Gringley on the Hill (from the Carrs)

A simple watercolour of my village.  Thousands of years ago, this was the highest place for miles around and because of this, wild animals were driven by rising waters to collect upon it.  One of my friends recently dug up a huge fossil tooth from a mammoth, whilst excavating a garage floor.  The age of this has been established to be around 18 - 20,000 years.   Tropical hardwood tree trunks are regularly excavated by farmers from nearby fenland, giving us a small insight into what our area must have looked like in the distant past.   Definitely under water at one time, simply because of the presence of so many large water-smoothed pebbles in our gardens.  The area was only drained around the 1800's by importing experienced drainage experts from Holland.  People like Vermuyden who had already used their expertise to reclaim great tracts of land in the low countries of Europe. Behind the tree is an even higher piece of ground, known locally as the 'Beacon' on which were built huge fires visible over great distances in the Middle Ages as a means of signalling various events.

Image size 10" x 8" . Simple watercolour pad.  Limited palette.

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