Artist

The only professional artist in my tree is my mother’s cousin, Rosamond Cullingford, who had a studio in Lyme Regis and painted under the name Rosamond Higgins. Rosamond was actually a double cousin as her mother was my grandmother’s sister, Ada Howe, and her father was my grandfather’s brother, Arthur Cullingford. 

Arthur was a gamekeeper and from time to time the family would meet at the estate where he was working – this photograph dates from around 1969 and was taken in Sutton Scotney, Hampshire. Arthur is the tall gentleman in the sleeveless jumper, with his granddaughter, Sophia, in front of him and Rosamond behind him to the right. From left to right we then have: my mother, my father, Pat Cullingford (mum’s sister), Mildred Howe (my grandmother), Ada Howe and Neville Cullingford (Rosamond’s brother). I am standing in front of Pat next to my cousin, Nick.

When I think of my grandmother, however, the artist that springs to mind is John Constable as prints of his paintings of the area around Dedham on the Essex-Suffolk border lined the walls of her living room. Gran had spent much of her childhood in this area and it was a source of great pride that she had gone to school with a boy who lived in the cottage immortalised in The Haywain, albeit the best part of a century after it was painted ! 

The Haywain, 1828

As a teenager, she returned to live in the area when she worked as a parlour maid for the Weir family in Langham from 1913 – 1919. She was particularly fond of The Vale of Dedham as this shows a view from Gun Hill, which was on the estate where her father, Walter Henry Howe, worked as a gamekeeper. Apparently she used to walk down this pathway with my grandfather when they were courting.

The Vale of Dedham, 1828