Alfred Egerton Cooper, RCA, RSBA,, 1883 - 1974
Chit Rocks at Low Tide, Jacobs Ladder Sidmouth, East Devon
Signed/Inscribed:
with initials ''AEC'' lower left
oil on board
36.50 x 44.50 cm. (14.3/4 x 18in.)
The painting shows beach goers walking and rock pooling at low tide on the Chit Rocks which are the remenants of a Cliff-Height Sea Stack destroyed in the severe 1824 storms, (a one in about 250 year event). The Jacob''s Ladder promonontory might develop into a similar stack although it is currently well protected.
Provenance
Private Collection, Sidmouth
Notes
“Farewell, seductive Sidmouth by the sea older and more exclusive than Torquay : you’re the town for me!” so says Sir John Betjeman in ''Bejtemans England''.
Sidmouth is a town situated on the English Channel coast in Devon, South West England, 14 miles (23 km) east of Exeter. In 2004, it had a population of about 15,000, of whom 40% were aged 65 or over. By the time of the 2011 census the population was 12,569. It is a tourist resort and a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A large part of the town has been designated a conservation area. Sidmouth appeared in the Domesday Book as Sedemuda. Like many such settlements, it was originally a fishing village. Although attempts have been made to construct a harbour, none has succeeded. A lack of shelter in the bay prevented growth as a port.
Emmanuel Lousada, who founded the resort. The Jewish businessman recognised the physical beauty and potential of what was then a small port nestling on the mouth of the River Sid. He bought up as much land as he could in the late 1700s and set about developing a genteel, yet exotic holiday venue. He built the first cottage orné - a large house dressed up as a cottage and often thatched with pretty bargeboards, which appealed to the holidaying aristocracy of the day. Lousada was a brilliant publicist and attracted an ever- widening circle of grandees to build their own holida
...y houses a little above and away from the sea. They now form the best collection of cottages ornés in the country.
When the Duke and Duchess of Kent, with their baby daughter Victoria, the future Queen, took Woolbrook Cottage for their holiday, it sealed Sidmouth''s status in social and architectural terms.Sidmouth remained a village until the fashion for coastal resorts grew in the Georgian and Victorian periods of the 18th and 19th centuries. The numerous fine Georgian and Regency villas and mansions are now mostly hotels. In 1819, George III''s son Edward, Duke of Kent, his wife, and baby daughter (the future Queen Victoria) came to stay at Woolbrook Glen for a few weeks. In less than a month he had died from an illness. The house later became the Royal Glen Hotel; a plaque on an exterior wall records the visit. In 1874, Sidmouth was connected to the railway network by a branch line from Sidmouth Junction, which called at Ottery St Mary and Tipton St John. This was dismantled in 1967 as a result of the Beeching Axe. Most of the route can still be traced and the Sidmouth railway station can still be found now although this is now a private property.
In 2008, Canadian millionaire, Keith Owen, who had vacationed in the town and planned to retire there, bequeathed the community''s civic society, the Sid Vale Association, about £2.3 million upon learning that he had only weeks to live due to lung cancer. The bequest is to be used as a capital fund to generate an annual interest dividend of around £120,000 for community projects. Sidmouth lies at the mouth of the River Sid in a valley between Peak Hill to the west and Salcombe Hill to the east. It is surrounded by the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is on the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site, and the South West Coast Path. The red-coloured rock indicates the arid conditions of the Triassic geological perio
Internal Reference: 3926
Antique Number: SA485924
Dateline of this antique is 1930
Height is 36cm (14.2inches)Width is 44cm (17.3inches)Depth is 2cm (0.8inches)
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