bet Turner didn’t paint Corfe in the dark! So sat in the churchyard, I did just that. I’ve not done a night painting for a while, and anything that snubs a nose at Turner is good in my book. Although I will say, I was very, very drunk and also dark so hence the colours are a bit extreme.
So I headed back to the campsite, I had forgotten my torch again so that was fun, but made it back OK.
Next – Sheep on the Tumble, a model village, a watercolour nearly becomes a kite, and a ‘lucky’ mattress.
- Part 1 – White Horses, Parachutes, Amazing Pebbles & Kites
- Part 2 – Man O War Went Thru The Durdle Door And Got A Dungy Head
- Part 3 – What’s a Sheep Lulworth with All MOD Cons?
- Part 4 – Mupe Bay & Great Fossils of Rock
- Part 5 – Corfe Castle & St Edward The Martyr
- Part 6 – Corfe Castle – Escape from the Model Village
- Part 7 – Swanage Around The Globe On A Tilly Whim
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