Herbert and Julie Elizabeth Lee. Taken about 1900 |
{FROM: MBW}Grandad Lee was a master builder. I think he had a building business.
The house I always thought of as the Lee family home, was one of a terrace, which he (or his business) built.
He was a highly skilled, versatile craftsman. He did a major repair and maintenance job on the Crooked Spire, for instance.
He also provided pews and Crucifixes for churches with, I understand, a tiny mouse as ‘trademark.
A lot of the routine work must have been done by other craftsmen: but I understand that he did the decorative carving himself.
I have a small carving of his: it is of a nude young woman, standing up against a closed door; and obviously trying hard to get in. The door is 8cm wide by 24cm high. Now, there is just the door, and the first step but I remember it being in a small porch, of the sort one sees on the front door of many older middle—class houses. I was told he called it Love Locked Out.
Some years ago, I came across a picture, in the Arts section of a Sunday paper magazine, called Love locked out.’ It was, in its essential lay—out, the same as Grandads carving. It was painted by Anna Lea Merritt, 1844 - 1930: and painted in 1899. It is of Cupid, trying to force open the door of a mausoleum, I think it was the inspiration for Grandads carving.
I only met Grandad once. Mother, my sisters and brother, had a house in Chesterfield (On Orchards Way, off Walton Road) during the war. Mother invited Grandad - who lived in Nottingham at the time, I believe - to visit us. My memory of him is of a small, slim man, wearing a blue Pin-striped suit. |